nebula

Just like computers: if you have a need or a use for one, buy it. Don't wait for next year's model, and don't be disappointed when something comes out a few months later that is better than what you bought. That is inevitable. If you use DIP sockets in an Ultracore, the expensive components (EEPROMs, PICs) become reusable. So, even if your Ultracore is somehow obsolete in a year (not gonna happen), you're only out the cost of the PCB and a few passive components. Somehow I can't see it becoming obsolete in a community that makes music with SID, POKEY, AY8912 and OPL3! Besides, it is still a functioning Core module with banksticks right on the board and improved LCD pinning. Ultracore would still be a bargain even if TK released an ARM version of SEQ tomorrow.

Thank you Julien, That's some of the most interesting advice I have heard so far. Right after I'm done this post I'm going to set my sights on a 303 service manual. You guys will probably think I'm crazy but I have soldered in all resistors, all electrolytic and ceramic caps, and a some polyester caps. Oh, and sockets for all ICs. I have selected my LEDs (orange, red and blue) and experimented to find the best resistors for them (470R, 5K6, 9K5 respectively). So I soldered those resistors in place as well. Basically I'm hoping I get the rest of my parts and finish the thing in one night. Still trying to decide whether to use BA662 or BA6110, since I have both on hand.

Very cool! Congratulations!

@stryd: I totally understand where you're coming from, and I have often thought the same thing, but ... for some reason, compassion is a relatively recent product of our evolution. Maybe it's good, maybe it's not ... but it's here, and we inevitably concede to it. We all have loved ones, and when somebody dies it is devastating for many. Its effects ripple throughout humanity. A person dies, the mother is devastated, a friend is concerned about the mother, the friend's husband gets frustrated and takes it out on his employees, who go home and take it out on their families .... Darwin-level intellect is as new to humanity as compassion is. On one side, medical advances help the sick who otherwise would not be among the fittest who survive, but on the other wise we have nations with laws to control population. Maybe it will even balance out one day. About 20 years ago, a distant cousin of mine was sick and required a marrow transplant, so I registered mine. I wasn't a match, but I'm prepared to be donate should I be called on to one day. I've since thought about it a lot, and this is the happy medium I've found.

I have gotten ahead of the guide, because I'm still waiting for parts. I have soldered in all resistors (except thermistors), and some capacitors, and now I am waiting before I install a single transistor or IC. I plan to follow the guide now. I don't know if it will cause me trouble or not. I hope to be able to go through the guide pretty quickly with all that stuff already in place.

Thanks, that's exactly what I was looking for. Two more questions: I don't think I'm going to bother fussing with LED standoffs. I figure if I can do an MB-6582 matrix with no standoffs, I can do this. Did Sasha use standoffs? And one more question: how is the I/O board held in place? Is it just with the nuts on the 1/4" jacks?

So I've been working on populating the revised x0xb0x main board as enhanced by Sasha. Problem is that there are some components on there (a few resistors, maybe caps too?) which are not listed on the ladyada.net x0xb0x BOM located at http://www.ladyada.net/make/x0xb0x/fab/parts.html I don't know if I am overlooking something. For example, there is no R269 and R270 mentioned on Limor's page, but they are on the board. There are others too. Is there a more up to date parts list or something? I've tried searching around but I've had no luck so far. (EDIT: changed subject, this seems like a good place for a Q&A thread for builders)

So I built a makeshift mold and filled it will silicone caulking. The stuff I used is "GE Silicone II". I ended up with a pretty usable product. The consistency and durability of it is perfect. The mold I used was pretty primitive, which led to the bottom of my 5-button rubber test membrane being somewhat uneven, but overall I'm pleased with the result. I started taking the mold apart after it had been given about 2 days to set up. Unfortunately this was not enough time. Looks like it needs about 1-2 weeks. LEDs don't light up the buttons quite as well as I would like to see. I'll be experimenting with that some more. I took some pics. I'll post them shortly.

I don't know what MIDI messages traktor uses, but MIDI offers 14 bits of resolution for the pitch bend wheel. 2^14 = 16384 discrete steps. That means you can go + or - 8192 steps. If your pitch control range is 15% each way, 15/8192=0.0018310546875 (let's say 0.002 %) for each individual increment. So if Traktor can be configured to use pitch bend, that's what you should use.

Some good stuff there, but their philosophy on labels (i.e. no parts designators) doesn't really work well for boards which are shared among a DIY community. Our boards need parts designators AND functional labels. Nice fat traces sure do help with troubleshooting, and they make for a more reliable board. For those reading this who haven't clicked the link yet, they offer a rules file for Eagle as a free download, which may be worth checking out.

There is one advantage of "slaved core" instead of IIC: If you make a core that simply converts some MIDI messages like continuous controllers or notes or something into DMX, it could function as a standalone unit. For people who you simply want to control lights from any MIDI sequencer or fader box, they could do it with no new modules or boards. Custom control surfaces could then be built on a separate core, likely based on MIDIbox64 or MIDIbox64e, or maybe even SEQ. The controller software doesn't even need to know it's controlling lights in order to function, although if you wanted to customize an app with support for things like multi-channel devices, and proper labels for things like x/y controls and colour controls, it would still be trivial because the MIDI communication foundation remains the same. PIC18F452 chips are readily available for a very reasonable price with MIOS already in them. No IC programmer is required to upload apps. Many MIDIboxers already have a few spare cores laying around.

A while ago I built a lighting project, and I was a bit weird about etching my own PCB to handle mains current, so I instead used a Velleman quad-triac board: http://www.velleman.be/nl/en/product/view/?id=9071 It is a nicely made board capable of taking 4 digital inputs straight to opto-isolators, which then fire Triacs. The board is rigid, the traces are fat, and I even had enough room to lay a big honkin' piece of wire along the length of the high-voltage trace. I recommend it. You could probably pipe your DOUTs straight to it.

^^^ Agreed. Looks like a faulty LCD module. $25 is a lot to spend on an LCD with no commitment from the vendor. You should email them, and tell them you hooked another LCD up to your project and it worked fine. Chances are they will just send you another one, especially since you have a photo to show them. It is possible, but unlikely, that they will want the old one back. For them, it's not worth trying to fix. For you, it might be - if the vendor lets you keep it, look all over the module for any bad or bridged solder joints. Just make sure you get a commitment to have it replaced before you play around with it. I had the worst time with one LCD because I was messing around with the jumpers on the side (the little surface mount chip resistors). I put it back to its factory configuration and it no longer worked correctly. I needed a magnifying glass to see that I had left a very tiny dab of solder bridging two vias (the little metal grommets that connect one side to the other). It was almost impossible to see because they were less than 1 mm apart.

Why Mouser has two different Manu codes for Neutrik is anyone's guess, but the main difference I see between your part and mine is that mine has kinked legs so it snaps in place on the board. In fact, both are on the same page of Mouser's catalogue. But I recommend the NYS216.

Since DMX essentially keeps sending the same data over and over, I always thought it would be trivial to use a standard Core, put all of your data into a 512-byte table, then use a timed interrupt to continuously read from the table and bit-bang it out as a DMX stream. Then you could use MIOS's functions to change the values in the table, i.e. via incoming MIDI, or AIN/DIN, etc. Maybe I'm completely out to lunch, maybe the current core is not powerful enough to do that (even though it does 8 MIDI outs this way on Clockbox), but I just always assumed this would be the most practical way to implement DMX on MIDIbox. (Disclaimer: I admittedly know very little about MIOS programming, so I am not trying to suggest for a second that you're wrong to go IIC, I'm just hoping you could enlighten me about why bit-banging in this way could or could not work). Much respect, and I hope you have success with this.

Neutrik Part # NYS216 Mouser Part # 568-NYS216 I got mine from Electro Sonic here in Canada. 10 or more for 41.1 cents Canadian each seemed like a steal so I bought 25 along with some other parts. http://www.e-sonic.com

This bulk order is now closed. All parties are verified to have received their orders (except KnowGood, who I will be meeting up with in person to exchange knobs, cases, tunes and beer). Nobody lost money, nobody got short-changed. Please contact me by PM if for any reason you feel you came up short in this bulk order. Other Re'an stuff is coming, too.

Speaking of which: if people are referred to as vegetarians because they eat vegetables, then what do humanitarians eat?

Nice find! Too funny -

Your first SoftPots are free .........

Seconded

This method was used in the C64 because SID was the only way you could get the processor to interface with the audio output. It could probably be achieved with a PIC, but it would require totally new firmware, since it has little to do with the way the MIDIbox SID application actually manipulates most of the SID registers. This new firmware would also have to store the "samples" on a bankstick. With MIDIbox, there could be far easier ways to get sound output from PIC to your speakers, which would yield far better results, so nobody's really explored SID sample playback. Look for "core synth" in the Wiki - resources would probably be better spent playing back digitized sounds using that method.

You might consider adding a second MIDI out to the rear panel for the MB-6582 MIDI output. This way you can record knob movements into an external sequencer, and have bidirectional transfers to/from MIOS Studio for firmware updates. The case looks awesome! I can't wait to see it in action!

Just to add: 100 gram force is the way to go. I used some spare switches I had on hand for my MB-6582, and they are the 160 gram variety. They're good, but they're a bit too clicky. They are part # TL1105DF160Q (you can search for that on Digi-Key and get my switch). Change the "160" in the part number to "100" (i.e. TL1105DF100Q) and you get the 100 gram flavour, but beware - the actuators are brown!

I wish Moxi's pictures were still available. Today, with my MB-6582 at 99.5 % complete (I just need to replace the ribbon cables with shorter ones so the case will close), I started looking into my MB-SEQ. I had some pretty grandiose plans for it but I had a revelation at my work, where we periodically use silicone caulking: Why not make a mold for a button membrane that I can fill up with silicone? I could put tact switches underneath with light force actuators, along with LEDs! So I have some ideas for the mold and for the swtiches. The important thing seems to be the material, and the curing method (heat). The "release agent" discussed by Jaicen could be something like WD-40, although until now I've been thinking of cooking spray ("Pam"), or perhaps baby oil. There is an excellent silicone caulking called "GE Silicone II" which is available at least in black, white and clear. I was thinking of using the clear stuff with a little white mixed in. I was playing with a little hardened piece of it today. It has slightly more elasticity than I want, so I wonder if it would be a good idea to mix in some sort of hardening agent, such as an epoxy hardener, or perhaps model cement. The stuff as it is is remarkably durable - in its dry state, I could not disfigure it by compressing it between my fingers. It's quite similar to "Plastigoop" (google it), a strange heat-curable stuff used in kids' toy construction sets ("Creepy Crawlers") in the 1960s. Experiments to follow. I was going to start my own thread, but this one seems as good as any! :)