bosone

hi! i just tried the new version. now, when the sequencer is set as master and the ac sensorizer as slave, there is no more delay and everything is perfectly in sync. i still have some problem when i try to sync sonar as slave with ac sensorizer as master. now the sequence correclty starts, but there is still some appreciable delay between the down-beats for me it's not so critical, since i can use sonar as master and sync the box, but maybe other people could experience problem, expecially if they don't connect a midi-in input... anyway, thanks for fixing the problem PS: i just painted my two load/save button gren and red! good suggestion! ;)

i began to play with the now toy! :-) beside the fun,. i experienced two problems, both related to midi-clock and maset/slave issue 1) AC Sensorizer set to master the AC Sensorizer seems to correclty sending midi-clock, but i think it lacks a "song start"/"stop" signal.... i will try to explain: i'm using sonar6 as sequencer. if sonar is set as slave, when i start "play" or "rec" it is waiting for a sync in order to hook to the master. for example, if i use the midibox sequencer as master, sonar as slave start to play/record ONLY if i hit the "start" button of the midibox sequencer. when i'm using the AC Sensorizer, this signal never arriver, so that sonar has never the possiblity to "hook" to the master. i even tried to change the BPM value in AC Sensorizer to see if this send the start/stop, but it doesnt happen. are you experiencing the same? (if this is really a bug, maybe you can send the "start" when the BPM value is changing - just an idea, since the box lacks a start/signal) 2) AC Sensorizer set to slave, sonar 6 as master in this case, the BPM are correcly received but i found that, when i play notes (CC0), the arpeggiator is not downbeat-synced to the master. so for example i load a drum loop at 100 bmp, set the AC Sensorizer to slave and play notes: the first note that i'm playing are always delayed with respect to the downbeat. i found that there is always an appreciable delay between the hand that arrives on the distance sensor (in order to trigger the note) and the note played. when you are not playing synced to anything is not appreciable, but if you play along a loop or try to "stay in time" with something else you notice it... i dont' know if it is a problem of my midi-interface (i'm using a mini-DIN midi of a doughter board of a soundblaster live, since i don't have any more MIDI in port available!) or of the box itself.... did you noticed this? moreover, i already deleted two saved patches because i think that when you press the save button you immediately overwriet the patch. what about a two-three seconds delay (like in the midibox sequencer saving pattern) before actually writing the patch? so that one is warned that it's writing a patch... :P

now that i solved the midi-in matter, everything is OK!! ;D i even understood how to use NRPN events! just some more questions... 1) if i play notes and set up a scale (for ex. C MAJ), and i change the root key (to D MAJ for example) nothing seems to happen... do i miss something? instead, the different scales are working OK! 2) i think the slow-down factor could be more "fine"... i mean, it has a great range (the maximum value is 127). but if i set up for examlpe 5 or 6 as a slow down factor, the time-distance between events is very very high, and practically is unusable (i think ). what about to dither it a bit? so that for example at a slow-down of 127 the temporal distance between events is something like 500 msec? 3) the features list says: "harmonizer with 20 scales (minor, major, blues, spanish...) ? harmonizes generated or received (by MIDI!) note-signals" acutally, i didnt understood what it should do... i send midi note events (now they are working cause i can autosense with my masterkeyboard sustain pedal!) but nothing seems to happen or change if i set up "note" (CC0) as event and i play a chord on the keyboard... i still miss something? i'm using distance sensor to do this, maybe i don't have a so-stable-hand and the signal is flickering, so i don't appreciate the difference!! :-) one addendum to the manual: i don't think i read anywhere that the DIN module is to be connected to J9 of core module. if i miss that excuse (again!) me, but while i was building the box, i initially connected the DIN to core J6 and it wasnt working! it took me a while to debug it! :P anyway, it's a great project! ;D thanks again soon i will post photos... for videos (if i have time to record them) you have to wait until end of august, when i will return to office and i will have access again to wideband connection! ;D PS: i finally use the XY touchpad as a linear sensor... not XY but only X. it works very well but i miss the XY control... i hope to find something else to connect.. maybe a laptop touchpad??? PPS: take a look at this for ribbon controller! http://asmidius.googlepages.com/home

now that i finally connected it i realized that X and Y signal are dependent one on the other... you cannot move X and let Y stay constant, for example still i cannot figure out how this thing should be connected or what should be its purpose... ??? ??? unfortunately, i thing the only reason for use it would be as a linear ribbon-like controller, not X/Y one... :(

i solved by using an old CNY17-2 spared from my old midibox plus... :) i dindt suceed in using the other optocoupler...

is someone using this optocoupler instead of the standard 6n138? i could not find the 6n here, so i went for this two channel optocoupler... it has different wiring, but i think i mounted it correcly... i hooked midi input to pin 1 and 2 (the resisor go to pin 1 and the diode to pin 2 towards pin 1, as in standard 6n wiring) i connected a 5.6 K on the pin 6 (V02 out) - this seems useless to me, but i mounted anyway and the pic to pin 7 (V01 out) with the 1.2 K to +5V pin 3/4 are open when i try to upload mios using this optocoupler i get the message "MIDI IN frame error"... ??? ??? but i uploaded mios application in this core module using another working core module and, when i use the 2731 midi in with MIDIOX in this new module, i can get a "ping" sysex string back after a request... so it seems that "something" is working, but not correctly! thanks for any help! it's the last step to a fully-working AC Sensorizer box! ;D

thanks for the reply! for now, i have the complete thing working including the breath controller! you may wonder why i have only three encoders... it's because i had only three left spare at home and i cannot buy them in my city (that one came from the midibox 16e order!)... so instead of ordering just one encoder from VOTI i preferred this solution... i used a two-pole deviator in order to "double" one encoder to two! :D i use only one encoder + the deviator for sensor select and menu navigation. it's quite easy also in this way! the only thing that gives me problem now is the midi IN... and i don't undestand if it's the optocoupler or the circuit design... i hope to find info... my last resort would be to buy some optocoupler from another midiboxer... ;) i have only three button since i planned to use the external CC64 as pedal... the third button is "panic" and now i'm desoldering it to use it as a pedal one. do you fell "panic" is useful? (sorry, i didnt tested the car on the road, yet :D the last thing will be to add a softpot XY! as i said in another thread.... the only matter here is how to connect that damn plastic connector to a wire!!! ??? thanks for your help (and for the project! ;))

i finally managed out how to connect this thing. it was more simple that what i thought... the XY pad has a total of 4 contacts, two UP/DOWN , two LEFT/RIGHT you have to connect ground to DOWN and +5V to LEFT (for example, or UP/RIGHT) then at the UP pin you have signal for the Y and on the "RIGHT" pin you have signal for the X the problem is that the voltages are divided in a strange way, for example 2.5 - 5 V for Y, 0 - 2.5V for x (or viceversa, dont' remember well) but i have just build the AC sensorizer, and it would be just the right application to handle this new toy! but i write also for an additional question. how can i connect this thing to the midibox!?!?! the connector is made of plastic and is rather impossible to solder direclty a wire on it. i should find something to connect to the printed circuit, but i have no idea how the connections to this kind of "plastic" are handled... do you have ideas? thanks!

I finally finished my AC Sensorizer and it's working! (this is really incredible, since i used a protoboard and you should look at the mess on it!) now it's time for some questions... 1) i cannot handle the use of the control CC64 as a pedal. i want to use the sustain pedal of my masterkeyboard as the pedal of the ACSens. but for me it donesnt work (or i didnt understood how to make it work) i think the ACSens. is receiving MIDI, since if in MIDIOX i send the sysex string F0 00 00 7E 40 00 01 F7 i immediately receive a series of F0 00 00 7E 40 00 0E 0C 00 F7 as "answer", so midi is sent and received. is there any other way to test midi input? i cannot understand how to use control changes to control the AC sens. (via CC98,99...etc) , neither use CC 64 as pedal, or use the external pedal to trigger autosense max/min do i miss something? 2) i didnt measured the output of my distance sensor GP2D12. my question is: did you ever tried to amplify a little the signal with an OP amp like the LM324? i connected my pressure sensor and, since it outpou was really low (i think 0.3 V max) i succesfully managed to use a ~10 gain to have a better output. moreover, i had to use a "bridge amplifier" (see LM324 schematics) to hook the sensor outs. this is because the sensors seems not so stable... can the gain of the LM324 be better of the PIC's one? 3) regarding distance sensors, which setting are you using and which sense values work best for you? did you built something to "cover" the sides of the sensors? mine are just fixed at the top of the box, and they are completely "naked" in the air... 4) if i play notes and set up a scale (for ex. C MAJ), and i change the root key (D MAJ) nothing seems to happen anyway, after an entire afternoon of soldering and a night of rest, i'm still quite exhaust... but i look forward to play with the new toy! :-) thank you! :-) PS: i have to admit i don't have the standard 6n138 as optocoupler, but an equivalend one named HCPL 2730 which has two inputs, but i think the wiring is correct (different from 6n138 one)... moreover sysex seems to be received.... unfortunately i cannot find the 6n138 here... :( PPS: i'm using ACsens ver. 0.4.4 additional edit: during buildup stage i uploaded MIOS code using another midibox. in order to avoid complication and to proceed with work without excessive debug but even if now sysex are displayed in MIDIOX when i do the "ping" using this optocoupler, i cannot upload mios code in this core using midibox studio. i receive the message "MIDI IN FRAME ERROR"

now you have to build a LOT of midibox to use all that stuff!! ;D

maybe not midibox related... but midi-related... :) my masterkeyboard has a modwheel (CC1) that has a "center-stop", like a detent, in the middle, so that when the CC value is 64 there is a "dead band" around 64. this is not so easy to manage. i opened the box and found that the pot is 10K, but it is smaller than the normal pots i can buy in my store, so there is no way to change it. moreover, it doesnt' work at full-range, but onlt say, between 4 and 6 Kohm (can remember well...) the "detent" or the center-stop is at mid-range, so i think is at 5Kohm. my idea to overcome this problem is to "rotate" the modwheel pot, so that it will work between (let's say) 1 and 3 kohm instead that between 4 and 6 (to avoid the center-stop) and add a simple resistor (in the form of a variable resistor) to add the offset required. if i'd add a constant 3 Kohm the min-max resistance of the modwhell will be preserved, and it will work like before, but without the center-stop. shuold it work, isn't it? ??? i hope i was clear... :P

sometimes i'm really dumb! :P i printed the readme file but i cut the part with the changelog!! beside this, thanks for the DIN connection image... it would have been my next question!! ;D

i recently installed seq 3.2 when i choose "layer assignement 4" (note, note, note, fix vel, fix len), and i hit the "copy preset" button, i experience an odd behaviour which i', not sure was present in the previous version. if i decide to trigge a note in the layer A (note1), the same note event is triggered also in layer B (note2) and C (note3). it seems not possible to independently trigger different notes in different layers.... the same seems to happen with the 3 CC events... am i missing something?

greetings! i must admit that, even you sent me the AC sensorized code months ago, i didnt even started to assemble it because i was very busy with other things... but now i started at least to build the case... :-) i have just one question, regarding the pedal: Probably i will connect the midi in of AC sensorized to an external midikeyboard, which of course has its sustain pedal. would it be possilbe to control the pedal of the acsensorized box by the controller 64 (or any other CC) of the midikeyboard? or, which is the same, it the acsensorized pedal remote-controlled by a CC message? would it be possible to recompile the application to let the box behave in this way? i must admit i never managed the midibox C-code, (i konw a little MIOS) so i should study a little to accomplish this task... anyway this is important for me to know because i have to drill the holes in the case! :-) thank you vvery much!

i still don't know what is the problem and i am waiting for a reply from the seller... anyway, it's a try... if i'd know that someone would buy the box for inserting inside a midibox (recycling buttons and knobs, maybe), i would make a try to buy and repair... and if it doesnt work i would be almost sure to have back at least part of the money invested in this crazy action!!! :) ;D or, if decide not to buy it, i will give the address the seller for anyone interested! ;)

what is this toy: http://www.yamahasynth.com/products/rs7000/ i will probably have the possiblity to buy a broken rs7000 for maybe 100-150 euro, but i still don't know what is the problem. there are three possibilities if i buy it 1) i succeed in repair it, and i have made an incredible deal... 8) 2) I will not be able to repair it, i will take some spare part for my midibox and perhaps use the case in a future project 3) since, honestly, i don't know what other midibox to build since i have SEQ, SID, 64E, i sell the rs7000 to one of the midboxer of this forum, as is... would you buy it for your project or for try to repair? would you pay at least the money i spent for buying it? :P

i think i didnt understood well how che "chord1" type event should be used... what is the meaning of S1 - S30 ?? i understood that this track has to be controlled by another track, which i set-up as a 3 notes event (note, note, note) and the chord1 track is playing the three note of this second track. but i cannot understand the working principle of S1-S30 value...

my sharp sensors have arrived, but they have very tiny connector (different from the "standard" midibox ones) which don't fit in anything i have!!! :-( i hope to find some female connector of this kind, anyway i have to solder the wires directly to the PCB...

i finally ordered the distance sensor, i found them in italy for 16€... http://www.robot-italy.com/product_info.php/products_id/33 and i also managed to find a case... so i will begin to build the modules in my spare time soon, i hope! :-) two questions: 1) the diagram for connecting the sensors found in http://www.sensorwiki.org/index.php/Infrared: should the Vout of the IR sensor be connected directly to the AIN of the core? without resistance?? the same for my pressure sensor to be used as breath controller? what is the "VOUT" block in the diagrams on the sensor pages? simply the AIN of the core? if i understood well, all the sensors which have a direct Vout should be connected diretly to J5, right? this happens even if the output range is very low (0-1 V or less....). 2) i will mount 2 IR sensors: if they are mounted too closely, is there the possibility that they interfere one with the other? should i try to mount them as distant as possibile, maybe orienting them at different tilt angles (orienting them like a "V")? what is your experience? thanks! :-)

when you are using a 32 step pattern (length=32), what about an automatic "switch" on the display as the step goes after the number 16? i mean: on the display it is always show either the 1-16 OR the 17-32 part of the 32 step pattern. if you have to make some change on the "other part" of the patter (17-32 when you are displaying 1-16 and viceversa) you have to switch the display with the appropriate button. it could perhaps be useful that this change (1-16 -> 17-32 -> 1-16, etc) is handled automatically, so that you always see the part of the pattern that it's playing, and you just edit the appropriate steps as the pattern proceeds... what do you think?

http://infusionsystems.com/catalog/all_categories.php seems not cheap, anyway, and i didnt look at all the website... itneresting stuff...

i realised i have only 3 encoder at home.... as in "standard" midiboxes, is it possible to replace one encoder with 2 buttons, right? ???

just one more question: will it be possible to connect an XY touch pad taken from a laptop to the AC sensorized? i will go to an electronic flea market in may, and there it will be possible to find a lot of useful toys and components for midiboxes! ;-) thanks

thanks a lot! actually, for now the specs of my "virtual ac sensorized box" would be - pressure sensor - d-beam - XY touchpad (if i can figure out the schematics)!! next month i will go to a fleamarket near my town and i hope to find something useful for this project.... expecially the case! ;-)

i think that i will rebuild my pressure / breath controller http://www.ucapps.de/midibox_ext.html using your ac sensorized box... is it the right project??? the problem with my design is flickering and a lot of values passed as CC, so that it's very difficult to use it! moreover, i think that i will add D-beam like controller and perhaps the 2D touchscreen i got as a freesamples from http://www.spectrasymbol.com/ (even if i didnt understand how are the connections!!!) so i am basically VERY interested in this project... and also.. where can i find d-beam like sensors'??? thank you!