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Nils: Yeah the 2x20 worked fine. I did try the 2x40's one at a time, but on the cable I had made for two. Last night I made a cable for 1 and tried it but this time all I got was a row of black boxes across the bottom of the screen, and no Back light. Also the contrast pot only seemed to have an effect through the last 10 degrees of its range. The datasheet for the lcds says they are led backlight and does not mention any negative voltage requirement, however I noticed 2 things. 1) the current requirement was 410 mA and 2) The display's box has one model number (which matches the Electronics Goldmine website and the datasheet I downloaded from same website, but the display itself has a slightly different number, so I must see if I can find a datasheet for that model Number. Ok I did and it should still work. the controller is KS0066, do I need to do anything special to make this work, I thought it was on the compatible list. Anyway My power supply is only 500 mA and so is the core regulator. What are other people doing on their seq's? I didn't notice any warnings on any related pages (does not mean theyr'e not there though..) Should I supply the backlight voltage seperately from the core? or do I need to install a higher current regulator? The 500mA power supply can be replaced, it was just the first one I found lying around..... About the encoders with switch: I definitely want the switch, I was going to use it for the 16 GP buttons of the seq to conserve panel space. I think I will need to order the detented encoders with switch and keep the non detented encoders with switch for a synth, since the accurate selection of discrete values is neccesary on the seq, and the smooth sweep of a non detented encoder more desireable for say a synth filter. Monokinetik: Yes I reread the section on the mixer map and that was kind of what it sounded like but still not so clear. the way you described it is better. I can see the use for it though, but you are correct it is not what I first thought it was, which is much like what you said in the second half of your post. Thanks all and I'll Keep you updated. Things are slow for me since I only have internet at work right now....

Update: Crystals arrived and soldered to core. Time to test, hooked up my two 2x40 lcds and......nothing :( . Pulled the 2x20 from my old sid module, mios bootstrap loader ready...... Need to recheck my lcd cabling and pinouts......everything seemed fine though. Also, the encoders I ordered with switch, are detent less.....I hope they will be useable, but I can certainly see why you would not want this for the seq......So now encoders with detent and no switch, or order more encoders? Well at least the core works, though I never doubted it would.

Thanks to Wilba, I will have a good set. Who's the Man? Wilba! Thanx AB

Thanks Stryd_one. After re-reading the info on mixer maps I am confused again and not so sure it would be redundant to have a dedicated control surface. I will just have to try it once I have my crystal in for the core (should be here tomorrow). I made a little adapter and cable for the 2 displays. I bought the cheap ones from electronics goldmine, about 4 dollars each. soldered up some more of the First button led matrix panel, what a job.....still have the Anodes of all the LEDS to solder and then another whole board. New question 3. Does there exist the possibility for a dedicated record button? I guess I could just use the F buttons? And how about combining the Play and pause buttons to behave like such: Seq stop>press play, seq start>press again, seq pause>press agin, seq start, etc....? This probably wouldn't be worth the trouble, but is more what I am used to. Thanks, more updates soon.

Hey All, It's good to see some long time Midiboxers still here..... I haven't been around in some years, went to school, got married, moved....... Now Kind of settled in and really wanting a seq V3. So I have ordered a core and some parts from smash tv. Your boards are looking really nice now By the way. First some pics of what I have started already. I Had an old Altec Mixer lying around that no longer worked (power supply I think, not needed so not worth my time to fix, may use the channels as another project, each chaannel is a discrete board, which surprised me for this type of mixer). So This mixer chassis will become my new Seq's home. The Faceplate comes off the top and there is another Aluminum frame under it, which I have begun to cut up for mounting the components. Eventually a nice front panel will be made to put on top just like the original design. I got some old 911 call center equipment at an auction, which had some nice buttons, the ever popular and oft cloned Schadow type. A little time with a desoldering tool (Den-on SC7000Z , google it, then buy one), and I had about 100 buttons free. I have decided to go with the button duo-led matrix, and got started on the boards. It looks like one big board, but it is actually two boards that I cut so they would line up with no gap between buttons. I have finished the diodes and jumpers of one board and the buttons are only tacked to place on the other. Haven't started the LED's yet. I have my two LCD's and will wire them up as soon as the core is done, I am waiting on a Crystal right now. I am going with the encoders with built in switches for the 16 GP buttons, the spacing didn't work out so well with the Schadow switches so I will just panel mount the encoders so that they will line up. To the right of the matrix panels I will mount the additional buttons and transport controls, something like this, all buttons not shown yet: As you can see, there will be some space left on the front panel, also the interior of the chassis is quite roomy: I am not entirely sure what to do with the extra space... some things I am strongly considering are: A quad stereo Sid, an MBFM, Analog Drums, Or a control surface, or some combination of the above. So on to the questions: 1) What is the best way to interface the seq to a quad sid if I build them into the same case? Is there a better way than seq midi out to sid midi in? Can I use I2C to send midi directly? 2) How is the built in mixer feature of the seq v3? would building in an extra control surface be redundant? Can I assign the seq's mixer freely to any midi command? I thought I had more Q's than that but now I am forgetting them. I will update this thread with new pics as the construction progresses, but it may be slow, I am poor, busy, and married now;) Thanks in advance, and it is great to be back!

You could put the connections on the front panel( up at the top out of the way).

And this should do the trick for my Sequential circuits six track too.... I hope so antway. can change patches, sometimes........ some number keys don't work. I tried alchahol too and it seemed to help for a short while. Good off topic post ma9!

Maybe there's a usb/firewire interface in there... seems to have audio I/O on it too. Surely theres plenty of space in that big thing.

Or if your really twisted , a juiced up one... ;)

A textbook summing amp with a headphone amp added in for kick's. Should do the trick.

This is the site with that claim on it: edit, I misquoted, it says as much as he gets paid for a two hour set, which is still waaaayyyy to much! http://musicthing.blogspot.com/2005/03/sashas-new-ableton-controller.html also listed above i see.

Do a google search for sasha maven and follow the links from the original posting above. I made a list but i just hit BACK accidentally and lost my post.... seems to be on a lot of forums, people talking and such. Didn't read one mention of midibox or TK or who actually built the controller. Sasha just refers to "the right people". It seems like he never heard of midibox. He apparently paid a large sum for this thing, one article sayaing almost as much as he gets fora two hour set, and you know he gets alot. The box does look like it could be a midibox, though one without an LCD. Doesn't really even look all that special to me. What a fool, he coulda had so much better, so much cheaper.(though the case looks like it may have cost a bit).

No option to choose more than one?

Your Welcome.

They sell some stuff called tin-it. should be able to find it a lot of places. One thing I've noticed, but not tried, is that when I use desoldering braid on a board with bare copper traces, and it slides a little, it sticks to the traces. Maybe you could use it like a sponge, and wipe the tin to the traces? If you got solder with a low melting point, and used a temp controlled soldering iron turned down as low as neccesary, you would minimize the chance of lifting pads or traces with excessive heat. I can't speak for the tin-it, never used the stuff, but I have seen it.

Don't forgrt you need a way to get feedback to the lcd, or risk gettig out of sync with the host application, if you used a mouse click or keycomand to unmute a track you muted with the wireless box for example. a gamepad with rumble feature must have some way to trigger the rumble, so that would be the one to look at. Good luck!

7 pin DIN. (like midi, but 7 pins).

Yes! I can see this for those late nightheadphone situations...Feel tha Bass! Seriously though, If you've got a controller and the time go for it. I'm sure you could get it to trigger some note on/offs, in fact I'm now having visions of playing drum beats on a playstation controller. ( X for kick, O for snare, L and R pads for hat's and cymbals....)if you just sent some minimal data to the midibox, and let it decode and generate midi data... somehow get the controller to replace some buttons or encoders. Sorry i don't have any solid answers, really just thinking aloud. If you have a logic analyzer, you could determine the output of the reciever for each button, and then write mios code to convert that data to your desired midi note or cc or whatever. I know this isn't exactly like dancing around on stage with a wireless midibox strapped to your arm, but it could still be cool. and i just thought, i bet the range of those controllers isnt too great.

This is true, but The amount of data for the dozen or so buttons is minimal. A midi drum pattern probably has more data, especially at 180 BPM ( though I have seen some intense button pushing in the heat of battle). Then add in your synth lines and CC's , you use lots of those right? Any way, I'm not exactly sure how a gamepad works, but i would guess the buttons send a binary code, maybe on bit to identify the controller(player 1 or 2) and 3-4 more to identify the button(3 bits allows for 8, 4 for 16) and a bit to indicate on or off.so this is maybe a note on/off message for midi, any analog sticks would need to be converted todigital, I would imagine this to be about equivilent to a midi cc. so if you only wanted to play 16 notes and use 2 cc's, maybe it would work. Actually it could work even better than that. I believe kenton is working on a wireless midi transmitter/reciever (maybe it's out already?) but knowing them it won't be cheap. here it is http://www.kentonuk.com/products/midistream.shtml it seems to be one way, expensive, and you cant use two in close proximity (they all use the same frequency) but it can be done. I don't know how much hype is in that ad on kentons page , or the "Reviews" on the link (like they would put a bad one on there). Anyway, i guess I just made my whole post pointless......

The problem with wireless is that it's really hard to do accurate timing. Say a data packet is lost, it must either be resent or ignored. Midi isn't ethernet, it can't just reorder the data after it's recieved, it needs to get it all, in order and on time. though with a high enough transmission rate,it should be possible. anyway, its really not as easy as it would seem at first thought.

Great work! we have been discussing similar ideas on this thread http://69.56.171.55/~midibox/forum/index.php?topic=4195.0 So some questions. Where you able to use the dout to directly trigger the 808 Modules? I was thinking this could be possible, or I was thinking to use a monostable multivibrator. Of course the less circuitry the better. Anyway, that's real good work you did, plus the documentation and website too! Much respect to you!

Indeed , very nice work.... especially the aout for accent! And it seems like he uses the dout directly.

I am strongly considering a Tektronix 7000 series mainframe. Theese are Modular units and can be configured as O-scope, Logic analyzer, spectrum analyzer, DMM and more, all by changing modules. Plenty of used ones in various conditions on Ebay, or for higher price (and calibrated) elsewhere. http://www.jvgavila.com/tek7000.htm http://www.caip.rutgers.edu/~kahrs/testeq/7000.html For some info, the second one will help compare the different mainframes. Of course you may decide this is not for you, but I list it as one possibility. enjoy, AB

Hmm.. with some coding effort, probably yeah.. (Would this then involve counters for each DOUT pulse duration..?!) Bye, Moebius ( Using mios to generate the pulse would likely use some sort of counter function from the pic or mios) Well, It looks like it could go both ways. Doing it in software would probably be the "easier" solution, except for me because I have no idea about MIOS Programming yet, and I think I actually know how to do it in Hardware. I wonder if it would be possible to build into MBSEQ? All that would be needed is to allow drum notes (once there is a drum mode anyway) to toggle a DOUT pin long enough to trigger the monostable multivibrator. I have no idea how much code that seemingly simple action would take. I will Try to finish a test core tommorow or friday, and see what I can do with MIDI IO 128. P.S. Sorry If I jacked your thread Airmailed......