Wilba

That really sucks. I have also read a lot of horror stories about PayPal freezing accounts and sucking money out of bank accounts without permission... I thought they had stopped all their shonky practices but obviously not. I live in perpetual fear that PayPal might steal my money, before or after I put it back into my bank account. :(

I don't remember, the person who wanted to do an external CS wanted some different operation when it was connected. I can't find the original thread, sorry. You are right, there's no real need to know if it is connected or not unless you want it to do something different when connected. For example, if you had a very minimalist "step-A" CS, just one encoder to change the patch, and everything else on an external CS, it might be nice to know when the external CS was disconnected so you could return to the main screen and not be stuck in another screen.

This idea has been thought of before and discussed on the forum. I recall there was a discussion about how to detect when this external CS was connected and either I (or someone else) suggested a grounded DIN input on one of the DIN modules in the external CS. Like your idea, the external CS would have DIN and DOUT modules incorporated so that the only connection to the main box was through the DIN/DOUT port, a minimum of a 6-pin connection. You can also consider connecting all LEDs and switches to a shared matrix, this will reduce the DIN/DOUT modules required for switches and LEDs to just 1 DIN and 3 DOUT, plus another 4 DIN for 16 encoders. However, wouldn't you want to take the full control surface to a gig, so you could turn the "Knobs"? (see http://www.ucapps.de/midibox_sid_manual_l.html section "KNoBs menu") I think after you put in all the effort of building a full control surface, you would want to use it all the time, and show it off at gigs too ;)

Thanks man! I only want to learn from other people's layouts, not copy it exactly...

... but it would be easy enough to join the SI pins on either end of the DOUT with a wire underneath. ;)

You have to identify if it's latency between the MIDI keyboard and computer, or in the playback of the audio. ASIO helps reduce the latency of the audio playback, as you can tweak the buffer size, the smaller the buffer, the quicker it can playback the audio (imagine it as a bucket you need to fill before you can empty it into your speakers ;D ) However, if you set the buffer too small, your computer might not keep up and you get underruns (the bucket is emptied to your speakers before it was filled up) and you'll get pops, clicks, noise etc. I recently had some trouble with pops and clicks and thought it was the MB-SID but actually was some system tray app that was occasionally hogging CPU causing the ASIO buffer to occasionally lag. BTW... ASIO4ALL v2 is installed as part of FLStudio 7.

SO is routed through the DIN module, so you can connect DOUT modules after a chain of DIN modules. The inverse is not true, SI is not routed through a DOUT module.

I think it's just a matter of people not fully reading things carefully... it has been stated MANY TIMES that the MB-6582 parts kits that SmashTV is selling contains the parts that go on the base PCB, excluding SIDs. In a perfect world, I would not have designed a project for "mass-production" that required obsolete power supplies, hard to find PCB-mount 7-pin DIN sockets and PCB-mount DPDT rocker switches... using the C64 PSU was convenient for me, and that's all I cared about at the time of designing the original. It still is pretty convenient for most people who already have a working C64, or a PSU left over from salvaging SIDs, etc. If people still are stuck for a PSU, there are other options, there is space on the PCB for a 7805 so you can connect two external transformers (AC adapters) like a 9V AC and a 5V DC, and regulate the 5V inside the box... or alternately, a single big 9V AC and regulate the 5V from the 9V DC internally (only good for PSU Option A).

MEC illuminated switches.... nice! Can you share your FPD file? That's a nice layout.

Left of the "Shift" switch.

There is still good resistance after removing detents.... and I think more resistance (and nicer feeling) than removing detents from the ECC/Voti encoders.

I don't know about "hard-tested"... I connected them, tried all the speed modes etc.

Update: I've finished soldering the control surface and noted some improvements that could be made, in particular one pesky diode that was too close to a switch, which meant the switch wouldn't fit in until I desoldered the diode. I find it strange that no one else pointed this out to me before now ;) My bad for turning off component clearance rule checks hehehe but you have to do that if you want to stick resistors inside IC sockets and other such trickery. For people with panels already, as promised there is no change to component positions that need to match panels, even though the "SID R" LED is too close to the top-left PT-10 panel mount... a very minor trimming of the plastic with a craft knife is an easy fix ;) So I'm happy things fit now, even though technically I have not soldered the two PCBs together and thus fully completed this MB-6582, and don't plan to join them up anyway (long story). The PCB files will be heading over to SmashTV in the next few days.

I was selling the DIN sockets with the first batch of PCBs. I still have a few left.

I don't think they'll work in the UK... aren't you guys on 240 volts?

Probably AU$2 for up to 10 sets... I would not even bother with bubble wrap, just the IC tubes in a standard envelope should be fine.

I also was just joking... I was not suggesting you will one day sell your MB-6582, but I would not care if people did, to upgrade to a new MB-SID V3 or something ;D

sometimes Aussie humour doesn't translate... ;D

I wonder how long before the "lovely little MB-6582" becomes obsolete ;D

No, it's the same firmware for mono or stereo. If you only have one SID connected, turn on the Mono setting from the Ensemble (see the manual)... this will make the Multi, Bassline and Drum engines work properly.

You need to upload an application that uses rotary encoders.

BTW I just noticed my CS wiring PDF is wrong... "LFO Sin" and "LFO Tri" are swapped. "Sync", "CC", "Edit", "Play" are in the wrong order (should be "Play", "Edit", "CC", "Sync") Thus the following LEDs are all on the same DOUT output tracks: --->D6---+--->Osc Control Knob (Assign) | +--->Env Control Assign | +--->LFO 3--->Mode Edit---> SID 2 | +--->LFO Random--->LFO Triangle [/code] I've tried to show also how it branches... not that it really is important... This would then explain most of the following missing LEDs: My guess is the "SID 2" LED doesn't work either, which I predict you'll tell me as soon as you run that test app that lights all the LEDs. IF there's a break in the track leading from JD7:D6, it will probably be before the Osc Control Knob LED not after...

Also you should check that there are no shorts between any of the pins of JD6, JD7 and JD8. Obvious culprits would be two adjacent pins, but maybe a short between two leads of a LED or somewhere else on the PCB might be causing trouble.

OK, here's a LED matrix test that lights up all the LEDs. It does this the same way that the application does it, i.e. each "column" of 16 LEDs is lit in turn, one vertical column of LEDs in the mod matrix plus (up to) 8 other LEDs in the control surface. Just thought I'd mention that, because you should not sink all the columns at once, because this means up to 8 LEDs will be driven in parallel by one DOUT pin through one resistor... might not work, certainly not a good idea. I still think your problem is a short or broken track somewhere... and that there is more than one problem... the 3rd row of the mod matrix is one problem and the other missing LEDs something else... perhaps even dead LEDs or other breaks in the track. I'll have a look at the PCB wiring and see some likely places that a break in a track would cause those other ones not to light.... but it's probably best you run this test app and report all the LEDs that don't work first. mb6582_led_matrix_test2.zip