that.sound.again

Woohoo! It's working now - testing is underway with only MIDI ports, pots & power. Everything is working perfectly on the first run. Only problem now is how we're ever going to finish this thing.. We're too busy messing around with Orion, it's so damn fun tweaking those knobs! Thanks again for your reply.

Thanks for the quick reply. We're going to test it when we're done mounting the pots, then. One more thing, we also have the LCD purchased, but not wired yet. Will this be a problem? What we specifically want to do is try the midibox_plus_v1910_16pots_bb.hex with just pots, MIDI in / out, and power. Does that sound safe enough?

Hi. We're currently building two midiboxes. We've bought boards from Mike, gotten all the parts (except for a few connectors), built a JDM and burned the FW and soldered everything - nearly. We're just now connecting the pots and wondered if it's possible to test the box with only the pots, the MIDI-out and the power connected? By the way, we haven't made room in the case for the status LEDs. Can we just leave them out or do we need to solder a resistor there or something? Thanks in advance!

Ok, that cleared it up. To summarise, we can just leave the buttons out, or opt to put them in and see if they'll be of any use, right? (Third option is, of course, to modify the firmware to give us two extra triggers in stead (not gonna happen)).. Thanks for your quick reply!

We're building two midibox 16's and are thinking of using the bb (Bank Button) firmware. The documentation says: Bank Button variants ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Uses two bank buttons instead of the four bank switches on RB2, RB3. Two additional buttons on RB0 and RB1 enables you to send double note events (great for controlling programs like Cubase, Logic, Cakewalk via MIDI Remote). Could someone please explain what double note events are and why we want them?

Wow you guys are fast! thanks very much for the advice. It seems I can't get a datasheet for the replacement, and frankly after reading your responses I don't think it's worth the hassle. I'll find another store that does have the 6N138 in stead. It's such a cheap part that I don´t even want to bother sending for samples. Thanks for the tips. I'm amazed at this level of support for a non-profit electronics project. Now, my friend and I know barely enough electronics to assemble this thing. What we do know a little about, on the other hand, is design. Looking forward to uploading some pics of our kick-ass cases when they're done.

Hi there! We're building two midiBox + on two boards from Mike. So far it's looking good, except the local parts shop doesn't carry the 6N138 optocoupler. We've gotten some other optocouplers with eight connectors, but how do we check if they work? We're not even sure how to read the type number correctly (kind of pathetic, I know). The chip reads: PC-17T K804 01 (it says this twice on each chip). We've googled around a bit but are not really sure which number to search for to find a datasheet. So, we'd be very grateful if someone could: a) Tell us how to determine which type of chip this is and how to compare it to the 6N138 or b) Just tell us whether this chip will do or if we'll have to find the 138. Thanks in advance!

I received boards for two midibox 16 and a pic programmer two days after payment. They're very well made. Only problem was the payment; Mike insisted I send cash by mail as I didn't live in the EU. A couple of emails sorted that out and convinced him that Denmark is indeed part of the EU. After that all there was to it was a bank transfer. Good service.