Flecko

Thanks for the quick reply Thorsten. I have plenty of experience with asm. I just wasn't sure, from a technical point of view, if it was possible. I'll just need to do alot more research now before I actually start on this project. If it ever comes to fruition, I'll be sure to post about it here. Thanks again! -Flecko

Hello all, I recently had a crazy idea about programming my PIC, using a bootloader, from an EEPROM. I've never even attempted to write a bootloader before, and so its new territory for me. I've read over Microchips bootloader paper in PDF format, and its somewhat confusing. ( http://www.microchip.com/stellent/idcplg?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&nodeId=1824&appnote=en012031 ) See, I would like to be able to burn my programs to an EEPROM, and then 'plug' them into my PIC system and have it program itself from there. The problem is, I don't know if this can technically work. Does anyone here have any bootloader programming experience? I'm all ears as to whether this will work. Thanks everyone, -Flecko

Well, the pic was unharmed. Not sure about my SID or my LCD yet, but at least the circuit works again, despite my stupidity. I thnk from now on I'll have some safety diodes in place. Thanks everyone, -Flecko

Nope, never needed to before. Its just the 7805 running power straight into my circuit. I'm an idiot. Hopefully the negative side of the ac didn't hurt my circuit. Otherwise, I was thinking this might not be so bad. -Flecko

I accidentally hooked an AC power supply(13v, 200ma) up to my PIC project. It is running into a 7805. The system seemed to be getting power, and it wasn't until I realized it wasn't working that the power supply was AC. I left my DC one at my moms house and so I grabbed one I had laying around here before realizing what an idiot I am. What parts could this potentially ruin? i had a 30 dollar LCD hooked up? Anyone? I guess I'll find out when I get the DC supply. Thanks all, -Flecko

A professor of mine showed me an LCD he had recently bought from Digikey that is a minimal small 16x2 display. I was impressed with the size of it and asked how much he paid for it, and was shocked when he told me he only paid around $5 dollars(USA) for it. I quickly asked what the part # was for it, and today, he emailed me back and let me know what it was, so I'm passing it on to everyone here to help you out if you're in need of an LCD. http://www.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?PName?Name=67-1781-ND&Site=US Enjoy everyone, -Flecko

Thanks for the quick reply Thorsten, you basically confirmed what I had suspected. Once my 18f452 gets here, hopefully things will progress. -Flecko

I've looked extensively over the schematics for the SID and core modules, but I don't understand how a 40mhz PIC and a 1mhz SID can be connected together without timing conflicts. I ran into this problem early on in my design with my HC11 and SID. The HC11 runs at 2mhz and the SID at 1mhz, so my enable signals sent to the SID weren't latching up correctly. I'm trying to rebuild my design with a PIC 18F452, so my question is, how would I go about interfacing it with the SID? I understand how the serial data/address lines work with the shift registers and all, but the time domain(seperate oscillators and all) part is killing me. Anyone shed any light for me? -Flecko

Having personally used accelerometers, I must say, they're the devil. I'm sure alot of people like them, I just had a bad experience with them. Thats my opinion of course. -Flecko

I can't condone the use of pirated software. Thorsten writes all his code in asm and you don't hear him complaining. I'm going to be purchasing a compiler for my PIC, just as I did with my HC11. Its really best this way, I mean, even if you are on a tight budget, you bought the hardware, why not buy the software as well? If you're not working on something of your own, then you can just use a precompiled version from uCapps and burn it that way, without having to pirate software. I'm not meaning to come down on you, but I'm sure most here will agree this is the right course of action. I will, however, be trying out the demo version of this compiler, just because I'm curious to see how it compares. Thanks again, -Flecko

Ok, that makes perfect sense. Does anyone have any links to any samples of arpeggio? I'll check around on the site and see if I can find any. This sounds like something cool I'd like to implement. Hopefully I can get it right without having to do too much guesswork. Thanks, -Flecko EDIT: Found some examples, this is awesome. I....must...implement!

I know what the meaning of arpeggio is ( http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=arpeggio .) But I want to know exactly how an arpeggiator works in a synth. I mean, how do you/would you implement one? By rapidly playing the note over and over as the person holds down a key or what? I just wonder if anyone has any further explanation or discussion, as I might want to include an arpeggiator on my synth. Thanks all, -Flecko

After extensive searching, I can say that I haven't found ANY free C compilers for the 18F line of processors. There are a few for the 16F line, but they're not all that great IMO. The only thing I've found that is close to reasonable for a hobbyist such as myself is this: http://www.picant.com/c2c/ If anyone finds anything else, please post it here, this would be nice for those of us that don't like to dig as deep as assembly :P -Flecko

Hey everyone, I felt I just needed to post an update. I got the "new" c64 in the mail the other day(my 4th one if anyone is keeping track) and its SID chip works! My HC11 synth just squeaked its first sound a few seconds ago! I'm totally psyked and really happy. This means I havent' been wasting my time and lots of money. So I guess my design moves forward. Tomorrow, I'm gonna go down to the lab and wire up my 20x4 LCD, rotary encoder, and push button. This thing is gonna be sweet I tell you! I'll be sure to take some pictures and update my webpage. A big thanks to Thorsten and Mindrealm and anyone else who answered my questions ;D There's a good chance I'll have more in the future. Thanks everyone, -Flecko

Yup, I'm an idiot, like I said. Helps alot, thanks everyone ;D -Flecko EDIT: Actually, while we're on the subject, anyone have both .brd and .sch files for a design? That'd help me alot more too! Thanks!