smashtv

Actually that was the exact line I realized was missing smiley..... a :) belongs right after the period....my missing smiley completely betrayed my thought, I meant to poke at you not step to you, big difference, my bad. Not quite nuke proof, but mostly water resistant. ;D hehe number three there belongs to Mr. David Banner....and I have been told we would not like him when he's angry.... ;D Thanks for all of the kind words and support guys! I realize now the endless "when" questions are just another way of wording that support. :) Best Regards SmashTV

Right I get ya bud, and I agree! Again my post was pure one guy opinion, not moderator view etc., and I did not tone up until I read these are samples and not bought. Please don't, this thread helps the next guy! Please don't let my rant spook you...Living in the US has me surrounded by people eternally questing for the free lunch, so much they can't get anything real done. I get way too pointy when I see anything that looks similar here in MIDIbox land. ;) Best Regards SmashTV

Thanks for the kind words G!.....But what is this "social life" you speak of? ;D That post of mine is missing a couple of smiley icons....I'm not angry, just tired of the overfull inboxes. Maybe some visuals will help with time perspective! There are three basic steps to making these kits: 1) Re-pack bulk parts into need (kit) quantities, 2) Bag the prepped parts into groups of like parts, 3) Bag the groups of parts into a ready to build kit. I'll use sockets as the example for step 1 and 2: [table][tr][td]Bulk: [/td][td] [/td][td]A few hours later prepped: [/td][/tr][/table] Keeping in mind each group of parts takes hours or days, here is a visual equation for step 3: + + + + + = With that I ask, How long does it take -you- to accurately count and sort 39 100nF ceramic caps 50 times? How about the rest of the cap kit list (x 50)?: [tt]2 2200uF Electrolytic 8 1uF Electrolytic 10 10uF Electrolytic Cap 1 100uF Electrolytic Cap 8 33pF Ceramic Cap 24 470pF Ceramic Cap 16 1nF Ceramic Cap 1 330nF Ceramic Cap 16 22nF Poly Cap[/tt] Don't forget that is one bag/group out of the six in the equation above. (x 50) ;) Does this better tell the story of why this one measures in months not days? I won't even get into the time it took to verify PCB footprints vs. available parts, Deal with vendors to get sane large quantity pricing, etc.....All simple grunt work compared to Wilba's time and effort! -He actually had switches made for this- in order to do it right. :) Back to the kit mill with me! Best Regards SmashTV

Ok I'm still getting PMs and emails every day about this asking "when?" There is no release date. Please cope with this privately, I am not an anxiety counselor. I can't find any other new creative ways to say when it's done. Smart enough to build a MIDIbox, but can't comprehend this?: See my past posts about this for my plan, it's all there. These are (and have been) shipping to people on the list. If you don't know what comes next you need to read, not go all newbie with the "me too when?" messages. Here are three from my inbox: or naturally followed by when I did not reply. The hammering of my PM box and contact form are really wearing on me. These are just two out of many.....And I won't quote them without reply: Kartoshka - I could care less about your school final project schedule, why am I hearing about it in my inbox? I am so so sorry you missed the first board order, I'm paying for it with bad feelings every time you tone up about this. Do I need to filter you like a spammer who don't get the hint(s)? Back off or I'll back you off kid. MOONRAKER - if you wanna play read the forum else its game over bud. You guys are making the choice about how long it takes to get these out the door, I can either make kits or answer and delete messages with my time. I need these to sell for what they cost in both materials and labor/effort. You do the math about how endless requests eat my time, time cost passes on to you as kit price..... For you guys waiting patiently without needing your hands held, THANK YOU! You will not be disappointed. DB (and others) thanks for the kind words! Proper motivation to put a smile on my face for yet another 12 hour Saturday spent in the kit mill. :) Best Regards SmashTV

hehe "pulls" can mean a wide range of conditions....ranging from "RFE" - "Removed From (working) Equipment" to "RALIFOGSOWMT" - "Rattled Around Loose Inside then Fell Out and Got Stepped On While Moving to Trash bin" ;D ;D Best regards Smash

I am personally offended by this. Only speaking for myself here, this is my own opinion not any official statement of any kind. Because you can is a pretty poor excuse....This is like ignoring the "take one" sign on the candy bowl, just because nobody is watching. Read the terms of use when you request samples, and understand that Microchip sees this community as bottom-feeders. You think they don't get the picture when people are always ordering the same sample combinations? Realize that this same combination of parts has been sampled thousands of times, and rarely by anyone but MIDIbox builders. They are just being polite (and stupid) by shipping these requests, while the competition produces comparable parts at half the street price. I hit a brick wall trying to negotiate preferential pricing on large quantities because they know what I buy does not fund what they give away. :( Counting sampled vs. bought tells them what a product lifespan should be....When sampled to bought ratio is wrong, time to quit making that part in favor of something profitable. Think about this equation for a minute....The bean counters watching the profitability of the multi-million dollar chip fab lines certainly are. These guys are nice enough to keep making DIP parts in a surface mount world. Rather than rewarding them for that you take more than you need - because you can? Common law in most countries treats a trade for anything of value the same as a sale. A few weasel words will not change this. Then your words have betrayed your concept, try "Free to a good home, you pay shipping" instead of a trade offer. All that said, time for a reminder: Like always for years now, I'll burn any of the usual chips for anyone with the usual firmware for free, regardless of source. No trade needed, but you pay shipping. PS: Screaming Rabbit: Maybe babysitter, but Microchip clued me for free (sample clue) so I am passing that on like a good community member with an opinion. ;) SmashTV

This is actually pretty rare.....You typically have to either do something shifty or send/accept money from someone doing something shifty to get your account suspended. You need to realize that real banks suspend accounts the same way and for the same reasons. You have very few (but very loud) people talking about how paypal screwed them, versus many millions of happy account holders? How many of these stories can be verified? Where are the lawsuits? Don't believe everything you read, a lot of these people forgot to tell the rest of the story - where they got their account and money back, and that the reason for the suspension was covered in the service agreement.....Else we would be seeing PayPal all over the news and tons of lawsuits. The rule should be treat every transaction/financial service provider with caution, like it or not PayPal is the best when it comes to "works as expected". Best regards SmashTV

Looks like your way will work fine, and requires less effort than anything I could come up with. :) My first thought was to simply use a dremel to grind a line in the connecting copper from the pins to the ground plane, then jumper Vs from J3->J4->J5->J6. I'm thinking that leaving those pads unconnected on the next rev would be the most versatile: Best Regards SmashTV

No..... Yes (Serial in/out).....To answer why the SO pin is on the DIN since it's only used by the DOUT, it's so a DIN->DOUT chain is possible without a "Y" cable. From my DIN page: Notice only half of that connector is labeled, due to it sitting on the edge of the board. There is simply no room for that half of the silkscreen legend..... At the other end of the board. Again no room for a proper legend, but keep in mind the pinout for J1 and J2 are the same. The schematics are fine, and silkscreen is accurate when you look at the whole picture. I did it this way so you can use a simple 1:1 ribbon cable with IDC connectors from CORE J8/9 to DIN J1 or DOUT J1 and it works as expected. Best Regards Smash

Hi guys I am slowly working my way through the list of people who already have board(s) from Wilba's board group order and spoke up for parts in this thread. Once all of those are out the door -and- design revisions are done I will have them in the store as permanent stock. I know it is hard to wait, but considering people will still be drooling over/building these a decade from now it is way more important to do it right than do it fast (speaking from the design side). Since he originally designed this for a one-off project every minute he spends tweaking this is a gift to this community.....his attention to detail means more fun than issues on the path to noise from the 1980's :) Best regards and happy holidays! SmashTV

No takeover needed, past and future participants should be making these rules. How does "Guidelines for good bulk order procedure" sound? Need some way to better describe the concept: "no issues about speed on any step of the effort unless the time frame for those steps is stated and negotiated in advance" Not saying BOs should be slow etc., just that a clear timeframe is required else we have the loud impatience and accusation issues as seen here recently. Once we get to goal with this I'll mash it into a list, get some help from everyone on wording, and sticky it to the bulkorder forum. ;) A well crafted paragraph that explains the reality of how much work a BO can be for people who have never done one would be a great preface. Let's hear it guys, what went wrong, and what could have gone wrong but did not? Best Smash

This topic has been moved to Miscellaneous. [iurl]http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php?topic=10364.0[/iurl]

Kartoshka are you intentionally poking the bear or did you simply miss this post? Letting that rule your mouth will close more doors than it opens for you. If when it's done is not a workable answer, you are fishing at the wrong hole my friend. The instant gratification of shopping at Guitar Center might be a little more your speed? The word done above means different things to different people, in this case it means tested for functionality, tested for correct parts fit, revision of layout(s) and firmware as needed, etc. The right way. Hard to stay motivated about this with a mouthy newb tuning up. Maybe -I- should "sit and waste my time w/o doing what i want." instead of endlessly filling these parts bags. Best Smash

First off clueless does not have to be an insult. You can be clueless because you have been lied to, or just have not seen the full picture yet. Clueless can include the good guys. Yes....I must admit that this is some of my own personal frustration showing through. I also put myself in the clueless category, the more I look at supply chains, the less I sleep at night. It's difficult to realize/admit that the industry you have wrapped your life around is mired in blood, profiteering, and unsustainable consumerism at almost every level. Understood. I live in the land of capitalism at any cost, so challenging "green" as sales speak is sport for me. So many companies are just flat out lying about very important things. A parts buyer/broker is either clueless because they don't want to know, clueless because they have been lied to by suppliers, or are in the know and money trumps morals. I simply won't buy from certain companies, even when part x costs 5 times as much....and do not spec same companies for designs outside of the MIDIbox universe. Sorry no. Extensive research is touring the factories you buy from, hiring independent translators and private firms to inspect and verify supply chain independent of sales. Ever hired a private lab to really test for RoHS compliance? I have. This part of it is all about your own comfort level with trusting people who will lie to you to make money. Right. This isnt about cutting corners though. For this price you should expect to have something reliable and have a cycle count test history, else every buyer is making a compromise due to pretty lights. I really do hope everyone got lucky and it just works great forever. I -know- from years of experience that this button concept is a very common point of failure, so with lack of testing history or any real data on the chemistry of the button or the PCB plating I won't put any show at the mercy of this or advise anyone else to either. Understood, and I know I was a bit harsh, but monome belongs at monome.org, not here. I'm typically fine to keep my opinion of things quiet until I'm forced to step around/over them. ;) I'm not trying to make enemies with this or make anyone feel like they are personally under attack from me. If it makes people hate me but really actually think about the situation for the first time a little anger coming my way is well worth it. Ask why leaded CRT tubes get an RoHS exemption...Ask why "semi-metallic" brake pads still contain asbestos, and why OSHA voted down the rule requiring mechanics be informed of this...Ask why it is acceptable to clearcut forest to make mining less expensive. Best Regards SmashTV

I moved this post, it's not a MIDIbox HUI so it does not belong there. A few things on this overhyped junk: By only producing 100 and being "shocked" by how fast they sold out they are playing an artificial scarcity game against their buyers. How did they fail to re-invest cash from past product runs? If you have not suffered failing rubber buttons you have not been playing long.....These are designed to be cheap to produce, not to work reliably long term. Don't get all fired up by me saying this, just show me the reliability testing data from sparkfun, like any real switch has. How many million/thousand/hundred cycles did it last? Oh right, untested..... But what really chaps my ass is the high horse these guys are riding. From the Monome site: "we additionally require thoughtful consideration if you consider having derivative parts manufactured. we absolutely prohibit the use of companies who take advantage of questionable governments with loose or nonexistent labor and environmental laws. local, high-quality manufacturers exist who are environmentally responsible and provide living wages to their workers. seek them out. help make positive change by supporting sustainable businesses and local economies." I don't know whether to say clueless or dollarblinded here......Boards have the Advanced Circuits logo on them, perhaps something along the lines of "re-packaged and overpriced in the USA" would be a bit more truthfull.....They are known to outsource to cheap labor countries. (proof? no problem.) Truth is -all- electronic components are made at the expense of someone's local environment and natural resources, And I challenge you to find anyone producing any parts you use that do not make use of cheap labor and environmental denial....Otherwise a bypass cap would cost way more than a nickel and a chip no less than $1 (talking full lifecycle here including environmentally sustainable recycle/disposal cost). People are underpaid and dying in a $mineral mine somewhere right now so your cell phone is cheap....It's been this way since the appearance of the transistor in consumer electronics...cope with it and try to change it or deny it, but don't help perpetuate a lie. Don't take my word: CNET - Parts makers urged to check tantalum source Then the next year, with some people finally clued, the Cabot cartel was suing their customers, Vishay and Kemet for trying to run screaming from bloody minerals: EDN - Tantalum To Get Its Day In Court If pretty lights are all it takes to sell you a crap overpriced box/kit/concept, time to evaluate whether you are a toy collector or an artist. I'm not trying to make enemies with this etc., but to see this obviously commercial "project" dressed as open source, while either clueless or lying to you about where the components come from......Then to see normally sane MIDIboxers promoting it for them.....Enough! Best SmashTV

Wow your coolant is so fresh I can't even see it! ;) E is a counter for macro functions where you are cutting the same shape but shifting it's position or other variables. Apparently dreamed up by the perforated metal industry (;D) it can really break tool width compensation on a lot of parsers. Any toolpath optimizers that use E or macros should be avoided, and the developer hunted down and macro'd. ;) Macros are throwback to when NC ops had to feed paper tape to the machine for commands, so compact job code file was king.....Now that you can blast your job straight to the mill via network IMHO verbose human readable Gcode rules. Best Smash

I merged these threads for clarity, this is not a help desk......In other words it's much harder to help when the same issues are spread across multiple posts. Best Regards SmashTV

Hi guys sorry for the lack of updates.... The baseboard kits are shipping now in a slow roll out fashion, I'm working my way down the list as fast as I can buy the ram and PIC chips these kits eat. :) When I get to your name on the list I'll send you a private message here on the forum with instructions. Thanks for your patience, these have taken forever to get together and verify. Best Regards SmashTV

oof yeah I just found that after I posted, but don't have access to swap the files. :( We should probably ditch that control if it does not update gracefully.

Hi guys.... I was editing the wiki (moving linked files to local namespaces, moving dictionary entries to their own namespace, etc.) and somehow managed to corrupt the start page css. I did update the "box" plugin, but did not expect it to overwrite changes in such an evil way. Sorry for any extra work this creates, and I will happily put the time in to fix it if anyone has the edited CSS handy. Best SmashTV

JV I'm sorry for my tone, You did not deserve that. I was wrong to assume. Best regards SmashTV

hehe well, late as usual. How much did you get?

Bids? This is not ebay, and does not balance with TK's statement: So I offer $80usd, roughly what the parts cost from my store and a $20 SID chip (minus the cost of a sampled PIC). This is your chance to prove pure motives JV. Set a price or you are profiteering. SmashTV

I think you have missed the concept. You use MIOS to fill your studio, Flavio uses it to fill his pocket. Both of you taking from the community without giving back. (except for this whinerfest) Save the free speech/democracy bullshit for civics class. God isnt dead. He's probably just avoiding you. You owe Stryd an apology (and quite possibly anyone else who read your "waffle") Are we done here kids? SmashTV

Hi guys! I have enough kits made up to cover roughly half of this waiting list, and enough parts on the shelf to do the rest. Kit#001 is in transit (via express) to a good friend for testing, to insure that everything is there and in the right quantity. As soon as I get a pass/fail on that I'll start handing out (via private message here on the forum) numbers that you can fill in to a modified version of my store order page. This has changed slightly, the on-off-on switch from Mouser turned out to be not even close to the right part and simply won't fit, so obviously I won't be stocking up on them. The right switch will probably be available in the future, but these will have to be made to spec so re-using a C64 switch or simple jumpers is the way to go for now. Best Regards SmashTV