TK.

This week we can enjoy some great masterpieces from Tux (France) RAF (another fellow from France :-) ) and last but not least from LO (New Zealand):

Alright, it seems that I've misinterpret one of your comments ("The points u mentions are coming up at like -0.186V"). The datasheet says the the LCD consumes about 3mA --- thats nothing compared to other components. So it must be a wiring error (are you sure that this: http://www.notapplicable.co.uk/mbhp/dg-12864.pdf is the correct datasheet?). One thing that you can do is to remove all wires from the display and to connect them again in the following order (turn off the power before every step!) Vss/Vdd check if the core sends a MIDI message after power-on Vee->Pot->V0 check if the core sends a MIDI message after power-on control lines (D/I, R/W, E, CS1, CS2) check if the core sends a MIDI message after power-on data lines (D0-D7) check if the core sends a MIDI message after power-on reset line with a 10k pull-up against Vdd check if the core sends a MIDI message after power-on OR reset line with a 10k pull-down against Vss check if the core sends a MIDI message after power-on does it help? Best Regards, Thorsten.

Hi Dan, some days ago you wrote that you are seeing the pixels (points), so the contrast voltage level is ok and doesn't require an additional supply. The backlight is another issue, but not so important yet. However, it would be interesting for me if the display driver is still active. Could you please send the following SysEx string to the core and write down the return message? F0 00 00 7E 40 00 0D 02 00 0B 12 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 F7 Best Regards, Thorsten.

For some reasons Mike is not able to open a PayPal account, but if you don't want to send him the money on the old-style method, just wait for SmashTV's alternative offer Best Regards, Thorsten.

For some reasons Mike is not able to open a PayPal account, but if you don't want to send him the money on the old-style method, just wait for SmashTV's alternative offer Best Regards, Thorsten.

Since people now thinking about big bulk orders at professional PCB manufacturers just to save a little money, I have to say something about the impact for the future development of the MIDIbox hardware platform. I started with the unified MBHP last summer after I got a chance to receive free prototype boards from Mike - the deal was that I can send him as much new layouts as I want when he is allowed to sell the boards in his online shop. He sells the boards for low-profit, and the prices are much better compared to low-quantity orders at one of the big manufacturers like PCB-Pool, so I was very satisifed with this solution. Mike is one of the last guys who sees his profession for supporting especially DIY people with well made and cheap PCBs, and this has to be rewarded. Some weeks ago also SmashTV asked me for permission - I approved after I noticed how much effort he spent for some PCB layout improvements. The new boards are better to solder, components from the US now fitting perfectly, and some of the parts have been changed so that they are easier to order outside Europe. The new PCBs and the appr. Mouser/Reichelt partlists will be available for public after I've tested the boards - the new hardware will be 1:1 compatible to the existing solutions! Don't hesitate to order boards from Mike, they are also ok! In the future Mike will provide premade PCBs especially for Europe. It isn't clear yet if Chriss will sell kits again after his hospital stay, but as a new alternative Tim aka SmashTV will offer premade PCBs, MBHP kits, a free PIC burning service and maybe also the possibility to get customized boards. In the last time he gave me a lot of tips, how I can improve my designs. And he started to create the layout of the USB module for us! So I think that this effort has also to be rewarded. If you now start to make big PCB orders at other manufacturers, the effort and investions which have been made by Mike and SmashTV will not be profitable anymore --- they possibly have to discontinue their offerings --- and I will not be able to design new hardware when I don't have the possibility to get free prototypes (example: SmashTV will send me some PCBs so that I can complete the Quad-SID firmware, and he will send me the USB prototypes for testing). In fact this will impact all of us! Please keep this in mind if you plan to order PCBs somewhere else. Best Regards, Thorsten. P.S.: this doesn't mean that you are not allowed to start bulk orders for components.

Since people now thinking about big bulk orders at professional PCB manufacturers just to save a little money, I have to say something about the impact for the future development of the MIDIbox hardware platform. I started with the unified MBHP last summer after I got a chance to receive free prototype boards from Mike - the deal was that I can send him as much new layouts as I want when he is allowed to sell the boards in his online shop. He sells the boards for low-profit, and the prices are much better compared to low-quantity orders at one of the big manufacturers like PCB-Pool, so I was very satisifed with this solution. Mike is one of the last guys who sees his profession for supporting especially DIY people with well made and cheap PCBs, and this has to be rewarded. Some weeks ago also SmashTV asked me for permission - I approved after I noticed how much effort he spent for some PCB layout improvements. The new boards are better to solder, components from the US now fitting perfectly, and some of the parts have been changed so that they are easier to order outside Europe. The new PCBs and the appr. Mouser/Reichelt partlists will be available for public after I've tested the boards - the new hardware will be 1:1 compatible to the existing solutions! Don't hesitate to order boards from Mike, they are also ok! In the future Mike will provide premade PCBs especially for Europe. It isn't clear yet if Chriss will sell kits again after his hospital stay, but as a new alternative Tim aka SmashTV will offer premade PCBs, MBHP kits, a free PIC burning service and maybe also the possibility to get customized boards. In the last time he gave me a lot of tips, how I can improve my designs. And he started to create the layout of the USB module for us! So I think that this effort has also to be rewarded. If you now start to make big PCB orders at other manufacturers, the effort and investions which have been made by Mike and SmashTV will not be profitable anymore --- they possibly have to discontinue their offerings --- and I will not be able to design new hardware when I don't have the possibility to get free prototypes (example: SmashTV will send me some PCBs so that I can complete the Quad-SID firmware, and he will send me the USB prototypes for testing). In fact this will impact all of us! Please keep this in mind if you plan to order PCBs somewhere else. Best Regards, Thorsten. P.S.: this doesn't mean that you are not allowed to start bulk orders for components.

Hi, yes - the current PIC16F implementation will not be enhanced anymore (out of memory), all future developments will only be made for the new PIC18F Best Regards, Thorsten.

You must hear the SID through the "Grainstates FX", recorded and granulated in realtime, parameter controlled by a MB64seq - it rocks! :) Best Regards, Thorsten.

You must hear the SID through the "Grainstates FX", recorded and granulated in realtime, parameter controlled by a MB64seq - it rocks! :) Best Regards, Thorsten.

Hm, in this case I'm very unsure what is causing the trouble. Maybe the LCD needs some additional time until it is ready for receiving a command. Maybe you should try a second initialization in the init hook (e.g lc_init.inc): USER_Init movlw 200 ; wait for 200 ms call MIOS_Delay movlw 0x3e + 1 ; Display On command call MIOS_LCD_Cmd Best Regards, Thorsten.

...Reaktor 4 has been released! :)

...Reaktor 4 has been released! :)

yep Best Regards, Thorsten.

Hi, In the meantime I tried it with different browsers and operating systems, but I cannot reproduce these problems. Ok - you are not able to jump to an URL directly (e.g http://www.ucapps.de/mbhp.html), this URL will be redirected to the main page if the page will be entered from external. But once you are in the main page, the links to the other pages should work. I realized it on this way for the reason that it gives me the freedom to rename pages like I want, to move pages to other servers and to have the menu at the left side available every time. Best Regards, Thorsten.

Hi, In the meantime I tried it with different browsers and operating systems, but I cannot reproduce these problems. Ok - you are not able to jump to an URL directly (e.g http://www.ucapps.de/mbhp.html), this URL will be redirected to the main page if the page will be entered from external. But once you are in the main page, the links to the other pages should work. I realized it on this way for the reason that it gives me the freedom to rename pages like I want, to move pages to other servers and to have the menu at the left side available every time. Best Regards, Thorsten.

Hi Olivier, all pot values should be sent out when the pots are not in snap mode and you type on the snapshot button quickly (!). When you press the button for a longer time, the pot&button setup will be saved. Best Regards, Thorsten.

Hi Dan, yes, the second MIDI In is connected to J4 via an optocoupler. The circuit cannot be powered via MIDI - this would require some circuit changes and mostly it will not run successfully (I tried it once, it worked with my AN1x, but didn't work on another users synth, so I gave up) Best Regards, Thorsten.

:)

I would also like to have an upload area so that users can distribute their creations without my help and without an own homepage. But I neither have the experience how to realize such a web based system, nor a free server, nor I want to account for the risk that somebody uploads illegal stuff. It's difficult, but if somebody wants to take care about such a server, please step forward! :) Best Regards, Thorsten.

I would also like to have an upload area so that users can distribute their creations without my help and without an own homepage. But I neither have the experience how to realize such a web based system, nor a free server, nor I want to account for the risk that somebody uploads illegal stuff. It's difficult, but if somebody wants to take care about such a server, please step forward! :) Best Regards, Thorsten.

Btw.: the panel for the SID control surface I made some weeks ago has to be overworked, as the LCD/6-buttons/rotary encoder section at the upper left corner doesn't fit with the components I plan to use. The LCD is bigger than expected so that the buttons have to be placed farther apart from the display. Thats a principle problem - if you don't use the same components like me, you need a different panel layout. However, if you plan to make only a minimal control surface, I would recomment a 40x2 LCD with 11 buttons and rotary encoder. If this is too expensive for you, just take the 20x2 LCD Best Regards, Thorsten.

I cannot recomment 100k pots because of the high impedance, the current drain will be so low that external noise can influence the measuring results too much. The result: jittering pot values. So, best values are around 1k and 10k. Best Regards, Thorsten.

Yes, with a relay this should make fun - an additional driver is absolutely required. Either a transistor, or a ULN2803 like shown here: http://www.ucapps.de/midio128/relay_example.pdf (this example has been made for MIDIO128, but works also great with every MIOS based application) Best Regards, Thorsten.

Hi Steve, great to hear that you finally made it! :) The touch sensors are controlled by the application like common buttons. You just only have to assign the ID_FADER_TOUCH_CHNx events to the appr. input pins in lc_io_table.inc Best Regards, Thorsten.