smashtv

Hi Adamwg, Disconnect only the backlight, it is probably causing the shutdown by dragging down your power supply. Check the new wiki page about displays, there is a list of 44780 compatible LCD driver chips there that you can compare with your display to answer the compatibility question. Best SmashTV

Hi Tom This failure mode sounds like it could have a very similar cause as your issues with the dinx2.....only reading one input vs. scanning them all..... If its the same PIC used to test both, I would look there only after you are sure nothing is wired wrong or shorted...... Also you only seem to be using 3/4 of the ain, are the last 8 inputs on the ain grounded -or- core J5 pins A3-A7 grounded -or- the app re-compiled to only read 3 4051s (28 pots) vs. 4 or 8 4051s for the default app? My gut says the clock line on the data bus is not there (bad soldering or bad PIC) or miswired, or shorted to something else besides ground, making it harder to find. Best SmashTV

Heya Alex! No worries man, your not bugging me! ;) The best way I can put it is ASAP, but i'm going to focus on getting every pending order shipped before I put any thought to anything else....It's a sign of respect from me to the guys waiting to not let any new orders take time from that. I have shipped many of them, but there are still so many left to do....But I'll do a shipping run today, and another run on Friday, and hopefully have the shop back up over the weekend and have everyone waiting taken care of.... I also need to find 15 spare minutes to change the core docs to reflect the correction, as some of those newest core boards should be hitting their destinations today.....I labeled the corrected boards as core_4C on the silkscreen to avoid confusion, and I will keep the info page around for the bad boards for the few people that have them. Whoops you asked a simple question and I wrote a novel! :P Here is my todo list: (the short answer!) 1. Ship all waiting orders 2. Revise core info page 3. Reopen store 4. Fall over dead (ahhh rest!) ;) Best Smash

-Never- worry about this.....Even though we might poke fun at you a bit, know that every last one of us here has boards around that look bad.....Some of my stuff looks like it was soldered in the back of moving truck, by a drunken monkey, with another drunken monkey behind the wheel..... ;D Best Smash

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hahahaha this and i'm still laughing from the glow pot post! ;D ;D Back when I was an arcade game tech, every couple of weeks the owner would sober up enough to stop by my office and ask how the current repair was going....My standard reply of "It will either work great forever, or immediately burst into flames and kill us all" helped insure that the visits were bi-weekly instead of daily.... ;) That's a big danger too, -any- shock that hits the right nerves can screw with your natural pacemaker in a big way, or just a small enough way to make the problem hard to diagnose. CRT's B+ line will definitely cause the "cussing pee pee dance".... :) The average monitor has 19kv-26kv (yep, k=1000) at the B+ wire (suction cup thingy).... If there are not bad parts in the B+ section it should self-drain, but beware that voltage will usually charge the big filter cap (all depends on design naturally). Also know that by nature of design even a bare crt tube sitting on the shelf will charge enough to make you try to fling it across the room when you grab it. My best advice: Make up the screwdriver/wire/alligator clip/ground tool, and wedge it into the hole for the entire time you are working on the chassis. I have seen 19" game monitors that would build enough up to jump out from under the rubber suction cup insulator and meet the ground tool with a spark due to flyback and crowbar circuit failure. A game monitor in a Donkey Kong machine of all things showed me the most un-explainable physics I have ever seen....The game was working fine but making a popping noise. I opened it up, fired it up, killed the lights to find the arc, and found that there was a spark jumping from backside of the glass crt tube to the shield around the flyback transformer. There was absolutely nothing foreign on the glass, and no metal on the glass....There was nothing there to conduct.....It was jumping a spark from -only- glass to ground. You would think it would be easy to rationalize it with thinking a flaw in the glass and B+ voltage just on the inside of the tube where the spark is coming from...Trouble with that theory is in order to work, the picture tube has a vacuum pulled on it, and any flaw in the glass that could possibly let a spark through would have to leak air/lose the vacuum. The game was 10+ years old at the time, and it had worked fine with this arcing for quite a while before I saw it... I would love to know what was up with that one, but to date nobody has a good answer. Instead of stopping to write a new book on thermodynamics with theories I didn't understand but could witness, I gave it the treatment with some insulators and sent it on down the road. ;) Reminded me to believe practice over theory on everything, the books and the teachers at the uni are not right all the time..... My worst bite ever was from a large tube laser power supply.....that one should have finished me. ;) It was 65kv at high amperage..... I was soooo lucky, Was sitting on the floor next to it instead of standing..... For whatever reason the crowbar ckt decided to dump HV to chassis ground, when I had my hand near a ground point. It went in second finger and out fourth, so no heart damage etc. Caused me to need therapy and special exercises to fight muscle atrophy in that arm for 6 months or so after, blackened both fingertips at entry and exit, and I cranked the back of my head on the floor from the recoil (luckily I was already out when I hit) I woke up feeling like I had just lost a fight, and I swear it was a minute before I knew who/where/what (probably from the head conk) Wow thinking back I'm suprised I'm still around, and even more suprised that I still have all me digits....amazing considering I'm a redneck with a table saw.... and had some great fun doing stage pyro.... ;D Speaking of hiding behind something, anyone up for making plasma fireballs in the microwave? it's easy considering how cool the effect is :P Best Smash

It started in the US with the edison/Tesla war of the currents.....edison (I say it with a little e, he was a profiteer wrongly regarded as an innovator) wanted to make DC the mains power standard, and toured the US frying everything from cats and dogs to elephants with AC in an effort to promote Tesla's AC as unsafe....In the US for whatever reason edison is treated as some hero, Tesla is rarely mentioned, in reality edison was rotten by nature for hiring the best of the best, then patenting any innovation he could buy or steal as his work..... I don't know the reasoning for the voltage difference, it may be as simple as Europe is the 2nd generation of AC technology where they figured out it's cheaper in equipment cost to deliver 230 vs. 110? Read up on Tesla if you have the time, Some of the stuff he was demonstrating still is not understood by the best of the best......It's amazing how different some basic physics concepts play out when you think differential harmonics vs. waveguides..... ;) Maybe some day we'll get to see all of his work..... -sigh- Best smash

Whee sonic spacecraft adventures! ;) I agree 100% on 110v danger..... <warning: long rambling incoherent post below> ;) I regularly tie our tour distro(s) into live AC for larger shows, this means when we pull in to do sound and lights for a band in a club, there is no way the house wiring will give up the 160+ amps of current we need...... So we bring in a portable site breaker box with outlets in it, and a very large "feeder" cable to tie our box to power. (usually 4Ø, that's four times larger than zero gauge, think almost the same diameter as a 12oz. Coke can) Here it gets fun: since the house panel does not have any single breaker that large, I have to tie into the live mains feeding the house panel, usually with no breaker or fuses between me and the power on the pole outside... :-/ So I put on one big mean welding glove, put the other hand in my back pocket, call for a spotter (who has been instructed on how to kick me loose If I quit humming the Wiggles tune), grab the "sticky" rubber dipped hex wrenches, and tie my feeder tail in live, one leg at a time ;) All of this is done legally and to code BTW....with inspectors, electricians, house techs looking over to satisfy the insurance boys.... ;) What (barely) makes this relevant to the 110v topic: I am way more likely to die tinkering with simple 110v on a 20 amp breaker than while handling live 440v/220v feeds! Seems crazy, but the reality is: 110v is only enough to cause all of my muscles to contract, probably causing a tighter grip on whatever is shocking me......in the same situation but with 220v +, its more likely to contract all my muscles way harder -hopefully- knocking me loose from whatever is biting me. I guess my point is.....always treat 110v like its the most lethal thing you will see in electronics.....since statistically it is. :D "tying the tail" is a great energy boost on a long hard show day, the resulting adrenaline rush/fight-or-flight response is better than a few kidney killer sized coffees..... ;) Stay safe! smash

Just guessing here....but I have seen my share of displays... ;) The large square pads at the end are where an EL or LED backlight assembly would get power, if there is nothing connected there at all you probably have one built as non-backlit/reflective only. On LED backlit displays, 15 and 16 will usually wire directly to the square pads, on -most- EL backlit displays they wont (needs a driver). If there is a decent gap between the glass and pcb, it's probably built as reflective only (otherwise the EL element would be in the gap) Reflective displays usally can't have a backlight added, since the reflective plate in the glass stack is opaque. Sorry to be so general on this, If I had one in my hand I could give you all the answers. ;) On a side note a lot of the EL elements can be lit directly powered from US 110v 60hz mains voltage....I don't recommend this at all for permanent use (heat issues, bursting into flames issues with some types that need a higher frequency drive, etc.) but tons of fun for building some "indiglo" junk..... ;) Disclaimer: don't try this at home, especially if you don't have a chemical fire extinguisher handy for the possible fire, and a flashlight for when it pops the breaker.....tinker play like this is really stupid if you don't have a healthy fear of line voltage -and- knowledge of the worst-case-scenario....There are much more fun ways to set yourself on fire, so if you do it this way, it's not my fault! :P Back to the kit mill with me.... Best Smash

I have seen the 3055 scheme work 24/7 for years on many of the Atari coinop games, but they always used a massive (talking huge) heatsink. Every Centipede or Dig Dug game you ever put a coin in has 3055 kickin' one of the rails inside. ;) Check out this thread/post for yet another path to your goal: http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php?topic=3244.msg21308#msg21308 Back to the order packing, smoke break over.... ;) Best Smash

Cool thanks for posting pics Poshpol! Those are worth a lot to me especially when I have no "tinker" time... ;) The corrected Core boards are finally in, despite a breakdown in UPS' customs clearing system in Shenzhen. I built up a set last night, and they work as expected, but I'll do more testing tonight with more apps to make sure there are no suprises. I also need to lay a few things in the scanner (my digicam blows for closeup shots) to show how simple/easy the wiring is now. I'll do my best to only spend 2 hours with that, then another 5 hours packing orders for a late postal run tonight....I might not get all of them out tonight (there are a -lot- of people waiting) but whatever is left will go out on Saturday, and if needed more on Sunday. I am really looking forward to some rest, the kind I can't get until all orders are shipped and everyone is happy. ;) To everyone waiting: You guys are the best...Nobody yelling at me, not cancelling your orders despite more delay than was expected, only half-flooding my inbox with shipping date questions, etc. Your great attitudes/understanding on this mess will not be forgotten.... :) Best Smash

Exactly when and where is this? Not saying i'm going or anything like that, but I would like to come see you guys anyway, and a trade show would make for a good excuse. What kind of event is musikmesse? I would needta get some shots and a fresh passport....And have some "I got hammered with SmashTV World Tour 2k6" shirts screened for me buds....so we can find each other in the crowd! :) So who all is going to this? BTW: anytime you guys stateside are ready/feeling froggy, We could easily setup a meet and greet in Dallas, got facilities available there and tons of trade swag via the production co. to have fun on as a group. We could get more than one simultaneous recording session going for fun or work, do some quick demo videos for anyone who needs that, build a few boxes, etc. Depending on time frame we might even have a live show going with the production company to VIP/attend. Not that I have any time to play right now, but when the dust settles after the board/kit rev. I'll be needing some recreation..... ;) Any thoughts? I know this has been proposed many times, but maybe we finally have enough 'boxers around now to make it worth the effort.... Best Smash

If you only have a minute, check out "winterstorm" and "ghost-beneath the surface", both tracks freely available from their site. Some of the best synth/acoustic instrument integration in a track I have heard to date....Whether you like the style of music or not you can appreciate the energy/power/vibe coming from your speaks....This music is not weak. ;)

Wow Python->Verilog converter means FPGA for the masses.... The SID emu is cool too... ;) Smash

Hi Tom! Message received, I'm just sitting down now to reply to a few (ok, 40+ emails/messages) then spend a couple more hours packing orders. Next shipping run is tomorrow, so I'll get the order changes hammered out with you and fire a postal projectile your way on that run. :) On the post count, I knew I felt a little evil today, just did not know why! :P My evil streak ends with this reply.... ;) Best Smash

I did an 8x10 inch board using the sponge method, no problems related to the board size. hehe, everything I etch has lots of small traces! :)Seriously though I always use a 16mil wide trace if it has to go between IC pads, and I never design anything through-hole with anything smaller. 6mil traces are possible (I have done some surface mount stuff unrelated to the MIDIbox) but there are a lot of other variables in your process that will dictate the smallest possible trace width. Yet another cool thing about the sponge method is that it's so fast you get nice clean edges, unlike a warm bubble bath that can seep a little under the edge of an "under-bonded" (is that a word?) resist and give you a case of the jaggies. Yes. The key to this is leaving a "gripper edge" to handle the board with, so you can hold onto it during the etch without touching resist areas with anything but the sponge. Etch first, cut second. No. Dunno who says that, but it's just plain wrong....They might be talking about filling in pinholes, and some of the foils will cover a smaller hole (due to a stiffer than needed formulation/carrier)...but the green TRF does not stick to sharpie ink. It also won't stick very well to pnp blue transfer paper resists...but transfers using the Pulsar paper or inkjet photo paper (which wants to ruin the fuser rollers in your laser printer!) work fine. While we are on this subject, the best toner transfers are done with a photo mounting press and a timer, followed closely by a modified laminator. No clue how well the baby laminator Pulsar sells now works, and I'll never know since it won't do standard thickness boards. But the suggested large GBC laminator (TIA?) and modification guide he has there on his site work great, and are more consistant than anything I know save directly silkscreening the solder mask to the bare copper. One of my best tricks for DS protos is to drill the bare/uncleaned/un-etched laminate on the NC drill, then lay a sheet of 1200 grit aluminum oxide sandpaper face up on a granite block (or well leveled concrete floor), then dry sand the board until it's all shiny, moving the board not the sandpaper. This removes any copper tearout from the drilling and levels the board out. Makes it really easy to get the placement of the transfer papers dead-on accurate. :) Same method can be used without the NC drill, just make two transfers for one side (one to mark the alignment holes, then clean it off after drilling/sanding then apply both transfers) Always wear a mask when using aluminum oxide sandpaper, two breaths of that dust is equal to years of sucking on lead in terms of memory loss. :o Best Regards Smash

No. It would not make much sense for me to sell bad parts would it? ;) Everything gets sampled and tested here....I can pull samples from batches all the way back to mid 2004....Why do people assume I'm not paying attention to what I sell? It's one of the many advantages to my small store vs. a large corporation, I -can- be bothered to get it right -most- of the time..... ;) I think he's talking about the "Encoder specifications" post: http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php?topic=3980 Search first, and ye shall find......I typed "smashtv encoders" in the search to get that result... Smash

Guys keep in mind that any amount of heat with FECL will cause it to outgas. When it does outgas, even though you can't really see it, this vapor starts attacking anything metal.....Heated FECL definitely belongs outdoors. If you are using toner transfer (not photosensitive process), get some "laser foil" from Pulsar, or Paper Direct, or your local office supply. Its real use is for making gold/silver letters on certificates etc..... use it the same way on your PCB before etching to strengthen the resist, then you can use a small tray and a sponge -barely- soaked in FECL to gently wipe away everything but the resist. This method is faster, even without heating, than my pro tanks that use heater/air pump or even the heated spray etch tank..... Obviously you want a throw away sponge and latex gloves, etc. Until I started with the foil I was running a gallon every 3 months or so with the big tanks, now I'm still using the gallon I bought late 2004....and my tanks should go on eBay soon ;) Best Regards Smash

Been a Wendy Carlos fan ever since I saw the movie Tron....Damn I must have been 11 or 12? (ino, I'm an ancient geezer compared to most of you guys....) ;D Best Smash

Whoops I didnt mean for that to sound so grumpy! ;D Too much on my mind.....sorry about that! Best Smash

wow man you have to lose R1 and R2....They are probably both open now anyway if they were 1/4 watt. Why are they there? I would also check your filter caps, C1 and C3, as they might not have recovered so well from a load like that. (something's gotta pay when you flame up a wire like that, I would bet it was not just the resistors.) If you don't just swap these parts you should at least check for excessive AC ripple on your DC output lines. Best Regards SmashTV

Damn damn damn....As much as the net brings us all together it also serves to remind how far apart we are. :-\ I won't even pretend to understand what it's like for you, I know that I can't without experiencing it first hand. If you were local this would -never- happen. (all debates about guns/violence aside....I did not create or encourage the gang problems here, and despite the huge law enforcement salaries my tax dollars pay, it's still left up to me to protect my family and my freinds) Well, I -was-. I worked hard for other people, then decided it was time to work hard for myself, and the resulting production company and custom show control hardware have me at a point now where I am...well, coasting.... I don't have to work as hard anymore. I replaced the long hours needed for that with long hours doing my best to be a good father, and I love it. No daycare, no babysitters, no television raising my kid (ironically the main income from the production company is TV ad production!). Too many people let others raise their kids these days, then wake up and realize they missed it all. Totally agreed! I could have bought a decent pair of shoes instead of the last case of electrical tape I bought, But shoes are single purpose, and we all know tape has millions of uses.... ;) I thank God every time I break bread that I don't have to worry where the next meal is coming from. You know, after reading her site again, looking at the custom built house on the hill, the army of aibo robot pets, etc. I have to agree, the "I'm not rich" statement is a bit insulting. I see this same attitude all around me living here in BushCoLand. The "haves" are never satisfied, and are typically so worried about success/money/what brand of car is in the driveway that they sell out any morals that the television did not strip away from them as a child. Then there are the have nots, who in this country are supported in large fashion by all of the government programs. It is very common to stand behind people in line at the grocery store who are paying only with food stamps (supplied by my tax dollar), where they proceed to buy cigarettes and other things that I would rather not support, and get into a current year luxury car when they leave....In the US you get paid to not have a job, and the more kids you have, the larger the check. No wonder we are infested with gangs and meth labs when babies are a source of income. I really don't know what class I fit into (hehe most would probably say I have no class!), On paper I'm poor white trash, even though I own a good business that supports several familes of welfare recipients with taxes paid. In person I play the part of middle class, even though after I set aside that 27% for the government to pass out to people who can't be bothered to work and fund someone else's civil war, It knocks me back into the poor white trash class... ;) hehe even talking about this stuff makes me want to throw a dart at the map, just to try to find a culture with a little more reasonable balance to become a part of.... ;) Best Smash

Bahh don't be that way guys....I own a few rooms full of gear, some nice consoles (but no SSLs) etc. but none of that makes me rich....I still wear shoes repaired with electrical tape, have to watch my cash so the baby has food, drive and self-repair a 20+ year old car, and live in an area that's not even middle class by most peoples standard. Hell I even have a nice chunk of American Dream (credit card debt). Even if I did put on some shiny clothes and make a nice pretty photo with me and all my gear, it would not change the fact that I have to work for what I earn. Anyone really know if she worked hard to earn that room full of gear and new house, or if it's a gift from daddy? Without the answer to that question it's hard to criticize....She might have spent the last 20 years working really hard to get to this point.....Sad to see people who think they have less hung up on that rather than practicing their talent, so they can one day sit in a room full of gear in their ABBA-wear and realize that after all that they arent rich either..... ;) Best Smash

Hi All! Over the last weekend I was making kits and packing orders, and I remembered that I had not tested all of the new boards together as a system, so I stopped to build up a set. I had previously tested prototypes of each module separately, but not together with the new 1:1 DIL ribbon cable module to module interconnects. What I found was that I have made a really stupid error. Here is what is wrong: The core J8/9 and J6/7 connectors are wrong, I transposed input with output on the board to board wiring: J8/9 on the core does not mate 1:1 with: J1 on the DIN board or: J1 on the DOUT board. The boards all work fine if wired correctly (to match the last rev), but this makes the promised easy DIL/IDC ribbon cable interboard wiring thing a non-feature. :-\ So here is my plan: More core boards are already ordered with this error corrected, but could take up to two weeks to arrive (historically they usually get here quicker) If you have a pending order, are in a hurry, and don't mind this issue (it's easily solved by using the old-style SIL connections like the last core rev) I'll ship your order now with extra 5 pin SIL connectors/cable to wire it correctly. If you have a pending order and are not in a hurry, I'll ship your order when the new boards come in (and are also "final" tested) in 7-15 days. I guess sometimes it takes a $600+ mistake to remind me to test things as a system, instead of as modules... :-\ So if you have a pending order please let me know if you want it shipped now or if you would rather wait for the corrected boards, or if you have just had enough of me and want a full refund. My contact form insures that your message will get to me without any email/filtering issues, but know that most free email services (hotmail/yahoo/etc.) like to bounce, filter or lose my replies....So you can send me a private message here on the forum instead if you wish to ensure my reply will make it to you. I deserve some bad comments from some frustrated people on this, but as you write please remember I am one (human) guy, not a corporation, so set your flamethrowers accordingly.... Best Regards SmashTV

Actually no, since I'm releasing more new docs today :) (In other words, from here on out you would know what your getting into and should order based on that, the guys ordering up to this point did not know the final connector config, etc.)....And I'll be bouncing any orders today until this evening when the docs are publicly linked from my info pages. I'll email the guys who need to have their orders changed soon.... More work-in-progress docs: http://www.avishowtech.com/mbhp/mbhp_ainR3.html Any comments are welcome......Always looking to do better docs! More to come as I get them done..... Best Regards SmashTV