TK.

During the last weeks I got a lot of hints regarding the new PIC18F family of Microchip. In the meantime the more advanced microcontrollers are also available for hobbyists, and the public domain community began to write tools for programming the chip. I already played with a PIC18F452 two months ago to evaluate the possibilities. The PIC18F452 is 1:1 hardware compatible to the PIC16F877 (the heart of the MBHP core module), and is currently available for about 15 EUR at Conrad.com (Europe), US$9 at DigiKey (USA), AUS$25 at "unknown" in Australia (the user didn't tell me where to buy it). In fact the PIC18F452 is worldwide available for the same price like the PIC16F877! And I expect that also Reichelt will offer it next year for less money (about 10 EUR). Compared to the PC world the difference between the 16F and the 18F is like between a 286 and a 486 - the 18F452 has 2 times more flash memory (and a reduced code size), 4 times more RAM, runs with 40 MHz, has some new instructions for table read/writes (appr. 16 times faster than 16F), mutliplication (about 50 times faster), multiple pointer handling (3 instead of 1), Stack handling, ... but the best: it has a linear program memory which helps to reduce the development cycles a lot! It was very difficult for me to balance, when I should introduce my plans, which features I should already implement with the 16F, when I should start to migrate the firmwares, when I will support the new chip. But now everything is clear, so here are my notions: Most of the features which are already on my ToDo lists will be implemented for the PIC16F, because as long as it doesn't get too complex, the PIC16F877 is still sufficient: advanced MIDIbox64 sequencer with dedicated firmware finished MIDIbox MF MIDIbox-Link more features for MIDIbox SID I think that these projects will be finished end of this year. Thereafter I will support the PIC16F firmwares only for bugfixes anymore, and will completely switch to PIC18F with my new project. It is the MIDIbox SID with control surface MIDIbox NG The MIDIbox NG will be a combination of MIDIbox64, MIDIbox16E, MIDIO128 - in fact I will merge all existing routines to a single firmware which will act as a MIDI Operating System (MIDI OS or short: MIOS ;-) ). The MIOS will support 128 analog inputs, 128 digital inputs, 128 digital outputs: up to 128 pots or faders or 8 motorfaders (since they cannot be multiplexed) up to 128 buttons or 64 rotary encoders up to 128 LEDs or 64 LED rings the MIOS will also come with some new concepts, which were already discussed: Display plugins (make your own MIDIbox skin for LED display, graphical or text LCDs) Meta Event plugins MIDI processing plugins IO processing plugins Plugins will be exchangable via MIDI, so that you don't need to connect a programmer to the core module, just to play with the code. The MIOS will be programmed in assembler, but plugins may also be programmable in the C language. My hope is, that the GNU community starts with a gcc for the PIC18F family, like they did it for Atmel AVR. This all may sound "expensive", but it isn't. In fact it will still be possible to build a very reduced MIDIbox with (for example) 16 pots and 8 buttons for less than 50 EUR! The advantages: only one scalable firmware for all projects will reduce my support effort a lot, and with the plugin technology everybody will be able to program and provide own features for the community. :-) Btw.: beside of the ongoing 16F development, there is another thing which prevents me from switching to the 18F family now: although IC-Prog is able to program the PIC18F452, it will not be possible to use it in conjunction with the JDM, since the programming current is too high for this design. An external power supply is necessary. So, I hope that somebody introduces a cheap and stable PIC18F programmer on the web until next year. Update: With v1.05A of IC-Prog, the JDM can be used to program the PIC18F452! - so, this issue has been solved! Best Regards, Thorsten.

Hallo Andre, eine Liste findest Du unter http://www.ucapps.de/mbhp/mbhp_sid_orderlist.txt Die unterschiede zur Original-Schaltung sind dort ebenfalls aufgelistet. Welche Bauteile fehlen Dir denn? Gruss, Thorsten.

Hier treffen zwei fehlertraechtige Dinge aufeinander: a) Onboard Soundkarten werden von den Boardherstellern meist recht stiefmuetterlich behandelt und sorgen immer wieder fuer Probleme. Aber vielleicht ist ja nur der MIDI-Interrupt deaktiviert, das wuerde zumindest erklaeren, warum der MIDI-In Deines PCs nicht reagiert. Ueberpruefe mal im BIOS-Startup-Menu unter "Onboard Peripherals", ob dort der entspr. Interrupt freigegeben ist. Defaultmaessig steht der Schalter sicherlich auf disabled. b) Windows XP. Probiere mal den Roland Driver aus, der funktioniert angeblich besser mit den neueren Wintendo Versionen. Gruss, Thorsten.

just wait until the sequencer firmware has been seperated from the MIDIbox64 controller - with this step a lot of new possibilities will be available :) Best Regards, Thorsten.

Hi David, you can configure the events with the http://www.ucapps.de/midio128/mk_midio128_syx.zip script and send it to the MIDIO unit with Serges "vsysexbox" from http://serge.ucapps.de. I just noticed that this isn't well documented, so I will add some comments to the MIDIO128 page. Have fun! :) Best Regards, Thorsten.

Hi Jurie, I've no idea, why the integrated merger of MBPlus shouldn't work with the same hardware. It would be interesting if the interaction with Serge's editor works correctly: connect the MIDI Out of your PC with the MIDI In of the MIDIbox, start the editor (http://serge.ucapps.de), and click on the "Request Dump" button. Does the program receive any data from the box? Best Regards, Thorsten.

Thanks for the input, I've added a comment in the README.1st, this was the fastest solution. Best Regards, Thorsten.

...do you really want to disable this unique feature of the SID? Shame on you! ;) Best Regards, Thorsten.

To all beta testers of new circuits: please check the consistency of the PCB layout, the schematic, the part lists first and tell me any differences. Simple typing errors can cause a lot of trouble... :'( Best Regards, Thorsten.

Hi Frank, Damned! Not a LM7812, but a LM317 has to used, otherwise the voltage cannot be regulated correctly. Sorry about this, I remember that my schematic program crashed during I drawed this diagram, thereafter I had to made it again with less motivation - on this way I forgot to update all copy&pasted part values. :-( So, your MIDIbox MF will work much better with the correct voltages, with > 10V the faders will be moved too fast, so that for example the automatic MIDI feedback elimination routine (which prevents the effects you descriped) will not work correctly. There is no way without the LM317 - correct fader movements can only be guaranteed with a clean, stable voltage. Best Regards, Thorsten.

Hi, yes, it's a 100nF cap Best Regards, Thorsten.

I think so... Best Regards, Thorsten.

Hi Christoffer, both is correct (ok, the (-) voltage level is named Vs and not Vd) Best connector for the power LED + resistor is J2 of the core module. Best Regards, Thorsten.

If you need a dedicated firmware with MIDIbox-to-COM enabled by default, just request it via mail. There are already existing a lot of non-published MIDIbox variants (I just counted it: more than 64 variants! ;-) and I don't want to compile them with every new release, since on this way I would also have to test the variants by myself to avoid any trouble... :-/ Best Regards, Thorsten.

Hi, the answer is simple: the SID firmware will handle the control surface, so take one core module to drive the SID *and* the control elements, and attach other core/SID pairs to the first module via MIDI or MIDIbox Link as slaves. I'm currently not sure if the surface should have only LEDs/LCD/pots/buttons, or some additional encoders, or some additional faders, or some LED rings. So please understand that I don't want to make any statement regarding the reuse of modules for the SID surface. You can only be sure, that I will not redesign modules which are already established by the MBHP just to have a more elegant solution for the MIDIbox SID. Btw.: I will evaluate my ideas for the MIDIbox Link next week, thereafter I will create two new pages: one page which describes all the possibilities, how to interconnect MIDIboxes to other MIDI instruments or boxes (MIDI In/Out, Gameport, RS232 and MIDIbox-Link), and another page which gives more details about the MIDIbox Link itself, the protocol, the possibilities. Best Regards, Thorsten.

Hi Bosone, no sorry, this isn't possible, since the MIDIbox Plus is designed for 4k PICs, I had to reduce it to the most important and requested features. If I would integrate a sysex string for switching the pot mode, I would have to delete another function which would make other peoples unhappy :-/ However, you should be able to select the modes "blind" without andisplay, the necessary sequences are (after Power-On): Pot menu: Exec-Right-Right-Exec (see the MIDIbox Plus schematic for the appr. pins) Thereafter you can select the modes with the left/right buttons: Normal/Snap/Relative/Parallax Best Regards, Thorsten.

With the upcoming MIDIbox Link it will (should) be possible to control up to 15 MIDIboxes from on "Master MIDIbox" with one LCD, one row of buttons, one MIDI In/Out pair to the PC. Best Regards, Thorsten.

The MIDIbox SID will get an AOUT interface with a 4-channel 12-bit DAC and 8 trigger outputs in the future. Of course, the firmware can also run without the SID itself, on this way you have nice CV interface with additional virtual LFOs, EGs, slide, arpeggiator, and so on... :) Best Regards, Thorsten.

No, I didn't forget the drum pad option, I just decided not to implement it, since Admir already did it in his edrum project. Why should I reinvent the wheel? ;-) Best Regards, Thorsten.

Since I also need this possibility sometimes, when I want to duplicate the stored pot setups, it's on the ToDo List now. Best Regards, Thorsten.

Some menu options (e.g MIDI Learn and Encoder Mode assignments) can be already controlled by the encoders, for other function it isn't really necessary. Btw.: In the next weeks I will release a new MB16E firmware which allows to select one of 128 parameters for every encoder seperately on the fly - intependend from the current bank by pressing a button and just turning the encoder to which the parameter should be assigned to. During the selection, the parameter name will be displayed on the LCD. In a later version, it will also be possible to group encoder assigments. I think that this will result into a very efficient usemodel for (software) synthesizers. :) Best Regards, Thorsten.

I'm on vacation for some days, please link together on problems and questions regarding the MIDI projects. :) Best Regards, Thorsten.

Ideen sind angekommen :) Sobald ich den Sequencer erstmal von der MIDIbox64 firmware separiert habe, kann ich solche Features beruecksichtigen. Momentan werden noch die MIDI-Events fuer alle 64 pots gleichzeitig im RAM gehalten, das verbraucht 128 Bytes RAM. Ich moechte das Handling aber so abaendern, dass die Informationen nur bei Bedarf (kurz bevor sie benoetigt werden) aus dem internen Flash, bzw. aus dem externen BankStick geladen werden. Auf diese Weise lassen sich a) wesentlich laengere Sequenzen, b) mehr Variationen, c) mehr Tracks gleichzeitig, d) einen Super-Combined Mode mit Wahlschalter fuer Notenhoehe/Velocity/Gatelength pro Pot-Reihe, und noch vieles mehr realisieren. Mutes sind uebrigens schon sowohl fuer die einzelnen Tracks, als auch fuer die einzelnen Pot-Reihen moeglich - aber auch das wird dann noch erweitert... :) Gruss, Thorsten.

Hoert sich so an, als wuerde die Spannung einbrechen, die sollte immer konstant auf ca. 5 V (+/- 0.2V) liegen, auch dann, wenn man an den Pots herumdreht. Wieviel Strom liefert Dein Netzteil maximal? Und funktioniert es vielleicht besser, wenn Du das Backlight erstmal abklemmst? Gruss, Thorsten.

For the records: Legato problem has been fixed - if anybody has a synth with the same feature (mostly used for glides), just download the update here: http://www.ucapps.de/midibox/mb64_v0035pre1.hex.zip Best Regards, Thorsten.