TK.

Zusammenfassung: o to-COM spielt mit Deiner Windows XP installation nicht zusammen o MIDI-Out Deines PCs/MIDI-In der MIDIbox funktionieren o MIDI-Out der MIDIbox/MIDI-In Deines PCs funktionieren nicht Einfachster Test: schalte den MIDI-Merger ein, die to-COM Option aus, schicke mit MIDI-Ox eine Note zur MIDIbox: Die Note sollte genauso zurueckkommen, im MIDI-Ox-Fenster sollte alles, was zur MIDIbox gesendet wird, doppelt angezeigt werden (einmal als internes, einmal als externes Event). Falls MIDI-Ox stattdessen ein Pitch Bender Event anzeigt, kann der Fehler eigentlich nur noch am MIDI-In Deines PCs liegen. Der CNY17 ist ein wenig problematisch, mit einem 6N138 oder PC900 wuerde der MIDI-Eingang sicherlich zuverlaessiger funktionieren. Probiere mal verschiedene Pull-Up und Vorwiderstaende aus, so wie unter http://www.ucapps.de/howtodebug.html beschrieben aus (was fuer die MIDIbox Plus gilt, ist natuerlich fuer jede andere Schaltung mit dem CNY17 gueltig) Gruss, Thorsten.

Hi Frank, I never have tested the MIDIbox MF with less than 8 faders, maybe the timer interrupt consumes more cycles in that case and therefore causes a MIDI overrun. I will check this when I'm home again and evtl. release a fixed version. To 1): this error occurs when the MIDIbox receives a MIDI byte before the last byte has been processed. In my interrupt routines I have to ensure that this case never happens - I will check it. To 2): The feedback elimination routines are working on the following way: when a fader is moved manually, all incoming events which are assigned to that fader will be ignored for 250 mS - this ensures that the motor doesn't start to run during the manual move. For the other direction: when a fader has been moved by the motor, no MIDI event will be sent for 250 mS - on this way a feedback (MIDI program -> MIDIbox MF -> MIDI program -> MIDIbox MF -> ...) will be prevented. Best Regards, Thorsten.

Hi Frank, yes :D you must know that the LM317 has a different pinout compared to the LM78xx. Take a look into the PCB layout, where you can see, which component has to be connected to which pin. Random values: you should take care for the connections between the analog inputs of the PIC and the faders. The cables should be very short (less than 30 cm) and shielded to ground. Otherwise the analog signals could be affected by the motor driver signals. Best Regards, Thorsten.

Yes, the core will work (it's 1:1 compatible) --- but the 20 MHz crystal has to be replaced by a 10 MHz type, since the PIC18F452 contains an internal PLL which quadruples the clock rate. Best Regards, Thorsten.

Hallo Stefan, dieses Fehlerbild ist mir voellig neu. Wenn die Baudrate falsch waere, muesste die MIDIbox z.B zufaellige Events senden. Pitch Bender Events sollten nur dann versendet werden, wenn sie auch einem Poti/Button zugewiesen wurden.... Der Fehler muss irgendwo ganz anders liegen... Kannst Du mir mal mehr Input geben? Welche Events siehst Du auf dem Display (einfach mal durch die verschiedenen Display Modes blaettern). Welche MIDI-Schnittstelle haengt bei Dir am PC, wie verhaelt es sich mit der to-COM Option und dem Roland Driver? Gruss, Thorsten.

Tja, so ist das mit Windows... :-/ Verzeihe die dumme Frage, aber hast Du im Merger Menue auch die richtige Interface-Option eingestellt? Wenn Du die normale MIDI-Schnittstelle verwendest, muss to-COM deaktiviert sein, ansonsten passt die Baudrate nicht (passt zum Fehlerbild). Gruss, Thorsten.

Jep, das passt schon. Du muesstest dann halt noch im Source code in led.inc die LED-Register invertieren ('movf LED_x, F' durch 'comf LED_x, F' ersetzen). Am besten gleich mit v0.34, fuer aeltere Versionen uebernehme ich keine Gewaehr (ich weiss ja, wie ungerne Du updatest ;-) Hast Du mittlerweile eigentlich schonmal die neue MIDIbox MF beta ausprobiert? Gruss, Thorsten.

Ok, this explains everything. Before trying various resistors, you should check if the optocoupler circuit is really correctly connected to the Rx pin. You could also try the second optocoupler which is currently connected with RA4. Best Regards, Thorsten.

Great to hear that it finally works :) Best Regards, Thorsten.

It's available at Farnell, see the http://www.ucapps.de/mbhp_bankstick.html page for the order number. Best Regards, Thorsten.

If you have to switch between the modes very often, I could compile a special version which allows to select the mode with the spare pin (J14 of the core module). In this case, you have to connect a 10k pull-up resistor between J14 and +5V and can select the to-COM option by using a jumper to ground. I have to test this version, because I don't know if it already works correctly. You will get it next week (I'm not at home and currently have no access to my source files). Best Regards, Thorsten.

Yes, I forgot to add this to the list (fixed) It would be great if somebody could evaluate the quality of this programer, just to save my effort. I already own the PICstart kit by Microchip and therefore have no problems to program the newer PICs... Best Regards, Thorsten.

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.