Lall

Hi, OK, sorry for repeating what you already knew, indeed you were using the same terms as used here :-[ Actually, I was a bit under the impression that the bug was supposed to have disappeared at some point but then was back again a bit later. But honestly I'm no pro in the PICs so I may well be confusing different PICs, there are so many variants that I'm getting a bit lost... Best regards, Lall

The PIC looks indeed simpler but here's a post from TK I found back on the EUSART bug issue: http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php?topic=3628.msg27266#msg27266 I'm not enough into PICs to know if it applies to the one you're using or not. Concerning your problem, what version of Windows are you using? 2000 or XP? Best regards, Lall

Hi Jidis, They look pretty similar in a way at least only after 2 minutes read-through the application note an to EZ-USB FX1 ;) The good point is that it contains more internal RAM. The EZ-USB was pretty limited to that respect if you want to do something a bit more complex without spending ages on optimization. An inbetween point is the reduction of the number of endpoints. If I understand correctly, one need more endpoints when creating a composite device (e.g. a device that behaves at the same time as a mouse and as the same time as a MIDI interface). On the other hand, as long as you make only a MIDI interface with it, it does not really matter... A bad point I see is the new packages they are using. They are less DIY-oriented than before. The EZ-USB was already a bit small but the new EZ-USB FX1 are even smaller. One thing to really watch out is to avoid the CY7C64713-56LFXC that Digikey mentioned as it's apparently a QFN package. That's even worse than the small TQFP they propose as in QFN the pins are more or less under the chip! On the other hand, I believe almost all new chips we can find will have the same issue of using TQFP like pacakges. For the code, it looks like if you were not using too many specific things of the EZ-USB, converting to the EZ-USB FX1 should be doable in a reasonable amount of time even though a more detailed look should be taken to confirm that statement... Best regards, Lall

What version of Windows are you running? I know for sure that Windows98 does not support USB MIDI and that XP supports it. But I'm wondering if for example Windows2000 supports it or not. M$ website is not that clear on the subject but it gives me the impression that it does not support it. Maybe someone who has used the MBHP USB MIDI module with Windows 2000 can comment on this one... Best regards, Lall

I'm not really a pro of the USB MIDI but normally the MIDI is a kind of sub-part of the USB audio class. Maybe if something goes wrong at some stage, Windows gets stuck thinking it's an audio interface... Do you see this audio interface in the list of your second window (i.e. where you show that there's no MIDI selection possible)? If Windows thinks it's an audio interface, logically you should see it in the possible audio devices. Best regards, Lall

Welcome to this new baby and congrats to the father :) It's really a beatiful baby you've made Sir TK. Best regards, Lall

Hi Killerfrog, While I was trying to find back some eval package on the Cypress website, I indeed read that they do not advice the AN2131 for new designs. So it's just a question of time before it's completely phased-out... Best regards, Lall

Damn, I'm already married. This could have given ideas to friends ;) I also quite like the "cable master" last picture :) Best regards, Lall

Hi, Indeed with 2.5A, you'll need to put two LM317 or use a schematic that was already presented on this forum that has a regulator to provide regulated voltage and another transistor to provide the rest of the current. Maybe some zener diode could do the job but I don't know how precise they are. I mean that if a 5V zener is precise to 5% then it's potential error will be quite close to what you try to eliminate... Best regards, Lall

Hi, You could use a LM317 for example, they allow to adapt the output voltage with the use of a simple potentiometer. That way you can generate a real 5V without any problem. Moreover, you won't have any problem to find some that deliver as much current as the usual 7805. Best regards, Lall

mmm something must have gone wrong in my copy/paste. If you copy/paste the link from the post you referred to then google finds something. When I go on the two pages in the cache of google it gives me this adress: http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:25Ue07CmpE0J:www.suckow.de/ralf/ledmatrix4x20/+http://www.suckow.de/ralf/ledmatrix4x20/&hl=fr&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=be http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:9egKoYXm_sUJ:www.suckow.de/ralf/ledmatrix4x20/pages/13_ledsconnected.html+http://www.suckow.de/ralf/ledmatrix4x20/&hl=fr&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=be I hope that the link will work and are not linked to a current session or something of that kind... Another nice site to get back stuff that disapeared is http://www.webarchive.org but it means pretty unsuccessful on this one... Best regards, Lall

Hi Bill, Veeery nice concept and design, congratulations for the "baby" ;) Nice music too you're making. Best regards, Lall

Hi Kikker, You can look in Google's cache to find back at least the text, pics are gone but OK that's a good start I guess... If you type "http://www.suckow.de/ralph/ledmatrix4x20/" as a search criteria then you get two links and if you look next to the address line in green, there's the "cached" link on which you can click to get the text. Best regards, Lall

Hi, Yes PICs and only PICs... Best regards, Lall

Hi intellijel, Maybe another alternative would be to use some USB docking station like this one: http://www.trendnet.com/products/TU2-ET200.htm I've seen other brands selling this kind of stuff for a reasonable amount of money too. I have however never tested the PIC burner through such a device so I don't know if that's 100% working... Best regards, Lall

Hi Yann, You have to watch out that the USB is highly assymetric in the things that are done on the PC side and on the other side. There's a huge difference between a USB host and a USB peripheral. It looks like the Elektor of this month is looking at how to make a USB peripheral with an AVR (or do what the Cypress EZ-USB does in a way). If you want to have a host on your guitar so that you're able to connect off-the-shelve WiFi USB key, you'll need to have a USB host on your guitar (apparently Cypress EZ-Host is doing that). Best regards, Lall

Hi FLD, Yes you can use different ones at the same time but you have to pay attention that they must be powered with different voltages and use some different capacitors as well for the filter. Best regards, Lall

Hi all, USB WiFi is an option but then you'll have to implement a USB host on the guitar side (actually on the other side as well as you don't want to have a PC all the time). Usually the PC is playing the role of host but I've seen at Cypress some USB host chips that look like intended to do these kind of things. What I'm wondering is if you need some really powerful CPUs (like XScales, ARM9e and the likes) next to it to run it. At least using already made stuff like a WiFi USB key would free you from the HF part design which is apparently a very complicated matter requiring real experience in the field. Best regards, Lall

Hi Cimo, Just wanted to say that I really like the music you're doing. I think my preferred one is Sounds for Zara's dreams but I really like them all. Also very nice job on your guitars :o Yann, If you don't find an RF solution, I think ADAT would be a good choice and surely would be far less work than ethernet. Best regards, Lall

I indeed meant in case one wants to write/modify code for the EZ-USB. But you don't need to of course :) Best regards, Lall

OK, I think I see more what you intend to do with the transmission of the data. That's a quite nice product from Gibson in the link. A friend of mine has bought such a crazy thingie from Line6, I think it's that one http://line6.com/variax/overview.html but I haven't got the chance to listen to it yet... I understand now a bit more that you were not more afraid of BGA ;) Good luck in your project, Best regards, Lall

You're correct, nothing more needed. Note that if you get the alternate (or not) drivers working, you can already play with the chip without an eeprom as these should allow you to load code in the RAM of the chip. That's actually an easier way to make debugging than burning a new image each time in eeprom. Best regards, Lall

Hey, that's an impressive beast!! :o Some of the sound samples remind me a bit of the atmosphere in the Zoolook album from Jean-Michel Jarre. I think I'll pay a listen to that album again one of these days...

Hi, That one is unfortunately way too small... Reading the thread I think I remember now having used an alternative driver for the EZ-USB that a friend of mine was using in his company. I can't remember though when the problems started to happen with the official driver. I don't remember if I fucked up something at the install, played with something I shouldn't or simply had bad luck... The fact that Windows triggers you that a new hardware has been found and tries to let you install the corresponding driver would mean to me that the USB is working OK and that the chip is doing the basic stuff it needs to do so that the PC can see it. It looks in a way like the match between the driver and the device found cannot be made. Best regards, Lall

Hi Yann, If you want to simplify a bit the design at first you could imagine of using an AL3101 as DSP to mix, EQ, filter the 8 mono inputs it can support and then have one mono output. With the available 1024 cycles the chip has, you would have 128 cycles per input channel and that is already quite comfortable. The system is running at 48kHz/24bits. It would be an A-to-D and D-to-A conversion but at least you could use at first a conventional wireless system made for guitarist. Then you would have a certain flexibility but also robustness and more rapid results than developping everything. If you plan to use ethernet or any other means to transport the ~22Mbps of data you need for all the channels, then the network should be pretty empty (I mean you should not connect that to your home network with media center and the likes on) otherwise you may end up with issues due to the packet collisions, the fact that every layer adds its overhead i.e. a 10Mbps network at the physical layer does not mean that you have those 10Mbps available at the applicative level, ... Anyway that's another story. Last but not least on that item, you will then most probably have to write your own driver for your OS which is far from a piece of cake. From that point of view, using a known USB class like audio could for example allow you to avoid that driver work. In any case, as Seppoman said, I would certainly not do the DSP stuff and the controling stuff on the same chip unless you have really a big one. The problem of having everything on one chip is that you'll have to make compromises e.g. latency vs stability, ... Also the BGA stuff, again as Seppoman said, you should really forget about it. It's absolutely no DIY packages, you have to make them solder by specialized companies who have the right tools to do it (and to check that the soldering has been done correctly). If you don't or if they are not equipped to check, that's extremely hard to know where a bug is coming from when something goes wrong. Last thing, if you make all that for ~100 euros (excl pickup and dev board), you're a champion ;) Best regards, Lall