Wilba

Have a good rant if you like, but you have forgotten to tell us what M-Audio product was giving you trouble, how it wasn't working and what you had to do to get it working. I can sort of make out that you got some product for a laptop and the drivers didn't work for some reason, but which product, and what did you need to upgrade on your laptop, and why not just return it before upgrading and buy something else? I've had absolutely no trouble at all with my M-Audio Delta 1010LT, plugged it in, rebooted, installed drivers, done... 8 audio channels in/out, low latency ASIO, plus MIDI I/O, all works fine for me. So any "beginners who dont know how f**ked up [M-Audio] products are" can take my advice too, and not be scared away from what I think was a great product at a great price.

The new FPE panels I got have a different surface on the back, it's not the same matte black finish, more of a grey anodised look, with feint oil-slick effect. Graphite wasn't marking well so I used a Sharpie. hehehe one time I actually missed two! Now I count and recount the marks before I add JB-Weld, and then count the JB-Weld blobs. One thing I wasn't too explicit about before, was the need to clamp the PCB/panel where there are gaps between the panel and the spacers, i.e. where the warp in the PCB is pulling the spacer away from the panel. Clamping together with fingers at various places will show where the gaps are, and that's where you put the clamps. For everyone's amusement, I've glued a screw to the rear panel for a strength test, gluing it between two of the holes for stereo sockets, so it won't be seen after construction. Others might be interested in doing the same thing, so you can demonstrate to yourself how well JB-Weld is sticking to your panels. I should have glued a spacer as well but I forgot. BTW all this discussion will be refactored into the construction guide.

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/7686/chocolate+bavarian

Good to hear!

Sorry, I've been a bit slack and haven't followed up much on your problem. I can only list the obvious things... 1. You are not using PIC18F4685 chips. (Although I think the app won't work at all if this is the case!) 2. There is a break or short somewhere between the diode pads, the PIC pads, the R80 pads or along the CAN bus track, either due to a bad solder joint or lifted pad or the track is cut. 3. The diodes aren't the right diodes or are broken. You should look at the PCB PDF file and see how the diodes are connected to the PIC pins and use your multimeter to test if there is a good connection between the two, and also test that the pads aren't shorting to anything else nearby, like a via. If you have trouble with this then I'll do a screenshot of the PCB layout with some places to test. One interesting test to do would be to run tests with the master PICs in a different slot. It may be that if the master PIC (#1) can't "see" itself on the CAN bus then all other communication to the other PICs won't work, so if you can move it to another slot and it works, then the problem is in the #1 "Core" module on the board. Try PIC #1 (ID=0) in Core #2, no other PICs installed. You won't have a control surface in this case, since the control surface is controlled by Core #1. To get the control surface running from a Core other than #1, you could connect J8/J9 of the other Core with J8/J9 of Core #1, since this is in series with the DIN/DOUT chain at the bottom of the board. Two 10-pin IDC connectors and some 10-wire ribbon cable is the easiest way, but if you know how, you could connect just four wires directly to the pins of J8/J9 (the two common ones on the left, and the two in the middle) since the other two are 5V/Ground which is already there. When exactly does the SID1 not available, CAN bus errors message appear?

Fair enough. I know the construction guide is a bit brief and lacking a lot of photos... I'm taking photos as I build this current one. BTW I've always called them G-clamps and wikipedia verifies that I'm not a complete tosser who has got it wrong for twenty years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-clamp IMHO they look more like a G. Almost entirely not true. My sweat can remove tarnish from copper. Maybe everyone's can, I dunno, mine's really good at it though.

Yeah, it couldn't be too hard to ship a cut resistor lead with every one.

Interesting... Neb, I'm not trying to be critical, just pointing some things out. The aim of using countersunk heads was so it's as narrow as possible where it fits into the PT-10 mount holes, as well as allowing JB-Weld to go over the screw head and onto the panel. I used spit and a dirty rag. I recommend spitting on the panel and not licking the rag. (That's a joke for the humour impaired). I have no idea how non-identical clamps don't work. Don't all clamps basically clamp? Mine aren't all identical, they're G-clamps of different sizes. I also have no idea what the extra set of hands are for... ;D Please elaborate! Once you get to this point: you can add JB-Weld to the bottom of the screw head, then pull the screw UP from the PCB side, using friction between the nut and the PCB to hold the nut while you turn the screw, this will then lower the screw head onto the panel. Once you've made contact with the panel, you can then centre it in the PCB hole. The only thing that can "stuff up" the gluing spacers stage is getting the switch shafts into the holes, if one or more switches have moved (i.e. aren't still fully "snapped-in") this can leave you in a sticky situation, with the spacers already touching the glue blobs. So, before doing the gluing spacer state, check each switch you're using as a guide is firmly snapped in.

I used to be SID-less once too... http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php/topic,6177.0.html Two years later and 1500 SIDs have passed though my hands. ;D

Can I emigrate to this fantasy land you live in where optocouplers are $0,10? ;D

Your panels are here ready to be sent to you along with the SIDs you've bought and all the other stuff you wanted to buy from me but have yet to pay for.

Why did you write in white? BTW there is no postal insurance or registered post for parcels to Israel, so I could not fulfil your specific request for this. I did not jinx the parcel by telling you before now ;)

Excellent! Find attached a replacement "special_characters.inc" file for people to conveniently drop into the "src" directory and then rebuild their setup_*.hex file. It is so easy to setup the new GPASM toolchain that this is a good exercise for everyone to try out building their own .hex file instead of using the ones that come in the .zip file. http://www.ucapps.de/howto_tools_gpasm.html special_characters.inc special_characters.inc

For what it's worth, I use wooden skewers to apply, and mix with a plastic spatula thing that came with some two-part epoxy.

Please somebody tell me if these OPL3 chipsets actually work, I haven't had the time to test them.

THIS BULK ORDER IS CLOSED Jump to: http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php/topic,10859.msg85588.html#msg85588 The following is old news: As per this thread: http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php/topic,10477.msg79418.html#msg79418 I'll soon be buying some more OPL3 chipsets when I order more 6582 SIDs, so just put your name on the waiting list here: http://www.midibox.org/dokuwiki/wilba_opl3_bulk_order and when I do the order around the 13th March, there'll be enough to meet your order. Same prices, same deal, yada yada yada *bump*

Going through old emails, forgot about Brocca also. Make that one spare set. ;D

Oops... I forgot that supraanimo was wanting one set. So make that two spare sets (unless he doesn't take one set).

I'm selling 3 1 panel set from the MB-6582 Panels Bulk Order run last year: http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php/topic,9714.0.html They have the alignment errors as I've discussed in the bulk order thread, but the artwork is not too close to the panel holes nor is it flaking off yet. Therefore they're ideal for people who aren't too fussy about these things and think that US$40 for panels with imperfect artwork is still a good deal. Maybe you can get them silkscreened again or spray it and use Lazertran. If they were mine, I would give them away for free (like I did with my two panel sets), but they're not mine, I'm selling them on behalf of friends who got them shipped with my panels and don't want them anymore. The price is US$40 plus approximately US$10 shipping to anywhere. Payment by PayPal. The holes are fine, but there is absolutely no guarantee whatsoever about the silkscreen alignment, quality or durability. Buyers would be effectively retroactively joining a bulk order that went a bit pear-shaped. I can't stress this point enough - if you buy them and they arrive and you don't like them, bad luck, not my problem. I don't care when you pay as long as you don't care when I post them. ;D

I did a similar experiment with a spacer and a piece of raw aluminium, it didn't stick too well at all, but I didn't give up and tried gluing to the panel anyway and it worked. You might say why did I bother with the experiment... ::)

Pin 10 goes to the BC337 which is sinking the current for the backlight. Grounding this means you're connecting +5V/ground to the backlight without any current limiting. Perhaps your transistor or other joints were bad or the brightness pot wasn't turned up, or a break in the other tracks. Try removing the solder bridge at pin 10 and checking continuity for pads of T1, R3, R4, P1.

Actually it's more of a priority based queue, where priority is inversely proportional to the amount of nagging.

Don't use the PT-10 panel! The whole point of using the PCB is so the switches align with the panel holes. You don't need to worry too much about lining up the screws with the enclosure, the holes in the PCB align with the enclosure and any slight difference is fixable with a craft knife (the case is plastic!). I had to enlarge the mount holes on the case anyway because I used a bit too much JB-Weld last time so the "cone" of JB-Weld would fit inside the mount hole. Having this cone touch the mount holes is not a problem because then there's no tension on the panel, it can't move any further into the mount hole! You can see from the photos that with some switches snapped-in and the PCB and panel clamped together so the switches are aligned to the panel holes, you can take your time positioning the screws so they are centred in the PCB mount holes and can apply the JB-Weld liberally around the screw heads.

It's not a queue, it's a set ;D

Maybe just create a wiki page and everyone puts their pre-orders there.