mb944

Hi there! I would like to make a stand alone sid piano. My initial plan was to integrate a 2x40 lcd, encoder and buttons into the chassis of a small toy electronic piano, and solder the piano keys to the Dins of a midibox64 (which act as note on/off by default, which would be perfect for a basic non velocity piano). Then, I could somehow use the small amp to drive the sid output through the little integrated speakers, with switchable headphone input. I would finaly plug the midi out of the midibox to the midi IN of the Sid, and Voila. On second thoughts, It seemed a shame to have to use two cores, two PIcs and take up Twice the space to achieve something that must be some way possible with the sid alone. This takes me to the question: How can I make 24 pins (2 octaves) of the sid's DINX2 send note on/off data directly to "itself" without losing the Encoder and button for the basic sid controller. Allthough I haven't a clue with mios software, I think a portable sid piano would be a great little gadget to take around, and will put all the effort into getting it made, so any help to get me started would be deeply appreciated. many thanks in advance, -Alex

thanks for the help moebius! All that decompiling looks a bit scary to me, so I think I'll start cutting some wire and do it from scratch. Anyone succeded with MOUSE/TRACKBALL devices? regards, -Alex

thanks for the help moebius! All that decompiling looks a bit scary to me, so I think I'll start cutting some wire and do it from scratch. Anyone succeded with MOUSE/TRACKBALL devices? regards, -Alex

Hi there, here's a question for Microchip programmers: I was running around, looking for something cool to use as a box for a vst-i controller midibox when I found an old Madcatz PANTHER XL joystick for 8€ It's really quite smart, with loads of buttons waiting to be "DINed" and a nice backlit trackball (see photo) that I was considering finding a way to adapt to be also "DINed" as an encoder. Anyway, I unscrewed the thing, and to my amazment, there laid a microchip 16cxxxx!!! At first I thougt "cool, a spare pic for my midibox", then giving it some thought, I came to the conclusion that With some kind of Decompiling tool, and programming, I might be able to use the actual setup (with all functions working fine) So my question is, If I jdm the hex to my pc, is there i way of analysing whats been programmed, thus changing the hex to asm, or something? obviously, madcatz won't of included ;explination in their code, but I could always give it a try? What do you experts out there think? or shall I just rip it all out and start from scratch? don't know how to use the trackball's optical sensors as DIN encoders, but madcatz proove its possible using a pic, don't they! thks for any thoughts! -Alex

Hi there, here's a question for Microchip programmers: I was running around, looking for something cool to use as a box for a vst-i controller midibox when I found an old Madcatz PANTHER XL joystick for 8€ It's really quite smart, with loads of buttons waiting to be "DINed" and a nice backlit trackball (see photo) that I was considering finding a way to adapt to be also "DINed" as an encoder. Anyway, I unscrewed the thing, and to my amazment, there laid a microchip 16cxxxx!!! At first I thougt "cool, a spare pic for my midibox", then giving it some thought, I came to the conclusion that With some kind of Decompiling tool, and programming, I might be able to use the actual setup (with all functions working fine) So my question is, If I jdm the hex to my pc, is there i way of analysing whats been programmed, thus changing the hex to asm, or something? obviously, madcatz won't of included ;explination in their code, but I could always give it a try? What do you experts out there think? or shall I just rip it all out and start from scratch? don't know how to use the trackball's optical sensors as DIN encoders, but madcatz proove its possible using a pic, don't they! thks for any thoughts! -Alex

Hey-Lo Yep, the layout is kinda differant to the traktor onscreen elements, but it doesn't effect the fun factor! -Big slider for scratchin' (engaged by corresponding button) -the dual shaft pots at the top for the 4 way filters, found on ebay store (really smooth). Youre spot on for the vcr play/rew/FF controls (came from an old 80s jvc vcr that died years ago) The box is not only reserved for traktor. It also had reason in mind, theres serial port at the back awaiting an external REASON MATRIX controller :P

Thanks thorsten! Now that info saved the day! I filtered out the unwanted rows with Midi-OX and happily set up my pots without all that random stuff to deal with. What a happy man, a midibox can make :)

I'm allmost done! Din is fine Just a matter of sorting out my noisy analog inputs i only have one ain module, so I grounded the pins on J5 of the core that lead to the second Ain on the "how to connect 64 pots" PDF. Now, must I do anything particular to J6 of the core? All the noise is going to channel 6 and over thanks for any help, its my last buggering post! promise ;D

thanks for the feedback Doc! I fixed the problem, but don't even dare tell what it was.... Who's clever enough to stuff DOUT ics into the DIN sockets? ..... me :P It took all my 7 neurones to sort that one out...

here's just an update: [glow=red,2,300]Mb64 loaded! [/glow]ain works more or less (I have to ground it better because its going a bit haywire at times) but nothing seems to work on the DIN module. i am blocked on page 2 and all the button icons are BLACK STARS. Any Ideas? ps: I only have 1 din module, do I need to do something to J2? thanks in advance, best regards, -Alex

Thanks Thorsten! silly me! that will teach me to rush into things... :-/ I sent MIOS, then MB64 and its now showing the double row blocks, (but I saw the READY text, and when I unplug the 9v, I see "MIOS V2.3" briefly but its outputing tons of messages! I guess that means I need to connect the modules... Thanks and sorry again for the questions that allready have answers online... ;D -Alex

hey LO, I've triple checked the whole circuit, but still nothing. i hate those black blocks ;D contrast/lunimance pots work so I think the lcd must be connected up ok I haven't got a bootstrap but I thought It's only needed to save time, avoiding the jdm. Anyway, I noticed that my midi out has a constant 5v output : led doesn't flicker, but stays on, even without the pic! Is this normal? I haven't connected an AIN module yet. could that be the problem? I imagined that the midibox64 hex would display some text anyway... Maybe I should bin the core and start a new one.. :'( Thanks for any help, losing hope here :P

thanks for the advice, milkman! i also had read that post, but I only have a jdm. Anyone else had the one row of block problem? thanks in advance, -Alex

HI again! Thanks for the unsoldering wick advice, I got it nice and clean, but the first test was unsuccessfull. At first, the lcd displayed both rows all black, then after a while, only one black row was displayed. I this a common problem? I tried the "Flickering led" in midi out: nothing. I checked the pic with the jdm, pic ok. I checked all the info online, but really can't find the problem. could it be an ID problem? how can I tell my actual Id? Sorry about all this, but i'm quite confused, maybe It's something I did wrong that can be fixed in a giffy. :P Thanks in advance, -Alex

many thanks for the advice! WICK-ed! :o

Greetings felow midiboxers! My dad is a vintage pinball (flipper) fan, so I decided to make him a nice "mini pinball " pour his 50th birthday. Mios will obviously be a perfect solution ;D : -Din for the buttons and triggers, -dout for lights, solenoids -lcd for the scoreboard and messages!! This is all going to be great fun to make, but my question is: How can I boost the output of the Dout? I could use ultra bright leds instead of light bulbs, but I will still need at least 12v for some solenoid flippers and bumpers. I saw a diy drum kit with optional velocity AMP. Can this kind of concept be adapted to the Dout module? I'll be happy to post progress pics of the playfield, but want to be sure it will be "doable" Thanks in advance, -Alex

Hi there! I remember being able to download a roland font somewhere within midibox.org but cannot find it anymore. This font really rocks, and having bought adhesive transparent film from reichelt, I'm ready for printing! but no stylish roland 909 font to print... :-[ thanks in advance for any help on nice font hunting! -Alex

hi! my friend has got a bag full of nice long 2k pots and 20k pots, but no 10k would either of these work ok? thanks -al

Hi, I designed a midibox that has about 200 functions on deck including launching windows apps, tabbing from reason to cubase, typing text etc AND I DONT KNOW A HECK ABOUT MIOS! ;D The solution is software drivers. I use a very simple VISUAL BASIC program that I made in a couple of days that sits on the system tray and filters all the midi comming out of my midibox and treats it in very simple basic code (I'm not even good at that, but plenty of tutorials online). I enjoy this method and think it can get a lot of potential out of a simple midibox (mine has only one ain and one din). I'm currently working on using midi out (of visual basic) for animating leds in the most unlimited way. Here is an example of what you could do in a couple of minutes: Use 10 DIN encoders that decrease or increase the values of selected (via din) tracks. This allows dozens of tweaks made to only one track, or two, or 200 !!! WORD OF ATTENTION: I really think MIOS rocks and is irreplacable for we couldn't go without it, but thought I would suggest my Newbie friendly approach... you guys might of heard about ghost mouse (mouse movement recorder and player) IMAGINE WHAT YOU COULD GET COOKING WITH THAT! loop while(producer = unhappy){ if (turn knob1) then load reason (song4.rns), export it to wave, email it to producer; If producer = unhappy -> goto start; } :P ps: look for mabry's free midi IO for visual basic

Mornin' Tk! Thanks for your speedy feedback! Now I'm no expert in electronics, but I guess adding several differant douts (adding up the voltages) to an analog needle vu meter could act as a variable output ? Some resistors of some sort would be needed to bring the voltage down I guess... Or Am I going to blow the thing up By mixing Dout pins? (embarrasing to ask such questions that must seem obvious to others :-[) Thanks

HI all! regarding the vu meter idea I posted a last week, I finally found A vst called Jultram that sends Db levels to midi ccs in real time. ::) Now to avoid having to use 10 douts for only one Led baragraph and a lot of coding, Is there a way to export a variable voltage according to the CC send buy the Db to cc Vst converter? :o This would alloy usage of analog needle Vu meters :-*, And led baragrahs! ;D Thanks for the help, :D -mb944 Â :P ps: sorry bout all those smileys (my girlfriend did them)

Hi all! What does the midi controller really lack to completely match analog mixers then?? VU METERS!!!! :-* I had this idea (other poeple must of thought about it allready)... woudn't it be cool to have live led baragraph vu meters for each track, and why not a nice vintage stereo Needle vu meter for the sequencer's master output?? ::) This would really make the mb a sexy piece of kit. And after some thought I came up with two solutions: -a custom Vst that could convert the db level into a midi controler value (simplest approach, because you could then apply the vst to any track you need metering). -Some kind of app that could "scan" the sequencer's variables to get the actual virtual vu level, and reconvert it to midi ctr... headach approach.. ??? Once we have the calculated db value in the mb, we could either output it to douts or, even better, use the mf board to output it to real analog meters! Hey, using a clever vst, we could even meter differant frequency ranges and have ourselves, therfore, a... MULTIBAND SPECTROMETER!! no a douzen led baragraphs kicking up and down would really look smart.. hey? So who out there can create a vst effect that converts the db in level into a midi out value??? I think it could revolutionise the midibox, beating therefore every single midi controller (seen a vu on one? :P) just a thought... -Alex