Wilba

Maybe you can skip ahead and try TEST INOUT1: Take out all the PICs, put jumper in J11 for Core 1, and jumper bridging Tx/Rx of Core 1. Thus it will be like this diagram: http://www.ucapps.de/howtodebug/mbhp_core_extract_io_loopback.gif (Make sure the optocoupler 6N138 is installed) Power on, you should not receive any MIDI data. Then send some MIDI data. What you send out should be received in the MIDI In window. This will probably work for you, because of what you said already. NOW... Take out the jumper bridging Tx/Rx of Core 1. Power on, you should not receive any MIDI data. Then send some MIDI data. If you receive the MIDI data the same as before, then there is a short between Tx/Rx pins, just like when the jumper was shorting these pins. Report back what you discover from these tests. I can only help you one step at a time... otherwise I would have to write a whole troubleshooting guide like TK's, most of which probably does not apply in this case.

It could be the driver playing up with the Java based MIOS Studio. I seem to be lucky, my Delta 1010LT works fine. Good to hear you got it all sorted. POIDH :)

So which LEDs are "not so bright" as others? Do you mean the ones at the top? SID 1, SID 2, SID 3, SID 4, Sync, CC, Edit, Play, SID L/R ? Are all these LEDs the same colour? If yes, are they all from the same batch (bought at same time, were in same bag, etc)? For the non-working LEDs, are you sure the anode and cathode are in the correct holes? Perhaps you tested them by touching leads to 5V/ground through resistor, but didn't check if it's the same polarity as the others.

Instead of listing the not-so-bright LEDs, just run the test app and take a photo :)

Try lighting up all the LEDs with the test app I wrote (find it in this post: http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php/topic,10390.msg78577.html#msg78577) For the LEDs that don't work, test connection between the LED lead above the control surface PCB and the resistor (or transistor) on the base PCB. If the connections are good, then perhaps there is a short somewhere. You can also test the LEDs and connections by taking out all the 74HC595 and putting 5V into both the IC socket pins which go to the resistor and transistor... this will light up individual LEDs. Or, put 5V into the IC sockets above the resistors, and GND into the pads below the transistors. Don't put 5V/Gnd directly into the LED matrix connections, there are no resistors on the PCB... use a resistor like you did to test the LEDs if you want to test by powering the LED matrix connections at the bottom edge of the PCBs... just remember to take out the ICs. It's not normal that some LEDs have different brightness. If there are definitely bright and not-bright ones, list the ones that are not-bright... perhaps they all are on the same "row" or "column" of the LED matrix... which might tell you that one of the resistors is different, or one of the transistors is not sinking enough current. The other cause might be poor quality LEDs (uneven brightness between LEDs), or overheating when soldering the LEDs, or (not likely) too much current to a LED causing it to "burn out" and not be as bright... I've done this with LEDs I was testing, LEDs do not like 200+ mA of current, they will be very bright for a short time (a few minutes) and then drop in brightness.

What exactly do you mean by "manual mode"? If you mean "Don't use feedback from core" then you really should be using feedback from Core... this validates that each packet of the upload was received without errors, and if you can't validate that there is uncorrupted firmware on the PIC, any other problem might be caused by corrupted firmware on the PIC. This is probably not the case here, but you should make sure you can upload with feedback from the Core before anything else - any failure to get that working is a completely different bug (PC MIDI hardware/drivers, bad MIDI In/Out on the PCB, etc.) It is possible that some garbage data got stored on the bankstick, and so putting it in the PCB is making the MB-SID get confused. Try this: Take out all banksticks. Upload the latest version of MB-SID app (RC 31) using "Feedback from Core" Test if everything stills works as before. Put one bankstick in socket 8 (so it gets formatted as the Ensemble bankstick)... then put it in socket 1 (so it gets formatted as a Patch bankstick). Test if everything still works (scroll patches, play notes). Repeat for the other banksticks (put in socket 8, then in socket 2,3,4,5,6,7) Note: sockets numbers are arranged like so: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 (In hindsight, I probably should have put numbers on them, but I didn't anticipate people needing to move them around after construction.) The GOOD NEWS is, you're getting sound out of all your SIDs, and I assume your control surface is also working! So there's a lot of possible things that could go wrong that DIDN'T. Congratulations! :)

The good news is, your PIC is working, your LCD is connected properly and working, and (most likely) your LEDs are working. The bad news is, you forgot to upload the MB-SID app! You can find the latest version in the "MIOS8 Download" page (see link on the left). The latest version is midibox_sid_v2_0_rc31.zip Use MIOS Studio to upload setup_mb6582.hex to each Core, by changing the jumper in J11 to 1,2,3,4 and setting the Device ID to 0,1,2,3 respectively. After you've uploaded the MB-SID app once to each Core, you won't need to upload to Core 2,3,4 again, you can upload just to Core 1, then "clone" to the other Cores by holding down the Menu button when powering on. There's more information about all this in the MB-6582 documentation and the MB-SID User Manual.

OK... three PSUs, no change in hum level, I would now start considering something wrong with the voltage regulation. fussylizard says the hum is around 100Hz... if you're connected to 50Hz AC mains power, then the input into the bridge rectifier looks like 50Hz sine wave: then after the bridge rectifier, you'd get a waveform with peaks at double the frequency: so if your smoothing capacitor after the bridge rectifier isn't working properly, you won't be getting smooth input into the voltage regulator like so: it will be more "lumpy", which will translate into a hum in the audio output. Perhaps. I'm not an expert in these things. So maybe the capacitor C1 is the problem. You could first check the joins, and try resoldering the joints to see if that helps. Then if it doesn't help, you could take it out and put the C2 capacitor there. It's OK to have C2 empty, because it's purpose is to reduce possible digital noise on the 5V supply... there is already a regulated 5V supply coming from the C64 PSU brick, and C4 is there also. I don't really know how you could test the C1 capacitor, I can only suggests replacing it. Perhaps if you tried temporarily soldering another big capacitor in parallel (i.e. onto C1's pads under the board), this might be a quicker way of testing if the problem is no smoothing before the regulator. If that does not help, you could then perhaps blame the 7809 in V1, or the 7812 in V2... unlikely but possible. Finally, voltage regulators can fail under heavy load... and since the 12V is generated using the 5V supply, that means if the 5V supply is not stable because of too much load, then the 14V going into V2 won't be smooth. (p.s. pictures borrowed from http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/powersup.htm )

Any error during upload is going to leave the PIC without the full application, so you can't expect things to work properly until you get it fully uploaded without errors. I don't know why it would fail at a specific packet every time. That's just weird. I would say now, perhaps to try removing the banksticks, uploading MIOS again (1.9f only!), and then the MB-SID app. Do not install banksticks again until you have the MB-SID app uploaded without errors. You can make sure the app is receiving notes and playing sounds BEFORE you install banksticks and (perhaps) debug another issue.

Occasionally I've had trouble uploading a new app to a PIC if the app that's already on there is a tight-looped test app. I don't remember if I got this specific problem. Try uploading it the same way you would upload MIOS, i.e. with "Wait for upload request" checked. First power off the MB-6582. Check "Wait for upload request". Press the start button to upload. Wait two seconds before powering on the MB-6582. The MB-6582 should then send out one upload request, which should trigger the upload of the application. If you get the same error, repeat a few times to confirm it happens every time. If that doesn't help, I'll think up some other things to try.

You're right... I got it mixed up. I haven't done much MIOS C programming but I don't think you are supposed to edit mios_wrapper.asm See the code in mios_wrapper.asm ;; ---[ configuration table for rotary encoders ]--- #ifndef DONT_INCLUDE_MIOS_ENC_TABLE ;; dummy table located in $MIOS_PATH/include/asm ;; If the application should use ENC entries, ;; just add "-DDONT_INCLUDE_MIOS_ENC_TABLE" to MIOS_WRAPPER_DEFINES ;; and build the table within the C program with: ;; ;; MIOS_ENC_TABLE { ;; // sr pin mode ;; MIOS_ENC_ENTRY(1, 0, MIOS_ENC_MODE_DETENTED), // VPot #1 ;; MIOS_ENC_ENTRY(1, 2, MIOS_ENC_MODE_DETENTED), // VPot #2 ;; MIOS_ENC_ENTRY(1, 4, MIOS_ENC_MODE_DETENTED), // VPot #3 ;; MIOS_ENC_EOT ;; }; ;; ;; The MIOS_MT_* macros are defined in $MIOS_PATH/include/c/cmios.h #include <mios_enc_table.inc> #endif [/code] Therefore you should leave mios_wrapper.asm unmodified, and follow the instructions above, so that it does NOT include mios_enc_table.inc and instead uses what you define in your main.c At least if you follow the right way to do it, you will have a better starting point to fix the problem if it still exists.

I'm not exactly sure, but since you need two pins per encoder, MIOS_SRIO_NumberSet(16); [/code] would suggest you have only enabled enough DIN inputs for 8 encoders.

There's about 35mm-40mm clearance in that area. Sorry, I can't give an exact answer...

Six months on and he still doesn't have a case for it... :-[ DOUG! HURRY UP! :)

Background hum could also come from a C64 PSU that's not working well... try a different one if possible.

The 2000uF caps are placed where there's the most vertical space between the PCBs, so I don't think there will be a problem. My original MB-6582 has 16V and 25V yet they're the same size.

Pft... I'm not in a high place at all... I just worked out the best way for me to get all those cool parts from Mouser is for them to hitch a ride on some bulk orders. You got lucky - I was able to add it to the Mouser order I did at 3 AM this morning. You might get even luckier and have it in your hand next week.

If you find it at Mouser or Digikey, I'll import it for you when I make my next order from them ;)

I'm buying 100 sets today. 79 are allocated to received orders. 21 are spare (including people who were on the list and didn't order). I will send PayPal invoices soon. I appreciate fast payment, but I am willing to hold an order until someone's able to pay, just tell me when you make an order.

Well... there's no such thing as "red on red"... it's a negative red LCD... the pixels are where the LCD is not black... but since the red backlight shines through the black a bit it can look reddish black instead of true black... from a view angle exactly perpendicular to the display it's quite black, but most photos and video show it from an angle and so you see more red. If you don't want it so black, you just tweak the contrast and brightness.

I was thinking about a laser-cut acrylic frontpanel as a cheaper alternative to aluminium... so I'll draw up the panel in Inkscape as if to get them made by Ponoko... that will give us an idea how much they'll cost for a small quantity. I still don't know the best way to mount the PCB to acrylic... it could be the "studs" on the left/right sides are replaced with screws through the panel. A clear LCD window could also be made to fit into a cutout of the same size... they should just snap in without requiring glue. I was considering making an entire case out of acrylic but it's not that easy to make a sloping desktop-style case, it might have to be a box with "endcheeks" that give it the slope. Please nag me if I haven't published panel layouts in Inkscape SVG files... err... give me a week :)

http://shopeio.com/ has them.

Nice work!

I like the case... it's sort of like a sandwich or something ;)

I haz plenty. Take 'em for free! PM me.