smashtv

These problems can be the most frustrating, when things almost work! I live about 7 blocks from one of the most powerful AM radio stations in the world, it's signal saturates my phone line, my cable internet connection, and my AC power (I know of people hearing the broadcast on their central heater, probably causing the coils in the contactors to resonate like a speaker) so everything I build or work on has to be able to shake almost any RFI. : ) (It's so bad that your playstation or any other CD player wont work when placed on the floor, probably a result of a harmonic of their noise corrupting true earth ground.) Anyway, back on topic, I have found that with all parts loaded on a core (so that it can run from AC or DC) that feeding a core with 9VAC (from the usual wall-pack transformer) will result in much more stable operation than feeding the core DC at it's input. The power section runs much cooler, and there is more available to the external modules than with a DC input. So it's something to try at least, but take care to isolate both lines of AC coming in, otherwise your box could act worse, or become a return path for something else that has the case on the other leg of power! 9VAC wall power supplies are the most common found on consumer stuff in the US, If you have more than a couple of things that use a wall pack odds are you have one. ;) Good luck, and let us know! SmashTV

These problems can be the most frustrating, when things almost work! I live about 7 blocks from one of the most powerful AM radio stations in the world, it's signal saturates my phone line, my cable internet connection, and my AC power (I know of people hearing the broadcast on their central heater, probably causing the coils in the contactors to resonate like a speaker) so everything I build or work on has to be able to shake almost any RFI. : ) (It's so bad that your playstation or any other CD player wont work when placed on the floor, probably a result of a harmonic of their noise corrupting true earth ground.) Anyway, back on topic, I have found that with all parts loaded on a core (so that it can run from AC or DC) that feeding a core with 9VAC (from the usual wall-pack transformer) will result in much more stable operation than feeding the core DC at it's input. The power section runs much cooler, and there is more available to the external modules than with a DC input. So it's something to try at least, but take care to isolate both lines of AC coming in, otherwise your box could act worse, or become a return path for something else that has the case on the other leg of power! 9VAC wall power supplies are the most common found on consumer stuff in the US, If you have more than a couple of things that use a wall pack odds are you have one. ;) Good luck, and let us know! SmashTV

Tell us about your power supply...... ;) SmashTV

Tell us about your power supply...... ;) SmashTV

Castlevania Symphony of the Night (Love that game!)

eMpTyV :P

Merry Christmas to all! I'm praying for a peacefull holiday for everyone. Thanks to everyone for being a part of this great community, and I hope the pots, faders, and encoders show up under your tree! :) SmashTV

Very cool! ;D

Looks like I need to take a close look at Jitter. I have not worked with MAX in a while, so Jitter will be a new experience for me. :) All that is really needed is the ability to move and color some cone shaped primitive objects in open GL from numbers fed to it from other parts of the patch, I was almost there with a simple open GL external but it would not move the cone from the point, instead it wanted the point of origin to always be at the other end...... :( (you can tell I'm not a 3d guy either!) I had not really thought of using LEDs, I was thinking more along the lines of a halogen flood with a dichroic gel or stacked traditional gels. The IR thing is not an original idea, I read a mailing list archive where some people building museum exhibits were having success using this method for tracking in the dark with softvns. All issues aside it would seem to be a lot less hassle than RFID type tracking (and way less expensive!). My last followspot cheater patch was very low tech, we had to follow "wrestlers" down the runway with the lightshow, so I mounted a super cheap color wireless x-10 camera in the lighting grid aiming down on the runway, fed that video to an old commodore monitor with a clear touch screen attached to the front (left over from my tech days, came from a Megatouch touchscreen bartop game) and read the touchscreen with MAX. That way the lighting op could just put his finger on the wrestlers head and follow as he walked down to the ring. Very low tech and way cheaper than $10K-$15K for an autopilot rig http://www.wybron.com/Entertainment/AutopilotII/ but it looked and worked great, like we had human spot ops up in the grid! I'll dig around in the backups and see if I can find some of the MAX stuff I have written that might be of interest. I have one that uses a headset with a noise canceling mic to follow voice commands (would be hard to use at a rock show!), one that detects BPM changes via a redsound voyager and generates a random but weighted chase sequence at the start of each song, with moods to match the speed, and a few other little chunks of patches that would probably never be useful to anyone but me.... ;) Have fun! Smash

It looks like abandonware. I had come across this site in the past, but I have not taken an in-depth look at anything midi for the palm. I'll only be building one for use and one for backup, so I'll see if I can find some contact info to buy the boards this guy sells (or used to sell). I'll probably just write something in basic, the changes I am making to the MIDI data are not too intensive, but have to be edited easily at show time, possibly by someone else. I don't really have any cool MAX stuff, I have one huge patch that I use to control the lighting gear live, but it works only with my hardware for both input and output so it won't do much of anything without connecting it to the show. :( I have attempted several times to find a way to represent the show as 3d primitives in a small openGL or quicktime3d window in real time, so advance programming would be easier. I know nato has this capability, but I can't get past the hacker like documentation on the site to figure out what I need, and none of the other 3d externals really do what I need (so if you have any suggestions based on your nato knowledge I'm all ears!) Also I would love to write a patch with softVNS and MAX that would track people on stage through input from a small video camera, and use Infrared filters on the camera and some IR only lights to keep the mac from losing them during blackout. That way I could tell Max to automatically follow the performers with some of the moving lights when I need followspots on them..... :) Whoop! Long, off topic post again....... :) Let me know your thoughts! Smash

Ladybug, it sounds like you have a bad chip to me. I have a couple of 877's here that will always error out on the same address each time you try to burn them. (different stop points for each chip BTW) One was abused by me in a non-MB design, One was inserted backwards by me and powered (Don't try to juggle baby, phone, and build at the same time!) and the other was bad out of the tube, probably static. Let us know what ya find...... :) Smash

Just a reminder.... I will program 16f's and 18f's for you for free, any time. The JDM seems to be the hardest part for a lot of people with the port/voltage problems between pc's. Send it/them to me along with a prepaid return envelope/box if you are in the US, or send them to me and buy just shipping on my site if you are outside of the US. I can also do cheaper shipping than is on the site as long as I know exactly what you are sending. (There are some cheaper small flat-rate envelopes I can use, that a kit won't fit into.) I do it that way for people outside the US since it is hard to buy US postage to send a pre-posted package/envelope if you are not in the US! :) Either way you must email me first to get the address and inform me to keep an eye out for them. Have fun! Smash

Heya Z! I'm very interested in the Palm MIDI thing, I could possibly eliminate one Mac from my show rig with that. I have MAX doing some offset and position processing that has to change every show (so the laser hits the right targets). It drives the V-Drum to Laser interface, so the drummer directly controls the laser when it is used (keeps it in sync way better than a human!) This sounds like a perfect job for my low end palm instead of carrying an old powerbook everywhere we use the laser. I would love to take a look at the relay board also! Have fun! SmashTV

There is lead free solder available that is suitable for electronics, Radio Shack has it in the US, not sure who to buy from in other parts of the world. A lot of the PCB assembly lines in the US are using it due to health concerns/OSHA regulations. It does flow a bit different than normal lead solder, not really much harder to work with, just different. It is very different from any solder a plumber would use though (different alloy mix/flux percentage/size). Have fun! Smash

Soulfly

FolkTrain http://www.rootsontherails.com/

hehe yes. Clean the oxidation that you can reach off of the board and spray it with laquer. Any eraser should do, I have used normal red/pink pencil erasers, as well as white and blue drafting erasers. Ultra fine steel wool can be used (look for ooo or oooo grade), but it can start the corrosion process if the board is not sealed or plated with something immediately after cleaning. I use steel wool on prototype boards here instead of acetone when I can, it's just more environmentally friendly and doesnt leave my head swimming from vapor/odor. It would be almost impossible to use steel wool on a board that has been soldered. Have fun! SmashTV

Cool, hopefully my novels aren't putting everyone to sleep! ;) I have not used these, but I hear they work very well. Everyone who has used the Conrad stuff I have talked to really likes it. It is not available in the US so I have not tried it yet. I am wondering if this breaks down over time or if Nomical washed this off of his boards before soldering, since this is what Mike uses to protect his boards before shipping. I seriously doubt the spray flux has the same conductive qualities/problems as flux left on the board from the core of the solder, but I don't know. A note about all of this stuff: Anything you use while soldering has chemicals in it that are bad for you, including the solder, flux etc. <good> Solder has lead in it, lead poisoning is cumulative over your lifetime, causes memory loss, birth defects, and other bad things. Always solder in a well ventilated area. Never eat, smoke, stick your fingers in your mouth, etc. directly after soldering. Scrub your hands like a surgeon immediately after soldering, and try not to touch anything else before you wash (you can transfer trace amounts of lead to other surfaces from your hands). I do a lot of my soldering with latex gloves on. Call me paranoid, but I would hate to think that I did something this simple in the first years of my boys' life that would effect his health/brain development. Have fun! Smash

Amen brother! ;)I have a 3 year old tip on my 8 or so year old Weller station, and it still works like a dream. It has it's own flight case for when I do shows! I do a lot of soldering, and this iron has held up like none other I have used. Have fun! Smash

Heya Nomical! PCBs will corrode with exposure to air, faster if you live near the ocean (salt air) , this is normal. Several methods: If you already have your soldering done, you can: Spray the boards with laquer, spray paint (clear coat or color), or anything you want that will seal it up. Anything water soluble (like hairspray) will break down and not protect your board after a while. Pros: Easy, quick, and cheap. Cons: Very difficult (and stinky/toxic) if you ever have to solder on the board again. OR Simply "solder tin" the boards by spreading solder around all exposed copper with your soldering iron. Pros: if you built the board you already have everything you need, repairs or future soldering is quick and you don't have to strip any sealers off before soldering. Cons: if not done carefully you can create a solder bridge/short. Does not work well if the board is heavily oxidised. The best thing ever for preparing copper for soldering is a soft eraser (like a drafting eraser or the kind on the end of a pencil). This takes away only the corrosion and does not damage the copper unlike other methods. On flux: This can be an issue for some circuits, but mostly with analog stuff. The flux does pass some electricity, not enough usually to cause problems with digital stuff where the levels are high. A great example is an Oktava condenser mic I recently modified, cleaning the flux from the board after re-working it caused a the noise floor to drop over 3db! Oxidation was a huge issue for me when I started the board thing, so the boards I sell are silver alloy dip tinned. They don't corrode under normal use/storage and are actually easier to solder than bare copper. Sorry for the long post! Smash

Yes! I'll program anyone's PIC for them, for free, always. No purchase required. :smile: There are two ways on the return shipping: 1) Pack it with an extra box/bubble envelope etc. that has return postage on it and is pre-addressed to come back to you. 2) Send it to me, and buy only shipping on my website (these are actual shipping charges, I don't charge handling or add to the cost since I use priority packaging that's provided) Either way you MUST email me send me a forum PM first to let me know what you are sending, your return address, and to get my address so you know where to send it. ;) Have fun! Smash

hehe no problem! ;) Most (if not all) of the parts on my order lists will fit the original layouts. The warning about part fit on my site is there to make sure the people know there may be issues when mixing parts lists and layouts. I made the "US" layouts for several reasons: To facilitate easier home etching (I noticed there were traces almost touching on the original layouts, leaving no room for errors like under-etching) To better fit parts that were easily available in the US (some of the ceramic capacitors on the original layouts have lead spacings that were hard to locate around here) To reduce jumper count (I saw several jumpers that could be eliminated with different trace routing when I built my first set of boards) Other than the obvious routing/placement differences, the boards are functionally identical, but mine can be etched with less care/precision to a working end. :) Please don't get the wrong idea, I'm not saying the original layouts are bad. There are way more working Midiboxes out there loaded with the original boards than with my layouts, including some of the boxes I use! Have fun! SmashTV

Sweet! ;D Have fun! Smash

I'll answer the ones I can (please someone correct me if I'm wrong!), look for my replies mixed with the original message below: Keep in mind that I have not built any SID modules, so I'm not knowledgeable on the SID! 698-CAT24WC256PI is working for Freon and other users, See http://www.midibox.org/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=troubleshooting;action=display;num=1053488541;start=0#0The choice of what buttons to use is up to you, I have used 653-B3F-4050 for some of my control surfaces. Key caps that fit these are available separately. Yes, if you don't mind surface mount (difficult to solder).Mouser has 698-CAT24WC256PI listed as a substitute, it is a DIP (standard through-hole package) I'm not sure on this one, Since I have not used the SID application I don't know how it is configured to use buttons vs. encoders. See this: http://www.midibox.org/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=mios;action=display;num=1066834196;start=0#0 Hopefully someone who knows can jump in here and talk about using an AIN module with the SID. Those should work, the pin headers used on all of the layouts .100" spacing. Keep in mind with these connectors from Mouser you will also have to order the "crimp terminals" to load the connector with, if I'm not mistaken, they come separately. Could some of you SID guys answer the questions about using buttons vs. encoder vs. pots above? Have Fun! SmashTV

Heya! These keyboards are not bad for the price (under $4 USD): http://www.cyberguys.com/templates/searchdetail.asp?T1=138+0207 Have Fun! Smash