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monokinetic

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Posts posted by monokinetic

  4. Looking for new Linux distro

    in Miscellaneous

    Posted

    I'm a big fan of puredyne, I gave up with Planet CCRMA after I came across it. I have used it a portable OS and also installed to a partition. However, I must confess I haven't ever used it for any of my Midibox stuff, my Mac does that :)

    Puredyne is a really stable distro and is focussed on media artists type thangs (Processing, PureData etc).

    I would recommend doing a bit of digging through the mailing list archives to make sure your audio hardware will be compatible with it first though (I got caught out with a Firewire interface last year, seemed that USB was the way to go...).

    HTH

    David

  5. Midibox CV like ADSR

    in MIDIfication

    Posted

    I am slowly finishing my first panel of analogue modular synth and my next panel will have a Midibox CORE8 running the SID V2 firmware + AOUT CV board. There is no need for the physical SID chip, PCB etc, you just use a CORE8 and AOUT of your choice but you get access to the SID engine to send to your CV gear.

    If you read through the SID V2 manual there is a good explanation of the AOUT modulation capabilities. If I understand it correctly (i.e. I haven't actually tested it yet) then you can send all of the amazing synth engine stuff from SID V2 to CV outs. That means you get envelopes, wave sequencer and LFOs.

    The other possibility would be to use the Analogue toolbox available from the MIOS download page, that has some envelope and LFO to CV stuff. But personally I'm going the SID route, it looks much more interesting :)

    David

    ps obviously once nILS finishes his MIOS32 version then these options may increase further.

  7. MIDIbox SEQ V4 Release + Feedback

    in MIDIbox SEQ

    Posted

    How would the menu pages look like in your usecase, so that all MIDI files can be properly imported?

    Hi TK,

    Just to throw my 2 Euro cents in for this part of MBSeq -

    My main idea with the MIDI file import is to load in simple MIDI files generated with Recycle. Just in case you don't know Recycle, the related MIDI files represent slices of a looped sample (samples being played by a hardware sampler in my case). The MIDI files are monophonic and usually consist of 8- cca. 50 notes, one after another. My dream is to have these imported into a Seq track and then be able to play around with Recycled beats :) not sure if this is doable with Seq4 yet, I am using my Core32 board for other things than MBSeqv4 at the moment....

    David

  8. Quad SSM2164 VCA PCB

    in Design Concepts

    Posted

    Seppoman,

    After a quick search I have not found a schematic for this board, correct me if I'm wrong :)

    So I will ask instead:

    Would this PCB also be suitable for putting into a modular system?

    If yes, then I presume it is ok running on +/-15V?

    David

  9. XML Mixer

    in Miscellaneous

    Posted

    Wow, this one almost passed me by!

    Nice work man, I had a very quick look through it and it looks very interesting.

    Guess I need to ask SmashTV if there are still plans to offer these boards?

    David

  10. USB Mass Storage device STM32

    in Testing/Troubleshooting

    Posted

    Could you please try usb_mass_storage_device_v1_1.zip?

    Of course. Gave it a quick try this evening, just on one computer but it seems to have the same behaviour as MSD v1.0 i.e. not recognised usb device, core resetting.

    If the MSD application still crashes, it will be very difficult to debug this remotely :-/

    (even with a TCP/IP connection to the core ;)

    Ah well, to be honest I would rather our time goes towards something that makes noise rather than an SD Card reader :)

    Cheers

    David

  11. USB Mass Storage device STM32

    in Testing/Troubleshooting

    Posted · Edited by monokinetic

    Hi Thorsten,

    What a funny coincidence, this afternoon I was just thinking, what I would need is a way to test this on MBSeqV4 firmware and a few hours later I found your post!!!

    In the most recent release (beta16) I integrated a command interface to access debugging functions from the MIOS32 terminal, which is part of MIOS Studio 2:

    Could you please try it?

    Just enter "help" to test that the communication is working, and "sdcard" to retrieve informations from the SD Card

    Best Regards, Thorsten.

    I will more than happily try it..... I uploaded MBSeqV4 beta 16 and the result of entering sdcard in MIOS Studio V2 is this:

    [46078.002] SD Card Informations

[46078.002] ====================

[46078.002] --------------------

[46078.002] CID:

[46078.002] - ManufacturerID:

[46078.002] - OEM AppliID:

[46078.002] - ProdName: SD128

[46078.002] - ProdRev: 0

[46078.002] - ProdSN: 0x00004661

[46078.002] - Reserved1: 41

[46078.002] - ManufactDate: 82

[46078.002] - msd_CRC: 0x38

[46078.002] - Reserved2: 1

[46078.002] --------------------

[46078.003] --------------------

[46078.003] - CSDStruct: 0

[46078.003] - SysSpecVersion: 0

[46078.003] - Reserved1: 0

[46078.003] - TAAC: 127

[46078.003] - NSAC: 0

[46078.003] - MaxBusClkFrec: 50

[46078.003] - CardComdClasses: 437

[46078.003] - RdBlockLen: 9

[46078.003] - PartBlockRead: 1

[46078.003] - WrBlockMisalign: 0

[46078.004] - RdBlockMisalign: 0

[46078.004] - DSRImpl: 0

[46078.004] - Reserved2: 0

[46078.004] - DeviceSize: 1943

[46078.004] - MaxRdCurrentVDDMin: 5

[46078.004] - MaxRdCurrentVDDMax: 6

[46078.004] - MaxWrCurrentVDDMin: 5

[46078.005] - MaxWrCurrentVDDMax: 6

[46078.005] - DeviceSizeMul: 6

[46078.012] 0 root dir entries, data area commences at sector #2069.

[46078.012] 123873 clusters (253691904 bytes) in data area, filesystem IDd as FAT32

[46078.013] Content of root directory:

[46078.013] - MIOS

[46078.013] Found 1 directory entries.

[46078.013] --------------------

[46078.013] 

[46078.013] Checking SD Card at application layer

[46078.014] =====================================

[46078.014] Deriving SD Card informations - please wait!

[46079.464] SD Card: 'NO NAME    ': 253 of 253 MB free

[46079.464] File MBSEQ_B1.V4: doesn't exist

[46079.465] File MBSEQ_B2.V4: doesn't exist

[46079.465] File MBSEQ_B3.V4: doesn't exist

[46079.465] File MBSEQ_B4.V4: doesn't exist

[46079.465] File MBSEQ_B5.V4: doesn't exist

[46079.465] File MBSEQ_B6.V4: doesn't exist

[46079.465] File MBSEQ_B7.V4: doesn't exist

[46079.465] File MBSEQ_B8.V4: doesn't exist

[46079.465] File MBSEQ_M.V4: doesn't exist

[46079.466] File MBSEQ_S.V4: doesn't exist

[46079.466] File MBSEQ_G.V4: doesn't exist

[46079.466] File MBSEQ_C.V4: doesn't exist

[46079.466] File MBSEQ_HW.V4: doesn't exist or hasn't been re-loaded

[46079.466] done.

    Wow, what a really helpful tool! These are exciting times in the world of Midibox, thanks for all your hard work everyone involved in the new MIOS studio! (Now we just need to get it working over IP and we could do remote assistance of people's hardware over the net :thumbsup: )

    Anyway, I get no power reset type behaviour when plugging in the SD Card when running the new MBSeqV4 beta 16 i.e. the status LED stays on.

    So I guess that means the Core32 is reading the SD card fine and the problem is with the USB MSD firmware?

    If I can be of any assistance with finding out why the USB MSD firmware is not working, please let me know :)

    Otherwise consider this case closed.

    Kind Regards

    David

  12. USB Mass Storage device STM32

    in Testing/Troubleshooting

    Posted · Edited by monokinetic

    Hi TK,

    Thanks for the speedy reply.

    It shouldn't flash - do you mean the same dimming effect which will be performed by the bootloader after power-on?

    This indicates that something resets the core.

    E.g. a short circuit once the card has been connected.

    I would say this is exactly what is happening.

    Since you already checked the adapter, the issue could be located at the core side.

    E.g., check that J24 is connected to 3.3V position (not 5V!), check that R30 resistor arrays *not* mounted,

    For sure it is 3.3v. I originally had R30, but I removed it after rechecking the MBSEQ interconnection PDF and making my first post :)

    check with a multimeter that there is no short between SI/SO/SC/RC pins

    I have double checked a few times, there is no short to be measured between those 4 lines, when the SD card adapter is plugged in or not.

    The only thing I have found with a good poking around with my multimeter on j16 is that between VSS and VCC there is a resistance which seems to constantly shift around. This is regardless of the SD card adapter being plugged in or not. I guess this is ok?

    So I'm a bit stuck now :sad: Any other ideas, or should I try to make another SD adapter?

    Best Regards

    David

    Edited for smilies!

  13. USB Mass Storage device STM32

    in Testing/Troubleshooting

    Posted

    Hi,

    As I have to wait to recable my LCDs in my MBSEQ till the weekend, I thought I would test my newly soldered MBSD cable and MB_CORE_32 using the USB Mass Storage device app available in MIOS32 downloads. I have used the ultra low cost MBSD route i.e. a Mini SD adapter with the cables soldered then putting a Micro SD card into the adapter.

    When I plug in my Mini SD card, I get all the right signs from Windows XP SP2, an STM Mass storage device is found. But it seems that as Windows trys to create the removable device something goes wrong. The Removable device starts to appear in My Computer, then disappears. This appearing/disappearing goes round continuously but the device is never actually available (this creates a great glitchy sound of Windows alert playing all over the place, cool but not what I want!). I've tried this on 4 different machines today, Windows XP and Vista plus Macbook and Ubuntu desktop. The Windows machines at least try to recognise the SD card, Mac OS and Ubuntu see nothing. I always connect direct to a USB port, that is I have no hubs etc involved.

    I've been over my Mini SD adapter and checked continuity, all fine. I've triple checked the schematic and I'm 99 percent sure that's fine (admit to being human though!). I have measured 3.3v on the SD card when hooked up to the CORE_32, fine. I've tried 3 different Micro SD cards, a SanDisk and two no names. Always the same behaviour :(

    The only thing which seems a bit strange is that the status LED starts to flash once I plug in the SD card. Is it supposed to do that? Or is that a sign that the USB power can't handle powering up the SD card?

    Other than that, does anyone have any suggestion why this may be happening?

    Thanks in advance

    David

  14. SID and AOUT pinning

    in MIDIbox SID

    Posted

    [i'm not 100 percent sure this applies to the MBSID forum or somewhere else, mods please move as appropriate.]

    Hi,

    I have been reading through the SID source code because I want to compile for quite a specific setup. I do not plan to use any SID modules (I'll leave the SID's for the rest of you!) or slave cores, my core + aout would be on the All in one AOUT PCB which I got in the group buy. I plan to have a minimal control surface and most importantly the analogue ins because I want to use the SID engine to control some modular synth oscillators and so on, as well as process modular signals via the 5 analogue ins. I will be putting some over/negative volatge protection on the J5 pins. I plan on using a PIC18F4620 as the source code mentions in my specific hardware setup (i.e. no slaves, no SIDs) it is still ok.

    I am pretty used to compiling my own MIOS apps, so I'm trying to customise the SID source to my hardware. I realised that by default SID V2 is setup to use pins on J6 for the AOUT SCLK etc connections, whereas the All in one PCB is routed to use the default MBCV pinning i.e. J10. I checked in SIDV2 main.inc and found where the AOUT pinning is overridden.

    Is it ok to try and revert this setting back to the default J10 or is this going to cause me problems running the SIDV2 app?

    If so, do I need to explicitly set the pins (as seen in )? Or can I just comment out the part in SIDV2 main.inc that overrides the AOUT pinning?

    Thanks in advance

    David

  15. I'm developing a neww pcb for the OPL3 Module

    in MIDIbox FM

    Posted

    To start, I've fixed some broken links to the alternative PCB in the wiki and added some new photos to my website www.splabs.it

    Hi, it is nice of you to come back to us :)

    Thanks for fixing the links in the Wiki page, I checked them and they work.

    I have not got much time at the moment as well, too much to do for University. But once I get some etching time again I will let you know.....

    David

  16. Buffering DOUT Triggers

    in MIDIbox SEQ

    Posted

    Hey creatorlars,

    thanks for coming up with this, I want to trigger some diy analogue drum synth stuff from my MBSeq as well, so this will really help!

    Please do document it on the wiki, I'm sure others will find this useful as well :)

    David

  18. Layout alternative

    in MIDIbox FM

    Posted

    Hiya Stryd,

    As ever thanks for taking the time to read such a detailed post and trying to help, it's most appreciated!

    Err, yep. You ougtta be wearing a grounded static strap at all times handling these goodies, especially when the power is on. (hint: ankle straps stay out of the way)

    Aha there's something new to me. Ah well, one lives and learns :) Luckily I always buy 2x parts in group buys so looks like I will have to order the nice solder screened OPL PCB from Smash for attempt 2.....

    Edit: didin't that core rev need hardware changes to run the latest MIOS?

    Yup but I'm pretty sure I implemented this. (Will double check tho just for my sanity).

    Just as a matter of interest is there any way to verify the crystal oscillator other than a scope?

    Well I'm off to buy an ankle strap before I kill anything else :D

    Thanks

    Dave

  19. Layout alternative

    in MIDIbox FM

    Posted

    Hi seppo and stryd,

    Well I have been working on MBFM on and off for a couple of years now :) [in fact i just checked through the forum and my first message re: MBFM is from 2005, yikes!] I'm in no way criticising the original OPL3 board layout, just exploring ways of finishing this project before 2010  :D

    Anyway, a brief recap: my YMF and YAC chips are from the first bulk order. I have the original OPL3 board hooked up to a V2 core. My PSU is an AC wallwart hooked up to the appropriate caps and regulators mounted on veroboard. I can upload apps to the core fine, so I'm sure MIDI is working fine. The core has the latest version of MIOS and MBFM. Running the MBFM interconnect test app, I'm sure that the core is sending the appropriate signals to the OPL3 board.

    The problem is that when running the MBFM firmware I get absolutely no sound from the OPL3 board. Simple as that. The LED on the OPL3 board comes on, there's + and -12V at the power input on the OPL3 board. I've tried two batches of TL074s (hadn't realised they could be sensitive to static the first time I built the OPL3!). Still nothing.

    My current crystal oscillators both seem to be from NOS, I've not got a scope so I can't think of a way to test they are actually working. Any suggestions how to rule this out?

    Unfortunately I can't find the appropriate crystal oscillator here in Prague, so I'm contemplating building the oscillator adapter from gyorgy's page:

    http://web.t-online.hu/gyurek/midibox.htm#oscillator

    Anyone explored this option?

    My current OPL3 board is from Mike, so there's no solder screen and some of the tracks are really close together. Although I've been over the board with a magnifying glass and scraped every single possible solder bridge, still not a single sound. I'm currently considering either ordering a new OPL3 board from Smash with solder screen to see if that makes a difference, or trying the alternative layout I originally mentioned. The reason for this is that the tracks seems to be more spaced out and therefore less chance of bridges.... what do you guys think?

    One thing that I did do when testing was to measure the voltages at the YMF chip and YAC chips. Obviously I was very careful, but is there any chance these could get killed by static?

    Well, as you can see, now I'm pretty stuck. So any suggestions more than welcomed :)

    TIA

    Dave

  21. MBSID heading towards a modular

    in MIDIbox SID

    Posted

    Hi,

    I'm contemplating building up a MBSID, combined with a MB_AOUT_NG for hooking up to my modular (which is still laying on the bench in various pieces!). I'm not planning on using any SID chips in there (well for the time being anyway!).

    I've given the user manual and the forum a good read through but I have a few remaining questions:

    I know that I can take 5 (maybe 8 in the future?) analogue signals into the MBSID, so I can interface with CVs on the modular (which sounds great!). But is there any way that I could take some additional digital triggers into the MBSID? My idea was that I would like to synchronise some analogue sequencers which supply 5v timing clock triggers to the arpeggiators etc on MBSID. I know in terms of hardware it's just a case of using another DIN module, but can the firmware handle this (maybe if not now how about in the future?).

    It seems to me that I get 8 CV outs per core. If I wanted to get really fancy and have more CV outs, could I use another core slaved via MBNET?

    TIA

    Dave

  22. Layout alternative

    in MIDIbox FM

    Posted

    Hi,

    After untold troubles with my OPL module I am contemplating the alternative layout on the wiki, here.

    But the links give me a 404 (see stryd's opinion on offsite documentation!). I however do have the files downloaded already :)

    My questions are:

    Has anyone actually used this layout successfully?

    Has anyone got a MySpace account where they could ping selfservice, the guy who did this layout, so that I could ask if he minds me putting it on the wiki? (sorry but I'm boycotting MySchmace)

    TIA for any help (hoping that some others get on board with MBFM so I can get answers to my troubleshooting questions :D)

    Dave mK

  25. Some ideas for Seq enhancements

    in MIDIbox SEQ

    Posted

    I don't feel motivated to add the other feature requests in the old MBSEQ V3 firmware, as it would cost me another evening (not considered, that I probably have to spend a second evening to free some memory, which will lead to new bugs, etc.)...

    For comparison: in MBSEQ V4 I can integrate such improvements within 10..20 minutes.

    I totally understand, it's brilliant that you took the time to implement these at all. A millions thanks, as always :-D

    Dave mK

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