tarzan boy

Hello, yesterday i got my first set of control surface done, the step A (5 menu buttons and encoder for LCD) and my whole thing is up and running. I'm super psyched. I have one problem though: If i go "too crazy" with the settings i do on the sid (more than a few mod matrix settings on, use the 'delay' feature -the one next to attack in the osc menu, change envelope or LFO or LBH pass filters quickly) then I get this high pitch whine that I hear whenever a note is not being played. I was messing around with the LBH filters while this whine was on last night and they affect the sound. Is this problem something in the SID chip? I read a thread from a year ago with this problem http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php?topic=1689.15 but it was mentioned at the end of long thread with no follow-up. Anyone? thanks

daamn, i've found 5 c64s (3 c64c's) and NONE have had a disk drive. i was wanting to do some video programming but my datasettes are so unreliable. and yeah, this thread is really useful, i was thinking earlier today 'if i hadnt started 2 days before him, i'd be following his every move!' catch up and get ahead of me so i can follow your lead!!

shoot. i wish i had a printer. i'm at nearly the same stage you are (well I actually got sound out of the first sid this morning and just got the LCD turned on just now) and I have my laptop sitting on my worktable with all the webpages and pdfs opened with all the info for me to see. I have OSX on a mac so its obviously easy for me to get to which window i want very quickly; but a color printout of the PCB would be SWEET to be sitting underneath my actual pcb..

i just got my first 6581R2 running this morning and I have a similar problem I thought i would contribute to maybe help solve a potential problem. I'm using mios 1.8 and sid1.7a as well, and using Jsynthlib (the only way i have right now of changing the sounds predictably) if I make some drastic changes in envelope, modulation matrix, or oscillation settings (transpose, etc) my sid starts to whine a high pitch in between every note. when i stop sending any midi data the high pitch just stays there. I have to use jsynthlib to reload a patch in order for the high pitch to stop.

i think if i hadnt been soldering for 5-6 hours straight i wouldnt have made the error. But as far as changing the schematic, doesnt the layout of the text on the crystal solely depend on the brand of crystal you buy? i.e. noting "text should go this way" is irrelavent, or am i wrong and all crystals have the same text design principles? The way it is now (placement by shape) corresponds to how you denote the placement of the ICs however; the little indent indicates which way to insert... ah- and I wanted to say that this morning i finally got the first sounds out of my 6581R2! A little bit of guesswork uploading the sysex files (i'm on a mac and I don't have Tiger so I cant use Java 1.5 which enables me to use the MIOS Studio) since I have no real feedback using SysEx Librarian. I had to attempt upload of MIOS a few times before it stuck... when i do more intricate uploads (patches, control surface files ,etc) i will probably use a friend's PC... so excited; now on to the LCD.

When you are lucky, c64's turn up right under your nose. I work at a 2nd hand shop and I've gotten 3 that way (2 with 8580, 1 with 6581.) Last year I worked on a farm and the owner had an old one in his attic he gave me (a 6581). And I met an organization that makes art with old computer parts (http://www.raccattaee.net); I asked if they had any and they found one for me. (I dont know which kind, I actually pick it up tonight!)

TK, thanks! i didnt actually get as far as destroying any of the PCB, but your suggestion made me second guess the placement of the crystal (where i would have made my first cut into the PCB) and I realized that I soldered it in backwards! I had soldered it so the text was in the right position but not the sharp angled corner (the part that matters!) So i just removed the crystal, resoldered it correctly, and everything checks out. Now i can continue. thanks for the help.

its not an error from any chip, i still havent (for fear of damage) put in any of the chips in the sid module. all the chips in the core module give the right voltages, and when i do not have the sid module plugged in, I check the J2 of core and its steady at 5v. Would a short in the Sid module make a lower voltage or would it simply just make the voltage zero? When i do a continuity check it doesnt seem that I have a short there though (the plug coming from J2 on sid to J2 of core); I get a resistance like the one across the voltage regulator. [later...] I've just tried taking out the 2 ICs from my core module and I still get the same behavior: voltage goes way down to 1.7V when I plug the sid module into the core module (both with no ICs plugged.) I just came back from the weekend and I've double checked all my connections and placement of capacitors. The only slightly strange thing is that hte Joergs Mididshop included a 2200uF polarized cap instead of a 1000uF like the schematic for the SID module calls for. I cant see this making a difference since its connected to the 12V input... I hope at least this reasoning is right!

Hello, I've gone through every step leading up to the point I am at now, Ensure the following voltage levels: IC1:Vcc(25) - IC1:Vss(14) = 5V IC2:Vdd(16) - IC2:Vss(8) = 5V IC3:Vdd(16) - IC3:Vss(8) = 5V but when I read these levels I get a little less than 2 volts. In all previous steps everything was fine: All voltages on CORE are fine without chips inserted (when applying 7.5 volts from wall-wart) All voltages on SID are fine without chips inserted (when applying 15 volts from another wall-wart) Then I inserted the ICs into the CORE and applied power and everything is still ok when I check voltage. Now when i connect J2 and J10 from CORE to SID J2 (and yes I was sure to use the schematic for my ribbon cable as described in mbhp_sid_c64_psu.pdf) I get this low voltage (1.7 or so) on all the places that I should recieve 5v on the CORE and the SID module, and the regulator on the CORE gets extremely hot within 20-30 seconds. I've done continuity checks on each wire in my ribbon cable, i've made sure that the bottom of the core board where the IC socket is soldered connects electrically with the corresponding pin on the bottom of the SID board when the ribbon is connected. (i've also made continuity checks after every single solder i made to make sure every component had an electrical connection with the board!! :o ) I've done some forum searches and most people have said that when they check this voltage it is ok. One person said they had a similar problem but realized they didnt solder a pin on J1 of the core. I checked and yep, its soldered! However I did find this which seems to contradict http://www.ucapps.de/mbhp_sid.html and what others have said about their success with these voltage checks: TK said in http://69.56.171.55/~midibox/forum/index.php?topic=2877.0 Quote Also, where does the 2.5VDC come from? I notice that on the SC pin of J2 on the core, there is 2.5V instead of 5V - is this normal? the shift clock SC is a fast switching signal, therefore no DC. You cannot measure the voltage with a common multimeter. [end quote] Could someone clarify, or maybe help me?

Hello, I started on my 1st core soldering last night; I spent a few hours soldering stuff on and off an old fax machine board first to get the feel of my new soldering iron. Today after finishing the resistors I tried to solder on the crystal but had a lot of difficulty doing it (I'm using the TK designed board where the crystal is soldered to the back.) I had to remove and resolder the crystal 3 times because of bad connections and solder spills that shorted another etching nearby. Now, after cleaning and meter testing, all the connections seem to be isolated but I'm a little scared that my crystal has been fried by the combined 15-20 seconds of 350-400C I put on the leads only a few millimeters from the outer body of the crystal. I have no tools to measure (I've just searched old topics and found that you can measure the crystal with an ocilliscope) so I would like to know if it is possible to fry the thing or has anyone had an experience of it frying? thanks

spent all day looking around the net and phone books for electronic stores. unfortunately i live in the middle of farmland one hour from a semi-sizeable city (in my case Bologna). I discovered there is a Ham Radio store there, i plan to go on monday and check it out. You are probably right, i will want to eventually build the JDM, but considering my resources are low, i want to ask.

Hello all, I was wondering if anyone has the ability to burn 3 PIC18f452's with IDs 1,2,3. I got them as sample orders from Microchip.com and ordered my 250 euros in parts split between SmashTV and Joergs Midishop (including one PIC18f burned with ID 0) without thinking that I'll eventually need to have device IDs burned onto the 3 additional PICs I got free. I'm hoping I can find someone I can send these 3 chips to and have them burn them for me, hopefully the shipping for sending and return being less than the 23 dollars to get the jdm module from SmashTV or the 17 euros to get it from Joergs. btw- how much does it cost to ship 3 microchips intercontinental europe? I'm new here (USA emmigrant..)

Ciao tutti, Sono americano, scusate per il mio italiano. Sto imperando... Vivo qui in Emilia... Ho ricevuto tutto per il midibox SID ieri, ma ho pensavo che i tre PIC18's che ho ordinato da Microchip.com non hanno Bootstrap Loader, ma il primo che ho ordinato da SmashTV c'e l'ha questa cosa. Voglio sapere che c'e qualcuno ha un metodo per stampare il 'bootstrap loader' per core-module2,3, e 4. In inglese: Hello everyone, I'm american so excuse me for my italian sopra, i know its bad but i'm learning. I live in Emilia and I'm looking for someone who has the ability to burn the bootstrap loader onto the 3 PIC18s that I ordered from Microchip.com. I've started my project with the first core module, it has the ID 0000 0000 0000 0000, I will eventually need the bootstrap for the other 3 core modules, 0001, 0002, 0003. mille grazie ps- mi chiamo Tarzan Boy perche' sono da Baltimora.

Thanks Jurbo. Luckily i will be visiting my home country soon (US of AAAAAY) so I'm looking forward to ordering the basics for step A in cheap dollars from smash TV and get right started on some soldering in my parents' garage while I'm there. ;D I was also piqued in interest by the possibility of a joystick of some sort. That and a built in arpeggiator will be my outside of the boxes...

"First, if you think that browsing the site for a couple of hours is a lot of work, then it might be better to forget about the whole thing..." har har. testy?! May i be more explicit and say that I had spent the past hour searching for that question but i've been frequenting the ucapps site for almost a year now but have not ordered parts yet because i have only been able to find 3 c64s and one of them has a busted sid? So each SID module will have its on VR (also dissapating heat, shoot, i was hoping to avoid that somehow) but the core module and all the slave core modules will have no VR because the c64 PSU provides this, correct? I just want to be super sure before i order parts; I moved recently to a foreign country (and to a really really small town) so its difficult for me to find the electronics store and ask for things if i forget something small in my order. thanks

hello all wise, forgive me if this is a redundant question; i've searched the forum and the website for more than an hour with no explicit answer; however this seems like a common question to be asked: If I make a MB SID with both 8580's and 6581's, what PSU configuration should I use? The C64 power supply offers the two voltages, but if the 8580 requires 9V and the 6581 requires 12V, does this mean a) I need at least 1 more PSU offering another distinct voltage b)I convert within the MBSID box the voltage down from the 12V to 9V where its needed? If the answer is b, how do i go about this? I hope there is some detailed document on the TK site I've missed because I need as many detailed documents as i can get; i've never put together something this complex :-[ grz tb