nebula

I'm not sure whether sharing PCB layouts with the community has more or less MIDIbox-ness than not sharing them. For that matter, looking at the design of the item on eBay, I would say that the seller really benefitted very little from the NUXX design. It could have been as easily built with a CORE and a SID module, given the size of the enclosure he used. Sorry - this public forum does not draw people in to buy MIDIboxes from ebay. In fact, I think that a post about it on the MIDIbox forum would have quite the opposite effect, with all the "non-commercial" emphasis that is found everywhere around here. Matrixsynth, the blog of droolworthy synth pics and news, drew over 120,000 unique visitors last month. I regularly advise eBay of fraudulent auctions and they often don't react for several days. It's sad, but it should reflect poorly on eBay, not c0nsumer. Getting the auction pulled would have served the interest of all license holders here. Because the PCB design belongs to c0nsumer, it is much easier for him to argue his own license issues than TK's (equally valid) MIDIbox license.

If anybody has a working Commodore 128 Power Suppy in the greater Toronto area, let me know what you would like for it. I will pick up. I'm thinking local because it's a heavy power supply and I don't really want to go through the hassle and expense of shipping. PM me here if interested.

I guess the wavetable-related harmonics on high notes sound like aliasing? If so, I'm just imagining an acid-type line (bassline engine) played using high notes on an unfiltered SwinSID - it could sound pretty trippy. :o :o :o

I tried to find 20-50 cases on the cheap to no avail, but maybe somebody else might have better luck? I would certainly be in if they could be found more cheaply.

I had no time today. So I'm not touching it for now. I should have done this in the first place: I'm going to create an alternate home page called home_alternate, then canvass everybody here for input. I think the Wiki home page might even benefit from a bit of "slickness", i.e. maybe a few pics or colours or logos or something. I'll take my time with it, and work on it over the weekend. On Monday let's all have a look & discuss what's right and wrong with it. Meanwhile, audiocommander, I was kind of thinking along the same lines that all pages can probably be pigeonholed into a few distinct "groups". That's a great idea, because each group could get its own heading on the home page, with links to top-level concepts within that group. Whew! In other news, life is termporarily becoming a whole-lotta hectic for me, because I'm getting married next week. I'm starting to tweak over it a little bit, I haven't been able to sleep much over the past few nights. As soon as I post this message I'll be driving across international lines (Canada/US, hahaha) to pick her up, as I do every weekend, but unlike the rest of the weekends this will be our last as an unmarried couple. And I feel it starting to turn me into a scatterbrained freak. Peace out to all for now, and happy boxing!

Maybe i'm backpedalling here, i'm not going to bother to re-read my post but i'll tell you what i meant: the home page became a mishmash of unrelated info, including lots of stuff a person coming to the wiki wouldn't be looking for from the home page. Like many people, I find myself skimming documents until i find the section i want, and then looking more closely. If I spend 5 minutes skimming a document and it didn't contain what I was looking for, that's 5 minutes I just wasted. Had it been a number of smaller documents with appropriate titles, I could have determined very quickly that none of the titles pertained to my query. Herein lies the problem: People subconsciously get frustrated and tune out. They go through the physical motions of reading (eyes continue, left to right, over the words), but they absorb nothing. Ask them what they just read one second later, and they don't know. Instead their mind is thinking (cue Homer Simpson voice) "I think I'd like some peanuts. Mmmmmm, peanuts". Ever turn your car radio to the news station so you can get the weather forecast? You're listening, waiting .. news, news, sports, traffic .... waiting, listening ... next thing you know the weather forecast is over and, even though there were no audible distractions, you heard none of it. It's difficult to tune your mind in to a bunch of disjointed information, maintain concentration, and eventually pull a relevant needle from an irrelevant haystack. okie doke. i'm going to bed. no harm no foul (even though i never really understood that expression) when i wake up, i'll go to work, where i'll have lots of time to put the user projects back on the main page. if you can't wait for that change, feel free to do it yourself, but ... i did put some hours into this and i have a vision, so i'd appreciate your patience. nitey-nite

As it stood only a small number of user projects appeared on the home page. This means that a person could look at that page and think that those were all the user projects. You raise a valid point that the projects have earned their place next to TK's official projects ... would you be open to the idea of me putting the user projects back on the home page, and changing the User Projects page to "Incomplete" or "Unreleased" User Projects? At least that way things only need to exist once to be on "the" list. Yup, that sounds like a rant. By that logic, the entire Wiki and web site ought to be turned into a big text file. For that matter, we should get rid of folders/directories on our computers too. The reality is that it is intuitive to group related information, then to "drill down" when browsing to find more specific stuff pertaining to what you're looking for. I made the changes and posted in the most neutral way possible, looking for constructive criticism. You're respected around here, and I also respect your opinion, but barking orders such as "Put back the user projects" makes me think that it is the people who let their egoes stand in the way of progress, rather than those who have trouble sifting through poorly-organized documentation, who should consider another hobby. Dude, it's not YOUR Wiki. It's a community thing. I made some changes and then posted here so that people could see what I was suggesting, and we could have some rational discussion about it. No info is lost, and if everybody hates my ideas/hates me/whatever, it can just as easily be changed back. Quips aside, please let me have another go at it - let's see the feedback that appears in this thread over the next (roughly) 8-12 hours, and I will then devote as much time as necessary to try to meet the wishes of the community while trying to make some of this stuff easier to find. Oh, and let's all be friends.

I made some changes to clarify the home page. - I tidied up lots of wordings - I moved "projects" to be closer to the beginning (because I think a new reader would be more likely to first want to see what a MIDIbox can do than be faced with 15 dogmatic links about DIY) - I took the links to individual user projects off the home page. They are already linked from the "user projects" page. The home page has been getting far too busy - too many links and options make it less useful because it is not readable from top to bottom. User projects are great, and important, but they tend to be more "specialized", and extensive background documentation is not available from TK or ucapps. - I took the links to the core board parts list, ain parts list, and din parts list off the home page and instead added those links to the main pages for their respective boards. Those 3 parts lists are the only ones of their kind I have seen on the Wiki, so it is not complete enough of a package to be on the home page. - Plus some other stuff. Please forgive me if anybody feels I have slighted them by trying to organize this. I want to help make this documentation more clear, concise, and logically organized. I would like to suggest, prior to adding links to the home page, to consider whether that link really belongs at the "top level" of the MIDIbox Wiki. If you create a new page, think along the lines of "where will a user be when they want this information", and put links to your page there. One thing that often bothers me about the MIDIbox forums is that newbs are often openly lambasted for asking for information that is documented somewhere, but they couldn't find. This clearly demonstrates a need for a more organized Wiki. What we lack, unfortunately, is a "talk" page attached to every entry like Wikipedia has. This is really cool IMHO, because different people's opinions vary on matters such as this, and it's a convenient mechanism to discuss each page and provide rationale for why certain changes should or shouldn't be made. In the absence of such a mechanism, this forum ("MIDIbox documentation project") is likely a good place for such discussions.

Is it possible to order a different number of fronts and rears?

If anybody else wants you to divide this up, I'd be interested in the cores and the LCD.

UPDATE -- I just did a bit of research, and it seems one individual has had some success in disassembling the EX-800 code. He's working on a whole bunch of new features, first for the EX-800, then later for the Poly-800. This would include MIDI CC reception of synth parameters, and other ways at getting at your patch via MIDI. It looks almost like a Poly-800 version of Europa. Link: http://patrioticduo.tripod.com/korgpoly800ex800mkiii/index.html (I checked the Poly-800 group on Yahoo, and this appears to be current) If this is true, the addition of a pot/slider as a data entry control could be a trivial task.

I once read a simple way to replace inc/dec buttons with a rotary encoder, because I was interested in doing the same thing for my EX-800. I don't remember the exact way it was done, however. I seem to think that the encoder was made to rely on the logic of a flip-flop to output a straight inc/dec. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, it may be an old "unsupported" one of TK's old articles. As far as using a pot: there would be no way to do this without modifying or rewriting the EX-800/Poly-800's firmware. This is something that *has* crossed my mind, because it would benefit thousands of synths - and unlock a whole new set of possibilities on a pretty cool old model.

Hey Stryd, Never thought of that. It's a good idea. I would try that if I hadn't already mastered the art of "printus interruptus" with my ancient Apple Personal LaserWriter. Cheers

What, they're not already selling them at West Edmonton Mall??? I guess maybe e-town isn't so cool after all ;D

A few years ago I took a SMT soldering course, the instructor called it a "flow tip". Because of it, I now actually prefer surface-mount IC's to thru-hole for assembly (just not when you need to remove a chip to reprogram it, like a PIC).

I'm not going to tell you that the way i do it is how you should do it, but I'll share my method anyway, and you can try if you like: I print my toner onto the shiny paper used as the backing for a sheet of mailing labels. The toner comes off this type of paper very easily. To make it work any better, consider NOT "re-melting" the toner. The last stage your sheet goes through as it comes from your laser printer is the "fuser". If, in the middle of printing, you lift the laser printer's cover, it will stop, abruptly, and not resume. You now have to go into the printer and remove the sheet manually. The toner should have already transferred to the paper, but it should not have gone through the final heat stage yet. Try carefully removing the sheet at this point. (Depending on the printer you're using, you may or may not be successful with this). The toner will be stuck to the page, but not "fused" yet. If you shake the page or rub it, you'll smudge the powdered toner. But a little careful manipulation, placing the copper-clad board squarely on the area with the toner, then heating, will transfer the toner beautifully. No pinholes, no cracks... ... this took me a long time to get good at, but I prefer the results. (YMMV) Cheers

The toner transfer method is quick and easy, but not the most accurate. Still it's very inexpensive and it's how I make boards as well. Suggestions: * After you iron the toner onto your board, and maybe while it's still a little warm, use a hobby knife (x-acto knife) and a metal ruler. if you have traces that are very close together that have spread to a point where they are touching, carefully trim the toner off the board using the ruler as a guide to make sure you don't inadvertently cut into your trace. remember, "very little" space between the traces is good enough. * If there are spots where the toner did not transfer to the board, or where you may have inadvertently trimmed it off, just use a fine-tip permanent marker (like a "Sharpie") to dab lots of ink where you want toner to be. When the ink dries (after about 30 seconds), dab it again. Repeat and repeat. * After etching, it's always easier to remove copper that was supposed to get etched than it is to make up for traces that got etched away. So if you really can't get in there, let your tracks run together, and use your x-acto / metal ruler when done. The copper is stuck to the board using an adhesive that can be very powerful. If you're having trouble lifting a tiny sliver of copper off the board (i.e., between to adjacent traces), try just scoring the copper along the edges of the sliver you want to remove. Then use a fine tip on a soldering iron with lots of heat, and slowly rub off the little slice. This works because the adhesive is no match for a lot of heat. Be careful not to rub off copper that you want. These are brute-force methods for home PCB manufacture on the cheap. If you're doing toner transfer, you're obviously not in this to win any aesthetic awards for your board. So make it work, make it reliable, and don't enter it into any fashion shows.

SID v2 is in beta. SID v3 AFAIK does not exist. Are you sure you weren't thinking of SEQ V3?

Check out this: http://www.bmh.nu/pro_one.html It appears to use an atmel processor.

Don't forget, you can gain insight into cool wavetabled video game sounds just by recording them and slowing down the playback.

I don't think it's a good idea to think of the two paralleled capacitors as 1 big capacitor in this case. After all, one is 2200 uF and another is 330 nF - do we really need exactly 2200.33 uF? Could we leave out the 330 nF if we could find a capacitor that was 2200.33 uF? Not really. The reason we have two capacitors in this case is that the big one will filter out power supply ripple, while the small one will filter noise. Big capacitors are SLOW, so they don't do a good job of filtering high frequencies. And the small capacitors don't have the girth to handle ripple down to 60 (or 50) Hz. Also: never count on a regulator to shut down with excessive current draw. I have seen them do all sorts of strange things when there's too much current going through them, and I generally would never want to get it to that point. Usually they will overheat to dangerous temperatures, the output voltage will start to fluctuate, or they may even start to oscillate. That can do more damage than whatever is causing the excessive current draw! Cheers

It's up for me - http://www.avishowtech.com/mbhp/

Seppo, when do you think we might be able to see a schematic or layout? (Not rushing, just wondering, for the sake of my own MIDIbox roadmap)

I definitely need high-quality CV outputs for both 1V/oct and Hz/V. I've procrastinated for a long time, so I think I'm going to wait for AOUT-NG, try it out, and even if it's not accurate enough, it will still make a great AOUT for everything except tuned oscillators. Then I'd be interested in a group order on MAX525. In the meantime, I have searched my limited sources for good deals, and it's DRY. Still looking though...

nice. do you just have individual pins of the pic clocked at different divisions, (so you can select 'em with a big rotary switch or something), or do you change the division by some sort of ui with the pic?