Fx3_hdrive

well, every1 seems to start with their panel design think of what controlls u want to have, pots, encoders, faders, MFs, CVs, touchpads, theramin antenas ??? then find out how many modules it will need, for example mine has 48 encoders, 28 buttons and an LCD Module - for that i will need 1 Core and 4 DINs, (2 allready finished and working ;D) i'm sure u read the main site 100s of times and u know that maximum a core could handle is 128 digital inputs, (thats 4 DINs) and mine is exatly 124 ;D. and as tb mentioned, search through the forum b4 u post anything, your problem might have been answered already somware... Best Regards Yarek T

Update: i've fixed the 2 DIN modules, now the buttons respond fine, but main problem remains.

hello all the talk about PC-PSU has triggered a "self-protect" algorythm in me :P Be EXTREMLY carefull with PC-PSUs since they work at high frequency high voltage and u wont feel anything until your skin starts burning !!!!!!!! DO NOT OPEN THE CASE !!!!!!!! (even if its turned off, there are 1 or 2 massive caps inside) I speak of personal encouner, luckily it wasnt a bad 1, all the tissue recovered :P Yarek T

the letter at the end notates the manufacturer of the transistor, as mobeus said hfe might be slightly different. nothing to worry about as long as the base number is correct "BC 547" even if the number after is like BC 547-25, BC547-50 etc...etc... hope this helps

hi i have a 1x16 LCD that is connected to my midibox 64E (it isnt finished but...). the lcd displays everything weird, it would display half of the first line and half of the second on the same line, and it says Jnternal ??? because i dont have any encoders yet i cant operate it propperly, but i created a litle controll panel with first 4 switches, Exec, Right, Left, Snapshot, but only the exec seems to work ??? (it also sends midi note on and off on severall chanels. the rest of the buttons wont do anything ??? can that be a short on the board or something? oh and 1 last thing, because i designed my midibox with 48 encoders and 28 buttons that gives us 124 digital inputs, :) just the right size ;), the q is do i have to edit something in the script/code to make them all work? i'm utterly useless at programing :( thank you in reserve EDIT: Msg icon and title

Adolf Hitler (Sorry, nothing else springs to mind)

hi thanks for ignoring my post, this is a realy helpfull forum (NOT). i'm getting tired with stuff like that !! you are off to the beach? and i have to stay in the house and tinker with my smoked JMD, with no help from you guys !! i promised my "sponsors" that it will be finished by september !! P.S. sorry for my attitude, it had to come out, i'm pleased that there is smonething simpler that JMD and i want to try it (as a beta tester) but i cant without any help from you guys.

hi this topic is created so people can post pictures and questions about their mains grounding concerns. mains is dangerous and unless you know what you doing, post a pic of your internal wiring here and let other people "inspect" it. but remember this is not 100% confirmation so its you own risk (i would go to an elecrician to inspect it). hope this helps. P.S. i wanted to ask some q's myself. hehe... P.P.S. i hope i can get a ftp address so i can post peoples pics here but if anyone has got a free one, posting pics from there would be a big help.

hi this topic is created so people can post pictures and questions about their mains grounding concerns. mains is dangerous and unless you know what you doing, post a pic of your internal wiring here and let other people "inspect" it. but remember this is not 100% confirmation so its you own risk (i would go to an elecrician to inspect it). hope this helps. P.S. i wanted to ask some q's myself. hehe... P.P.S. i hope i can get a ftp address so i can post peoples pics here but if anyone has got a free one, posting pics from there would be a big help.

hi audio grounding is going a little bit out of my knowlage so i cannot comment on previous posts. :P i will post another thread, people will post pictures and questions about their mains grounding concerns (many people use internal PSU as i recall) for other people to "inspect" or give advice. be safe people .

hi thankx very very much, yes i was looking for that but i think the company put their encoders out of sale because it said error on the page, can you confirm that the link works and it likns to the encoder itself? i will e-mail them and ask anyway. thakx

yes i want to try broccoli18 but i dont know how it works and what to do and stuff...

hi thanx for your reply the zener diode has cooked only because i forgot a 220 resistor to limit the current !! i have done my JMD on a vector board so its pretty messy !! A lot messy !! i hope i didnt ruin the PIC, its 8 GBP. i'm currently focused to buy an ipod, is a bit better than MB !! :P or is it? i cannot find a replacement zener diode (i have lots of electronic junk as i mentioned but if you tell me that i can find zeners in particular items (such is power amps, c64 or stuff like that) i might try digging into it). i will check my PCB again, but as i said its hard to find a replacement. thanks, awainting replys.

hi i just looked back couple of posts and i'm thinking that some people coud have missleading info. one thing is true: MAINS IS VERY DANGEROUS. A true story: one time in my hame town one guy had a drill that had live wire touching the metal case (we in russia dont have earth pin on a plug) and he accidently touched the radiator (he was drilling at that time) he was dead instantly! i myself dont know much about mains but i know to be extra careful !! make shure you see somone that can assure you that you creature (MidiBox) is safe, you might miss out the obvious thing. P.S. you need to make a switch and make sure its on live wire (thus when you flick it off it breaks the live wire to the tranformer). P.P.S. can i have some more info on the fuse? because i dont have an internal fuse but just the one on the plug. its about 5A. another story quite irrelevent to midibox: on internet i found a site which describes how to make a 10 to 40 KV generator using a special transformer (yes it is 40 000 v) and suprisingly that voltage is not fatal (it will give you a big sting though) because it has only 13mA (not enough to defiblilate a human heart) it is not fatal. but it hurts !! the target of such big voltage is to create a spark or an arc of plasma (heated air to more than 1000 C) i've built one myself using a normal tranformer. it takes voltage not from mains but from a wall wart PSU and could be adapted to run from a battery providing it can squize 4 A. i dont want to give you the address of that site incase you'll try to build it..hehe.. :P DONT try this at home if you didnt work with high voltage before. thankx.

hi thanx for you reply yes it does read it in about 3 minutes, and another interesting thing, when i dissconnect the jmd from the serial cable and read it it comes out as "0000 0000 ...." because of that i know that it reads correctly, the pic is blank, i have made some sort of DIY voltmeter using a sensetive head form an old vynil-to-tape recorder, its not accurate but it works and supprisingly when i messured the voltages the pins that needed to have 5v had only 4.6 or something like that (might be my voltmeter) and MCLR# had as little as 4.5v !!!. i connected my 20v PSU to the cap and forgot the 220 resistor, after 3 sec my zener was smoking. i cannot find a replacement in a shop but i have a heap of electronic junk but i dont know were to look (the heap is that big!!). i want to try broccoli18 but Martin and other guys dont seem to want to reply to me... thankx for your reply. Yarek T. P.S. sorry for writing all in one sentence,I ont have much time you see

Shock !!

hi everyone i know that this topic has been addressed lots of times before but as you can see i cannot find a solution partly because all offers are out of date. i've nearly finished my midibox and encoders are high on my list: i need 32 non-detented and 6 datented, if its easyer 38 non-detented will do just fine. i found some sites which sell them at a reasonable price but did find cheeper one but then i lost the link.(scuzzle sent me the link) these are the sites i've found: http://www.distrelec.at/cgi-bin/supply.storefront/0/Ext/StoreHomepage (you have to enter encoder 24 in the search) http://rswww.com/cgi-bin/bv/browse/Module.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0915521559.1090533110@@@@&BV_EngineID=cccdadcmddheeeicfngcfkmdgkldffm.0&cacheID=ukie&3267985960=3267985960&stockNo=2632946 one site is english and one is german (i dont understand any german so finding that was pretty hard for me) can you recomend some other sites please? P.S. Ebay is out of option !! i hate Ebay!

hi i just finished my JMD and tried to burn the bootloader with little success. i want to try Broccoli18 BUT: 1) i dont have a good multimeter, i just have a DIY voltmeter (not precise). 2)i dont think i have enough info on this new programer but i belive in its abilities. 3)i do not have access to a local ecectronics store (only by internet), additional costs apply for a small order, but i do have a parallel secket at home. 4)i do not have a regulated PSU. i do still have my JMD but when i connected external PSU to it ,(because i had 4.5v on MCLR#) it cooked the zener diode. please help ! Anyone !! i hope i can finish it by september. thanks in advance. Yarek T.

hi i'm havving problems with my JMD trying to program my PIC. my setup is: new computer: Win ME old computer: win ME and Win XP i can run linux mandrake on both machines i cannot mesure the volteges yet because my multimeter is broken. i'm looking for replacement. i've checked and about to doublecheck my PCB and so far it looks ok. when i try to program my PIC it says "Programing falied at code address 0000h!" i think all you are aware of the hex code of bootstrap: it starts with a bit of data and then the FFFF bit and then data again when i erase the first bit of data with FFFF FFFF it stops further at the start of second bit of the data. i can read the PIC and it comes out as FFFF = blank. can anyone recomend something without knowing the correct voltages? P.S. i know that there is a lot of threads about this but i didnt find an answer in all the posts (i've tried some stuff and it didnt work) Any suggestion are welcome!! thanks

thanx for your reply. i asked if i can connect the core GND to the mains GND because i was afraid that the core ungrounded might get some noize, i have grounded the mains strait away and its the choice between connecting the core and not connecting the core. will core get noize if its not conected to the metal case? P.S. its more like : Ahhh! you mother f-f-f-f... !!!

i have a relevent Q about grounding the core with mains grounding. because i am using an internal PSU (i know ;D, kool) and here in britan a we have a 3 pin mains plug (live, neutral, ground) The Q is can the mains ground be connected with core groung ? will it not interfere? you can read on if you like... I had a wire form my radiator to ground myself while i was working with PIC (good point this), and i touched a serial port of my PC and i got an 80 volt shock. why? what? were? how? i was asking myself and belive me, it wasnt pleasent :(. Strange things... by the way i know it wasn't 220v because i'm still here and it did feel more like 65 to 80v, belive me i've been shocked dosens of times so i've grounded my midibox so by brother woudnt have to expirience it too. /edit: just spelling

hi i have notices on a JMD module page that the socket used is not male: i have a serial cable that has two females on the ends, this cable does not fit to the socket on the JMD. i thought to use a Null-modem cable? but i dont have it. i heard that the pins on it twist. can i just replace a socket on the JMD that fits my cable? thankx in reserve. Yarek T.

thankx everyone. i dont want to look on ebay because i hate it. i'm still looking for my perfect buttons...

just minutes later... i've fount a bit of text on that web site : now is this not enough: 1/3 rpm ? its enough for me !!

now maybe you are all right but what is ill tell you that when i spin my stepper one step, it slightly lights up an LED with a resistor? and when i connect it to my oscilloscope it gives of a nice sine wave (maybe a pulse). the whole point of this is to make it as cheep (and homemade) as possible, i know that you can buy quality rotary M encoders. why dont you buy a whole midibox for 300 quid. thanks