Wilba

Sorry about the confusion... No offence taken, I don't want you to do anything else! I was just making a joke about myself being compelled to remind people about the non-standard bridge rectifier ;D (while reminding people about the non-standard bridge rectifier).

Things are happening slowly, but they are happening.

6 days Australia to Europe! Man, that is fast! Even better compared to the last sale, where every parcel to Germany was held for weeks. It's good to hear you Germans aren't suffering with customs delays anymore.

6582 SID MEGA-SALE #5 is CLOSED. Do not send email orders unless requested to do so. Do not send email orders if I requested you to join MEGA-SALE #5 over a month ago and you didn't send one before now.

... and every time someone references that how-to, I say "He used a bridge rectifier with an uncommon pinout causing more than one person to burn out their transformer because they wired it up incorrectly" Feel free to quote me in the wiki page you make ;D

Ahh... I already have four of these knobs, which should work well as the datawheel knob on the MB-SEQ control surface I'm building. FYI these knobs should work well with a 3mm panel, 10mm PCB/panel gap and "panel mounting" the encoder to the PCB, like what I talked about here: http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php/topic,11189.msg87646.html (I just forgot to mention this knob suited the other dimensions).

That part is only a "shuttle" and not a "jog"... i.e. it only has limited range like a potentiometer and not the same as a rotary encoder (which is what you need for the MB-SEQ datawheel).

I have plenty. I don't know what will be gained by it though... other than pretty pictures.

Omitting the first inc/dec would work for me, I'm always brushing the undetended encoders and making accidental parameter changes. ;D

Moonlight Sonata, 3rd movement, a personal favourite of mine (I can play 1st movement and maybe in 20 years will learn the other two!) I've always wanted to do a remix with SIDs, but have been too busy with MIDIbox stuff ;) Great work JV!

Riesige Eisen-Zäpfchen! Mein Arsch ist in Brand! (translation: Awesome!)

ALPS tactile switches, 13mm tall, from PCB to top of shaft... ALPS part SKHHDTA010

Something like this: http://www.mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?qs=kjdRZtHFUmnGjHsKW%252b7iDw%3d%3d with about the same price.

The smallest I think - just measured the insulation diameter as 0.5mm so I guess 30 AWG.

You have to check the voltage drop across each LED you put in series, make sure the sum is less than 5V and adjust the resistor size... as you increase the amount of voltage drop across the LEDs (by using more than one LED), the voltage drop across the resistor decreases, so the current will be less. You want to lower the resistor so the current is the same as it would be for one LED. Read more here and learn Ohm's Law. ;D If you don't have enough voltage to power more than one LED then you can put them in parallel using a resistor for each LED i.e. from one DOUT pin, have two resistors leading to two LEDs that then lead to ground. In this case, you can bridge where the resistor goes on the DOUT board and mount two resistors near your LEDs. This handles the fact that each LED has a different voltage drop. Read more here LEDs come in different packages (sizes, shapes, diffused/clear/tinted)... 3mm and 5mm round LEDs with a diffused and tinted package are fairly standard and common. If you get high-bright, super-bright, ultra-bright LEDs, they'll be brighter for the same current. If you're using multiple LEDs per DOUT pin this is an advantage, because you can increase the resistors you use (1K or higher) and use less current for a normal level of brightness for indicator LEDs. You don't need LED torch level of brightness coming from your control surface.

If you want to run your PLED with 8-bit mode, you'll have to: cut the track between PIC pin 35 and J15:D2 cut the track between PIC pin 36 and J15:D3 solder a wire between PIC pin 9 and J15:D2 solder a wire between PIC pin 10 and J15:D3 connect all 8 data pins of J15 (D0-D8) with ribbon cable to the LCD (just like a normal 8-bit LCD cable) use the change_id application to burn a new ID into the PIC so that it uses the custom LCD driver that is in the MB-SID firmware. (exception: you don't need to cut tracks or solder wires if you use the MB-6582 base PCB; there are disconnected tracks under the PIC, four pairs of pads you can connect with solder blobs.). The change_id application is here: http://www.ucapps.de/mios/change_id_v1_9d.zip You will need to edit the main.asm file and rebuild a new main.hex file. I suggest the first thing you do after unzipping is delete all .hex files to reduce the chance of accidents. If you want to run other applications, you'll need to copy the custom LCD driver file from the MB-SID source (app_lcd.inc) into the source directories of the other applications and rebuild them. Once you change the ID to use the custom LCD driver, the display will not work with other applications until you rebuild them with the custom LCD driver. This includes the default "READY." app that runs after reinstalling MIOS. The first person to follow these instructions can go and update the wiki. ;D

I was about to disagree with stryd_one, but I had to re-read his post a few times to fully understand what he's saying... and how he's sort of not answering the question.... stryd_one is right... try to make your layout look good first (which means finding a good switch+cap option) and then work out how to make it fit, if possible. ultra's looking for a good match of encoder and switch, maybe that someone else has discovered. You can find a good combination through varying the gap between panel and PCB and the panel thickness and even "panel mounting" the encoders to the PCB to reduce shaft height above panel. Ultimately it's the encoders that give the most grief. The nice big 16mm ones from Soundwell, Voti, ALPS etc. are tall, with a bushing and shaft that will stick out quite a bit even with a 10mm gap between PCB and panel. I've found the following good combos: 10mm gap, 1.5mm panel, ALPS tactile switches 13mm tall (ALPS part SKHHDTA010), 16mm encoders (Soundwell, Voti, etc), "Waldorf" knobs from ALBS.de (that cover the exposed encoder bushings)... (yeah you all know where I used that combo). You could increase the shaft length of the tactile switches and increase panel thickness to compensate, thus less (or no) encoder bushings showing, use smaller knobs like re'an P401 10mm gap, 3mm panel, "x0xb0x"-style switches (e-switch TL1100 tact with ITT PE caps, go look here), 16mm encoders (Soundwell, Voti, etc), Re'an P401 knobs. A thin datawheel knob could mount on an encoder that's "panel mounted" to the PCB. Still a work in progress (my MB-SEQ) but should work. or... maybe "panel mount" all the encoders to the PCB, use whatever switch/caps you like by adjusting the height of the encoder above the PCB and how far you push on the knobs and/or modify the encoder shaft to suit the knobs. BTW I'm not planning to use MEC switches but they do have a good range of variable height switches with a common PCB footprint so they're worth looking at in your search for good switches. I found them a bit too clicky though.

CLK (the PWM output of the PIC is most often used as a 1Mhz clock for the SID). One would think that's the front view of the plug at the end of the cable.... However, it has been discovered that on some C64 PSUs, the 5V pin is sometimes swapped, on the other side of the ground pin (the middle pin, 4th pin). You can connect both those pins on the socket (bridge with a cut resistor lead) so whichever has the 5V (the 3rd pin clockwise or 3rd pin anticlockwise) it will work with your socket... the other two pins you need to connect have 9V AC so it doesn't matter which way these are connected to the bridge and switch. I think it is time TK updated the schematic and joined those two pins - it's already caused one PCB error ;) and a lot of confusion.

Do I qualify as an honorary Canadian because I buy a lot of genuine Canadian maple syrup, speak French and watch ice hockey? Or do I have to be born in Canada and currently live there? *joke* I just want to buy something with Canadian dollars instead of that pesky, fluctuating greenback. ;D

Funny how reading "Visual Basic" made me *not* click the link :-)

Swindus, this MB-SEQ is simply beautiful! Excellent work! I'm really impressed with the woodwork and front panel without screw heads showing. I wish I knew how to build a wooden case like that, I would make my MB-SEQ the same way.

Madox: all good, just me being slow. Only one CPU being heavily multitasked. All: I found one SID with a dead oscillator! Hooray! This means I'm not wasting my time with testing them first. I had a good run... not one broken SID in the previous thousand tested. The QuadZIF is working beautifully... I can load and unload SIDs with two hands and test/pack SIDs four tubes at a time (52 SIDs). Now all I need to do is speed up the cutting of chip tubes...

If someone designed one with open-source firmware, I would buy it. I don't see the point building one if you can't make your own animations with it... then it's just an expensive, DIY lava lamp with no "hackability" :(

SpectraSymbol stock price rose 23% in morning trade today after TK showed off his MIDIbox-based "Stribe". Josh Boughey, the inventor of "Stribe", was unable for comment, possibly due to the thousands of "Count me in for one Stribe kit minus the Arduino!" emails.

OPL3 invoices are separate, I haven't done them yet, and you mistyped your email address in the order email. ;D The PayPal invoice goes to the email address you supply as your PayPal account (or the PayPal account of the person paying for you).