dominik

Hi there? I think it is time to sum up the distributed (and partially outdatet) information concerning the support of Cubase SX (version 2.0) by MIOS Midiboxes. Since Cubase SX can now speack the Logic Control protocol, what experiences have you made using the MidiBox LC with Cubase? I have read e.g. that the meter display does not work correctly because Steinberg does not follow the protocol perfectly. Have these problems been solved? What about performance concers? If there is anyone out there who uses the MidiBox LC with Cubase SX I would be very interested in any opinions and experiences. Thanks in advance, Dominik

Hallo! In der Beschreibung des 2xMidiBox64-Projektes auf http://www.krachwerk.de/projekte.html habe ich von Problemen bei der seriellen Ansteuerung der Motorfader gelesen. Die Geschwindigkeit der Positionierung soll - so ist dort zu lesen - sei für einen echten Automationsbetrieb zu träge. Könnte ihr von ähnlichen Erfahrung berichten? Habt ihr vielleicht bereits alternative Ansteuerungsmöglichkeiten (möglicherweise unter zuhilfenahme eines weiteren Mikrocontrollers) entwickelt? Herzlichen Dank für jeden Tipp, beste Grüße, Dominik

Hello Thorsten. To summarize: 1. I built Core module and tested several DIN/DOUT-modules => worked perfectly immediately. 2. I connected a MF module with 1 fader (first port), so I did not realise that the diode for fader 15 was misplaced. Worked as well, no problems. 3. I mounted additional 3 faders. 4. MF module was connected to power a longer time => TC4427 for port 15 got hot (and probably damaged) 5. not sure whether MF worked after recognizing overheating of TC4427. 6. Unmounted the 3 faders, went back to step 2. PIC-MIDI-communication works fine, LCD display works fine, output of motorfaders works fine => no reaction of motorfaders on volume change messages 7. Reprogrammed PIC with primary bootstrap loader, reloaded current MIOS version and motorfader-example application, no movement. 8. Replaced PIC => everything works fine. So, I think we can stop the thread here. Nevertheless it remains strange to me, that it seems to be possible that one the PICS connections to the MF module are damaged. Anyway, now it works ;D

Hello Thorsten! Yes, strange, that's what I thought as well. The diodes have the right direction. I misplaced one before and - unfortunately - the corresponding TC4427 got hot (probably too hot). So I could understand that this IC got damaged. But why did this affect the PIC, and - even more suprising - why did this affect only one part of the PIC. God knows why. Anyway, after replacing my PIC everything works fine. I hope this situation will last for a longer time... Many thanks to all of you who helped me, best regards, Dominik

Thanks for your help! You were right. I replaced the PIC and now everything works fine. It seems a bit strange that an IC can be damaged only partially, but this was definitely the reason. I first reprogrammed the (old) PIC. No problems but again no movement of my motor faders. But with the new PIC everything worked fine immediately. Best regards, Dominik

Thanks for the quick answer. I replaced the TC4427 and the 75HC595, without success. The temperature of all ICs is ok even after long running times although I remember that some ICs got quite hot when I first misplaced the diodes. What could have been damaged by this? What exactly do you mean by "voltage coming out of the IC"? I measured a 5V voltage between Vs and Vd on J7 of the PIC. Furthermore the connections of the other J7 pins to the PIC are ok. Should I be able to see any voltage using a standard multimeter on these pins during volume change? Is it possible that these outputs of the PIC aren't working whereas the MIDI communication and LCD controlling works fine? Thanks again for any help that prevents me from redoing everything... Best regards, Dominik

Hello! Since a few days my MF module does not work any more. I tested the module a week ago with the mf_example and the midibox_mf application and it worked fine. Now I disconnected all other modules and still nothing is moving. Current situation: - one motorfader connected to first port. - mf_example application successfully installed - when moving the fader by hand the display shows the right value, so the connection to the PIC seems to be ok. - when sending MIDI volume change messages the displayed value changes but there is no reaction on the physical position of the fader. - correct voltage for motorfader - motorfader working (if you e.g. give Vm to OUTA) - correct voltage for TC4427 and 75HC595 Has anyone encountered a similar problem or knows where I could look for the reason for the problem, what I could check? Thanks for any help, Dominik

Thanks for all comments! @Steven_C: You are indeed right; I would not mind a fader that does not reflect the change of a controler value by one unit. I only mentioned this behaviour to may give a hint for the problem that after some 0-1-changes the fader stays in the same position and does not move any more whatever controller message is sent. I noticed this behaviour several times when I tested my midibox yesterday. Today I was not able to reproduce the error (so I cannot send you a prototypical midi file, Thorsten). Let's hope everything is going fine now. Thanks again for your support, best regards, Dominik

Just one more thing to add which shows (reproducable!) some problems with 0-values: The value sequence 127, 0, 1, 0 does not lead to a move for the last change (1->0). The fader stays in the same position, you can switch between 0 and 1 as many times as you want, nothing changes! Furthermore I noticed that after some 0-1-switching even value changes to 127 were ignored. So far, best regards again, Dominik

Thanks a lot for the quick answer. I changed the calibration constants in the example motorfader driver to 0x0e and noticed the same problems :( with no voltage drops during fader movements. As you recommended I then tried the MIDIbox MF firmware. After reducing the DEFAULT_NUMBER_FADERS constant to 1 it seems to work :) It seems as if the motor moves the fader very quickly in a first phase and approaches the final value with a slower speed afterwards (this last approaching seems to be missing in the motorfader example driver). After a few tries some misplacements occured again and I increased the power (now to approximately 10 V). This workes quite well now, only sometimes when the lowest position is reached (value 0) the fader does not react anymore and has to be moved by hand before it is controlled by MIOS again. Any explanations for this? One thing I forgot to mention (although I do not think it has an influence on this): I only mounted 7 ICs (lost the last one somehow). As far as I can read the connection diagram this should not disturb control of the other motorfaders, right? Thanks again, best regards, Dominik

Hello! Unfortunately I don't understand much of what I am soldering, so I need your help to solve the following problem: I realised the core module and different variations of DIN/DOUT-modules, all worked pretty fine. Only recently I bought some ALPS faders and built the MF module. After adjusting the Vmm voltage to approximately 8 V (recommended by Thorsten) I tested one motorfader with the example driver given on the download page (I use the most recent MIOS version). Unfortunately the fader does not move to the correct position but stops before (approximately 10 values before the destination). Is this a question of calibration that can be handled by finding the appropriate values using the calibration tool? I also tried different voltage levels for Vmm - without success. If this behaviour is a result of soldering errors: Where should I start to look for them? Thanks for any advice, Dominik