Artesia

thats because there usually a budget limit for interface & case designs with most hardware... unless you are icom & making a state of the art multi thousand dollar receiver ;) ..in which case in the mid 90's you get jems like the R9000 ...still even then, midibox designs like that could top it for cool factor :)

Well.. been sat here whilst away from home, reading up on the mios c functions & structure... and with my past dabblings in c ..its coming back to me somewhat & starting to make some sense. Might well see some mios programs / programming from me yet..

serious sweetness :) nice one.

MIOS on the standard core seems to be fine for most things (allbeit somewhat taxed). A very powerful system can be built using afew boards concentrating on dedicated tasks & synced in parallel ..take for instance the mbsid. as for doing advanced & intensive Digital Signal Processing ..may as well have chips which are designed to do this, dedicated to this task alone... as TK once pointed out to me sometime back. As for adding a midi front end for it, may as well just sling in a MIOS core to concentrate on that side, passing information back and forth.. without having to completely re-write entire firmwares to handle multi-tasking; doing MIDI & Heavily data intensive tasks at the same time. However if MIOS was to be ported to another chip platform, may as well pick a product family which is vastly more powerful (with a choice, left on chips.. as to how much power) ..so that having access to this as an option for really heavy duty stuff does not leave you looking for even more power futher on. Also parallel processing is probably -the- way to go, as midi / audio lends itself very well into being split into sepperate sub-modules worrying about their own jobs.. Which kinda wraps back & just justifys stacking cores togeather working in tandem, worrying about their own tasks for lack of hassle... and of course using specialised chips to deal with things like DSP when its called for. [hmm.. part of this conversation reminds me of something i've been thinking through, but decided not to start discussing in full quite yet...] Building something like a 'MIDIBOX Modular', a system which is entirely software configurable & routeable; its already pretty much feasable with the current cores.. just need to dedicate each one to a particular part of the overall task, save their data locally that they need to remember. and then have it all syncronise from one core dealing with the midi side of things. An ammount of taskload a given core can handle for each task (midi frontend, Oscilator control / envs, Filters and system routing/mixing), could be assigned and defined.. then all you need to do, if you want to say for instance double up on the size of a filter bank... is to expand 'sideways' in an almost -INFINATELY- scalable fashon.. by linking it in series off the end of that dedicated task chain ..rather than go hunting for more power & memory ...and then end up dealing with running out of resources, and end up having to reach for & headbashingly code for, even more powerful chips -just- to keep it all in the one 'shoebox'.

yes & yes pwm fade out would be sweet :)

indeed.. well if all the official i/o's are accounted for, then provide it as a 'option #b' function which can be enabled by changing a flag in the firmware. as for hardware, adding the circuit modifycation as a wire jumper patch or two.. which are routed normally for standard opperation.. or diverted for extended function ..wouldnt confuse things too much ..it could be made to look just like another one of the mandatory wire links, which are already present on the board.

Maybe if approved, these little features could be added to the offical board & firmware releases ? Otherwise if lots of little, but universally useful tweaks and addons are available... but not in the main MIOS pallete.. it will be a nightmare making sure you remember to use the right bits & add the right code chunks to have your features available.

Hi alls, No the v2 firmwares not ready yet to the best of my knowlege, tho of all the things i could wish for right now.. is the 8 sid function.. everything else can wait abit for me at least.. As for the number of core boards used to control 8xsids ..i beleive that it meantions something about using one core to control two sids ...however if another 4 cores needs to be stuffed, it could be done at a real push of double board stacking :) As for the sid selection buttons, note that the matrix buttons & already exhistant sid selection buttons are not finished on that layout.. i need to think some more on how that is to be done in the tidyest fashon. And i dont plan to build the control surface part this year, if i do make it. So that can wait abit. Also on the note of being able to switch between 8 sids, the ability to switch between 4 is already present in tks design.. so i would presume that he'd change the firmware to keep the same CS & just have the button for selecting one sid ..toggle between the two connected to the same core. Otherwise if there are more buttons to add, theres still plenty of time to include that in the eventual CS design.. [Hmm.. ahha ! ..how about having the option to use a rotary encoder to quickly slide up and down through all 8 sids ? ...pretty please ;) ..could even do this by reusing the sid buttons in 'hold down' mode to enable 'sid select' - then spin the main screen editing dial (or for that matter why not all of the dials, for ease of access ?)] Basically, the main point of these boxes is to make noises, and im just enabling that for the meantime.. If i desire lots of control.. that can come later..

I like discreete logic ;) Its big, but its fun in a lego like way :) Found this whilst refreshing my memory on the 7400 series, got some ideas up my sleeve about fun things to do with parallel dacs & logic cascades. Nice crude, gritty '8-bit' (even 16 if you want) realtime effects for all.. And probably some unique ones too.

see the following link: http://www.vttoth.com/vicproc.htm

a collation of information about quite obscure soundchips, mostly yamaha & closely related to the ym2612 http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~rga24/computer/music/

I've got afew opl's & one sid spare just incase.. tho im going one further mesure to insure against electrical damage.. there'll be a spare mains filter unit going in this box to help snuff out any spikes. Also there's a big one supplying all the kit, so two in a row and it shouldnt come offf too badly, home or away... As for layouts, yes itll take up some space in 1u format... however it can be squeezed into about the same space as one of my oberheim matrix's ..and pack a little more sound capacity into the same space ;) Below is a quick sketch up of how things will layout, the extra 4 sids will just about sit directly on top of the exhisting ones.. as will afew other items ..tight fit, but will work...

After both the MBFM & SID projects sat languishing for 10 months; due to a lack of enthusiasm to go about the painstaking control surfaces assembly. I decided on a rethink & concluded that i should dispense with making the full control set for now. Opting to edit via pc for the meantime. So, i decided that maybe both projects should be stuffed into one box ..to save potentially wasting rackspace on empty case space ;) ..thus the resulting design below: The current panel design, hmm will i actually stick to it & make it ? Revised slightly due to oversights, heres whats acutally being printed to the decal: Design drying on front panel.. oh the tedium (hmm.. will it stick ?): Well the case is togeather, wondering what its like with the lights on ?: ..well i am too.. give it a couple of hours and come back :): A quick snap of almost everything working.. Proper shots & hopefully fully working hardware to come shortly... Right here goes for now folks, its up and running, however the full compliment of sid chips will have to wait until after xmas ..as i found out i dont have enough PICs lying around. However as far as controls and aesthetics go, it is now finished ! ..so nothing new to see later.. enjoy ! Another previous one ..not so happy with it (due to dirt cheap 2u case, tut tut..): Old design: If i do build a control surface in the end, it will be in a sepperate box & will probably look much like the below 2u module (the matrix editing buttons need a final bit of sorting out - not quite right): Also this synth will contain 8 sid chips, four each of 6581 & 8580 to allow for the most flexability when programming sounds... Hope, i'll be able to use that feature when i've finished this box... as its still sat in the 'sid wish list' of functions ;) Hmm... this poses another question.. does this project belong in the sid or mbfm forum ..or does it belong in both ? ..maybe neither ? :)

ta... On it already, ill only take a very small handful of components, looking at afew pre-exhisting circuits here.. to work out what simple adaptations will work best.

hi, Lall.. curiously enough ...aside of my own expectations ...lcds themselfs do actually fade ..i have a roland jd990 here which has lost alot its contrast over time. A service engineer who i have known for sometime has seen many synths through his door which needed replacing as the screen got too faint to read ..even with the assistance of bright sunlight. Dcer10 funnily enough many lcd parts are pin for pin compatable. i have changed over the lcd elements between a number of screens.. for reasons of broken lcds or defective driver chips. Many if not all lcds of a standard configuration seem to have thieir connections in the same exact places. As for backlights ..these can be replaced easily enough. as for led colour ..sucess will vary ..due to some screens having tinted filters/polarizers ..limiting the useful leds. ..and when it comes to the standard clear black text on white foil.. they only seem to display well with green. ..tho may work ok with blue. red might not be so effective ...although your milage will vary. Just give it a try and see what actually works. if it doesnt ..just switch it back :) also watch out ..some screens use surface mount leds behind a custom diffuser ...might prove difficult to augment ..can but try.

Thanks :) ..More soon. Addition - the company who made the hacked Nomad - R-DAT 2 system above: http://www.cs-electronics.co.uk/home.htm

The backlight is hardware only.. it is simply a led / light array of somesort with its power connectors provided sepperately from any other lcd control. also if you are crafty.. you can re-led'ify dead backlights :)

Hi, Generally the life of electrical components is proportional to the square root of the drive current/level.. or in that rough ball park. So simply halfing the drive level can extend the expected life by upto 10x. So, this leaves a number of things worth thinking about.. One.. edging off the lcd contrast & brightness from its max will invariably help if you dont need it.. And certainly in battery applications the full backlight power is simply not needed to enable good usability in bad lighting situations. Secondly turning off the display completely may prove frustrating & irritating when glancing over after a while to see what the unit was last doing... Maybe a better comprimise is to have the screen saver switch between two levels of contrast (& brightness maybe) by switching a resistor in and out of the appropriate circuit. A drive reduction of 4-8x max should still remain quite readable ..whilst hardly having any effect on screen life. However if the unit is left on for really long periods of time, maybe a complete idle mode could be implimented. which upon the midibox doing nothing whatsoever... it is permitted to completely turn off the screen. Also.. perceived brightness doubling on backlighting vastly increases current consumption. ..so trimming it back to all that is nessursary saves segnificant power & led life. Also another trick employed by some companys like roland, is to strobe the leds on and off very quickly ..50 to several hundred hertz. so that although they appear to be on constantly, they are not. ..this has two effects, it helps save on power & yet again on led life. Hope this proves to be useful input :)

Hi.. Heres a project completed in one evening over coffee, during conversation with some visiting friends.. Its a MIOS MidiMon built into what was once some sort of SMS style comms system for Lorry Fleet communications.. or something along those lines. The units where made in the mid 90's contain a 4x20 screen with backlight. a Pic board.. 4 buttons and not much else. Two of the buttons where removed to conveiniently allow the (somewhat slapdash) mounting of two midi sockets. One pic module was dropped in the back, along with a 9v battery for portable use & two switches where installed on the back. One switches between external power supply & internal battery ..facilitating power off when on battery. and the other turns on and off the backlight for battery saving. Future tweaks will consist of dumping the 9v battery for 4x aa rechargeables and a trickle charge circuit which will run when switched over to external power source & The connector on the back will be hooked upto various commonly used ports on the pic board ..so that this unit can be flashed with other firmwares and instantly be used to work with new hardware being built ...or for that matter to test / diagnose exhisting hardware. ..oh and a led circuit to indicate low battery level will be implimented.. this & some of the above will be useful for all midi box projects running from batterys :) The mounting bracket on the back makes for a useful stand ...but could also allow for seccure mounting in the future.. Got afew more of these boxes ..and i really should put them to use with other dinky projects here :) If you see them for sale anywhere ...pick them up ..they make for a cheap source of lcds & a good case to build simple projects like this one ;) Admin.. please feel free to move this post to the appropriate section ...the midibox gallery i guess ..tho i wasnt sure if i had the permissions to sumbit my own postings in there. Ta, ta for now ...on with other things next.

sure.. would love to help... just wish i had the patience to pick up the programming ..as i certainly seem to come up with ideas alot :-\ (some for better.. some for worse..) Tho at the min theres afew things sitting here unfinished ...so ill get them done first before i get heavily involved in anything else..

hi, A third screen dedicated to Graphical display of envelopes and the likes, although futher complicating the project.. is definately a good option to have.. Good for an additional development step maybe.. Graphical envelope editing is something which proves invaluable on my jd990 for quick editing & on things like eq & compression on my digi desk.. its much quicker to read and more overall relavent to what you are hearing ..than a string of numbers :) Maybe this third lcd could be in the middle & also serve one secondary function as a '(modulation) matrix / patch bay' editor ? ...ie with a small array of buttons around it which allow for rapid editing (& display of the routing options) of those links which mostly consist of on/off (or cycling through +/-/dev/x math, etc) values ? Added to that (or instead of maybe).. the rotarys on the adjecent screens could be used to edit variable 'modulation matrix' values, when this screen mode is active ? Variable values on modulation 'junctions' could be displayed as a small virtual rotary dial displaying its position - or a little pie chart possibly with the 'math type (+/- etc) displayed in the middle. Serving both these functions would probably require a wider display in the middle.. tho wouldnt that just look cool ;) ..and they are pretty plentiful on ebay & surplus outlets for reasonable prices.. so it needn't break the bank :) (ugly edit idea, without buttons..) Additionally, extra control element, possibilitys could be added.. without further complicating the front panel - by using rotary encoders with a vertical click switch built in. non-cllick ones can have a switch added to them with a simple bit of mechanical enginuity however. Additional note: Having such a hardware structure in place, would also allow for later development of the firmware to maybe include things like a graphical display of synth structure (oscs @ top, outputs @ bottom). and could allow quick visual navigation to a particular section for editing.. whilst facilitating an overview display of values. Or pressing 'page up' or 'page across' on the modulation matrix; could take you to a page which follows the lines of the 'mod matrix' to a page with that part of the synth structure.. Just another idea (may need some further thinking through)

thats frickin' sweet :)

thats a very tidy bit of work indeed.. and nice to see things other than sids in Commodore cases :) Damn.. forget fiddling on with lasertran (for now..) ..next few project pannels are going to be done using a sign maker service.. the finish is so unbeleiveably professional :) ..now the mission is on to try to find a local place thats afforable in the uk midlands.. ...that inspires me actually ..if i build a control surface for my mbsid+mbfm (those have been waiting for completion so long, its become a joke..) ..then im definately building it into one of these cases :)

smart :)

that conversion job works very nicely... doesnt look out of place at all.. well done :)