Milkmansound

it helps cause you are shorting what is usually an open jack. Most guitar amps for example will short the inputs when they are not used - thats why they crackle so loud when you are inserting the jack with the amp on and volume up. However, it may also be a faulty sid - I had a similar problem where the solution was a different sid with a fully functional filter. The filter was creating some nasty noise apparantly. You are not going to damage anything by shorting the audio in, and changing sids around and playing with a few configs until it sounds quieter.

well, there are nice regulators in there that you can use right in the midibox! Also, reuse the DIN connectors, resistors, ceramic caps, sockets - whatever you can salvage! Power switch, key buttons (for the seq project?) shielding - just aviod the electro caps, those are old and probably high ESR.

So, I have played around with this and it seems completely possible to do: use a 9VAC wallwart to power both the core and the SID modules. Just wondering if anyone else has done this? With 9VAC, I can still get the regulated 12V to the SID chip, and I have a 1A tranny in there, so I should be good to go right? The only thing I noticed with this rig is that I have to worry a little about the grounding - but I will figure out a solution. If anyone else does this - please let me know - the original C64 PSU is such a pain in the ass with its fuse buried in the liquid plastic... I thought it would be easier to skip it this time round ;)

I did as you suggested and tried as soon as the blocks came up and it worked!!! on both cores! thanks - my SID is up and running again. :) :) :)

haha, yeah, I did notice that. Man, MIOS stops for no man!!! anyway, I think I might just breadboard the PIC Burner, and erase the thing. Have people been having luck with that?

well, I have been battling this for a while now: I was running mios 1.6 on these cores for a long time, and then updated to 1.7 making all of the necessary hardware changes. However - for some reason, I am unable to load 1.7 on to either PIC, from either core module. When powered on, I see 1.6 load, and then I get 2 rows of blocks on the LCD. Meanwhile, there is no sysex output after booting. I should mention that 1.6 stopped operating at one point as well, after the code was tweaked so that I could use a different LCD display. The last time it worked was before the new version of 1.6 was loaded with the changed OS. I am thinking I might want to reload the bootstrap onto these PICs - can I do that with just the core module over midi? Or do I need the JDM module? Or should I just replace the PICs? thanks!

thanks, I've emailed him.

I am looking for one - I just noticed that smash is not selling them anymore. If you have one, or are looking to get in on a bulk order - please let me know!

http://www.lmbheeger.com/about_us.asp some great looking ones there

thank you for taking a moment to asnwer those! Looks like I am good to go - I will see if I can find the output amperage of my USB on my ibook for an LCD - but becklighting is not essential.

hello - I am about to start on another exciting midibox venture - and I think I would like to use the USB implementation on this one. Here is my dream: Midibox64 design, powered by USB that will be a dedicated control surface for Ableton Live/DAW mixing - with external power and midi (switched) so, here are my questions: 1 - is that possible? 2 - will the USB allow me to pass midi on to the core and back under OSX? 3 - will I need to burn an eprom? If so - how do I go about doing that (I can use a PC if need be) thanks!

huh, wonder who was talking about the SID in that other forum?

I am just wondering what is going on with my core still - since the thing seems to be ok, but is booting back to MIOS 1.6 after loading 1.7 - maybe a hard PIC reset of some kind will make a difference?

well, I added more delay time, and its still doing the same thing. It does say "MIOS rebooting" but it reboots back to version 1.6, and does not say "ready". This is strange, becuase when I reload the OS on there it appears to be going onto the PIC - I mean, it does not load the SID app! I even tried it with a different PIC and the same thing happened. When I load the SID app onto the PIC it initializes. Maybe my PIC is just displaying the 1.6 heading? Do I need a fresh PIC to put 1.7 onto? I am stumped with this one.

so, I finally got around to doing this today - and I am not sure what is happening here. I loaded it onto the PIC, and it rebooted, and then it said "Mios v 1.6 c 2003" or whatever. So, did I get it on there? On 1.6 it used to say "ready" - this time it said nothing - but I tried and put the SID app on there as well. I am thoroughly confused here. all hardware has been upgraded as well FYI. Thanks guys!

well, by your description it looks better to just throw in 2 rheostats. (less cons that the PWM thingy) well, that should be easy enough to do - hopefully the heat will not do any melting or burning! (I could always get a metal enclosure...)

I built a littlelight box to use with synths and stuff - basically its a radio shack box with BNC connectors that the gooseneck lamps fit on to. But I need a way to limit the current that will not melt the plastic enclosure... This can be on topic because my next DIY synth will have a sea of knobs, and one of these BNC lamp sockets. I think my choices are chopper circuit or rheostat (ie, heat) just wondering if anyone ever messed around with this

Off topic, but somewhat relevant: http://xmidi.com/juno.html Have not touched my PG-300 in months...

Off topic, but somewhat relevant: http://xmidi.com/juno.html Have not touched my PG-300 in months...

I finally was able to upload MIOS onto my core, after replacing the optocoupler - however, when I attatched the sid board, the LCD would get really faint (as in, the contrast changed rapidly after about 2 seconds) I actually tried this with 2 seperate sid boards, and both did it - sound like a core problem? (also, there was no SID response to midi - however, you could hear the line noise from the audio out) If any one knows a solution, or another method to troubleshoot I would be psyched. Thanks! - Tim

I finally was able to upload MIOS onto my core, after replacing the optocoupler - however, when I attatched the sid board, the LCD would get really faint (as in, the contrast changed rapidly after about 2 seconds) I actually tried this with 2 seperate sid boards, and both did it - sound like a core problem? (also, there was no SID response to midi - however, you could hear the line noise from the audio out) If any one knows a solution, or another method to troubleshoot I would be psyched. Thanks! - Tim

looks like the opto is the prob, I did the opto test and the LED never lit regardless of ground cnx. So I guess I'll order up a bunch and keep workin it. Still I would like to know how easy is it to destroy the optos? Should I wear my wrist strap when puting them into the socket? The good news is that it appears that my korg interface is not blocking any of the sysex - but once again, we'll wait until I get the optos and I'll post the results. Thanks - Tim

Is your regulator getting hot? Or the luminance transistor?

So, I have been playing around with my core unit, and its not responding to Midi at the moment. Here is a list of my experiences, maybe there is some little thing that I am missing, or need to do: a) I am just trying to upload MIOS 1.6 onto my core, with just an LCD attatched - I see the boot-blocks, and the reg stays cool. I have a pic with just the bootsrtap loaded, and it is spitting out some nonsensical midi messages - so I try my other PIC with Mios and boot already on there, and it spits out what I assume is the little song the SID plays when powered on. b) I have tried to send MIOS to that PIC as well, but there is no response/change on the LCD c) switiching back to the PIC with no mios, still spits out the garbage. I am fairly certain that this is a midi input issue, since I am getting at least something from the PICS output... but no upload request, just random midi stuff so my question is, how easy is it to destroy the optocoupler? I am thinking that evidence is pointing toward that ic... and maybe I am getting the midi messages because mios partially loaded or something? I have built one SID before, and it worked great for about 3 weeks, then died on me - I am thinking that I was bad to Commodore in another lifetime or something, or have a SID curse. However, I feel that the core is where I am having these troubles. (the other SID I built was no longer talking either, but I think it was the core because when I powered it on I did not hear the little tune anymore, and there was no midi response.) Thats why I decided to start fresh and do a neater job, and possibly, with a little luck get to step B, and have a stereo SID... maybe the gurus can help me out and reverse the curse! - T

Yarr - the thread pirate. 8)