seppoman

Hi, "requesten" mußt Du das bei Thorsten. Der ist allerdings momentan mit Umzug etc. beschäftigt und Midibox-mäßig nur begrenzt ansprechbar. Schreib ihm einfach mal ne eMail. Seppoman

Hallo, Stromversorgung vertauscht, aber nicht + und - , dann würde gar nichts gehen. Ich vermute, daß die "normalen" 5 V (Vd) und die LED-Versorgung (B+/-) durcheinander sind. Die LED-Versorgung wird ja über den Transistor gedrosselt, während die normale Versorgung nicht begrenzt wird, könnte also sein, daß die LEDs mit zu viel Strom fahren (-> Hitze), und die Elektronik nicht genug Saft ziehen kann (-> wirres Flackern). Seppoman

Hallo, Stromversorgung vertauscht, aber nicht + und - , dann würde gar nichts gehen. Ich vermute, daß die "normalen" 5 V (Vd) und die LED-Versorgung (B+/-) durcheinander sind. Die LED-Versorgung wird ja über den Transistor gedrosselt, während die normale Versorgung nicht begrenzt wird, könnte also sein, daß die LEDs mit zu viel Strom fahren (-> Hitze), und die Elektronik nicht genug Saft ziehen kann (-> wirres Flackern). Seppoman

Hi Marr, Yes, I use shrink wrap for mostly all wires. It protects the thin wires from breaking. Seppoman

Hi Marr, Yes, I use shrink wrap for mostly all wires. It protects the thin wires from breaking. Seppoman

Hi, so here are some new pictures. I found an old heatsink that is now mounted through a piece of wood. I wanted to put the 7809 on the sink but strangely the noise gets even worse when only the 7805 is in contact to the case, so my ground loop theory doesn´t work... But with 7805 on the sink everything is cool :) And here the finished box with knobs mounted - I must confess I´m a little bit proud ;) Seppoman

Hi, so here are some new pictures. I found an old heatsink that is now mounted through a piece of wood. I wanted to put the 7809 on the sink but strangely the noise gets even worse when only the 7805 is in contact to the case, so my ground loop theory doesn´t work... But with 7805 on the sink everything is cool :) And here the finished box with knobs mounted - I must confess I´m a little bit proud ;) Seppoman

Hi doc, Thank you :) I think we have some misunderstanding about names - you used the term "chassis of the encoders" so I used "chassis" for the outside of the encoders, didn´t mean the case of the whole synthesizer. I already took the back wall of the case off so that only the two regulators had connection to the back wall. Interesting: the sound varied with the distance of the back wall to the rest of the case... Now I solved the problem: The noise stops when I take only one of the regulators away from the wall. Probably the small loop around the two ground wires of the regulators is closed through the back wall and acts as an antenna that picks up digital noise induced to the case by the proximity of the encoders. I still don´t totally understand this as there´s no direct connection from the encoder pins to the front panel, but the metal "chassis" of the encoders seems to help transporting clock noise to the front panel. Anyway - I will put the 7805 back on the core and give it a small heat sink - hope it doesn´t get too hot... Thank you both for your help and input, Seppoman

Hi doc, Thank you :) I think we have some misunderstanding about names - you used the term "chassis of the encoders" so I used "chassis" for the outside of the encoders, didn´t mean the case of the whole synthesizer. I already took the back wall of the case off so that only the two regulators had connection to the back wall. Interesting: the sound varied with the distance of the back wall to the rest of the case... Now I solved the problem: The noise stops when I take only one of the regulators away from the wall. Probably the small loop around the two ground wires of the regulators is closed through the back wall and acts as an antenna that picks up digital noise induced to the case by the proximity of the encoders. I still don´t totally understand this as there´s no direct connection from the encoder pins to the front panel, but the metal "chassis" of the encoders seems to help transporting clock noise to the front panel. Anyway - I will put the 7805 back on the core and give it a small heat sink - hope it doesn´t get too hot... Thank you both for your help and input, Seppoman

Hi Moebius, The encoders are connected exactly like in the schematics by TK. One DIN connector goes to 2x2 "signal pins" of the encoders, the ground pin of the DIN connector goes to the ground pins of the two encoders. I have made no connection between the ground pin and the chassis of the encoders or the supporting legs. I also checked that the encoder chassis is not connected to any pins of the encoder (Alps STEC 16) by default. So theoretically there can´t be a ground loop with the encoders. The chassis has no direct connection to any part of the cirquitry. Could the voltage regulators be part of the problem? I already had to eliminate a ground loop between the regulators and the power jack - the back part of the regulators is connected to their middle pin so the power jack had to be mounted isolated(ly?). Thanks a lot :) You have probably noticed the user interface must be a bit different to the normal MBSID ;). The nine keys on the right provide direct access to the submenus, with "return" you get directly back to the preset selection. The Menu encoder is only used for patch selection, for scrolling in the OSC and Config menus and for the patch naming menu. The switch behind the RUN/STOP key is the original shift lock switch from the C64 keyboard and toggles a relais (Power). The Commodore key toggles between normal menu soft encoder function and a "fun layer" - that´s a collection of parameters I found useful for live tweaking (the white encoder labels). This key will hopefully be illuminated from behind when "fun mode" is active - still have to find a way to do this, I thought of a "chamber" from the silver cardboard found inside the C64 lighted by a few LEDs... Seppoman

Hi Moebius, The encoders are connected exactly like in the schematics by TK. One DIN connector goes to 2x2 "signal pins" of the encoders, the ground pin of the DIN connector goes to the ground pins of the two encoders. I have made no connection between the ground pin and the chassis of the encoders or the supporting legs. I also checked that the encoder chassis is not connected to any pins of the encoder (Alps STEC 16) by default. So theoretically there can´t be a ground loop with the encoders. The chassis has no direct connection to any part of the cirquitry. Could the voltage regulators be part of the problem? I already had to eliminate a ground loop between the regulators and the power jack - the back part of the regulators is connected to their middle pin so the power jack had to be mounted isolated(ly?). Thanks a lot :) You have probably noticed the user interface must be a bit different to the normal MBSID ;). The nine keys on the right provide direct access to the submenus, with "return" you get directly back to the preset selection. The Menu encoder is only used for patch selection, for scrolling in the OSC and Config menus and for the patch naming menu. The switch behind the RUN/STOP key is the original shift lock switch from the C64 keyboard and toggles a relais (Power). The Commodore key toggles between normal menu soft encoder function and a "fun layer" - that´s a collection of parameters I found useful for live tweaking (the white encoder labels). This key will hopefully be illuminated from behind when "fun mode" is active - still have to find a way to do this, I thought of a "chamber" from the silver cardboard found inside the C64 lighted by a few LEDs... Seppoman

Hi Doc, I meant the 7809 that is before the 7805 of the core like in http://www.ucapps.de/mbhp/mbhp_core_power_fix.pdf here´s a picture of it: as I used the cam anyway, here are two more of the beast :) every group of 2 encoders/1 enc+2 buttons that are on one connector are on one ground (DIN). yes, in theory - but the hiss definitely goes away when they don´t touch the front panel... ??? Yes at the moment cheap active multimedia speakers. Yes Thanks, Seppoman

Hi Doc, I meant the 7809 that is before the 7805 of the core like in http://www.ucapps.de/mbhp/mbhp_core_power_fix.pdf here´s a picture of it: as I used the cam anyway, here are two more of the beast :) every group of 2 encoders/1 enc+2 buttons that are on one connector are on one ground (DIN). yes, in theory - but the hiss definitely goes away when they don´t touch the front panel... ??? Yes at the moment cheap active multimedia speakers. Yes Thanks, Seppoman

Hi, I´ve got some problem with noise level on my new SID. Because it has only one SID inside I chose to build it with a wall wart PSU and put the in-between 7809 and the core 7805 on the back wall for cooling. When I connect the encoders to the DINs, I get digital hiss (the more encoders are connected, the worse the noise gets). what´s strange: the hiss does not occur while the encoders are not mounted on the (alu) front panel. I can´t think of a way to mount the encoders isolated from the panel or the panel isolated from the case (19"). Is there something I can do against this noise? I already tried to put capacitors across the DIN 5V supply - no effect. Thanks for any hints, Seppoman

Hi, I´ve got some problem with noise level on my new SID. Because it has only one SID inside I chose to build it with a wall wart PSU and put the in-between 7809 and the core 7805 on the back wall for cooling. When I connect the encoders to the DINs, I get digital hiss (the more encoders are connected, the worse the noise gets). what´s strange: the hiss does not occur while the encoders are not mounted on the (alu) front panel. I can´t think of a way to mount the encoders isolated from the panel or the panel isolated from the case (19"). Is there something I can do against this noise? I already tried to put capacitors across the DIN 5V supply - no effect. Thanks for any hints, Seppoman

Hallo, wenn das Treffen nach dem 1. Oktober ist, wäre ich ziemlich sicher auch dabei :) Seppoman

Hallo, wenn das Treffen nach dem 1. Oktober ist, wäre ich ziemlich sicher auch dabei :) Seppoman

Hi Tew, you can´t. The parameters or CCs of the Assign layer are changed in CS_MENU_ENC_TABLE in the source code so you have to change the code, compile the app and upload it again. everything you do on the CS is visible on the LCD. When you press a button the display changes to the menu of this parameter. But it´s nice to see the state of parameters without having to press the button first. And changing LEDs also look good ;) Seppoman

Hi JobeC, as I´m very interested in this project I downloaded and read the SidStation manual. In my opinion, almost everything can be emulated by the MBSid. E.g. the LFO "sample and hold" (quantisation) could be done by modulating a LFO by a faster negative Saw LFO. Even the LFO interlacing could be done via the WT sequencer (only for one pair of LFOs by switching the MOD-Matrix). The WT sequencer is actually quite limited compared to the WT of the MBSid. the only problem I see is that there are four parameters that can be changed every step. But most patches don´t do this, so you could set either Sync or Ring as third parameter in the MBSid WT. One thing the MB can´t do is to have three independent WTs for the three OSCs so for patches using this feature there won´t be a solution. Also SidStation-WT AND interleaved LFOs won´t be possible in one patch. I suppose I didn´t tell you much you didn´t know before :) I´m just brainstorming out of curiosity. But if you like to discuss some problems/ideas feel free to PM me :) Seppoman

Hi Doc, und wenn Du Zitate aufteilen willst dann beendest Du einen Bereich einfach mit [ /quote ], schreibst dazwischen was und setzt danach wieder ein neues [ quote ]. Viele Grüße, Seppoman

Hi all, an idea - don´t know if this is impossible (PIC performance/memory) or too complicated. As the A_OUT module provides 12 bit D/A s, it would be cool if one channel could be used as a 4th oscillator which then could be filtered/merged through the analog in of the SID. As the SID is sort of LoFi anyway, 10 or 15 kHz sampling rate surely would be enough to playback e.g. definable single-cycle waveforms of 32 or 64 values. So you could create kind of a sine wave or other waveforms to add new timbres/varieties to the MB SID sound - if there were a number of pre-defined waveforms in flash mem, they also could be used for some kind of enhanced Wavetable synthesis option. As I said, I don´t know if all this is possible at all, but it would certainly be an amazing feature? Just dreaming :) Seppoman

Hi, here´s another hint for cables: Last summer I did an internship at Diezel (guitar amps), there we used a combination of "fast glue" (ger. Sekundenkleber - Pattex/Loctite/...) and a heat gun to attach cables to metal. These (not two component) "fast glues" normally are not too good on metal. You´ve got to glue the cable to the metal, press the cable to the metal firmly and then point a heat gun (or strong hair dryer) onto the back side of the metal. Then pull away both finger and heat gun short before you´d burn your finger :) . The heat makes the glue hold much better. It´s probably a good idea to do this in front of an open window. The buttons etc. should not be fitted yet to prevent melting/frying any components. And of cause this method is not viable for plastic on plastic and a bit dangerous when the panel is finished with car laquer (bubbles..). Powder finish (schaeffer) should be less dangerous. Another good idea is to fit open "Kabelbinder" (no idea what the english word is, these white plastic strips you can pull close around cables to tie them togeter) to the empty panel with this method, so you can afterwards fit the switches/encoders etc., connect them and use the "Kabelbinders" to attach the cables at last. regards, Seppoman

Hi Thorsten, Vielen Dank, das werde ich so probieren :) mal eine andere Frage: Wir sind gerade am Frontplattendesign für die Kiste. Nachdem ja jeweils eine extra Taste für die direkte Untermenü-Anwahl draufkommt, wäre es wichtig zu erfahren, ob Du vorhast, in Zukunft noch weitere Untermenüs einzuführen. Mit der aktuellen Version kam ja das VMA dazu, und Gott sei Dank hatten wir die Frontplatte noch nicht bestellt. Wenn jetzt aber in drei Monaten nochmal neue Menüs dazukämen und man dafür dann keine Taste vorgesehen hätte, wäre das unpraktisch. und gleich noch eine: Wir wollen die originalen braunen Tasten aus dem C64 verwenden. Für die Eingabetasten habe ich auf eBay schon einen Sack alter Cherry-Tastatur-Einzeltaster bekommen. Die Frage ist jetzt: Die RUN/STOP-Taste soll der Powerschalter werden, ich habe aber bisher keine Netzschalter mit der typischen Kreuzform eines Tastatur-Tasters gefunden. Deshalb habe ich dafür jetzt den Shift-Lock-Schalter der C64-Tastatur genommen, der soweit erkennbar auch nicht heiß wird oder anfängt zu schmoren. Allerdings gehen da jetzt 15V/600 mA durch, für die so ein Taster vermutlich bei Weitem nicht ausgelegt ist. Kann das längerfristig zu Problemen führen (kein Kontakt, Feuer o.Ä.) oder hat jemand ggf. einen Tip, wo man einen Netzschalter bekommen kann, auf den eine Tastenkappe paßt? Vielen Dank und viele Grüße, Seppoman

Hi, I heard someone calling my name ;) Power consumption: You´d have to consider this when choosing a power supply. My VFD draws about 600 mA, so with two of them you´ll need at least a 1.5 A PSU, better 2 A to be on the safe side. Another issue: You won´t be able to build a SEQ into a 19" case with them as two of them are too large to put side by side. I wrote a custom display driver for the VFD that I can eMail you. It doesn´t support two displays so you´d have to adapt it. BTW: the guy I bought my display from is still selling these VFDs on eBay for 21 EUR. He seems to have a lot of them. Here´s the link: http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=12070&item=5703630915 Seppoman

Hi Thorsten, erstmal danke für die ganzen Infos. Kleinere Elkos usw. probiere ich die Tage mal aus. Aber ich ;) Ausschnitt aus CS_MENU_ENC_CS_Change_Menu: ; ******************************************* Aenderung ************************ ;; ignore if parameter pos >= number of entries movf CS_MENU_ENTRIES, W IFGEQ MIOS_PARAMETER1, ACCESS, rgoto CS_MENU_ENC_CS_Change_Menu_End ;; else modify parameter ;... ;; CFG Menu? movlw 0x07 IFNEQ CS_MENU, ACCESS, rgoto CS_MENU_ENC_NOCFG ;; name editing mode? IFSET CS_STAT, CS_STAT_MODIFY_NAME, rgoto CS_MENU_ENC_NAMSP ;; 3. Parameter? movlw 0x02 IFNEQ MIOS_PARAMETER1, ACCESS, rgoto CS_MENU_ENC_NOCFG ;; set cursor movf MIOS_PARAMETER1, W addwf CS_MENU_PAGE_OFFSET, W ;; branch to the CS_MENU_Select function goto CS_MENU_Select CS_MENU_ENC_NAMSP ;; set cursor to: CS_MENU_PAGE_OFFSET + number in WREG movf MIOS_PARAMETER1, W addwf CS_MENU_PAGE_OFFSET, W goto CS_MENU_Select_NameFunc CS_MENU_ENC_NOCFG ;; SAV Menu? movlw 0x07 IFLEQ CS_MENU, ACCESS, rgoto CS_MENU_ENC_NOSAV ;; 2. Parameter? movlw 0x01 IFNEQ MIOS_PARAMETER1, ACCESS, rgoto CS_MENU_ENC_NOSAV ;; set cursor movlw 0x01 addwf CS_MENU_PAGE_OFFSET, W ;; branch to the CS_MENU_Select function goto CS_MENU_Select CS_MENU_ENC_NOSAV ;; *********************** wieder Normal ************************************* Das ist sicher nicht der eleganteste Weg, funktioniert aber ganz gut. Einziges Problem: Wenn im CFG-Menü der Namens-Eintrag zu sehen ist, aber nicht auf Position 3, dann wird der Encoder zwar erkannt, aber trotzdem der 3. Parameter auf dem Display selektiert. Ist MIOS_PARAMETER1 fürs Cursorsetzen die falsche Variable? Wenn ja, wo bekomme ich die "ansichtskorrigierte" Menüposition her? Evtl. wollte ich noch eine "Bremse" einbauen, damit man nicht immer aufpassen muß, beim Betreten des Namens-Menüs nicht gleich ein (paar) Zeichen zu löschen. Hättest Du einen Vorschlag, wie ich die "Taste" nur z.b. jeden 4. Encoder-Tick auslösen kann? Vielen Dank, Seppoman