moebius

Heh - thanx to Jeffrey! (uh and Jidis too!) Actually - this was discussed when changing thoughts about the new wiki. What you call "limited knowledge" is also a strength as it makes You learn these things - Things that "more knowledgeable" people might see as a minor technical issue [limited vision], you have to learn. So - I'm glad you posted this here and I hope you'll be transferring it to the wiki too - remember it can be then edited to form more and more suitable version. This is also a call for others, "blog" (or whatever) your progress, tell us what was "wrong" or hard to understand in the documentation. Also success stories in the troubleshooting with the symptoms and the cure are more than welcome. Moebius/ Samppa IF you're going to use it with some known application or otherwise - You could make presets for the Midi Translator and/or tutorial in using it to control Desktop applications thru midi.... or Am I already demanding too much from you ;D - No hurry!

Yuck! Ok.. the noise is definitely coming from the core, but is it coming from the power or is signal coupling from the IC control signals.. >:( I don't think 74HC595s mind if you do couple of tests and leave inputs/power floating *grin* (IE. You could try removing control signals coming from the core and leave only power from core coming to 74HC595 and then see if the noise is still there..) Moebius

Hi and welcome! There is one Big BUT(T) ;) here.. relay switching is known good method, but replacing the pots: Captain Hastings of this very forum (and the contributor of aout_AD5204.inc, which is modified aout driver for AD5204 digipots) reported severe interference coming from digital control side to the analog side of the circuit - and his project was to build digitally controlled GuitarFX unit. The problem probably mostly lies on the input impedance of the guitar FX and Hi-Gain combined also amplifies even small interference coming from the surroundings: http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php?topic=2556.msg17995#msg17995 I think pilo has made changes to driver for PGA2310.. this chip has very good specs on the paper: http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php?topic=2115.0 illogik's (Hi Marcel!) suggestion of using LED/LDR combo or Vactrol is a good one. These are "slow" anyway, but if You're about to replace a resistor in the circuit LDR (Light Dependant Resistor) will act like one and should be totally "transparent" soundwise. (Althought, you can't get down to zero ohms with this and if you're looking to replace a pot that is in "potential divider" combination, You'll need to do careful adjustments) OTAs are excellent too.. too bad Our Real SDIYers are not here to post information needed.. I'm just slowly getting my head around this OTA thing. Moebius

I just can't believe my eyes! :o Just WHAT are You GUYS? Could You give Smashy a Break? ------------------- You might NOT have noticed that one of his batch Shipments (20th of December) was mostly "lost on shipment" - Before this incident, he still had boards on stock, but decided to reship everything for customers waiting their boards from this shipment. http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php?topic=6055 He had already decided to do this NEW - EASIER TO BUILD, board revision before finding out about the lost shipment and was working on it. I can assure You, it's not that easy task and Smash wanted approval from Thorsten for each and every new board design. While talking to Smash, he has also mentioned some "set-up" trouble in the PCB fab side which definitely isn't HIS fault. ------------------- I hope this time He has put His words right and You don't deliberately missunderstand what He says! He's sorry for the delay and tries to make a small compensation with these "extras" for those who have waited for long and might have studied documentation of the previous board revision to allow them start building immediately. ------------------- Now Smashy's getting costly EXPRESS Shipping from PCB fab to his place, cutting his already small profit margin... ...and then You start sounding like bunch of 5 year old kids, that still don't know Santa Claus doesn't EXIST! Moebius

Hi Strange things... after lot's of head scratching I've found out this cleaning of copper in preparation for toner transfer is - Wrong way to DO IT! Few seconds with wirewool, throw the board in to the ferrochloride bath for some pre-ecthing (wash afterwards with tap water, let dry out) and the toner sticks much better than on the beautiful shiny copper surface! ;D I've used this stuff in the past - worked fine and made soldering SOO much easier with beautiful shiny solder joints each time. This conductivity issue is something that worries me a bit.. In synth VCOs there is absolutely no need for any stray capacitance to ruin the tuning or to twist waveshapes. (Basicly, I've read a story (can't remember where to find it) about flux residue keeping the oscillator from oscillating) Moebius

You GUYS! LOL.. We sure do have the forum alive and kicking with this sorta Humour!! M

Bome's Midi Translator can map incoming midi messages to keystrokes: http://www.bome.com/midi/translator/ Have a look! Moebius

1. This shouldn't be source of the problem. If the encoder is wired wrong (or it's not matching the type specified in the application code) it just should show erratic behaviour when turned. (Whoops, this might be random triggering of the DIN events if it's connected to pins assigned to buttons) 2. Yes - and remember to change: #define DEFAULT_ENC_DATAWHEEL -1 to #define DEFAULT_ENC_DATAWHEEL 0 in the main.asm too (If you haven't done this already) Moebius

Yup, It's non-trivial stuff.. You only have to know these electronic safety classes and other bullshit You won't ever be reading as Your GPL Bible. But hey - I've got a test for You: Take a low voltage transformer - You should have plenty. Short it. Just short its output. What happens? Uh, nothing I suppose. At least the mains circuit breaker won't kill the circuit. Ok, test didn't stop here. I bet if You take 10 mains -> Low Voltage transformers and short them all out. At least one will catch fire. Yup, It was CE specs's and all. Whoops - IF the device shorting out the transformer Just happened to be midibox made and sold by You.. was it an accident? Noo.. when the fire inspectors find the piece that caused the fire. Sorry, You're about to cover all the damages done, not excluding manslaughter. Happy Happy Joy Joy!! M

Ok ;D Yes, it won't restore the copper, but even oxidated dull looking traces do carry electrons.. ;) But it should help the fact, oxidated copper is extremely difficult to solder on. Moebius

Yes, HD44780 and its "clones" have internally programmed character set (with HD44780U having slightly extended set). There's possibility to program 8 5x8dot characters in the internal ram inside the chip and these can be "re-programmed" on the fly by the driving application. Moebius

Glad You asked. I can't speak behalf of SmashTV, but it looks like He is finally getting the boards and in two weeks all this "back order" mess will be cleared out. (That one was for You Smashy! ;D) So, It's Yes - "If You have ordered boards/kits ect. from SmashTV - You will get those soon." (Sorry, if those don't look like the ones You ordered - there was board revision going on.) Moebiius/Samppa (And NO, we didn't have THAT good time in Las Vegas)

Thanks - I always love to see wood (or wood like) material on DIY electronics - Such a beatiful mix. Just had a quick look at Your mechanical drawing and it looked good - Are You like sure, You don't want freeware CAD suggestions or something?! Moebius Don't give up because of the oxidation - buy "Solderlac" and spray the copper with it. If this doesn't work - I give You "the money back guarantie", I'll send You the money You spent on the "Solderlac".

Hi. Throwing this out of me failing memory.. uh, ok checked it. One YMF262 and one OR two YAC512s. Using 2 YAC512s gives you 4 separate output channels and therefore more versatility in audio output routings. Moebius

Jidis! Now You got long plentiful Applauds from me! Just if Midi had enough power to share (or LCDs low enough current consumption)... (Plug'n'go midimonitor :D) Moebius P.S. BpM - It's not possible to actually "reverse" the characters programmably. Doing it by using 8 programmable characters inside HD44780 controllers is "Hackaday" stuff ;D Moebius

You simply don't get IT? "the license" or the way You see it doesn't matter. Me as a Midiboxer have certain ethics. I highly respect Thorsten Klose for sharing his Intellectual Property for all of use to use and to build midiboxes. Let's look it the other way: If TK had decided to NOT publish his IP to the public, rah You wouldn't be here to discuss about using his work for Your Commercial Venture. OK? If You want to build a midicontroller for You and Your friends - feel free to use MB. If You want to sell midicontrollers - feel free to make Your Own: Your own code, Your own hardware design Moebius.

19" 5U? Please take some pictures when it's on a standard rack - Will ya? Moebius

Hi. Only Mr. Midibox, Thorsten Klose can answer this. But Don't do it. The midibox project isn't intended for commercial interest of anybody. It's free DIY for anyone. That is the price you have to pay. Moebius

There are operating systems and operating systems.. some use file extensions (How retarded is that? How much virii spreads because this?) and others relay on "file magic" to recognize file type. Anyone with proper OS can use "file" utility software. (I'm not using a proper one ;D) So, You *nix (clone) users, could you run file against .jar (JavaARchive) file to see if it's recognized as jar file or as zip file. Moebius

Didn't Java run on all supported platforms? Cool! Moebius p.s. Next we have the binary and installation instructions for different platforms. Sounds like Java, Yeh!

And the pin for First Pot in J5 is the one Close to "J5" tag..? Moebius ;)

No need for separate AIN module. Search the main.asm for: #define DEFAULT_NUMBER_AIN 0 and change it to reflect the number of analog inputs. Pot "outputs" are then connected directly to J5 on the core. (Don't ask me what is the pin 1) I suppose that by defining the number of AINs correctly no pins on core has to be clamped to ground.. ..and as always - Correct me if I'm wrong! Moebius

Well.. Many people have found this secret "hidden" function, by using compiled Midibox64 application and failing to reading the documentation :D I don't know the software solution (see the examples), but if you leave analog input pin floating and read the value and scale it down to 1-10, would that be random enough? ;D Moebius

Are You sure? Shuttle outputs (I think it's called) so called grey code: Only 4 additional din pins are needed. One for direction and other 3 others have various bit patterns for different rotation angles. Moebius

Absolutely not. USB has "build in" jitter and latency for any kind of data. ;D Mixing stream will not affect this or make it much worse. Buahahahaa! Moebius - soon to be happy owner of Parallel port Miditimepiece AV *grin*