mb944

Hey! thanks for your thoughts, I'll continue looking around the net for ideas. I have a small PIC PRACTICE book somewhere that explains how to send data via RF from one pic to another, thats why I was thinking in that approach. Cheers, Alex

hi, A good friend of mine is thinking about making an animatronic creature for fun and short films. I suggested he used mios hardware for the animation, he could then control it with his laptop or even a midi keyboard He is really excited about the project but could really do with jumping that extra leap and going wireless, thus enabling full 360 rotation and movement without getting itself cought in the midi cables. Has anyone tried using some sort of Rf or IR interface for their midibox? We obviously are into this for the fun of experimenting, so we can't really invest in a 800 euros KENTON WIRELESS MIDI SYSTEM. Maybe using two cores sending raw data between PICS? Any word of advice would really be appreciated! thanks in advance, Alex

Hey Tk! Dont want you to think I was doubting the quality of your app!! Trust, me i have tried loads of leds before asking ;) obviously, i was convinced it was a hardware problem at first! You told me to change the flag in the app_defines.inc file, but he zip I downloaded contains app_defines.h Should I rename this extension? Thanks in avance, and cheer up, your work is the best in my opinion, All my friends are hooked on midiboxing, its a crazy thing! best regards, Alex

thanks for the info Tk! I'll get activeperl downloaded and recompile best regards, Alex

Hi there! I'm currently working on an exciting new midi project: A PINBALL(see photos) I haven't a clue with Pic programming so I'm only using the Mios hardware as an IO inteface between a VISUAL BASIC application and the pinball hardware. The pic is loaded with the default midi128 firmware. Here's the pogress so far: DAY ONE: built a DIN and connected all 38 triggers to it, ran the ball through them, Visual basic registered all the NOTE ON messages. that made my day! ;) DAY TWO: Made a Dout vectorboard and connected 25 Leds to It, programmed a simple sequence of consecutive lights: YES YES YES ;D that had me dancing Ok, not much talent envolved here but its my first DOUT and It worked first go! unfortunately, when I took a closer look at sequencing, it noticed that the leds are being a bit random: Sometimes they come on, sometimes they just flicker on then stay off Sometimes when I light 10 leds, the 11th simply cuts off the 10 others Maybe I need to change the software config? My visual basic app handles midi in 3 decimals (MESSAGE; DATA1; DATA2) I've therefore been using the folowing code the light a led: 144; 64; 1; (meaning NOTE ON; PIN 64; velocity 1) as i said, it will come on, But not allways first time, and if I loop the message, It will eventually turn off again, back on, flicker etc. Is there another decimal value other than 144 that would work better? does it toggle by default? I thought that My visual basic software might be unaccurate, but I have already used it in other situations and it worked flawlessly Millisecond precise. i know something needs changing in the software anyway because at the moment, the din pin trigger their respective Dout pins, and i only wont them to send midi out. This project is definitley great fun, But I dont want to ruin it because of unaccurate Dout, especialy the next step being 25v solenoid coils on relays. I can't afford to burn them out because of a "sticky" pin >:( By the way, I'm supplying 9VDC at 500 mA to the core, could this be the problem? Thanks in advance for your interest in my project and for any advice with configuring the software. Best regards, Alex above: playfield before above: playfield after (still needs touching up, plastics and decals) above: See the midibox? ;D above: nice rotating element above: theres that core!

Thanks Thorsten! Thats going to save me hours of work, and maybe a couple of keys of my computer keyboard ;) best regards, Alex

Hello and happy new year to all! I am making a midibox64E control surface but i want to to drive a funky Dotmatrix display on it using 64 Leds I use visual basic midi program to filter the midibox messages and would therefore like to drive the dotmatrix from visual basic. I see you can use SYSEX to control the midibox's LCD Is there a way to control the DOUT pins using sysex??? If not, what is the default midibox64E midi mapping for LEDS? I don't want to use ledrings, because I need individual controllable Leds for complex Dotmatrix displays. thanks in advance for Any suggestions on driving DOUT from midi in Best wishes! -Alex

Hello there! I am thinking about making a midibox64E for controlling cubase Sx2. I also wanted to have it display the name of the selected track, on big Alpha numeric letters I tried and tried automating the track NAME value within the generic remote and monitoring it with midiOx, but impossible to get a signal. Maybe I should base myself on the Makie setup, which succesfully receives track names? Can anyone tell me how to "decode" the Sysex attributed to the name of the selected track? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance! -Alex

Hi Tom Scarff suggests an 8 way velocity sensitive drumpad controller. I got it up and running (without lcd and buttons) in 20 minutes using only 10k resistors wired to 8 pins of a PIc16F877 . I works fine, I just need to make some better piezo pads. Thought this info could come in handy for a midibox version. '>http://tomscarff.tripod.com/8way_drm2/8way_drm2_1.htm -Alex

yes, it's a fake (not much bigger than original though...) :P

I promise I'll get a new iron! maybe I'll do the soldering with the windows open too. I start off very precise but It all becomes wobbly as I start to get dizzy :o Well, as I said, the problem must actually be with the core, because I get that reading with and without the other modules, so I'll make a nice vectorboard core this evening with my new "cosmic blaster" and see what happens! Regards to all! -Alex

thanx for the advice, Maybe I'll order some more pcb and start over with a smaller iron and thinner solder, I promise it worked once though! hihi

reading the threads you posted (thanks by the way) Its seems to me that my problem could be Clock channels too close to each other, because i'm quite a messy solderer (laugh at photo) some channels or lanes have solder running down them, thus making things a bit nosy maybe. I'll try cleaning this disaster up a bit to reduce the interference.. we'll see ;) ps: hope Thorsten and Mike don't see the photo!! Thorsten will bann me from making midiboxes and mike won't sell me any pcbs again :P

hello, fellow din wrestler! i uploaded the latest midibox64_v2_3 firware using the excelent sysexbox utility through my pci terratec dmx6 fire souncard. I sold it yesterday on ebay because I have purchased a laptop and will be getting an external soundcard to plug into both laptop and pc. Therefore i'm in a sort of "soundless" transition point between two interfaces. By the way, I'm not sure what is best for low latency on a laptop, but i'm looking at m-audio's firewire audiophile. Anyway, back to the box! what where we saying? oh yes: HHEEELLLPP ! :P

Hello! My Din recently packed up, It was really hard and random to get working in the first place, but eventually it all worked fine, untill the next morning :'( symptoms: only the first pin works, and performs all the system buttons at once (left right snap exec). Another weird thing is that when I switch it on, it allways displays the same stuff, even with both AIN and DIN module removed (ain pins grounded) Maybe someone could tell me whats going on by looking at the display: Does this look familiar to anyone?? I'm afraid I can't say more because I haven't a midi interface at the moment to monitor the core's output :P ps: I've made a brand new Din, no differance I've checked, checked, and checked the solderings, no differance Thanks for any words of advice regards, -Alex

Hi there! I was thinking about a spectrum analyzer to add that extra LOOK to the sid module, either lcd or baragraph, but I don't really have a clue how to make/program. I've seen pic based vocal harmonizers and pitch to midi converters, so there must be a way of converting Frequency dynamics to digital values... ??? Anyone out there seen a DIY pic based spectrum analyzer on the net? Any help would be very handy for what could be a nice feature. Thanks!

oops, it was a drip of solder that shorted the other side of the 7805... sorry for the post space :P

Hi there! I just updated my messy breadboard core to a nice clean bought pcb one, the first one was a bit dodgy, had to shake it to get display etc But, since I have no 5v comming out of the 7805. When I plug the core in, nothing happens and the 7805 just gets hot. It's a new one from reichelt Does this sort of thing really happen? thanks in advance

Hi smash! I could do with 18 encs with buttons! My email is alex@djazer.com for an invoice. Thanks again for your contribution to us midiboxers

Doggle, I did it with a generic device, because I can't acces the core of makie within cubase device setup. Maybe somewhere I can download and import a replica of the mackie in .Xml generic remote format. It would make things nice and easy to hack. can't wait for sx3 to get a bit cheaper!!

Doc, I have recorded the METER OUT into a midi track, and the whole things looks quite coherant. Maybe the issue has been adressed since Sx2??!! check out screen capture of audio track 1 with it's METER values recorded to midi track 2: note that the drop half way was normal, its me playing with track one's volume :-/ Looks like I'll be adding baragraphs after all, though I must admit that my alltime dream would be analog needles 8) anyone used Aouts with these? thanks for pointing out the generic module METER values. would never have guessed they existed... YUMMY!!!(just a fake though....)

Thanks guys for the feedback on this topic! I think Little single "signal" leds could be cool, just as a sort of beat indicator. Maybe some accurate output will be included in Sx 3 Who knows... ...an sx3 owner, I guess ;)

thanks for the help! After second thoughts, I'm not too sure the meters would make that much sense, as I mostly use midi channels :P

Hi there! I recently had the chance to play with a friend's Mackie control universal for a couple of hours(within cubase SX). I found the thing so ergonomic, I decided to make myself a midibox LC. Taking a look at the midibox_lc_ledrings_meters.pdf diagrams, I noticed that as well as rings, LC supports METERS I also noticed meters on Axel's beautifull 3xLc. I'm a cubase user who can't be talked out of it ;) so my question is: Are the meters going to work in sx? obviously, mackie ctr don't have any, so I guess Steinberg haven't bothered implenting such compatibility. It would be cool to be able to keep an eye on the levels at all time, so definitly Worth fitting in if I can get them to work! I'd love to know if anyone has got LED baragraph levels in cubase! thanks in advance, -Alex

Hi Thorsten, Thanks, I'll put a diver's suit on and have a look in the .asm files :-/ As for the little piano keys, I etched a board for them, so that each key leads to a din pin. I'll keep posting the progress! cheers, -Alex