Lall

Hi Napierzaza, I think I remember about such problems as well like it was working on Windows 98 but not on Windows 2000. Unfortunately, I can't absolutely not remember how I did solve the problem. Another option (far less elegant I agree) is to burn directly the eeprom with the code. You simply need to convert the executable using a small program (I don't have it at hand and don't remember the name by heart) and burn it into the eeprom and you're done. Best regards, Lall

Hi Yann, I'm not sure I understand what you want to transfer over the air. I assume that you want to transfer the MIDI along with the audio otherwise I don't see the need of digitizing all your audio channels. If indeed, you want to transfer audio in a wireless manner, pay attention to the fact that a single channel of 24bits/96kHz audio will require ~2.2Mbps of bandwidth and I'm only counting pure raw data needs here. With 10 channels, you come at ~22Mbps. That's kind of enormous, even current WiFi stuff may have issues to sustain such a throughput rate. Hehe, thanks. Addition of MIDI is on my todo list for a while along with too many other things ;) I quite like the AL3101 and AL3201. They are small and quite easy to use in practice and very much targeted towards audio effects which is our basic aim. You cannot do everything with them, for example FFTs are out of the way as the DSPs work sample based, huge reverbs /delays are not possible either due to too small RAM but for the rest they are quite nice beasts very well suited for audio effects. Best regards, Lall

Hi, I've never done MIOS programming (I'm slowly starting to look into it) so forgive me in advance if that's completely stupid remark but could it be that you need to call the LCD_TypeSet function http://www.ucapps.de/cmios_fun.html#MIOS_LCD_TypeSet so that MIOS knows that you're using two LCDs? Best regards, Lall

Hi Yann, MIOS only runs on PICs so if you want to go for an AVR32 then you have to start from scratch. For dsPIC, I'm not 100% sure but I would expect quite some rework will be necessary; if that is the case, for me that's clearly a showstopper. If you want to stuff the whole parts in your guitar then I think you'll have to redesign the PCB layouts of the MB64E using probably SMD chips everywhere or almost everywhere and squeeze as much as possible everything you can. I've not done MIOS programming yet but it's apparently very easy to get started so that should not be a big issue. I suppose that the power consumption was not a major constrain while developping the MIOS and applications so maybe small adaptations here and there would allow you to trade-off some functionality for some power reduction. Concerning your thread on the other forum: - If you want to do audio stuff, 12 bits won't be enough so dsPIC is does not really help there. You have to target for at least 16 bits otherwise the sound will be most probably crap. You also have to pay attention that a poor design, you can easily loose bits of resolution. I'm not a specialist in this domain but I know you can easily mess up things and end up with far less resolution than you thought. - For the switching of the audio signals, TI has nice chips doing analog switching. They are available in small (maybe too small) packages and some are explicitly mentioned as made for audio. I however don't know if you can connect microphone ouputs to them. You can find all of them there: http://focus.ti.com/paramsearch/docs/parametricsearch.tsp?family=analog&familyId=520&uiTemplateId=NODE_STRY_PGE_T - what's the exact reason for adding a DSP? If that's for the wireless transmission, is that really necessary? If that's for processing then you should go for more advanced DSPs directly I believe. Last but not least, don't underestimate the importance of power supply. I mean you have to look at how much the thing will consume, how you will power it and then how you'll need to cool it. The problem here is not to design it really but more the space it may take in the end so I think it's wise to look at this point pretty early in your design as putting stuff in a guitar may not be so easy. All in all, I think you'll have to have a pretty long thinking and design phase in your "crazy project" ;) but if you finalize it that can really rock :) Best regards, Lall

Hi dj3nk, If you talk about the Miss Parker, it's "unfortunately" an "almost DIY" project in the sense that some components on the board require professional etching. I think the problem mainly comes from the DAC used to control the input and output gains. That's the MAX5841 or U12 on the schematic and that one has a veeery small pitch. For the rest, it's do-able I guess even though a professionally made board really helps the soldering due to the solder mask they put on it (risks of shorts while soldering are much less). You can look on that page: http://www.axoris.be/MissParkerDetails.php. There's normally everything required (Gerber files package) to have a board been made by some PCB makers. I know at least one guy who made his own Miss Parker using a such a PCB maker company in his neighboorhood. I'm not the one who did the layout and manufacturing stuff so I don't know if a lot of support was required from our side but in the end it worked. Best regards, Lall

Hi all, I actually wanted to start at some point to code a Vocoder for the "Miss Parker" (http://www.axoris.be) but never really finalized it. I had some piece of floating-point C code that was doing the job but got stuck with filter scaling and fixed-point issues. I can't remember exactly but I think I was targetting initially 16 bands in total however the scaling issues might well have as consequence a reduction of that number of bands. I still want to revive that project at some point but as always time is lacking... Best regards, Lall

Another way of getting rid of such rigid compiler warnings is to use: MIOS_LCD_PrintCString(&text[0]); I believe this method is also pretty good for portability of the code. I've really had to use this method on the TIc55 DSP otherwise my program was not behaving as expected. Anyway, I more have the impression that the problem stands with the non constant string and the CODE keyword in this case... Best regards, Lall

Hi Jonas, Take a look at this lovely beast made by Seppoman: http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php?topic=7210.0 That's not strictly speaking a Midibox vocoder as the FM or the SID are but that can certainly make the job... Best regards, Lall

Groundhog Day

Hi Lyle, All that is really excellent news. Excellent. I've just received the PGAs last week ;D. I think I'll try to finalize my SEQ first, too much distraction now will make it shift further away again. But then sure I'll give that a try. I think of using such a stage as a mixer output for my quad SID to come and spare on inputs of my mixer console which is already too much crowded. Best regards, Lall

I more read the datasheet as VDD is typical 5V and VO as well. Looks to me like you have a positive constrast LCD... Best regards, Lall

Hi Tokyomatic, As pay_c said, there's no need to remove the rectifier and there's also no need to have it. On the other hand, if J1 is left unconnected and the regulator has been unmounted, then there's absolutely no reason why you should loose ~1V like it's the case now. So I would advise you to double check everything again to make sure everything's correct because that loss is pretty strange to me provided that J1 is unconnected and regulator is unmounted of course. Best regards, Lall

Hi, J1 is only an input and it can work with both AC and DC. Note that in the case of DC as Pay_c mentionned then you need quite some more voltage at J1 in order to get in the end the 5V you want. J2 can be or an output or an input. -> output when the PSU is connected on J1 then you get at J2 the necessary 5V and you can power something else from J2. -> input when the PSU (must be a 5V DC one) is connected on J2 and nothing is connected on J1 and the regulator and rectifier bridge are not mounted. If you use the C64 PSU then the wisest is to use the 5V output to drive directly the J2's of your cores as depicted in the schematic below: http://www.ucapps.de/mbhp/mbhp_4xsid_c64_psu_optimized.pdf. Please take extreme care that there's no protection against over-voltages on the Core when you power it from J2. So you should not make mistakes with the PSU oterwise you'll destroy the chips. When using J1, it's safer because the regulator will do its best to provide only 5V at its output. Best regards, J-C

Salut, Je suis pas sur que ça peut t'aider beaucoup mais y a un projet de Velocity Converter qui a été discuté ici: http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php?topic=8585.0 et ou ils jouent avec la vélocité. Peut-etre que tu pourras trouver de l'inspiration dans ce code... A+ Lall

Hi Tokyomatic, That's maybe a stupid question I'm asking, I've never used the C64 PSU but are you sure you've done the connections/mounting in the right way? My impression is that the C64 PSU has a 5V DC output and a 9V AC output. I believe that the output you're using is the 5V one as you read 5.33 volts. I could not explain how a measured 9V AC could become 5.33 volts on the voltmeter. If you're indeed using the 5V DC output which makes a lot of sense, then you should not mount the bridge rectifier and the regulator on the Core. You should actually connect your power line to J2 instead of J1. Maybe give a second look to the following diagram to check your connections and mounting: http://www.ucapps.de/mbhp/mbhp_4xsid_c64_psu_optimized.pdf Best regards, Lall

What else do you burn? More Witches!

& Olufsen

WOW, that's amazing! :o It really looks like everything is built in one piece. That front panel looks very pro. Best regards, Lall

Hi, If you try http://www.conrad.de/ and put the reference number: 705191 in the "Art.Nr." field then you'll arrive on the good page. There are apparently different heights of caps. More can be found under the following menu/category: [tt]Home > Bauelemente, Bausätze > Markensortimente > Deltron > Tastkappen (Deltron)[/tt] Best regards, Lall

I'm not 100% sure it's the same ones. Anyway, have a look there: http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php?topic=7354.msg50585#msg50585 That's from this topic: http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php?topic=7354.0 and was referred to from here lately: http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php?topic=7854.0. Best regards, Lall

Hi all, I think I now get the 3 PSU thing you were referring to initially. If I now get it right, you have a +5V one, and two 12V ones, right? As Seppoman said, for the 5V it's 95% certain it's DC. For the 12V, take a careful look at them as there are some (what a friend of mine calls) "modem PSU" out there providing AC output but there are also DC ones. Normally, it should be written on the PSU in a way or another otherwise simply take a voltmeter and measure the output. Measuring is good anyway as it will allow you to double-check the polarity of the DC output. It's VERY important as if you don't mount the regulator, there's absolutely NO protection against inverse polarity and the chance that you'll kill most of the ICs on the board is pretty big not to say certain. (Note that I have no idea what the result is when you apply an inversed voltage to a regulator but I guess you may have trouble...). Best regards, Lall

Hi, The thing is that if the old PSU you plan to use is already providing regulated DC output then you will not need the +12V and -12V regulators on the FM side but just capacitors for correct decoupling. If that is AC output, then you'll need a bridge rectifier and a regulator. The bridge rectifier as the ones used in MBHP should have a drop of 1V to 1.5V and the regulator has a typical drop of 2V. Best regards, Lall

Hi, For me, that sounds quite the same. I believe that this Finnish guy will get some money at the end. Best regards, Lall

Concerning the load, I was wondering how many LEDs out of the 34 can be active at the same time at maximum. I have never really got enough time/motivation/patience to dig into the manual and CS to check that (I don't have built my FM yet). Does anyone know about that max number? That can quite influence the max load actually. Because, let's imagine the worst-case with 34 LEDs active each consuming 10mA. Imagine you have a LCD with a backlight consuming 280mA (like mine) and a Core that was said to consume ~100-120mA. You already come close by the 750mA so OK it's not yet 1.0A but that's big too from a certain perspective. I would say it's always wise to take a look at the datasheet of the LCD, look at the resistor chosen for the LED, look at the Cores, ... and compute the sum... Otherwise then use an over-dimensioned lab power supply to measure the actual current consumption and "design" the embedded PSU based on that :) For the -12V, that's really a 12V with an opposite sign to the usual 12V compared to the GND. So if you look at the difference between the -12V line and the 12V line you'll get 24V in total... I'm not sure the diagram below will make it more clear: +12V ---------- --------- 12V diff GND ---------- 24V diff 12V diff -12V --------- ---------- Best regards, Lall

Is the old PSU providing regulated 5v DC? If so, that should be suitable for supplying a Core but then you should not mount the regulator stuff on the Core. Note you should leave some big enough capacitors on the Core though so that it's correctly decoupled. Last but not least and forgive me if obvious, you should check that the Core + the LEDs + your LCD and especially its backlight do not require more than 1.0A otherwise you'll run into trouble. I'm pointing out your attention on that as I've been myself veeery surprised about the consumption of my LCD backlight. Best regards, Lall