el-bee

Resurrecting the dead thread \o/.. Completed my x0x during fall 2011 but took a while longer wrapping stuff up on the blog end (or here, for that matter). Roll the links: Final blog entry Project page (more photos etc.) I also wanted to do a bit of extra for this project in the form of a live recording: So there :smile:

Are there some other people from Sasha's 2008 group order that haven't completed their x0x either?? :o

Figured I'd wake up this thread a bit as I have new things to share about my x0x. After having the bare boards in random use for about two years, I'm finally making progress with the enclosure ;). ..and more photos here. If you want to read more about the past phases for this project, try this search. Not that there's much news in the older posts, if you can still recall things related to Sasha's x0x from all the threads here @ Midibox forums. Now then, do I earn the last-to-finish award for this project? =)

Some bla-bla about the construction of this synth is now available at my newly established DIY blog.. http://amazingdiy.wordpress.com/2003/01/31/midibox-sid-v1/ http://amazingdiy.wordpress.com/2005/08/17/midibox-sid-v2/ ..will take quite a while to bridge the gap all the way to present day, but I'm working towards it ;)

If you like ambient and chillout electronic music, do check out Outer Space Alliance's self-titled album! Besides yours truly, there are a couple of other members in the band, namely Tommi Björk (Wolver) and Jari Pitkänen (110rnd, Varia etc.). No MBSID on this album unfortunately :P The full-lenght streaming version is available through Last.fm, for other options please check out the shop page of our own music production company Holy Feather. We'll update the latter as more shops start stocking the album. Not much to say other than 'Enjoy'! Comments/whatnot are of course welcome :)

Somehow I was kinda hoping that this bit of news wouldn't reach this forum :) Anyway.. there's more up-to-date stuff about the controversy at Wikipedia.. Viznut also hosts a healthy list of related links, especially some of the forum threads regarding this are absolutely hilarious!

Yey I get to reply myself ;) .. Added the VCF overdrive mod and the output levels boosted clearly to a region (close to 5Vpp) where the clipper diodes clearly start doing their stuff, so I decided to leave the muffler mod installed as well. If VCF overdrive is not used, the output level will still be too low for the diodes, but maybe this doesn't matter. I'm wondering if, when constructing the final casing, it would be a usable feature to add a socket or such for swapping different diodes to the muffler circuit. With some extremely low threshold value diodes (say, zeners) even the regular, non-vcf-overdriven, signal could be clipped. No idea how the sound will turn out though, but adding this socket could be as easy as putting a screwdriver-fastenable terminal somewhere on the backside of the unit.

Oh forgot to mention, the I measured the signal from the negative pin of C38. That is, where from the clipping diodes are supposed to connect to ground.

Yey, finally got my x0x emitting sounds! Swore to myself that Acid Trax would definitely be the first tune I'd make a cover off after getting the device in a fully operational state, so here it is! Not a 100% match, but maybe I'll refine it later ;) As far as the device itself is concerned, now there's only the casing left to build, the design for it is maybe around 70% complete. For me, this x0x-project has had plenty of "two steps forward, one step back" type of progress (keyboard/mcu/cabling problems), so it's fun to see it finally ending up to this stage. ANYWAY, I did have a question in mind.. Has anyone added the muffler distortion mod to their x0x? If so, could you report the signal levels on your unit? Scoping the output of my unit I'm seeing a 500-600 mVpp signal, so using a LED for clipping the output hardly works. This mod is however mentioned to work at the x0x forums so I'm left wondering, is the output level on my unit too low or are the people reporting this mod as a working one completely deaf? :). I already decided that I'll just not include this feature on my final x0x (stick with guitar pedals etc. for distortion), but it would be good to know if the output is really too low so I can fix that bit.

Sasha, what fuse config did you use? Care to list it on this thread for future reference? I'd like to compare your fuse list against the one I used. Seems that the Atmega on my x0x is having problems outputting correct CV so I'll probably try reprogramming the chip as first measure. There's no activity whatsoever on few of the address pins used for CV generation, hopefully it's not _yet_ another shot chip.. :( The way this programming crap is going with my setup, I'll pretty soon end up ordering a preprogrammed chip directly from the folks at ladyada.

Did anyone manage to download the MOOGSP.D64 file? I'm getting a dead link, would like to have this image file ;)

Just to get back to something x0x-related.. I got a new chip on thursday and as far as the MCU is concerned, the sequencer seems to be now running as it should. Plenty of defunct leds on my custom keyboard though, so no need to guess what I'll be working on next. Leds that are soldered directly to the board work fine, so it's not a tough one guessing that the problem lies somewhere with my custom cabling ;). Anyway, in case anyone might be wondering about (or having problems with) the fuse programming, here's the configuration I'm using at the moment: - bod0level = 0 - bod1level = 0 - bod2level = 1 - ckdiv8 = 1 - sut0 = 0 - sut1 = 0 - cksel0 = 1 - cksel1 = 1 - cksel2 = 1 - cksel3 = 1 - bootsz0 = 0 - bootsz1 = 0 - ocden = 1 - wdton = 1 - eesave = 1 - ckout = 1 - m161c = 1 No problems at all with the programmer this time, so I'm totally clueless what might've happened with the previous chip ???.

Some electronics "teacher" you had.. I don't know whether to laugh or get angry about knowing that teachers like this exist (and are actually allowed to teach). However, since laughing is generally better than being angry for anyone, I'll stick with that :D. Passing teachings like this would get the dude most likely flogged by most professional repair personnel, if not sooner then during when some "outsider" would actually have to start repairing his "professional looking project". Believe me, do bad soldering on anything else than those simple led blinkers and in some years you'll have a pile of defunct crap in your hands. Making a given project professional is so much more than just what's on the outside. It's not going to carry your project far if the internals constantly break up. And yes I know I'm gonna hate swapping leds from the current backlit buttons I have, if any of those actually ever break up. Luckily I don't have to pass my x0x on to anyone for performing that ;).

Yeh it's mostly the potentiometer cabling missing from that pic since I took it before installing those. At the moment, I do have all the parts installed and the sound generation circuitry seems to work as it should. Even the 2SA733APs stripped from that amp I found in the dumpster ;). Actually, as I started reprogramming the chip something went wrong and I'm now just getting a constant "unknown device" from the programmer software (as in MCU most likely damaged). No idea at all what might've happened, it did detect the chip ok before that. I'm using Ponyprog and an unbuffered STK200/300 parallel port cable. That is, my adapter has U1 omitted. This cable has worked fine before so no idea what went wrong this time.. Lucky for me these Atmega chips are cheap :)

So, I decided to go for a quick prototype/mockup anyway because there were some (mostly clearance related) mechanical issues I needed to check for: The switch PCBs I'm using do take up quite a lot of extra space so I either have to look into trimming the excess bits away or just go for a slightly larger case design. If the motherboard and switch PCBs are layered as in my current prototype, the case has to be some centimeters thicker as well and the 16 step leds nor the volume encoder cannot be mounted directly on the motherboard (a BIG minus). ANYWAY, to get to the point.. What I was planning to ask about was, does anyone know about the correct fuse bits needed for the Atmega chip? I tried searching through the ladyada forums for any info, but the topics there seemed to be related only on the basic "how to actually accomplish serial/ISP programming" or "why the f**k are these things called as 'fuses' although they're not OTP" :D.. My x0x-board seems to be ok otherwise, but the MCU is definitely running at a wrong clock rate: The whole keyboard interface is totally unresponsive requiring a second or two to register a key press and the sequencer tempo is stuck to something extremely low and cannot be adjusted. Not that I actually had the time yet to verify and/or test different fuse configs, but using the calculator at http://palmavr.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/fc.cgi it's apparent that at least all CKSEL fuses need to be all 1 and SUTs 0 (ext. XTAL 8+ Mhz + reasonably safe startup time delay).. But how about the other fuses like CLKDIV8, EESAVE, WDTON etc?? BOOTSZ has to be ok whatever it is currently since the system boots up (albeit very slow). I also guess having the 4.3V BOD level enabled doesn't hurt at least. Now then, maybe I'll actually check the settings in the meanwhile ;)

Nope not at this point. I doubt that I'll be making one either, but have to do some layout test for Lazertran though. It makes matching the texts, placement etc. _that_ much easier ;). Currently the plan is to bend the case out of a red 2mm perspex sheet and add wooden ends to that.

Yeah ok, my solution for running the button/led-signals to separate boards.. ..And a mating connector for the separate boards of course, this way the combo will be detachable and hopefully a bit more serviceable. A 50-pin connector would've been ideal, but then again I have several hundred unused 34-pin floppy cables lying around so why not get rid of at least a few ;). Buttons will be sth like this http://www.eao.com/global/en/products/series/series_92.asp, but with a clear lens. The button texts I can just print it on a A4 ohp slide and cut them out to proper size from that.

Yeah I never liked the look of the original x0x either so it definitely has to be something else ;).. And use as much recycled parts as possible of course. The latter has been one of the essential underlying motives of my diy stuff anyway. I do have a few case alternatives atm, but they're rather big.. Even though I'll be adding most (if not all) of the mods mentioned on the x0x wiki, these cases are still a bit overkill. Would be cool to keep the box as small as possible with this project. Sort of in respect to the original 303. Also, I have to go for pots and buttons which won't fit on the x0x board (switch spacing too narrow for the button actuator mech), so some extra wiring chores are on the to-do list.

Sasha, boards arrived yesterday \o/ .. still clueless about the casing, reckon it's time to figure sth out ;)

Well that sucks.. Then again, this leaves me more time to figure out some kind of a casing ;). Good that the plant will replace the boards. In my books this would be rather self-evident anyway given that they made the mistake. What about installing the USB chip dead bug style :D .. Not that I want to try this myself since I have only one chip ;) Unfortunately accidents do happen from time to time, after all it's just humans running the manufacturing/machinery.

You have any idea what shipping to Finland might cost?

A little something to go along with the b0x, http://www.analoguerenaissance.com/TS303/ ;)

Hehe, funny thing. Just when I was wondering what to do with the 7SA733s, I spotted some old Marantz amp in the trash whilst taking out some of mine.. Decided to check/salvage it for parts and, what do you know, found 4 7SA733APs inside \:D/ .. Best pair out of these gives a hfe of 315, call it a problem definitely sorted out! I reckon I'll be definitely stripping every single piece of audio hardware I find in the trash for parts from now on ;).

Oh sorry, missed the part about the maxi letter :)

They're PNPs and located in the VCF section, namely Q9 and Q10.. Damn, shipping to Finland 31 eur :( .. Would anyone be willing to sell/ship me a small batch (say max. 4) of hfe measured p or k -model 733s? Preferably somewhere within EU so I can do a direct BIC/IBAN transfer (no extra charges for the transfer).