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Yup, you can use it. Anyhow, Conrad is known to be a little expensive, think of getting "normal" STEC16B´s instead (@schuricht e.g.). See ucapps.de part recomendations & links. Greetz!

Cool, sounds good! Do you have an exact name or hyperlink where you got it? Cause I can't find anything on google.de up to now... still searching.

Hi there! Up to now all my prototype electronics were made directly on breadboards. You can imagine what that means: Soldering/desoldering/soldering/desoldering/... That´s so FRIGGIN much time and hot fingers! And as I want to start some other projects (analogue and digital) besides but also including some midibox apps, I am actually searching for some good prototyping board or similar (other suggestions are very warmly welcomed). You see lot´s of stuff used out there for that purpose like the Kosmos-boxes or so (directly putting resistors/LEDs/ICs and what do I know into those white plastic boards with partly pre-organized connections like VDD/VSS). Now my question to you: What stuff do you use? What can you recommend in that way? E.g. I´m talking about these boards here (but NOT only!!! Any suggestions are cool!): http://projects.dimension-x.net/archives/35 (some of you know this picture from the "LED touchpad" topic) So? :)

Dann nimm ich Liebe, Sex und gute Laune... ;D *SPAMALARM* ;D So, jetzt ist aber Schluss, voll off-topic hier... ::) 8) ;)

Yepp, totally agree. You can (and should) get rid of those resistors. They´re not needed. And if you use a slow-blowing (german "träge") fuse, it will certainly not blow as the caps get charged the first time. Standard PSU´s are most commonly made only with caps + recitifier, that´s just enough anyhow. Greetz!

@djWusel: Nojo, dann müsstest du aber auch verstehen, daß man zunehmend allergisch darauf reagiert, wenn man die selbe Frage zum zehnten Mal beantwortet, obwohl das Ganze erst ein paar Threads her ist. ;) Nix für ungut: Wir besprechen da gerade eine Lösung, wie man das etwas homogener gestalten kann, so daß ein möglichst rascher Einstieg in UCApps.de möglich ist. Egal, drück dir jeden Falls die Daumen für dein Projekt und herzlich Willkommen erstmal, ne? ;D

Hi there! First of all: What schematic do you use? Perhaps its a failure there? To be honest, I never used a single resistor up to now when building the PSU´s by my own and I also only know PSU schematics with resistors NOT using the 78xx´s. But that again can really be me... ;) The 78xx should be ok, as a rule of thumb you can say the 78xx´s and 79xx´s start to work correctly with a supply voltage 2,5 volts higher than the target voltage (so 11,5 volts for a 7809 are TOTALLY ok). Also those 78xx´s are really very robust as long as you don´t mix up the pins once (one time negative voltage and that´s it - throw it away). As long as this does not happen, the 78xx´s have lots of stuff to prevent damage. Good luck and greetz!

This is how a resistor for LED is calculated (it does not matter if the resistor is before or after the LED - as long as it´s there): Resistor value = (Supply Voltage - LED diode voltage) / LED current The LED diode voltage is normally something about 0,7 Volts, brighter LEDs consume up to 1,3 Volt here. The LED current is normally 20 mA, low current LEDs need 2-3 mA and ultra bright ones up to appr. 50 mA or even more. The standard LEDs used among here are mostly rated @ 0,7V/20mA, for other LEDs just look up in your catalogue or in the datasheet. Greets!

Easy: Yep. At least at the moment. The human eye appr. has a scanning velocity of 40 ms (25 pics/second). So to bring up a "good" optical result, let's say maximum of 10 ms for a full scanning cycle is ok. For one LED he needs apr. 600 us, so eight LEDs use about 4,8 ms to get scanned. He stated out to get some 16 ch bi-directional multiplexers in there, the only question is if this does not ruin the scanning speed (16 LEDs would be theoratically 10 ms without the communication with the multiplexer). This salve/master combination actually is something to get it running, but certainly not the last step. A multiplexer will just be more complex to implement, that's the reason it's not there yet. There'll be more, I think & hope. Man, just thinking about getting in there, too... :) :) :D I think I will get in touch with him. This topic just got me...

So, something to get started: Pots, Faders, Encs: ALPS (!!!) is in my view just the best. P&G tend to be as good as ALPS, too. The feeling is kinda the best you can get for a reasonable pricing (especially the pots pricing range is good up to excellent @ALPS). Faders: DO NOT GET THE CHEAP STUFF (!!). Like Radioohm faders are pure crap. The feeling is like ... I don't know, just bad. Radioohm pots anzhow are *ok* - not more, just ok. The best pushbuttons are not on the market, as every button has it's field of best implementation. Those "Digitaster" @ Reichelt e.g. are good for programming like stuff (e.g. the left, rigt, Snapshot, Execute buttons under the midibox LCD). For exact timing (e.g. some Play button in Traktor) they're not the best you can get, cause they have a pretty long push-distance. In this field normal Digi-pushbuttons (those standard pushbuttons found in many SID CS's for the matrix) with some bigger knobs again are better. The best here really is to get some "sampling range" of buttons from your dealer (just get one button of every kind) and decide what to take for the appropiate application. ALPS offers some very good and life-long-lasting push-buttons, too (and for the very cool apps also some joystick-buttons like found in modern mobile phones and even more). I can't say anything about backlit buttons as up to now I made all this backlighting stuff by myself. ;) For the knobs: You can NOT say anything about that really!! Every one here has his own taste about that topic so you would get 100's of different answers. Just take the stuff you think looks cool. Not more to say about that. The only thing: Normally, rubbered knobs give a better feeling and more precise interaction. But most other materials are good, too (e.g. aluminium or normal plastic). Just the "plain" plastic knobs (without any textured surface) tend to be a little crappy as you simply slide off with your fingers easily. I hope that's enough for a beginning. :) Greetz!

I just realized that all those [ S ] ´s and stuff weirded up the whole topic, excuses for that. Just repaired a little bit and now it´s looking good again. Greetz! :)

:/ Like I thought: Here somebody really went deep in there and managed to get up to 30 LEDs running, but only with a master/slave solution: http://projects.dimension-x.net/archives/35 (In this pic only 8 LEDs are up) Here is his (not fully implemented) idea of the 30 LED matrix: http://forums.linear1.org/index.php/topic,469.15.html (last page) This guy uses 2 slaves and 1 master and states out that appr. 4 slaves can be used for appr. 60 LEDs (let´s say 64 just for coolness ;) ). So to have an full 8x8 LED touchpad you are very likely to need 4 slave-PICs (and NOT the cheap ones) and one master PIC for connecting the outer world (MIDI, LCD, perhaps RS232, comm to the slaves and stuff). btw: Funny thing is that the "slave" PICs have not one NOP operation to do as the master PIC has a NOP cycle of appr. 20-50 ms (!!!). ;) I really really don´t know if this is worth the effort, if you know what I mean. :/ :/ :/ Anyhow STILL very interesting, perhaps there´ll be some solution nobody thought of in the next time... *peeeeerhaps* ... Greetz for now! :)

Phew! REALLY SOME DAMN MUCH WORK AND GENUINE, I think. Much respect for that!! I really didn´t await something like that! I wouldn´t have ever believed that Protools could somehow ever be available for Midibox! REALLY REALLY REALLY a *B I G* contribution!!! Thnx a LOT! Greetz!

Yepp, you would need another software for that. The hardware (I think) would have to be redesigned, too, but I´m not sure about that. If you only use a button with one channel within this matrix, you will automatically draw all buttons to ground, because all buttons are interconnected (if this is not clear, try drawing the schematic quickly in front of you - then it´s clear). With a two channel button this will not happen (again: Just draw the schematic for that).

Just think a step forward: With a 2x2 matrix only as an example (it´s the same within bigger matrices) - That would mean that x1 and y1 (outputs) is connected to the pin of Switch11 (x=1, y=1) = Sw11 - But also the Sw21 is connected to y1 and Sw12 is connected to x1 - So if you press Sw11, Sw21 and Sw12 will be grounded, too - As the Sw22 is connected to Sw21 and Sw12 over x2 or y2 it´s grounded, too - the wohle matrix is grounded if one switch is pressed :P So within the SID hardware you would need a two channel button. With other hardware´s matrices with one channel buttons are possible (think about connecting x and y without any grounding involved), but not here. Greetz!

First: THNX! Like always happy about such comments! ;D Nope, not with those standard buttons. What is possible to use buttons which have two seperate channels and wire them up correctly. With one channel buttons you would need one DIN for each button and that´s easily to much. If you find some two-channel-buttons in the right size somewhere tell me! That´s easy to wire up (one channel for the left side of the matrix, one for the upper channel without any hardware or software changes needed). Greetz!

First: Thnx for resizing! ;D Really looks good! And like some kinda work, too! ;) Anyhow: I really would put the LCDs a little higher. Reason: When you work with your thing, you "should always" see them. If you have your hand over the scratch wheels or somewhere else you won´t be able to read the LCDs. Just as a small hint. And: When u use those layouts, did you think about bringing in the DINs/DOUTs and so on partly or all directly on the PCB? I did so and it wasn´t as much work as I first thought (you can copy&paste layouts in Eagle pretty easy - it´s stated in the tutorial somewhere). This way you´re saving a lot of cables and space -> your case becomes more compact and your stuff more stable (meaning both failures: The soldering itself and the breaking/bending/whatever of cables). Nice one! Looking forward! :D

All girls I know, which ever had to do something with MB, saw the stuff I built, said something like "Wow, cool, how did you do that?" and that´s it more or less. ;) I don´t know exactly but I really can´t remember seeing *ANY* girl around here... :'( ;) WHAT´S ABOUT A GIRL´S DAY HERE?!? ;D ;)

@northernlightX: It should work with any LED. As every LED is a photodiode for it´s own emitted frequency of light, the backscattered light is always the perfect one. So it should theoretically work with any LED. I only can´t imagine that a controller based on this baby can consist of one PIC. I more think you will need more than one controller. One for the matrix scanning and one for the LCD/MIDI/comm etc. Or you would have to use a DSP (I guess they have in the video, or?). Anyhow: It would be *** T O O O C O O O O L *** to have something like that controlling your stuff. Possibilities for such a device are HUGE, I think. :D

Yeah, already seen that. ;D ;D ;D Rocking peace of ****. Hope this will make it´s way to homes fast enough. The only thing I don´t like is the fact that it actually only works with projection from behind. This is a handicap, but I hope they will overcome this point fast. Anyhow: STARTREK IS NOT TO FAR AWAY! :D :D :D 8)

PLS PLS PLS!!! MAKE IT SMALLER and post it again! ;D Really do, this way it´s easier to get an overview! Like that you can not really see what´s up and where possible probs are lying & lurking. Greetz!

Jupp, macht schon Einiges an Unterschied im klanglichen Bereich. Normalerweise ist der 50 Hz "Hum" erhöht. Guck mal, ob du noch irgendwo eines her bekommst. Ich hab hier z.B. auch noch eines rumfliegen. Würd ich dir türlich überlassen. Können wir uns ja nochmal unterhalten. Andere hier müssten auch noch welche über haben. Ansonsten ist ein Workaround mit zwei getrennten Netzteilen möglich. Eines für die Cores und eines für die SIDs (gemeinsame Masse). Damit bekommst du den Hum schon ordentlich runter. Aber nichts desto trotz ist das Netzteil eines C64 einfach deswegen so super für die SIDs, weil´s genau dafür ausgelegt wurde... Gruß!

Yupp, right. Holesaw. I used a 16mm holesaw (inner diameter = the diameter of the cut out piece = appr. 12 mm) and a 19mm holesaw (the same = 15 mm appr.). Without the center driller the pieces are cut out at a *STAND* driller (fixed in every way). The drilling speed should be well above normal (the double amount is ok) and you should no press to hard. This way you won´t get to much thermal stuff and so nicer buttons. It´s a bit tricky at first but somehow you get to it. After that a small hole into the middle of the piece (tricky again here) for better and more stable glueing and that´s it. Putting/glueing it onto a normal button and backlight it! :) Greetz!

ooooooooouuuuuuuweeeeeeee! 8) I like that design! The invert LCD is giving everything the special touch! Everything fits together perfectly! Much respect for that baby! ;D ;D *applaud*

Perhaps some serial LCD? They can be connected directly to thee RS-232 port and can be controled like a normal keyboard. You just send the appropiate letters (e.g. "blablabla... Line Feed"). Would be the easiest solution, I think. Those displays are also often used for PC-modding (they display temperatures or frequencies there). Greetz.