moebius

Or the new "Tip of the Week" section: If You can't get datasheet for Your display, You can trace the connector pinout using datasheet for the HD44780 as a reference. All pins but Vo (contrast voltage) (and possible backlight) are directly connected from the connector to the HD44780 pins. By watching the controller pin arrangement and using conductivity tester of your Multimeter - You can figure out the pinout by yourself. Moebius

Hi. ;) "So close - so far away" - the LCD driver is compatible, but the pinout is definitely NON-standard.. :P You might want to try google again for the datasheet.. You got the LCD type number/code from the LCD board right. Moebius

Hi. Hmm.. IF you have MPLAB IDE installed somewhere (on Win32), you could try only copying MPASMWIN.EXE and try using it under the wine. That is what I've understood. GPASM will not compile sources made for MPASM but will give you bunch of errors because of the differences in the syntax. Does anybody have better knowledge about this or am I wrong? Moebius

No idea - I *think* I've seen estimate around 200mA or something. Using both 5VDC supply and regulator at the core wouldn't work. But if you can get a good regulated 5vdc/1Amp supply You can wire it directly to core J2 and bypass the regulator (some minor mods needed). It would make sense as You seem to be building this to the case that easily can accommodate the PSU. Moebius

Not bad not bad ;) Yup! No - 195mA is what the pots will draw. The modules will draw power too. You probably DON'T want 5VDC PSU ((wall-wart) as these are usually non-regulated) but something like 9VDC around 1Amp (800mA will work as well) and let the core regulator take care of voltage being regulated down to 5VDC. (the regulator needs some headroom to work correctly, around 1,5-2V and if you leave rectifying diodes on, there's voltage drop too - that's why 9VDC estimate) The system will only draw as much current it needs and the PSU has to be rated above this. If you don't make bad mistakes (shorts) 'oversized' PSU is not going to give you any troubles. No wiring mistakes then! ;D Uhhuh, no?! Where? Uh, You're starting to 'GET IT' - the spirit! Moebius

Hi Tom - You are DEFINITELY following my guide to newbies: http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php?topic=3650.0 Or do I say - You might be able to answer Your own questions if you provided the crucial information of: A. Is the controller HD44780 compatible? B. Do you have pinout of the LCD or the datasheet? Moebius

Hi. I'm no expert, but I'll try to answer your questions: For asm - for your own projects: gputils from http://gputils.sourceforge.net should work. But I think this isn't useful for existing projects because Microchip assembler has different syntax. MPASM under Wine will work. For C - I'd guess SDCC 2.5.0 (from http://sdcc.sourceforge.net/) will work. The instructions on http://www.ucapps.de/mios_c.html page are referring to install in WIN32 environment, but if you understand the general requirements to make it work You can make it also in Linux. Moebius

Ah, Great! Sorry - I sounded a bit cranky.. :) Moebius

Hi! It's not the voltage, but current consumption of the pots.. and if the PSU/regulator combination can supply that. OHMs law! U/R=I for 1k pots: 5v/1000ohm=0,005A 38x0,005A=0,19A=190mA It's a bit on the high side and if you're going to use backlight LCD, the on board (Core) regulator might have heat issues. Using a heatsink on the regulator is probably MUST. Also pay attention to PSU, it has to be able to supply enough current to power the thing up. Moebius

Should work Ok! Yup. This really isn't a factor for MIDIbox usage. It's more important that the "FEEL" is right for your application and faders are 'good enough' quality. Moebius

To 'smite' Wilba or not... ;D M

Hi Dave! (don't take it personally if I sound a bit cranky) I'm sorry! This isn't "an Engineers" (or engineering students programmer), but technicians.. ;D If PIC turns to "smelly piece of burnt silicone" it's a problem with your wiring. I didn't find ANY of the instructions and diagrams misleading or difficult to understand. Maybe it's just me. No, it doesn't apply to Vdd. I don't know why it's held at 3V. It does that to 'US' too.. ('US' meaning folks that successfully have used this programmer to program bootstrap loader to PIC) but we keep on repeating the procedure until the PIC is identified (might even take minutes and tens of runs of the software) - after that programmer works as intended as long as it's not powered down and PIC changed. (A Hint: A clever person would use scripting for this) Correct. Floating. ---- heh - now I can see the /edit.. I think: "No can do" - use change ID application instead. (You'll need working midiport for that) Moebius

Yes. No. One running at SID voltage (with SID regulator bypassed) and regulator at the core regulating down to 5vdc (with small heatsink) Like they didn't tell on that page?! 16VAC wallwart (or 16-18VDC wallwart..) Next question. It's up to Your wiring. If you don't create ground loops - there are no ground loops. Hah! And I would rather debug the optimized SID PSU, than build a new one. It should not be that noisy at all. Moebius

Heh - Good point!! ;) Moebius

no idea, what the problem might be.. :-\ I THINK 74LS165s should work - PIC I/O is both CMOS/TTL compatible.. so maybe some other issues? (Connections ect.) Moebius

Yes - new skin and no way to change it. This is not a whining matter, if you just don't happen to like the new looks, feel free to do so ;D The change was made to simplify modifications to the board and to keep the voluntary hosting provider/webmaster Twin-x/Jeffrey happy! Moebius

Whoops - seemingly some documentation/ kit error there.. itwill be fixed in the near future :D Yup, do this - C7 is part of the audio input and if you don't use it, leaving the cap out isn't going to give you problems. Hmm.. this is something I should see - I'm more convinced it's mechanical stress / heat related effect. Ceramics are hard to destroy and even with some damage in the outer coating it should work and continue to work fine. Moebius p.s. Anyone seen "manually tuned" ceramics in RF circuits? Sawed from the middle.. :D

Hi! These resistors become part of the "load" on that particular branch of the power and cause voltage drop before voltage enters the regulator - this helps regulators run cooler. (Less voltage to "regulate" - less power to dissipate as heat) One word of warning: Don't connect 7912 directly to the same heatsink as 78** regulators. The metal tab (and the middle pin) is voltage input here. Use insulator and plastic screw. Moebius

Hi. Thanks for the tip.. I'm still probably building one, I have a source (here in Finland) for the PCB and for that cheapish ZIF socket. Other parts probably can be recycled from the junk I have. Hmm.. Maybe porting code from 16C54 to 16F84 would be good way to learn stuff. Aren't the instructions sets pretty similar? Then you'd have to figure out differences in the innards ect. Moebius

Thanks Marcel for taking this announcement off my back! ;D (I had to hide for 10 days to escape this responsibility - no, not really 8)) Although we're talking about "New and Improved" wiki, it's still found from the old address: http://wiki.midibox.org/ This wiki is docuwiki based and You can find the syntax from the http://wiki.splitbrain.org/wiki:syntax All contributions welcome - Come on People, be active, share Your knowledge! Moebius

;D I was happy to see usually expensive ELFA to carry cheapish (that's under 20e) ZIF sockets. I should build Willem too as I need to program some EPROMs along uCs.. IC-Prog pages suggests "TAIT" style programmer to work with these (it's buffered) - but on the other hand Why would you work with these old one time programmable PICs? Moebius

Basicly NO - You can expect problems with ANY programmer without proper signal buffering or NOT - Broccoli18 is a fine example, simpler than anything, but You'll need parallel port that works with it ;) Moebius

Hi. I hope somebody could ask for a quote for the same panel done with his service: http://www.cncpanels.co.uk/ He's based on UK - has invested on FrontPanel Designer export filter and is a fellow Midiboxer. Moebius

Yes, then it's 12V 5A - and for the regulation: I'd say - Go for LM317 with a heatsink. Was it a couple of added resistors (over 78** series) and this should give You precision supply with max 3A output. Moebius

That's all OK! Once it has been indexed by the google, the Feminists will rush over here to Show us - "Yes, We can do DIY electronics" Samppa - "Not knowing how to show if I'm serious or not - or not even sure if I am.. not serious" ;D