ilmenator

Hi Sephult, what exactly did you do with the 100 Ohms resistor?? Thanks, ilmenator

Hi all, first of all, I'm a bit frustrated, because I cannot get to work the DIN module with my MIOS v1.3 PIC 18F452-I/P. I will try to describe what I've done so far, any hint is greatly appreciated. 1) I burnt the bootstrap using the JDM programmer and ICprog software. Verify said everything was okay. 2) I uploaded MIOS v1.3 via MIDI-Ox. A 2x40 display connected to the core says "MIOS v1.3", "© 2003 T. Klose", so I guess everything is okay here as well. 3) I uploaded encoder example 3. The display reads "ENC Example 3", so everything should work okay. 4) I connect the DIN module to J9. I connect the encoders to the module. I power on the PIC, turn the encoder - nothing. 5) I measure the supply voltage on the 74HC165 - the meter says 4.88 V, which should be okay. To rule out a non-working encoder, I shortened one of the encoder connectors to the neighbouring ground pin - nothing. 6) I exchanged the 74HC165 for another chip - nothing. 7) I burned another PIC, uploaded MIOS and encoder Test program, put it into the socket of that board - you guess right, nothing. Now, what I would like to know is, which part of the circuit I should take another (seventh to eighth to ninth) look at? Of course I did the usual double checking for shorts or missing links on both the core board and the DIN board, but I *think* I did everything right. I would be extremely grateful if there was some kind soul out there who could point me to some other things I could look for - I am plain running out of clues here. Sigh. Thanks so much - this forum is great, and the project even more. Hopefully I will get it to work too... Best regards, ilmenator

Okay, I thought the transformer looked quite "small" - on the other hand, the Atari is a relatively small computer with few components (compared to today's machines). I'd say you just try it out and tell us your results! Best, ilmenator

Hi RAF, that one looks like a switching power supply. I'm afraid to remember that these do not work because the circuit does not draw enough current from the PSU. Though it might be different if it supplies an all-stuffed 4 SID synth... Regards, ilmenator

Sorry for double posting... "Remove" erases both posts - don't know what's going on here. ilmenator

Hi Nat, you have to rotate the LEDs around the center, which then has to coincide with the pot hole. There is a function for that somewhere in the menu. Sorry for not being more specific, but after a system crash I had to install a new OS and the Schaeffer software is not installed at the moment. You will need considerably more space for your design, distance between center hole and LED holes will have to be much larger. Why don't you settle with 13 LEDs? That way, each LED indicates more or less an amount of "10", because standard MIDI continuous controller values range between 0-127. Three LEDs then could mean a value between 25 and 34. This is very easy to "read" / gives you easy to grasp information. I will go for this in my designs, though I like flashing LEDs a lot ;) Regards, ilmenator

Hi Nat, you have to rotate the LEDs around the center, which itself has to coincide with the pot hole. There is a function for that somewhere in the menu. Sorry for not being more specific, but after a system crash I had to install a new OS and the Schaeffer software is not installed at the moment. You will need considerably more space for your design, distance between center hole and LED holes will have to be much larger. Why don't you settle with 13 LEDs? That way, each LED indicates more or less an amount of "10", because standard MIDI continuous controller values range between 0-127. Three LEDs then could mean a value between 25 and 34. This is very easy to "read" / gives you easy to grasp information. I will go for this in my designs, though I like flashing LEDs a lot ;) Regards, ilmenator

Wahooo! I can't believe this!! I got the parts from Reichelt yesterday but ran out of solder in the meantime :-/ Another day to wait for shops to open on monday... ilmenator

Thanks Thorsten, this makes it clear! Apparently, I overlooked that the voltage regulator on the SID module is still there... Only the ones for the core have been removed. So now I will have to get one of those PSUs, which seems to be far easier than building a PSU of my own. Thanks again, ilmenator

Hi Thorsten, in your wiring diagram (http://www.ucapps.de/mbhp/mbhp_4xsid_c64_psu_optimized.pdf) you say that you measured a s/n ratio of about -76dB for the 6581 chip. Did you use the same schematics for powering the 6581 chip, including the 7809 voltage regulator? Or did you replace the voltage regulator with a 7812? Which PSU did you use? The one from the "old" C64 ("Brotkasten", originally supplied with the model that you used the case for the MBSID) or from the newer C64II one? Does this matter, or are they electrically speaking the same? Thanks, ilmenator

Hi Ian, are you using the latest version of MPLAB? Best, ilmenator

Hi Rowan, I think it's not so much a matter of maths but more of resolution (of the pots). Then you might experience a not so precise sampling of values in the upper or lower area of the pot, so something like "jitter" might occur (though technically speaking, this is no jitter). You might not be able to access certain values anymore, like say there's a direct jump from 125 to 127, without being able to enter 126. Regards, ilmenator

Thorsten, are you a left-hander? ;) I notice that nearly all the buttons are arranged to be on the left side of the LEDs. When designing a surface I normally try to arrange the elements in such a way that I can see status LEDs when pressing the assigned button. I'm a right-hander, so normally my buttons go the right of the LEDs... Just something I noticed ;) Best, ilmenator

Okay, here's an update to the controller's surface. First display is a 2x40 character display which will allow to select from the first menu. It is surrounded by 8 buttons, each with LED. The second display is a 2x40 character display as well, which will allow to select from the submenu. Same here: 8 buttons each with a LED. The third display is a graphical display mounted vertically. It is surrounded by 5 rotary encoders on each side, plus 5 buttons with LEDs to the outer sides. Here you will be able to change the parameters (synth, ...) themselves. Parameter names will be displayed in "normal" size, the current parameter values will be displayd in big numbers, each two or three lines (= 16-24 dots) high. Is this possible? I'm sure I will be doing some modifications to that concept, this is just a first idea. Any input is welcome. Regards, ilmenator

Lasst uns eine Selbsthilfegruppe gründen... :-) ilmenator

Hi Thorsten, of course I did, and in fact I was so happy that I immediately started designing a universal controller having that display and 6-7 rotary encoders on each side of the display. My starting point for that design is an editor for the Korg Wavestation, though this is not the easiest to implement thing, because editing can only be done via sysex messages. Anyway, it has a fairly typical sound structure for that era of synths (one sound or "Performance" might consist of up to eight "Patches" which themselves can hold up to four oscillators or "Waveforms"). Now, I only want the sound data itself displayed in the graphical display, but the menus/structure on another (character) display (e.g. a 2x40) with 4 buttons above and 4 below the display. In this example (2x40 display, 8 buttons around the display), each menu entry could consist of up to 9-10 characters. (One could also interpret this as 8 buttons with changing names/description.) Pressing the associated button would immediately display the corresponding parameters in the graphical display. So this is phase one of that project, I will be doing the boards next week (a friend is going to help), and then I will dive into MIOS world. And I will have to find a T6963c display as well, preferably on ebay or any other cheap source. So, which would be the recommended schematic when using two cores? I think the GLCD would have to be connected to the second core, the character LCD to the first. All encoders and buttons as well as status LEDs and LED rings should go to the first core. Right? Btw, I did not finish the jitter killer for my Peavey StudioMix (application for 2 MIDI Filters/Converters), handling 10 bit values on an 8bit processor was a bit too much to start learning assembler... ;-) Maybe if I find the time later... All the best, ilmenator

Hi all, I wonder if it's possible to connect a graphical LCD and (a number of) character LCD(s) at the same time to a single PIC running MIOS? My guess would be no from what I understand, but can someone confirm this? Then a solution must be using two core modules connected via MIDIbox link? Thanks, ilmenator

Hi pilo, a wild guess: KS0103 could be the horizontal line drivers, KS0104 the vertical line drivers. If there is no other chip on board this could mean that the module has no controller on board. This would mean that you have to provide one externally... not the best news, I guess. Beware: I have not very much knowledge on LCDs, so this is just a guess - tell us if you find out any hard facts about the LCD! Regards, ilmenator

Yamaha DSP Factory over here, still a great card, bought second hand it can be quite a bargain :-). Only thing negative about it (about me, eventually?) was that I am too dumb to use it with Logic, so I switched to Cubase some time ago. There the integration of the card is quite well done (if you don't care about yesterday's graphical appearance of the mixer representation...) Regards, ilmenator

If you have a CM Motormix at hand and have two MIDI monitors (like a PC with two free MIDI ports and two instances of MidiOx software, or two PIC-MIDI monitors from Thorsten with large enough displays) then you could monitor the MIDI signals going to and fro' the controller box. It should be fairly easy to decipher the protocol then. It's just MIDI, anyhow... Regards, ilmenator

If you have a CM Motormix at hand and have two MIDI monitors (like a PC with two free MIDI ports and two instances of MidiOx software, or two PIC-MIDI monitors from Thorsten with large enough displays) then you could monitor the MIDI signals going to and fro' the controller box. It should be fairly easy to decipher the protocol then. It's just MIDI, anyhow... Regards, ilmenator

Okay, I seem to be the first one to stand up and confess to be using Windows 2k. But I have a second Linux OS on the machine, which I use for experimental stuff (and to not depend solely on M$). Regards, ilmenator

Uahhh, never, _never_ post bitmaps on the internet... Convert it to gif or jpg first. Way faster. Thanks, ilmenator

Sorry to say, but those are REALLY ugly :o Best, ilmenator

Sorry to say, but those are REALLY ugly :o Best, ilmenator