NorthernLightX

Just to give you a nudge in the right direction: Go to http://ucapps.de/mbhp_lcd.html In the first description of character LCD screens the hitachi HD44780 or compatible controller is mentioned to be the most used controller, and compatible with midibox. Now open that PDF I linked for you and try to find the text "HD44780" - if it's in there, chances are good it's a usable LCD.

Wow, so much questions... Do what suits you right, both are possible. You can even put the backstick inside the case on a piece of veroboard and don't hassle with the serial conenctor. That is because all those pins are connected to ground. You indeed solder all those legs to the same pin on the connector. the DIN boards are designed to be daisy-chained. It is possible to cascase 4 DINX4 boards. One DINX4 board even uses cascading of 4 chips. It is possible to use one DINX4 board and just stuff one or 2 IC's, it will work, it is designed that way, no worries. And another thing, the DIN page doesn't list the SID under "compatability". This all adds to my confusion.

please try to compare the datasheet (http://www.crystalfontz.com/products/2002l/CFAH2002L_Yxx_one_to_one.pdf) with the info on lCDs on uCApps, before asking everybody over here to do all the searchinf for you. A question like "This LCD has controller acbxyz, that works, right?" sounds so much more interested that just "hey does this lcd work?" - at least to me, but I'm a cranky old bastard (quote from respectable forum member) ;D

You can do either that or just buy a new connector en build it in there. Info is on the bankstick page. As far as I know only 24LC256 and 24LC512 are supported. Also can be found on the bankstick page. Yes, working with veroboard includes running cable on the back of the board. But if this is your first try: please just buy the DINX4 PCB, it could save you a lot of work and the PCB is only 5 euro or so. Cheers, Alex

Sinds vandaag mijn oude stoffige JDM aan de praat gekregen, dus kan ik PIC18F452 en PIC18F4620 branden (helaas nog geen PIC18F4685). Dus mocht je problemen hebben om de BSL in je PIC te krijgen, stuur maar een berichtje en we regelen wat (hoeft half MidiBoxend Nederland Twin-X daar niet meer voor lastig te vallen, die jongen heeft het al zo druk ;)). Check ook mijn topic in het vlooienmarkt forum: ik heb nog een paar PICjes over.

While I was waiting for my new MIDI interface to arrive through the mail (still waiting btw) I was searching for some midiboxing to do. I had some spare PICs that still needed programming, and had an old, never used ('cause it never worked :-\) JDM module lying around. Redid some solder joints, soldered an extra resistor for the 18F series, tried it and halleluja! Just burned the BullShitLoaderBootStrapLoader into 10 PIC18F452 with it ;D Guess JDM is not entirely dead after all. I just need to find a way to burn my PIC18F4685 with it. Any hints?

These are all gone ;D

I just realized that the PIC18F4520 is not used in any midibox project, so if anyone wants them they can have them for just the shipping costs. I just burned the latest BSL in all remaining 18F452 PICs, hope that makes them more popular :) - still 10 left

Just to comment on the LCD colour: as long as the LCD controller is compatible (check the uCApps site) it will work, no matter what the colour is.

That case is monstrous! Can he make more? ;D *drool*

No, you won't find anyone here willing. If you would have searched the forum a bit you'd have noticed that such questions pop up from time to time, and the answer is always the same. It is even considered impolite to ask. Apart from being a great toy, MidiBox is also a learning experience, so feel free to start building. The answers to your other questions could also be found on the site and the forum, but to give you a short summary: - You can control a MidiBox with everything that sends out MIDI (keyboard, PC, etc.) and with a MidiBox you can control everything that receives MIDI. If it will work without work on wiring/programming I cannot tell, you'll have to find out yourself, but there's almost nothing that can't be fixed. - The MidiBoxSID is real-time tweakable for sure. Cheers, Alex.

Hi, a while ago I was developping a PSU for MidiBox, with many commonly used voltages; +5v +9v +12v -12v and ofcourse GND. There was a previous thread about it here: http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php?topic=6374.0 I finally finished completing the assembly today (took a break from MidiBoxing alltogether for a long time) and I am glad to announce that all the voltages appear to be at least stable. I will have to test it with a considerable load attached to claim for it to be a good alternative for the C64 brick, so the next step is finishing and testing some other modules I still have lying around to create something that resembles a Midibox' internals. At least I have a Core_V2 and a SID_V2 finished, adapted to the latest V3 specs, and hooked up, so next is some DIN and DOUT and an LTC. I hope to be able to give some measurements about stability and heat over the next weeks or so, depends on the spare time :) Almost forgot, I need to finish a burner too, no bootstrap in my PICs yet... Cheers, Alex.

I like it. If I would have laid it out I would probably have paid some extra attention to the track width and paths, because I'm an annoying perfectionist, but like this it will probably work as good. If you're having it etched I would be interested in a pcb as well for testing mods for my (still conceptual) Midibox SID.

pm verstuurd ;)

I have no spare ones, I seem to destroy all of them ;D That's why I started to make my own PSU. If you search my posts you can surely find it. I have recently finished it, and will test it soon.

The epoxy-filled bricks can also have a fuse, I have had a few over here, but I don't believe it is possible for the PSU to give 5VDC with a blown fuse. It is possible you've damaged your trafo in the brick - is 5V the only this you read from the multimeter on the wires?

Nobody will sell you his or her Midibox. The best you can find are finished modules. Hilarious post by the way, thanks for the laugh ;D

I have no problem with sampling, I just answered Wilba's question which website it was. Sample as much as you need, if you develop things related to PICs, and other people also want to build these projects, they might buy more PICs, so the sampling for R&D is justified in my opinion.

You could easily relay some of the tracks of the upper SID to make 4 bridges unnecessary. Same trick could be done for the SID on the bottem but you have less board space here. I think it's possible to move th power section to the middle of the board and thus create enough space for the rewiring of the bottom SID - moving the power to the middle also removes one bridge, maybe even two. Are you planning to have your design etched? I can help you to improve on the design if you would like.

I would place the powerswitch between your mains and the trafo (no polarity because it's AC, so so don't worry about the wires). The AC out of the trafo go to the 2 ~ leads, and then + comes out of the + lead, and - out of the -...quite simple as you can see :)

800 and 1000 are the mA the bridge can handle. The 1000 will work, just watch the pinout, some bridges have a different pinout than you'd expect. I think the C stands for Current and the B for Bridge but that's just a wild guess.

George, does your HDD have more than 1 platter? If so, trying to recover data might actually be fruitful for the platters that do not look like a skating-track. Your horrorstory did actually made me spend more than 500 euro's on a 500GB RAID NAS unit. I asked myself the question "In case of total data loss, would that amount of money make up for it?" and that would be a negative...

Looks like a copy/paste from the Microchip site to me...

You know where to find me ;D

hebbe hebbe hebbe! ;) kan ik mijn distortion afmaken ;D Dan nog een Core en SID afmaken om de distortion met de SID te kunnen testen, heb een leuk en simpel circuitje gemaakt wat op papier best veelzijdig is, ben erg benieuwd... Kan ik hem ergens ophalen, of kun je hem opsturen dat ik de verzendkosten naar je overmaak ofzo?