nebula

If you bought boards from SmashTV, you don't need to add any underside wiring or capacitors. If you are using the ucapps designs (which are also available from Mike's), you should add a 100 nF (0.1 uF) capacitor between pin 8 and pin 16 on each IC. Refer to the AIN schematic for details. Note that this capacitor is not absolutely essential: it is a "bypass capacitor" which is sort of a form of a filter. Best practice dictates that you should include it. As for the wires: again, the SmashTV boards has them already routed. The single-sided TK design requires 4 insulated wires be added. If you look at the layout quick-view at http://ucapps.de/mbhp/mbhp_ainx4.gif you will see 4 diagonal lines connecting the jack with each of the ICs. Those are the wires you need to add.

I'm still looking for a nice encoder with a similar feel to the Alps/Soundwell, but only 16 detents instead of 24.

Either that or insert a probe.

Any internal or construction pics?

Gorgeous!

don't forget about SID chips! Those will cost you anywhere from $10 to $40 each. You may be able to find some in the "fleamarket" section here, or maybe you have one or eight defective Commodore 64's.

It would be much, much easier to do it in the software.

Do you have a schematic of the DD-7? Without it, it might be hard to help out here.

Sorry lief, but no, no , no!!! It's easy to not damage the pads if you resign yourself to losing the resistor network. Just do this: 1. With no heat applied, bend the resistor network to each side until it breaks off. Or use cutters if you can get in there. You will be left with the just the broken-off leads soldered in place. 2. Find a work surface you don't mind leaving marks on, or spread some newspaper over a table. 3. Hold the board in one hand, underside up, and the soldering iron in your other hand. Apply heat to one of the leads. The solder all around it will melt. The component lead may even fall out. If not, it should be easy to get out, either by gently pushing on it with your iron's tip, or with tweezers on the other side of the board. 4. If the hole is still clogged up with solder, consider heating up the joint and gently tapping the board against the table. The solder will often just fly out. Failing that, copper braid or stranded copper wire works OK here, but a vacuum tool of any sort (sold-a-pullt or a cheap rubber bulb) works wonders. Brute force shouldn't be necessary unless you needed it to insert the component. Plated thru-holes often have connections on both sides of a circuit board. If you apply heat and brute force, you are likely to damage those connections, and you may even lift a trace right off the board. Repairs are usually possible, but it's much easier to just spend a few extra minutes practicing safe desoldering. BTW the resistor network can then be replaced with another one, or it may be easier to just get some resistors and do the "alternate loading".

30K goes into 1M 33 times. So, 33 1M pots @ $2 each would cost $66. $20 sounds like a bargain! ... but seriously I've never used those ultra-expensive pots before. I'd be curious about how they feel to operate.

http://www.optrex.com/products/sale.asp?category_id=3 Optrex are selling them directly for $23 each if you buy a carton. That means you probably would need to buy multiples of 16 or so.

It probably doens't matter, but best practice would suggest that the core producing the least data should be "core 1" in your diagram, and the core producing the most data should be "core 3". Welcome! Must be a heck of a big controller.

Given your current options, the easiest solution would be to build two MIDIboxes in one box.

Did you order a "natural colour" panel for the sequencer? I'd love to see pics of your panels when you get them, in all the colours you get them in. I wanted to do mine in uncoloured, brushed aluminum. I didn't see "brushed" as an available option. And ... yes ... I would be in for a couple of 40x2 LCD windows suitable for Wilba's SEQ panel.

I was planning on soliciting the bleeding edge prototypers to see who's getting Schaeffer / FPE panels done, to perhaps realize a small group discount. Unfortunately the 10% savings they offer for 10 or more panels does not justify shipping them twice, especially considering that the panels would need to be identical. But, perhaps more annoying: LCD windows from FPE = US $19.93 each. >:( >:( >:( >:( Any thoughts on how to get two little pieces of plastic for less than 40 bones?

Yes, but then you limit yourself to the speed and resolution of MIDI.

No scheme already devised. The SID is a digitally controlled device, so there would be little advantage to controlling it with CV. You would need a microcontroller to intervene and convert the analog voltages into messages the SID can understand. It might be possible to code something that uses MBHP's analog inputs, and it might even respond a bit faster than MIDI, but I don't think there's room in the MB-SID app to do this. Might be different on the new 32-bit platform, however.

OK. 600 pieces (roughly) so far. Sit tight kids ... I'll get a price and announce a bulky shortly.

Link?

Dude -- this is a VERY long thread I know, but ... Yes. Read the thread. Find the Wiki link. Add yourself. Welcome to the MIDIbox forum, but be warned: people who don't try to find answers for themselves tend to get lambasted around here! ;)

Why do you need to run the internal sequencer for 45 minutes for the kick to settle down? What do you mean by "settle down?" After it settles down, what makes it start acting up again? If you start the sequencer again, does it take another 45 minutes before it's usable? For many people, the groove electronics retrofits are the stuff of myths. They're rare, and there is no documentation to be found anywhere. Does the retrofit kit support dynamics via velocity somehow? Does this problem only affect your bass drum? Maybe you'd do well to take some measurements and see what's happening when the kick settles down. If the problem only affects the bass drum, you could try switching the lead from the mod board that triggers the bass drum with one you use less often, like one of the toms or something. See if the problem then goes to the other drum. If it goes to the other drum, the problem is with the Groove board. Otherwise, it's a problem with your 808 kick. If the problem affects more than your kick, maybe you should be looking at something bigger, like the power supply, or the accent channel (?)

Have you ruled out a bad pot, or an intermittent solder joint?

Maybe consider buying a used SY99, keep it in a room you rarely use (or otherwise contain it in some sort of case), and control it with a brand new MIDI keyboard controller. You could edit the patches with your computer. Or think about the TG77 (rackmount SY77). I actually bought my TG77 used on eBay for under 50 dollars. You could even mount it in a little server rack with glass doors.

Did you ever try "Waterloo BASIC" for the C64?

How old are you?