s4ndp4pper

Hi! I'm building a MIDIbox, and i'm also going to make a light-weight, stage keyboard like an addon. I really just a fun gadget, but it will be small and compact. I guess igor23 won't have much use for it, as it uses an external Midibox64, but bosskong might be interested if he has an MB already. The concept is similar to the MB's made by LO in the MIDIbox Gallery . What i will do is this, basically: 1. Chop off (literally) two octaves from an old Casio keyboard. The keys are quite small but playable. 2. Make a nice little case. 3. Solder the keyboards switches to a DIN module with 3 serial registers (74HC165) so that i basically get 24 buttons for a MIDIbox. 4. Make a midibox (one can take one that's already been built), make a connector (i'm gonna use a 9-pin DSUB) and connect it to the J2 port on the midibox DIN module. Then put one at the keyboards DIN's J1, and the connect them together, like on the picture below: [tt] ------------------- |         | | MIDIBOX     |     ------------------- |          |     | Keyboard     | | --------------  |     | --------------  | | | DIN module |  |     | | DIN module |  | | ---||---------  |     | ---||---------  | -----||------------     -----||------------   ||              ||   ==============================   J2              J1 [/tt] This solution allows me to exchange the keyboard for anything else that uses on/off-switches (big buttons for triggering drumsounds, a box with lots of pedal inputs etc etc). The only drawback as i know of, is that the cable between the two DIN modules can only be 1 meter maximum. Hope anyone finds this useful. /J

btw: I found two dead links at midibox.org: The GIF-links to "Downloads" and "Links" doesn't have the same URL as the text-links. Just wanted to mention it. /J

Hi Poeloq+nILS! First I'd like to say that you guys has done a fantastic job with midibox.org. It looks + works great! I agree totally, and i am going to send you guys some stuff as soon as i can. Right now it's mostly crappy design concepts, but i'm compiling some order lists and some other fun stuff... i'll get in touch... Auf Wiedersehen / J

Funky knobs too... a little 80ies, but cool ;D They do have some nice chassis also.

I got them from BHIAB (http://www.bhiab.se, only in swedish i'm afraid) in Sweden. You'll find them under Surplus komponenter and they are called Tangent 6400. They cost 4 kronor without VAT (One Euro is about 9 Swedish Kronor), so the're really cheap, but seems sturdy and well-built. Good "click-feeling". Â If specified, they can be ordered with numbers (0-9)printed on them. Trivia: I beleive it's the same keys that is used on the Sinclair QL computer: (http://www.nvg.ntnu.no/sinclair/computers/ql/ql.htm) Happy hunting /J ps: here is my latest redesign of the Midibox above: http://www.johanolsson.net/midibox/mb_p_01.jpg

Hej! Jag har inte byggt nån MbSID men kan ju alltid tipsa lite: En minimal Midibox SID består bara av två kretskort; en SID-modul och en CORE-modul. Det är relativt enkelt att bygga dom. Det är väldigt svårt att styra den från en Oxygen8 men du kan styra den från Logic eller JSynthLib (se "Design" under "Midibox"-menyn till vänster). En billig lösning är annars att bygga en MbSID med en minimal kontrollpanel, s.k. "Step A" (se "Control Unit" till vänster). Jag gissar ;D på att den kommer att kosta dig mellan 700-1000 NOK beroende på vilka grejor du köper. Att bygga en Midibox är inte alltför svårt, fast det hjälper om du har lödat lite förut. På denna site finns lite länkar till tutorials, bland annat den här killen från Norge: http://www.midibox.org/users/tor_arne/midibox64_walkthrough/index.html. Lycka till! / Johan PS: Jag har som sagt inte byggt nån SID så om jag missat nåt / sagt nåt helt jävla galet, så rätta mig gärna. ;)

Thanks Thorsten, everything got clear now! And thanks to everyone who responded to the design i posted about a month ago! It felt great to get some professional Midibox opinions! /J

Hi. I've got a question that might be silly and obvious, but i need to clearify it. When i connect LED's to the DOUT module (for use with buttons on an MB64), how do i know which button uses which LED? Is it like this: [tt] LED: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 BTN: SFB1 SFB2 SFB3 SFB4 BTN1 BTN2 BTN3 BTN4 etc. [/tt] Or do I "assign" the buttons with the LED's by software? Thanks for bothering /J

Good point. My cell phone is a Samsung A-110 with software-controlled LCD contrast... about one year ago it started setting the contrast to 0 all by itself, so i had to send it away for repair :P... i'll go for knobs on my MB :)

Beautiful! Great job!

There was however another solution: http://www.midibox.org/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=concepts;action=display;num=1063498927 ...yet i'm also waiting for that AOUT module... mmmmm. =)

thanks, it's a little luck... plus i come from the countryside, everybody's your neighbour out there =) This design is a mix between modern design and 70's retro design. I found this page about old handheld games that has been a big inspiration for my MB: http://users2.ev1.net/~rik1138/Bandai/index.html

The design is made in Adobe Illustrator. The fonts are Eurostile Bold and Rustproof Body.

Ha, thanks! Actually i thought about manufacturing it... OOPS WHAT DID I SAY...;D It is a 16x2, i mistyped...erhm... =) I'll probably go for pots though, for $$$-reasons, but thanks for the tip.

Hi! Just wanted to show an MB design i'm planning. If it seems reasonable /if it sucks, feel free to be honest. Here's a HiRes version: www.johanolsson.net/midibox/mb_big.jpg This design incorporates: - 5 sliders, 16 pots, 16 buttons, a 16x4 LCD, weird 1970's style buttons :-) - (1) 3 pots with a switch that shuts off the pot signal (so that the pot sends a zero value) - (2) A "Tower hat" from a crappy joystick that i cannibalised, connected to the DINX. Could be useful for triggering drumsounds really fast - (3) One slider and one pot shares the same AIN channel, switchable by a 2-way switch. Makes it possible to change between two values quickly. The slider can be routed to its own channel. - Custombuilt metal chassis with wodden end cheeks (My neighbour has a metal shop, my dad's a carpenter... :-) - I'm going to route the DINX's chaining port (J2) to a 9pin D-SUB, for future addons with their own DIN module. The D-SUB also carries 3 inputs from the Midibox's own DINX. Sorry for the messy frontdesign, it's under construction... So, what do you think? Did I miss something really obvious? Does the design seem any good? Hit me with it! /J

Har du kollat Elfas "Tangentbordsströmställare" ? Slaglängden vet jag inte, men med tangenttopp 1K är stora iallafall och ser jävligt coola ut :) Dock dyrt som satan.

Tja, Jag bor i Göteborg och skaffar just nu delar till en MB64. Jag har spanat runt lite för att hitta delar, och tänkte dela med mig av vad jag hittat. Jag har hittat i princip alla MIDIbox64-delar (eller motsv.) hos ett par svenska företag. Det enda jag egentligen inte hittat är likriktarbryggan till CORE-modulen, men man kan tydligen ta något liknande istället. Hör med din elektronikhandlare bara. De mest fördelaktiga ställena jag hittat verkar vara Trimlog och BHIAB. BHIAB har en jäsikens massa grejer och är i vissa fall billigare än Trimlog. Bl.a. LCD-displayer verkar vara billigast där. Dessutom har dom ett överskottslager tangenter som kostar 4:- + moms, vilket jag tycker låter skitbilligt! Trimlog verkar dock ha bäst prylar, iallafall rattar/reglar/potar. Dom har dessutom en bra hemsida. Jag har fördelat mina köp av delar till ca 20% hos BHIAB och 80% hos Trimlog. Elfa är löjligt dyrt, men jag brukar använda deras sida som referens och för att hitta motsvarande delar som sen finns hos t.ex. Trimlog. Om nån vet något billigare/bättre ställe i Sverige/Norden, så skriv gärna och berätta. Löda lugnt ;D /J

Great, thanks!!

Hi! I'm building an MB64. I read somewhere howto connect a LED that indicates MIDI activity to the CORE (I'm too lazy to build an LTC module ;D ) Anyone who knows if this is possible? If there's already a post on the forum about this, please post a link. Thanks / J

I've tried the Sidstation once. It has some LFO's and a cool arpeggiator, but i believe MbSid has more functions. Thorstens front panel seems a lot more user-friendly than Sidstations 3 pots, 1 encoder and keypad. I believe the Sidstation started as a homemade project among a bunch of students at the Chalmers University in Gothenburg, Sweden in the late 90's. I read once that it was also supposed to be produced without the SID (at a lower price) so that you could use a 6581 from your old C64, but i think they scrapped that idea. I also think that Sidstation is a quite simple design using cheap standard parts (like the ugly keypad)... maybe it has a PIC16? ;) As of this writing, there are 28 Sidstations left... but i surely would rather build a MbSID!

Great, thanks! And as i promised: http://www.sr.se/p3/rally/sounds/ra9706g2.ram

Anyone who knows about that? First one who does gets a dirty swedish joke ;D

OK, thanks... i am totally ??? about electronics... =)

Hi... I'm making a Mb64 and are planning for it to have a pair of 6.3mm (1/4") jacks, so i can connect control pedals like on a synth. Can i connect the jacks directly to the AIN module just like pots/sliders, or do i need extra resistors and stuff? I also plan to connect jacks to the DINX4 (for foot switches) and have the same dilemma about that. Another question btw: I thought about connecting the DINX4's expansion port (J2) to a 9pin D-SUB, so i can connect another DINX4 as a external device (are planning to making a simple keyboard, Kraftwerk style :-). Can i do this, or will i get random MIDI messsages whenever the port is not connected? /J