Jump to content

bcbox

Members
  • Posts

    51
  • Joined

  • Last visited

    Never

About bcbox

  • Birthday 01/01/1

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Not Telling

bcbox's Achievements

MIDIbox Newbie

MIDIbox Newbie (1/4)

0

Reputation

  1. just an update on the midibox. I am transferring all the pics to my new web hosting so some of the pics may not be back up yet. As for the 60,000 mile update it is still working very well. I have been using it quite a bit and it has taken a minor bit if abuse you could say. Everything is holding up fairly well. The MEC push-button switches had me worried as they didn't seem very robust. Some of them seem to have lost a little bit of their 'click' action - they maybe don't click as snappy. They still work fine but if I'm really paying attention I can sometimes feel a variation in the amount of 'click force' from one to the next. Something definitely to consider if your midibox or other hardware project is going to take abuse. The only other complaint I have is the Panasonic 9mm pots. The action on some of them after they wear in become 'loose' or lighter than the majority of the others. They're just not the highest quality part I have used. I was restricted with size and orientation in this project and the panasonic 9mm was the best choice. Ideally though an 11mm or 12mm pot would be best for most situations. Other than those two gripes the midibox is hanging in there quite well...
  2. I was just reading the thread again and I saw your post Drin. That's funny, I'd like to think at worst I just had a nervous breakdown ;) you should get your switches today or tommorrow. I think my girlfriend almost had a nervous breakdown when I was building this box. I designed and built it pretty fast - about 12 weeks. That's a lot of spare time disappearing into the "lab"! Actually when I finished my box I got an email from this marketing lady from Allen & Heath. They came across my box somewhere and were somewhat upset, partly because it is so similar to their xone stuff and partly because the Xone:3D was delayed 6 months and here was this kid making an A&H style controller in 3 months! Little did they know I worked for a sister company of there's (and hence the access to their parts). If anyone has any specific questions or request for pics or something just send me a message I'm not that scary :-X It's really not that difficult to build a nice midibox if you have a technical background and if you do a bunch of research first and take your time, the hardest part for me was figuring out what exactly MIOS was and how to configure the firmware part (it took me about 3 weeks to figure out if I 'needed' a bankstick or not!). I would post pics of my other midibox that's built into my xone:92 but it looks exactly the same as the stock one. I'm thinking about doing a little video with my DV camcorder showing it in action.
  3. Hi this is Brian here - the guy who documented this midibox. Apologies for not keeping it up. I had to transfer everything to new web hosting - I have all the pics and everything. When I get a free moment I will update. You have my word my box was not a scam and works and everything ;) After finisihing my Midibox64 I completed another midibox that I integrated into a "real" Xone92 (not just the chassis). I ripped out the mic and aux send/ret system that I don't use and put in 20 pots and 20 switches to control ableton live. This one works awesome when there's lack of space at a venue.
  4. Hi, the faders are in the middle. They are no where near those super light ones, like the ones on an allen & heath Xone92 or a typical crossfader. They aren't stiff either by any means. They are in the middle somewhere. Brian.
  5. I made alot of progress this weekend. I've got most of the wiring tested and working. I'm still getting some ranndom data because of some missing grounds or something - probably something related to one or more of the 64 pots. I have trouble shooted and fixed a number of small problems. I feel like I'm getting close. I was hoping to finish it this weekend becuase I wanted to use it for a show next week - but as of Saturday night I have decided to give it a break and come back next week. I've got a 4 hour show so I need to spend time working out some music and auditioning a bunch of new stuff this week - so no time for the midibox. At any rate I'll leave this post with what else, another pic. This is the finished midibox, all plugged in and working. I do not have the DOUT module active yet - I'm taking the testing one step at a time - so you won't see any DOUT related led's lit up... Image removed due to possibly malicious content. Download at your own risk, it contains a strange script. - stryd_one http://www.alphazone1.com/midibox/midibox-complete3.jpg
  6. I'm setting up my MIDIbox64. I was planning to use the MIDIBox64 code exactly as it is since it seems exactly what I need. One thing I notice on the DIN PDF is that for MB64 setup J4 is for F1, F2, F3, and F4. What the heck is F1 - F4? I understand that J3 is for the controls but I thought J4 - J10 were all open for assignment. Can someone clue me in as to what F1 - F4 stand for. Why are you linking to an IP address? That's dodgy! - stryd_one http://66.97.36.105/midibox/mb-din.bmp Thanks, Brian
  7. great info. Thanks to both of you! This will probably help a lot of otheres wondering the same thing..
  8. I have a simple quetsion maybe someone can answer. I'm setting up my MB64. Everything works so far. I am going to be using 64 pots, 64 buttons, and 32 LEDs. I have uploaded MIOS v1.8 and MB64 v2.4. My question is about how I should go about testing the knobs, buttons, and LEDs. Right now I have nothing plugged in - just 4 buttons plugged in to the first DIN to hopefully operate the LCD. When I turn the MIDIbox on I get continuos random MIDI data. The MIDIOx input monitor show continuos MIDI crap and the LCD shows something like .... [iNT] B Volume #16 --- and the value keeps changing randomly. Basically I want to ask is it OK to test the Midibox using the MB64 firmware or the AIN_DIN_DOUT test firmware when I don't actually have all the pots, buttons, and LEDs plugged in? I was hopping to test everything one at a time. Does the fact that I'm getting garbage when I turn on my box with nothing plugged in tell me there's something wrong with my connections from core to AIN (for example) or could it just be that I don't have everything plugged in. I hope this makes some sort of sense! Brian.
  9. Just wanted to add my findings here. I'm using a Crystalfontz CFAH1602B-TMC-JP 16x2 negative transmissive LCD. The datasheet shows that there's possibly a negative voltage generator built into the package. It doesn't actually say which models have it and which don't. I have determined that at least this model does indeed have a negative voltage generator built in, so Vo is just positive voltage just like normal LCD's. No need to have to generate a -5v supply just for the LCD - just give it Vo from the regular 5v supply and it'll take care of the rest. This also helps when using the midibox core module - you can just use everything as it is.
  10. I just got back from a short vacation yesterday afternoon. My new PIC arrived in the mail! After many long hours of testing and debugging I got the news I was hoping for.... Image removed due to possibly malicious content. Download at your own risk, it contains a strange script. - stryd_one http://www.alphazone1.com/midibox/midibox-complete1.jpg yes, my PIC works and my LCD is working :D I'm now going to use some test programs to test my knobs and buttons and stuff. Then I can hopefully get the full midibox64 application going. While I was installing the PIC and cleaning up some other things I added bypass caps to my boards... Here's a pic of what the box looks like now on the inside. I moved things around from the way I had it set up before to try to decrease the changes of any noise or interference (I really tried to get everything away from that transformer too). Image removed due to possibly malicious content. Download at your own risk, it contains a strange script. - stryd_one http://www.alphazone1.com/midibox/midibox-aug9-1.jpg
  11. ...still working on it. I've been wokring on debugging the core module. I've spent quite a few hours on it. In the end I found my PIC is bad. I really didn't expect that but that's exactly what it came down to. I when ahead and built a JDM programmer and check the PIC to verify - sure enough it's bad. I ordered another pic and I'll have it in my hands Tuesday. Since I've now explored every inch of the pcb's I don't foresee any more problems. I'll update on Tuesday... by the way, the bad PIC was my fault - I blew it up somewhere along the way. It worked when I first got it from SmashTV. Don't want anyone to think I just got a bad one ;)
  12. great. Thanks for the quick response! Brian
  13. I'm at the point where I'm testing my MB64 and I have a few questions, including the main one in the title: 1) I bought my PIC from SmashTV. I believe it has the bootstrap loader burned into it already. There's a sticker on it stating it s bootstrap loader v1.1b and has ID 0 etc... from my understand I believe this means I just need to load the MIOS operating system and then load the MB64 program. 2) A followup to the question above. Do I need to load MIOS v1.8 before loading the MB64 v2.4 application or does the MB64 v2.4 application include everything already? 3 I can't figure out if MIOS requires a Bankstick. The whole time I was building my MB64 I was thinking the PIC had all the required memory on board for one program. Can someone please explain or let me know if MIOS/MB64 requires a banksitck? Thanks in advance. Brian.
  14. Here are a couple more pics showing the newly painted front panel semi-stuffed Image removed due to possibly malicious content. Download at your own risk, it contains a strange script. - stryd_one http://www.alphazone1.com/midibox/panel12.jpg Image removed due to possibly malicious content. Download at your own risk, it contains a strange script. - stryd_one http://www.alphazone1.com/midibox/panel-13.jpg Image removed due to possibly malicious content. Download at your own risk, it contains a strange script. - stryd_one http://www.alphazone1.com/midibox/panel14.jpg Here is the backside of the panel... Image removed due to possibly malicious content. Download at your own risk, it contains a strange script. - stryd_one http://www.alphazone1.com/midibox/back2.jpg Image removed due to possibly malicious content. Download at your own risk, it contains a strange script. - stryd_one http://www.alphazone1.com/midibox/back1.jpg
×
×
  • Create New...