Wilba

PLED displays are the best. at even ridiculous viewing angles too... if only they made them in 2x40 :'(

Good news, the supplier is replacing the 6 dead chips, so if they are tested to work perfectly I can offer these for sale. They'll be shipped air mail, so it will be a bit of a delay.

Can all those who are getting some of these chips please read their private messages? I am ready to ship them, but I need your PayPal email addresses to send requests for payment, and your postal addresses.

You only need one wire, to connect the MIDI output of the master Core with the MIDI input of the slave Cores. It is NOT a typical "daisy chain"... you DO NOT want to connect the MIDI output of the slave Cores to the MIDI input of the master Core! I use a chain of wire lengths joined together with the crimp pins that go inside a single row header connector. In this context, you don't need that black plastic header connector, as there is only one connection and you can just push the single female pin onto the male pin on the PCB. Cut three lengths of wire and join them together in a chain using the female crimp pins (two crimp pins in the middle will crimp onto two wire ends). I also use this "chain" idea for my power wires, using two or four pin header connectors.

I disagree. If there really was a lot of interest in the music world, there would be more people playing theremins or using theremin-to-MIDI controllers, which have been around for ages. My focus now has shifted to ribbon controllers instead, for the simple reason that for music, at least, some tactile feedback is better than none... ever tried actually playing a theremin?

Unfortunately, I have discovered that 6 of the SIDs are no good. 1 of them just has a damaged filter (if you use the filter, there's no sound output). This obviously was totally unexpected, I had tested a fair number and did not expect 6 to be bad. I am really very sorry to inform the last three who wanted some (offe, DrBunsen and analofbrotha) that I can't sell them the chips they wanted from this batch. I don't think I can get replacements because I think I've bought all the stock from this supplier. Maybe I can get more, I just don't know. I am letting you know as soon as I did so you can buy from someone else if you want. Again, I'm sorry, I really should have tested all the ones I was selling before offering them.

Sorry, downix, they have all been allocated. Ixox has dropped his order down to 1, allowing analofbrotha to get the 2 he wants. If anyone decides to cancel their order, downix can take them. And so ends the divvy up phase. I am soldering up my little test rig right now, and will soon start testing them all.

OK, now comes the fun part, I have to test them, pack them and send them. One final disclaimer: I am selling these chips as is; I will test they work, I have faith they will arrive undamaged to your letterbox, but if they work initially and then some time later just stop working, then don't ask me for a refund. I would be in the same situation too if they stop working (I can't ask the supplier for a refund either). To keep things really simple, the best I can offer in terms of refund is: if the SID does not work in a socket (Commodore 64C, MB-SID or HardSID) that works with another, working 8580 chip, and if you test it within two weeks of its arrival, and if you send it back in its original packaging (including postmarked envelope). Keep in mind that I have to pay any refunds out of my own pocket, so if these terms are too harsh, then bad luck. ;) Since some of you are also newbies and this SID might be the first you've ever tried in your hardware, just be aware that I can't refund your money just because it doesn't work initially in your newly soldered PCBs, as how can I tell if your hardware is not faulty, or that you didn't kill the SID through handling or overvoltage? For your own peace of mind, perform all voltage tests and interconnection tests before you even touch the SID, and then do voltage tests on the SID socket AGAIN, and a third time just to be sure, and then unplug all power cords before you insert the SID.

See first post. 1 still remaining. If anyone else cancels, you can have 2.

I share this for the amusement factor only, I have fixed the bug already :) I was wondering why SID #4 was playing some patches different to the rest, "Techno Saw" had some off-pitch tones in there, but "Techno PWM" seemed to play OK. Playing each oscillator by itself seemed to be fine. So begin the usual debugging process.... Problem with SID or Core? Swap SIDs over, problem stays with the Core, not the SID. Firmware got messed up? Upload the MB-SID app again to all the cores, no change. Buggy PIC? Swap PICs #3 and #4, problem stays with the PCB. Aha! Test connectivity to PIC pins that go to the SID. All good. Hmmm... Then after starting at the tracks for a while, I see a faint sliver of silver crossing two very close tracks, the tracks connected to pin 27 (the touch sensor output pin) and pin 24 (the SID chip select line). Yep, they're shorted. (Before anyone asks, my PCBs are not solder masked. Lesson learned.) It amazes me that the SID played anything at all in this state, and somehow managed to play some patches with no noticable difference, and some with only a minor injection of random noise.

Yeah, that was my original idea, but alas the ZIF socket pins are so fat they don't even fit into a standard IC socket. I have to at least solder some header pins to the ZIF socket pins to try this stack-o-sockets trick ;D

Dr. Bunsen: Of course I can ship to Australia, I live in Australia! I can take deposits into an Australian bank account also.

Man, they are going fast!!! (see current orders in first post). I've got a 28 pin ZIF socket I intended to use for the testing, and discovered that I can't just plug it into my SID board. I will need to solder some wires to it, or something. Hopefully this delay in setting up my test bed will be less than inserting and removing a SID 18 times. I used the "good" IC sockets with machine pins which look cool but removing the IC from them is like pulling teeth.

My 8580 sale is here: http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php?topic=6949.msg44789

Slorrin: Don't feel bad, I just got lucky and found a pretty good deal. To avoid confusion, shipping and handling is per package (per order, not per SID).

I have 18 new old stock, unused, CSG 8580 R5 SID chips, 1991 vintage. These are for sale at the incredibly low, low price of just US$15 (AU$20). Shipping and handling will be pretty cheap, at around US$3 (AU$4) per package (per order, not per SID), worldwide (shipped from Australia). Payment through PayPal (or if you're an Aussie, bank deposit). These SIDs come from a bulk order of new old stock. I bought enough for me and enough extra to lower the per-chip overhead of courier shipping and money transfers, etc. The ones I'm keeping have been tested and work perfectly. I am assuming the rest are the same, but I will test each one prior to shipment. (I will be using a ZIF socket, to avoid bending pins). I am selling the rest here in the forums instead of one at a time on eBay because perhaps there's others like me who want two, four or eight identical, new 8580 SIDs. Similarly, I think people here might prefer to buy SIDs from a fellow MIDIbox builder than from a stranger on eBay. Indicate your interest in buying these SIDs by posting to this thread. << edit >> CURRENT ORDERS Ixox: 1 bill: 2 DRÄPPEL: 3 Jaicen: 2 visibleman: 4 offe: 2 DrBunsen: 2 analofbrotha: 2 Remaining: 0

Excellent... that's exactly what I was wishing for. :) You say the first two options are already available in MBSID v1... I assume you mean a "Poly" patch, but only using one SID per PIC (up to 3 notes). Is this possible now?? i.e. can I get the 4th/5th/6th keys held down to play through another Core/SID? Or are you referring to creative use of the split function (keyboard zones)? i.e. if 1st/2nd/3rd keys are in one zone and 4th/5th/6th keys are in another zone, you can get six note polyphony with two Cores on the same MIDI channel playing the same patch (except for different zones).

The other advantage of having 2x 8580 will be cool stereo effects, which will become easier in MBSID v2 (when both SIDs are controlled from one Core) but is still possible now with the current MBSID v1, you just need two different patches. Since 8580 consistently sound the same, they're a better choice for doing stereo effects. Also, TK has mentioned that the 303 sound only works well for the 8580 filter. My totally biased option is to prefer two 8580... as I've had the worst luck with 6581 (busted filters on all I have salvaged) not to mention a dislike of the noise. I suppose if I actually had a working 6581 complete with a quirky, unique filter, then I might have a different opinion and appreciate it (and say things like "best of both worlds")... but right now I'm enjoying having four 8580 SIDs all sounding the same. If you are interested in buying two (or more) 8580 chips I will be selling a bunch soon, fully tested, really cheap. Stay tuned.

You can spend ages hunting for other PSUs, but the C64 one is pretty much the best, unless you build your own transformer and then start playing with mains power. The C64 PSU gives you two separate voltages, 5v DC and 9v AC (which you can combine to get 14v DC to power the SID modules). I've helped you out already regarding rectifiers and capacitors. You will have to get a bit of prototyping board and put the rectifier and some capacitors on it, and assuming you're also using the C64 case, you can put it all on a narrow little bit of board next to the power socket and switch from the C64 motherboard, and reuse that neat little black metal bracket. You can even reuse the screws that hold the original C64 motherboard to hold this board down, and screw that black metal bracket to the board too. Sorry if this sounds too condescending, but a self-admitted electronics noob should just follow the circuit as presented, instead of wandering off into totally unfamiliar territory... and also, you would be best to get a known good solution working before experimenting with a different PSU design.

Razmo, can you share the patch you used to compare the 8580 and 6582? I've tried to make a patch for my 8580 to sound like your 8580, but it ends up sounding more like the 6582... ??? I don't know whether it's different capacitors or different revisions... mine is MOS 8580R5, 2888

I researched how optical mice work a while ago and abandoned the idea of using the chip in my spare Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer. If you're interested, this was a cool dissection of one: http://www.theparticle.com/hardware/intellimouse/ There's a chip in it that does both the optical sensing (a tiny CMOS camera) and outputs movements as PS/2 or USB. All optical mice of the new breed (not the old kind that needed a special silvery mouse pad with lines on it) work by capturing a frame through the CMOS sensor (taking a photo) and comparing it to the frame it took last time, and working out where they are common and thus if the mouse has moved and in what direction. So Idea B won't work for a very simple reason: no matter how nicely textured that surface is, there's no guarantee that moving the fader handle will generate exactly the same number of incremental movement events. The easiest way to describe this is that there's going to be some error between actual movement and sensed movement, due to the resolution of the sensor, the frequency of sensing, the speed of the actual movement, etc. The fader handle will get out of sync with the sensed position and then it becomes useless. Depending on how good the sensor is, and the bit that processes the movement events (a lot of PIC code to do that too!), it might not get out of sync for a long time, BUT there's no nice way to find out the starting state of the fader handle, as you can't measure absolute position, only relative. So it's not that good for a fader, IMHO. If you used it as a relative movement sensor instead of an absolute position sensor, then it would work fine... i.e. you can turn an optical mouse upside down and use your finger on the sensor like a mini-trackpad. You should consider something using a phototransistor and LED facing each other, and the fader handle attached to a piece of film that passes between them. The film can be a gradient fill of fully clear to fully black. With the right kind of extra circuitry, you'd get an analog signal that measures absolute position. I think I saw that once on a MIDI controller...

I came across this by accident, actually... thought it might be useful... How To Build Parallel Port Prototypes http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/233

Yeah I was thinking MBSID-Multi could do polyphonic mode better, as long as there's still some way to modulate the filter, like you can do with a v1 poly patch. There are times where I would like to have 12 note polyphony on two Cores (four SIDs) and use the other two Cores for bassline and drums, OR use the other two Cores for another 12 note polyphony on the same MIDI channel (i.e. a layered sound, like having 12 note/2 osc per note!). And at other times, I would like to have super-polyphony on all four Cores with a MBSID-Lead patch (4 note/3 osc per note/stereo!). (sorry if I'm asking the impossible, but this is a wish list!)

I thought I should add my wishes to the wishlist... This is the big new feature that I'm really looking forward to... it is mentioned that MBSID-Lead will have stereo effects, and MBSID-Multi can have six single-oscillator instruments, but can one MBSID-Lead subsystem in polyphonic mode have an option to do either stereo effects OR six note polyphony when using a "poly" patch? If that's combined with the other polyphony improvements... ... this could mean six note polyphony per Core (up to 24 note polyphony!) if each Core is running a "poly" patch. Similarly, it seems like the MBSID-Multi subsystem could be run in a "polyphonic" mode also... so each note could be played on an osc with its own key-triggered envelope/LFOs.

Glad to be of help :) Just take it in stages and you'll be right. Build the top half bit, that turns 9v AC into 9v DC, the rectifier X1, the 7809 and the two capacitors in between, then test this outputs 9v DC (between pin 2 and 3 of the 7809).