seppoman

Yeah, but if I want hardware, I also want the thing to sound like hardware :) Off course with "program" I meant to upload the hex-file... As the guy sadly doesn´t release his source code, the other meaning of "to program" doesn´t make sense here. Anyway, when you follow this forum long enough, you´ll see there are a lot of people struggling hard to get "only" the MBSID working - both hardware and uploading software. So for them learning everything for two platforms won´t exactly increase their success rate... The TDA1543 DAC used by SwinSID seems to be discontinued. I had to search for 20 minutes to find a supplier in Germany. But that was probably easier than finding a SID in Uruguay :-\. I feel with you and wish you good luck :) Seppoman

Hi, first of all, I don´t think it makes much sense to discuss this project in two threads at the same time. Link to the original thread: http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php?topic=9338.0 I think the SwinSID is a funny idea but doesn´t make much sense with a MBSID. After all, it is just a digital simulation of a SID. There are a several Windows-based SID simulations/SID players, and people are here because they want to have the real thing and not another emulation. And to build one is some financial and work effort. You need to find all components for a reasonable price (15 Eur for an ATMega8515 is outrageus, the normal price is around 3 Eur!), build it, find out how to program an Atmel etc. And when you´re finished you´ve got only something that sounds only "quite like" a SID. A lot of work - "quite like" you can also get with only software. Is there no way for you to buy a C64 internationally via eBay? even if it costs 30 Eur shipping, it would still be not much more expensive than building a SwinSID. If it would work? Possibly yes. At least the midibox won´t crash because of it because the connection from the core to the SID is one-way. So the core will be fine regardless of what the SwinSID does. The other question is if the SwinSID won´t crash and react correctly - in a C64, the SID is only updated 50-60 times a second, while the MBSID updates it more than 1000 times a second. So it could well be that the SwinSID is overwhelmed with all the data it gets. Only way to find out is either build one and try out yourself or ask the programmer. Seppoman

Hi, this project looks really great :) Only question is whether the result is worth the effort. For PC recording use, there are a lot of affordable high quality multichannel interfaces around. I´ve got a Terratec EWS MT88 which goes for around 200 Eur on ebay. Sound quality is really excellent for studio use. As a CD player DAC, the high bit/sampling rate is not a benefit. For that, the paper specs are not the issue, it´s more a question of cirquit design, board layout and parts selection. I don´t know what skills Mr. Beis has in this regard. The page looks really promising, but it´s a bit much work and money for just giving it a try without knowing if the sonic result would be to my taste. If you want to beef up your CD, I recommend looking for a reasonably priced used Camtech/Audiolab 8000DAC. They go around 300 Eur on ebay and listening to this one I´ve had one of the most excellent experiences ever!! One day I´ll own one :o Anyway, coming to the reason why I originally started writing this answer: If s/o wants to give it a try, I just wanted to encourage you not to be afraid of SMDs. With a professional PCB and the right technique, even TSSOP is not really difficult to solder (TQFP has similar spacing): http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php?topic=8494.msg63105#msg63105 Happy soldering :) Seppoman

Hi Hendrik, -------- (english) ------------------- why are you so keen on buying at albs? Is it about the delivery time? Can´t be because of the money. Let´s calculate: albs: 150 pcs á 11.60 excl. VAT, i.e. 13.80 incl. VAT. Total: 2070.60 EUR abacus: 200 pcs for 1792 excl. VAT -> Total: 2132.48 EUR Participants - I don´t know if anyone else has withdrawn his order via eMail. From the forum: (abacus): Hendrik: 32 sebastian: 18 dj3nk: 10 audiocommander: 8 MTE: 18 ptitjes: 24 Playboy: 14 Bibster: 8 SLP: 2 seppoman 18 ----------------------- 152 of 200 (albs): Hendrik: 32 sebastian: 18 dj3nk: 10 MTE: 18 ptitjes: 24 Playboy: 14 Bibster: 8 SLP: 2 ----------------------- 124 of 150 And not everyone gave a statement yet if they´d participate with the higher price. In both cases we´d need more participants anyway. Perhaps an english post in the fleamarket section would help. I like the suggestion of ptitjes to sell the surplus at eBay. If I had enough money right now, I would do it - on eBay there´s surely no problem to sell them for e.g. 15 Eur/pc. With the earned money we could lower the price for us even more (after giving some compensation for the guy who does the auctions). -------- (deutsch) ------------------ warum willst Du jetzt unbedingt bei albs kaufen? Geht es um die Lieferzeit? Wegen Kohle kanns ja nicht sein. Ich rechne das nochmal vor: albs: 150 Stück á 11.60 excl., d.h. 13.80 incl. VAT. Total brutto: 2070.60 EUR abacus: 200 Stück für insges. 1792 excl. -> Total brutto: 2132.48 EUR Teilnehmer - ich weiß ja nicht, ob noch jemand per eMail abgesagt hat. Aus den Infos im Forum: Aktuelle Liste (abacus): Hendrik: 32 sebastian: 18 dj3nk: 10 audiocommander: 8 MTE: 18 ptitjes: 24 Playboy: 14 Bibster: 8 SLP: 2 seppoman 18 ----------------------- 152 von 200 Aktuelle Liste (albs): Hendrik: 32 sebastian: 18 dj3nk: 10 MTE: 18 ptitjes: 24 Playboy: 14 Bibster: 8 SLP: 2 ----------------------- 124 von 150 Wobei sich noch nichtmal alle geäußert haben, ob sie zum höheren Preis dabei wären. In beiden Fällen bräuchten wir also noch mehr Teilnehmer. Ein englischer Post im Fleamarket könnte evtl. was bringen. Den Vorschlag von ptitjes, den Überschuß bei eBay zu verticken, finde ich ziemlich gut. Wenn ich gerade Kohle übrig hätte, würde ich´s machen - auf eBay ist es sicher kein Problem, Neuware für z.B. 15 Eur/Stück zu verkaufen. Mit dem Gewinn könnte man den Preis für die Gruppe sogar noch weiter senken (abzüglich natürlich einer Aufwandsentschädigung für den der´s macht). Viele Grüße, Seppoman

Hi, VAT is 19%. But honestly I don´t see the point in buying 25% less for 50% higher price. 200 pieces for 10 Eur are still cheaper than 150 pieces for around 16 Eur. And a few people are withdrawing/lowering their orders because of the higher price, so again you wouldn´t reach the required quantity. If the 10 Eur - order would still take place, I´d take 18 faders - perhaps this helps ;) Seppoman

Hmm, it has 2 mV/ms slew rate, i.e. if you refresh all 8 channels of each chip in under 1 ms, you have "only" 2 mV ripple which is around 2 cents detune with V/Oct. So for use in a modular synth, the update rate would have to be even faster to prevent a noticeable vibrato on the oscs. Whether this is a preformance issue in the relevant applications, is a question for TK. Another issue is the price and availability - Farnell, Mouser, Conrad, Reichelt, Schuricht, Segor don´t sell them, RS wants 20 Eur (+ VAT), Digikey wants around 10 Eur incl. VAT per piece. So for the price of a board with 8 SMP08s you´d get 3 additional AD5392s and would have 32 regular AOUT channels without getting the precision and performance issues of S&H. I don´t want to discourage you about this (sorry ::) ). But how many people will really need more than 32 AOUT channels? And these people will probably have some expectations on performance anyway, so is it really important for them to save a few bucks by sacrificing output resolution? Seppoman

"176" is 0xB0, that´s Midi channel 1. So if your note information is on another channel, your answer to TKs question will be "yes" :) So if you change the channel of the notes to e.g. ch 5 and only route or filter stuff on ch 5, of course the CCs don´t get through because they are still on ch 1. If you want to send CCs on other channels: use (175 + channel number). Seppoman

For me, designing one new board at a time is enough :) (I´m also doing other boards right now, but nothing else MBHP-related). But maybe someone else wants to jump in here? Seppoman

If they´re the same price and both are on stock, choose E/P, otherwise choose I/P. As you can see, in the arctic there´s no difference between them, only in full Sahara sun ;) 8) Seppoman

Hi guys, just wanted to give a sign of life about this project - I was quite busy in April and then on vacation, but now am resuming work on the AOUT. I´ve done an Eagle part definition of the AD5392 and thought a lot about the analog part of the board. At the end, there were no real revelations on cirquit design. The board will most likely contain bipolar option selectable through jumper/bridge for each channel. As the AD5392 has a way to adjust offset trim via software, for the bipolar option it will only be necessary to add four resistors to the relevant channels. It would also be possible to adjust gain via software, but TK pointed out that probably a lot of people like the analog feeling of a precision trimpot better. Anyway, I´m working on this now, am hoping to get a working board until summer and then send one to Thorsten. So don´t expect anything final before autumn :) Seppoman

Yes, but this project uses GLCDs with a standard controller, only support for two of them was added. "normal" GLCDs have a controller that takes care of the display refresh, you only tell the module changes that should happen. lucho_asd´s suggested display - as most large GLCDs - needs an external controller that does this. You can see from the timing diagram that you have to continuously send complete lines of display content (320 pixels/80 bytes) every 55 µs. This is really heavy load for a PIC and means you´d need a separate core module that manages and updates the display and provides an interface similar to a T6963/KS108 display. Then you have to program a new MIOS driver for this interface. So this would be a lot of work. I don´t want to sound too negative (sorry :) ), but if you can´t even determine if this display is suitable from the datasheet, it will be next to impossible for you to get this one working. Seppoman

right. it´s a similar technique like in CRT TVs. A (flat) vacuum tube with light emitting dots. They´re used e.g. in supermarket cashiers points. Tech details and a selection of really nice models at http://www.noritake-itron.com/ Seppoman

that´s not expensive at all. I don´t know this model, but a similar new VFD from Noritake or Futaba costs at least 60-70 Euros. (and it´s worth it in my opinion, I really love VFDs :) ) Seppoman

No it doesn´t work. its interface is not suitable for MIOS, and I don´t think such high resolutions are supported even if the display had a suitable controller. For what would you need 320x240 on a Midibox LC - do you want to watch movies on it? ;) The LC protocol only transmits text anyway. Seppoman

Hmmm, lecker, da hätt ich dann gern die Pizza, die direkt danach gebacken wird ;) bin zwar aus NRW, weiß aber leider keinen geeigneten Ofen für Dich. Seppoman

Yes! When c1/c2 are wrong value, probably the oscillator istn´t running at all -> PIC not running -> unknown behaviour/voltage of pin 25! In general I´d say most of your solder joints look ok but a little bit more soldering tin wouldn´t hurt. Seppoman

starting over would be kind of an overreaction :) There´s almost no failure that can´t be fixed! Did you already measure on the bottom side of the board? Look at the schematic and layout pic of the core on ucapps - there are direct traces between these pins, so even if something´s wrong there it´s really unlikely that _both_ have no connection! Perhaps you started counting the pins from the wrong side again? You could post high-res closeup photos of front and backside of your board, so we could get a clue what´s the problem? Seppoman

hmmm, it´s really unlikely that 11/12 are good and 31/32 are not - when you look at the board you see that the respective pins are directly connected below the IC. So if 11/12 are really showing 5V, then measure 31/32 again from below the board and check if you didn´t break/bend one of the 31/32 pins on the socket. You could also measure resistance (or if it has one use the beeper function of the meter) between 31/12 and 32/11 to see which of them are not connected. Seppoman

Pin 12 is ground, so no wonder if you don´t get significant voltage in relation to ground :) If Pin 1 does not have 5V, there´s not many places that can be responsible for it. Look at the schematic - Pin 1 is connected to 5V via R1 (100 Ohm). So first check if the other side of R1 has the 5V, then measure the resistance of R1. If the resistance is ok, there has to be a short around R1, Pin 1 or in the 5V rail. The 7805 is supposed to get warm, but only when ICs and a LCD are connected. If it is getting warm without ICs and other boards/LCD connected, you probably have a short between 5V and Gnd somewhere. That would also explain the above problem. Do you measure 5V across IC1 Pin 11/12, IC2 Pin 5/8 or anywhere else? Seppoman

Try to use at least 16 mil traces and 12 mil clearance - I´m not saying 10 mil traces are bad, but in my opinion you should have a reason for choosing narrow traces. For power traces choose 24 or 32 mil. (of course 30 is just as good, but 12 - 16 - 24 - 32 are standard widths in Eagle). Seppoman

:o At which remote place of the world do you live? even if you can´t find such a PSU for sale in your part of the world, there has to be someone that sells 2x12V transformers? Then build your own linear -/- 9V PSU from that. That would be safer than poking around in a broken switcher like you do ATM. A self-repaired switching PSU can make a nice fire or high voltages if you don´t really REALLY know what you´re doing! So be careful :)

I think there´s no sense in using 9V batteries in stationary equipment. Without load, a 074 draws around 5-10 mA (from the data sheet). So standby/silence would be around 20-30 mA. When playing this goes up a bit. 9V rechargeables mostly have very low mAh rating because they´re built from small 1.2v cells like for watches. I guess with rechargeables you´d get perhaps 5 hours of playing (if you buy good ones). Alkalines should last longer. But after a few weeks the price for alkalines will reach the price of a new bipolar PSU (as does the price for two sets of accus and a charger). And you have to bother with recharging/exchanging all the time. Seppoman

replacing the tl074s wouldn´t help. OpAmps generally need a bipolar supply as long as you don´t redesign the whole cirquit to an unipolar setup. The easiest solution: use two 9v batteries, connect + of one to - of the other and use this junction as your ground. The tl074 will run fine from +/- 9V. Probably you should change the 22k resistors around IC6 to 10k or 15k. They adjust the amplification and with 22k, the peak output would go over +/- 7V which is around the max output you can get off +/- 9V supply. In this setup, it could be a good idea to use a third 9V battery (with - also connected to the mentioned junction) to drive the 7805, because otherwise the "plus" battery of the pair would be flat long before the "minus" battery. And think about using a LCD without backlight cause backlight draws a lot of current. Seppoman

Hi Didier, "Warning - while you were typing a new reply has been posted." - anyway :) here´s a link with common design tips - it´s from Olimex (Bulgaria) where I ordered my last PCBs, but the tips are generally useful: http://www.olimex.com/pcb/dfm.html About track widths: Don´t push the widths and clearances to the limits of your manufacturer. The narrower both become, the higher the probability for manufacturing errors. For a standard PCB with only normal through hole components, there´s no need to go below 10 mil. I use 16 mil width and isolate for normal signal traces. as long as you don´t need to have traces between legs (which shouldn´t be necessary for a panel board), you could even use 24 mil. Generally, the wider the tracks, the less hassle and thoughts to draw into account. For supply traces, I try to use at least 36 mil. If that´s too much near an IC or connector, I use a narrower trace just for the last part forking from the "main trace". For parallel analog or clock signal traces, it doesn´t hurt to try to have them separated with a small strip of ground plane in between. Seppoman

Hi, hier dafür einen Experten zu finden, ist eher unwahrscheinlich. Kürzlich gabs dazu auf mikrocontroller.net eine Diskussion. Kurz gesucht - hier der Link für Dich: http://www.mikrocontroller.net/topic/65463 Falls der Thread bisher nicht hilfreich ist, könntest Du auch versuchen, dort mit Deinem Leidensgenossen in Kontakt zu treten. Seppoman