Jorge

DOUT wiring loom is finished, installed the memory bank EEPROMS, all eight of them and had the joy of seeing MIOS format every bank from A-H into 128 slots, populated all the DIN boards, two from Smash and one DINx1 I etched myself, next to do is mount them under the front panel and wire the encoders and switches. Nearly there... ;D Jorge......

Hi, took some pics of my altered LCD without flash and they now show a more realistic representation of what it's like. Still not hundred percent though, digital cameras ehh! Indoor lighting tends to distort colours, must try using the white balance settings next . Anyway hope this gives you a more realistic view of what is achievable with a bit of experimentation. Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Close up. Whole view, a bit bleached out though. Jorge.....

Read every relevent page in the site and also print them off and read them on your way to work ,home ,school, etc. this was the first "digital" project I ever undertook, seemed daunting at first, took me 3 months to fully understand it, which had a unforseen benefit as TK improved the SID project,Serge produced his Sysex loader, Smash started selling PICs with the bootstrap already loaded, etc. 1 year 3 months later I've nearly finished my multi SID. Not particulary fast as I have to squeeze it in between work, my analogue modular project,wife and two kids aged 4.5 years and 23months respectively , house renovation also + playing guitar, recording , etc,etc,etc arrrrggghhh. Next the MBFM project , I'm a sucker for punishment, must be some kind of masochist thing.... :) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Jorge...... ;D

What parts do you want? I have used all sorts of places, mostly mail order but some times I just go to Maplins, they have shops in most major London areas but don't stock every thing your likely to need. Try searching online, Rapid electronics are good and fairly cheap, RS have every thing but can be expensive 'cause sometimes they have minimum quantities for some parts, Telepart are good for hard to find semiconductors, Farnell are similar to RS but their site is horrible unless you know the stock numbers, Maplin also have a website, Squires model and craft tools have a fairly good electronics section+ other materials and hardware, no website though, they'll send you a catologue and their mail order by phone is V. good, Cricklewood electronics is fairly good also, website is allways incomplete though, they have a shop in guess where? Cricklewood high St. Most of these places are outside of London but all have good mail order systems , usually next day delivery and free P+P if your order is over a certain value. Just do a Google or other favoured search engine remembering to flag UK sites only. Mind you all the LCD displays I've bought were from the States (www.eio.com). Hope this is some help, Jorge.......

Front panel is made from acylic sheet (perspex /plexi) laser cut from cad drawings, glued using solvents such as MEK, dichloromethane, chloroform etc. Sticks really well to ABS, styrene which is what I think the C64 case is made from. Knob patterns were cut on a 3D milling machine in a hard enginering wax ( the blue stuff), the moulds were cast in silicone RTV (room temp vulcanisation) rubber, the knobs were cast in fast cast resin (Hexcel etc polyurethane resin), the soft rubber outer surface of the knobs and the soft buttons were cast in the same rubber as the moulds with the addition of pigment to match as close as I could get to the colour of the C64 keys (trying to retain a retro look to the design), the coloured rubber was cast in a mould made from a pattern making material sometimes known as chemi wood, I forget the trade names for it at the moment, these were also cut on the same 3D milling set up as the other patterns. All the patterns and moulds are keyed together with the little hemisperes on each surface so two fit together to produce the knob base in resin, blue pattern + rubber mould then blue pattern that produced rubber mould is used with chemi wood pattern to produce soft rubber outer skin. Only really made easy because all the cad data is referenced off each other. Its what's called subtractive rapid prototyping. I'm lucky 'cause I have access to that kind of tech at work, I'm a pro modelmaker in another world when I'm not spending hours soldering ;D. All done using Microstation and a small Roland Modella 3D cad milling machine. They cost about £3000 so one day I may get one for home , the also can do 2D engraving. Oh yea the front panel and case was sprayed with as close a colour as I could find to the original C64 case then the lettering was laser engraved and filled in with paint then laquered. Laser cutters are also getting cheaper about £6000 for a desk top version so one day I may also get one of those as well.                      Thanks for your comments,                                        Jorge...... :)Â

As has been said many times in many posts, I couldn't have done it with out Tk's excellent work. Hope to post more pics soon. :) Jorge.....

Hi, as promised many posts ago here are some pics of my quad SID . The design is obviously based on Thorstens although I prefer the display at the top of the control surface. Every thing laid out. Rear view. Chips installed. Front panel in progress. Underside of front panel. Matrix rear. Start of wiring loom. Close up of DOUT. Ended up removing the powercaps on the cores as they wern't needed and laid all others flat to save space as it was becoming a bit of a squeeze. Note new power supply design as the old one had problems re. heat etc. Success. Designed my own soft touch knobs using 3D CAD. And buttons. Patterns and moulds for data knob. D shaft pattern for data knob. Whole rear view. Error on envelope section, should read "Depth" instead of "Delay". Things left to do? Lots although the end is in sight, DIN wiring loom, some how erase,fill,recolour the error on the envelope section, laser engrave "Depth" instead of "Delay" and fill letters with paint, stick soft buttons on, put knobs on, and have fun....... ;D                                    Jorge.....

Hi ma3a , Here's some Pics of my LCD display altered from green to orange as noted in my last posts. The orange isn't as strong in the pic as in reality, I used flash on the camera and this seems to go through the screen and bounce off the green backlight diminishing the effect. I'll post another without flash and try to capture the true effect some other time. Can just see the orange. How it's done. Jorge........ ;D

Try silicone sealent for bathrooms and the like seems to work for silicone to silicone but you may have to key the surface of other materials. Jorge.... :)

Hi , no green tinge and brightness isn't compromised in my example, I am using a seiko lcd display, havn't tried any other colour though. I don't see why it shouldn't work though. Also I don't know if heat is an issue but no problems as yet. Will post some pics soon, Iv'e a bucket load to sort out and put on a host site..... Jorge..... :)

Re. Orange back lit lcds, you can change the colour of green ones using thin .5mm fluorescent what is called live edge perspex / plexi, the stuff used in displays under uv lights. it comes in blue, green, red, orange, pink and can be found in art / hobby suppliers. I turned my green 2x20 lcd into an orange one to suit the theme of the multi sid I'm still building.... hope this is of some use. Jorge.....

hi, I found it very confusing at first so posted in the testing trouble shooting section of the forum http://69.56.171.55/~midibox/forum/index.php?topic=3943.0 http://69.56.171.55/~midibox/forum/index.php?topic=3960.0 I used Serge's sysex loader and found it a breeze to use, highly recommended.... Jorge......

Hi TK , thanks I'll try that Jorge

Hi all, a question regarding ugrades, I was uploading mios v1.8 to the master core module using Serges sysex loader realised I had to send the file within two seconds and did so, success it worked then loaded sid cs app v1.7a again success, sent the link sys ex string using midi ox to open the link to my slave modules then it occurred to me, do I have to load the new os during the two second boot up time to the slaves as well? the reason I ask is that If I have to switch off and switch on my sid I must lose the link, may be I'm wrong or don't I have to upgrade the os of the slaves? I've no way of knowing whether it's been successfull for the slaves as i havn't finished my control surface yet. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks Jorge....

New file opens fine now..... Cheers Jorge.... :)