Wilba

I don't know how well JB Weld sticks to unanodized aluminium, but know for sure that it sticks really well to black anodized aluminium.

I mean design it so that the LCD is mounted directly to the panel, and not overlapping the PCB with other components, and also (I suppose) design around the LCD being a separate thing; don't constrain switch/encoder/gap width to suit the LCD, or mounting things in between the LCD's PCB and the panel. If you use the "threaded spacers glued to back of frontpanel" trick, you can have zero screws on the front panel, as well as much more freedom of the number and positions of the mount points. The LCD can be mounted using threaded spacers (shorter than 10mm though) or even countersunk screws glued to the panel, as you can put the bezel right up against the back of the frontpanel and use nuts to hold the LCD PCB at that level.

I found a good combination for the MB-6582: http://www.midibox.org/dokuwiki/wilba_mb_6582_control_surface_parts_list At least 13mm tactile switches work well with the 1.5mm panel and 10mm gap, and the 10mm gap is enough room for encoders. Mounting the LCD to the same PCB is possible, but you should design around it and mount the LCD to the panel directly, thus allowing for the LCD to mount as close as possible and not be constrained by it. The best thing to do is use a drawing package and draw boxes to represent the component profiles and panels/board and move things around to see how they fit. Don't forget about knobs and LEDs!

Blue LEDs look cool in photos, but are way too bright in real life and a very bad colour for the control surface, especially against a black background. This is why I'm using red LEDs on my next MB-6582. IMHO matching the LED colour to the display is not that important, if it is to you, get a black-on-white Optrex display from Mouser, so that any LED colour and knob colour will match.

Yes, thanks for that! This is an interesting idea, if you want to protect your SIDs from accidental overvoltage on the 5V supply line: http://personalpages.tds.net/~rcarlsen/cbm/saver.txt It might even be worth doing something similar in the next revision of the MB-6582 base PCB!

There should be 9V AC on the two pins either side of the notch. If you measure with a multimeter set to AC, it should read 9V, but it might be different. To give you some idea, the 9V AC coming from my PSU is put through a bridge rectifier and then a 2200uF electrolytic and then a 7809 voltage regulator. If I measure the DC voltage on the input side of the 7809, it's approximately 11V DC, which is what you want... i.e. something rated at 9V AC is supposed to be able to deliver 9V DC after a regulator, so 2 volts above 9V is a good thing. I am confused why you read 11V AC instead of something like 9V AC, but it should be OK because of what I just said, it is regulated down to 9V by the voltage regulator V1 on the PCB. However, if you are not measuring an exact 5V DC on the other pins, don't use it, the MB-6582 PCB expects regulated 5V DC since this is what C64 PSUs are supposed to do (with an internal 7805 or equivalent circuit).

Yes, I now have four in total that look like the picture, with vents on the sides, philips screws holding it together... three black, one beige.

I think I was confusing it with PAL vs. NTSC *whack*

I'm talking about buzz in the PSU unit, I haven't connected it to the SIDs yet. I can't tell if it's exactly a 60Hz buzz either, it's certainly not a high-pitched whine sound, it's a low-pitch buzz like electric clippers. I'd like to have some idea what to look for before I start tinkering and replacing bits.

I just bought three more C64 PSU "bricks" from eBay just like my current one See pic from the eBay auction: They all have correct voltages, but one makes a very loud buzzing noise. Does anyone know what could make such a buzzing noise? Note that these aren't the same internally like the solid plastic C64 PSUs... from opening up my original one, they have a 7805 on a massive aluminium heatsink, a bridge rectifier, electrolytic capacitors etc. Do capacitors make buzzing noises if they're old and worn out? What else could it be? C64 PSU.JPG

from: http://www.analoguerenaissance.com/D80017/3 Maybe it's wrong of me to say this, but what an asshole. If you're going to charge 40EUR and make money off something like this, stop complaining and answer your potential customer questions, regardless of whether they were answered already or not. If someone asks me a question about MB-6582 that is already answered in the wiki etc. I direct them to it. If I got 10EUR every time, I'd have enough to fly to Munich and jam with TK for a week. *whack*

Cool, I had a feeling you knew what you were doing *whack*

You weren't on the list, and I have no email from you about wanting more SIDs. If you want more, just email me.

Obviously if you got this far, you know that J11 is used to control which PIC's TX pin is connected to MIDI Out. This allows you to upload MIOS and the MB-SID firmware to each Core with feedback (checksum validation in MIOS Studio). Once the MB-SID firmware is on each Core, you only need to upload new versions to the Master Core (PIC ID #0) and then cloning to the Slaves can be done as described in the manual. The beauty of this system is you get a reliable upload to all PICs without needing to open the case and redirect the MIDI Out. While it's good to see a control surface PCB nearly finished like this, you really should have waited for the frontpanel, as advised by me many times. You will now have a lot of difficulty marking where on the panel to put the JB-Weld for gluing the threaded spacers, and also, with the encoder shafts taller than the switch shafts, soldering the LEDs in place at the right height will also be very difficult, because you can't lay it down on a flat surface with the panel face 1.5mm above the surface (i.e. the height of the switches above the panel). I suppose there are workarounds to both these problems, and you can now have fun discovering these workarounds! *whack* I advise other people to be patient and wait until they receive their panels before soldering anything to the control surface PCB, and even then, wait until I write a step-by-step guide with photos (which will happen within 24 hours of me receiving my panels!) For more information, read this: http://www.midibox.org/dokuwiki/wilba_mb_6582_control_surface_construction_guide Narwhal, looks great by the way, but to everyone else, I'll say it again louder... Be patient and wait until you receive your panels before soldering anything to the control surface PCB *whack*

*whack*

I meant it is possible to use a 16-pin IDC connector if that's all you had or could get... just crimp 14 wires into it and the other 2 could lead off to the backlight pins.

Knobs and jog wheel look like they are from ALBS. I have that jog wheel myself, and the knobs look like the same as the ones on TK's MB-SEQ.

You should be able to use 16-pin IDC connectors, right? No need for special 14-pin ones.

No... but I can't get the sound of "SEQ TranceBass" patch out of my head. wah wah wuh-wuh-wuh wah wah wuh-wuh-wuh wah wah *whack*

I go back in time and raid the Commodore factory. *whack*

I've bought 877 SIDs so far and nearly all of them were sold or currently being sold. I must be crazy every time I spend thousands of dollars on 15 year old chips assuming people will buy them from me... *whack* But that's the quest, to liberate those little gems from warehouses before someone decides to turn them into landfill. 877 down, 4,000 to go... *whack*

*whack*

They don't come with SIDs. Only crazy people like me sell SIDs. http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php?topic=9829 :o :o :o

4-bit mode is the default for PIC18F4685 with LCD Type #0 in the PIC ID. If you ever want to use 8-bit mode, you need to use a custom driver (there is one in the V2 firmware) and do a bit of wiring.

Yep, that case is droolworthy. I am jealous. :P