Jaicen

Personally, I wouldn't go for motorised pots/faders etc. I think it would be much easier to use a stepper motor. You could then apply a specific number of pulses to achieve a specific rotation value.

Yes that could definitely be done. I'm guessing it works like the old EHX Hot Foot, in that it has a cable that attaches to the pot shaft. I actually did some design work on a remote switcher that would work for switching between two settings, but that was a simple CMOS+Relay design. MBHP would make for a far more useful piece of kit i'm sure.

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I wondered if anyone has had any joy building a programmer? I'm going to buy a JX8p at the end of the week, so I figure it's about time I started building some MIDIbox stuff! (Look! I'm on my 301'st post and still haven't actually finished building anything!!) Is it just a case of building, say an MB64 and customising it to send specific sysex commands?? I'm sure that will be easy because the JX8p manual lists all the parameters in the manual, but has anyone actually done this? The closest i've seen is a guy that made up a controller patch for his Kenton Control Freak, which is pretty cool!

Considering it's a fake and the auction is a scam, i'm sure the auctioneer is most pleased with himself. There have been a number of these auctions in the last few months, all showing the same serial numbers, which if you look carefully, don't even match in the pictures on the auction itself!

Hey, does anyone know if I can use the PIC burner to burn EPROMS like the 2764??? Any ideas where I can go to find the information I need??

Ah well, I guess it's not the end of the world. I'm a hoarder as well, but i'm also a fixer-upper, I hate to see things thrown away if they can be repaired at all. That's why i've got a VIC-20 mainboard and keyboard (missing three keys), sat around waiting for me to fix. It's also the reason i've got a second C64 dedicated to music (Go Prophet64!!!), because it had some damaged memory that I repaired. I would have liked a couple of those white keys to use on my P64 machine to contrast with the black keys for a 303 kinda look if you don't mind parting with them. Where in the UK are you??

Hey man, did you already throw out the motherboard?? That'd be a shame if you did, I wouldn't have minded it for spares. If the case has the Keyboard too, i'd definitely be interested in it.

OOh, shots are sweet! OK, now you have to do some sound samples for us all! I'd especially like to hear the FM through the SID's filter ;)

Hehe, there you go then! I guess it doesn't hurt to check for human error once in a while ;) I had a similar problem with my PIC burner, couldn't get it going at all for days till I realised my LED's were in backwards ::) If some of the PSU's aren't powering the 4xSID's, it's possible that they're not able to supply enough current, which is why many have failed just powering C64's. Try turning off the backlight of your LCD and see if it works then. If you do find that PSU plug, i'd be very interested in seeing it :o

Well, as it happens i've been modding my DR-110. Since my girlfriend dropped it, necessitating repairs to the case and PCB, I figured I may as well add MIDI sync capability. I'm working on an internal mod that just replaces the trigger out jack, and responds to MIDI start/stop bytes. When I get it working properly, you'll be able to see all my work on the website of the guy that did the coding probably (his name escapes me right now).

Good boy!! The DR-110 rules! The manuals can be downloaded from rolandus.com. You have to register with a valid email address, but you can get manuals for everything for free. The P-BUS is just something to do with the output jack being a stereo jack, with the right channel used as an external input into the output buffer. It lets you plug in a second sound source, such as a bass into the output if you don't have a mixer. Doesn't make much sense to me, but it was popular in Japan where rehearsal space is at more of a premium ;)

Well it just seems a little strange that you're getting the same readings more or less from such a large number of PSU's. I'm sure they can't all have the same fault! Did I read that you can power a C64 with them??? If so, then they're probably working ok and there's something wrong with your testing equipment/procedure.

It just occured to me, are you measuring the two voltages in DC mode?? You should have +5vDC and around 9VAC. If you try to measure the AC line with a DC DMM, you won't get a correct reading.

Great work!! I'm looking forward to building this, but I think i'll wait till you've ironed out all the bugs ;) Can I just vote for the 'lnobby' approach in terms of envelope and scale. I much prefer dedicated controls, besides it doesn't preclude the use of MIDI either. Strange about the MAX IC's though..

Is it just my imagination, or did I hear about somebody developing a MIDI interface for the Genesis/Master system?? Can anyone shed any light on this???

Hehe, I just realised your the same guy posting on the MBSid section of the forum. Maybe the threads should be merged? Wiring a new transformer would be no harder than wiring the socket to use the C64 PSU. You still need the rectifiers and caps whichever way you go. At least with a new transformer you can be reasonably sure it'll not die on you! It's really simple, wire the primaries to the Live and Neutral of you mains supply, and the secondaries go to your rectifier input

As far as I know, it's a simple 9VAC transformer of about 1A. The +5vDC line is fed off the secondary to a passive diode rectifier, and this is what's responsible for all the C64's with dead memory chips. As they age, the diodes start to break down, feeding more voltage into the C64. It's pretty poor considering how cheap an LM series rectifier would have been. Personally, I'd just use a standard 9VAC transformer and rectify it down to 5v. If you use a heatsink your rectifiers will be just fine. I know a lot of people complain that they get hot, but they're supposed to, that's how they work! That said, you may be able to find a transformer with twin 4.5 or 6v secondaries, in which case you could use both in series for your 9v (or 12v) supply, and one half for your 5v. This would be a more efficient design, but it's likely to be more expensive.

First of all, I couldn't get Pbrenner to work for me at all. I can't read german, so that didn't help much either ;) I use ICProg, it's a bit more anglo-friendly and works just fine. To get it to read, I had to invert Vdd and Vcc in the hardware setup page. This seems obvious, but you are burning the PIC with a Vdd of 13.1V aren't you?? If it's 12v (as per 18Fxxx), it won't write properly.

To be honest, I wouldn't look at using a C64 PSU unless I had one spare. It's pretty easy to wire up a pair of transormers to provide 12VAC and 5VAC. Given the problems the C64 has inherent, such as noise and instability it does make me wonder why you'd want to search one out to use. ??? Besides, I think that we should conserve all the working C64's we can whilst they're still abundant.

Thanks for the link, I've already fabricated an 'adapter' to use with my old C64 PSU. I used a 6pin DIN connector and cut off two of the prongs. It works fine, but there is the possibility that I could connect it upside down if I'm not paying attention, and that would suck to say the least!! It's no big deal really, as i'm on the lookout for a C16 (or C116, I wish!), if I can find one cheap enough with a PSU, then I can use that for both. With regards to your particular problem, it points toward a short somewhere in the coils of your transformer, in which case you'd need to replace that anyway. Other than that, I can't be of much help to you i'm afraid.

I actually need the square cable on the end of the power supply lead, the bit that plugs into the computer. I guess you don't have what i'm looking for then?? On the other hand, I wouldn't mind acquiring a C16 for my collection if you have one going spare ;) (I'm in the UK if that helps).

Unfortunately, the PSU is toast. They're potted in epoxy so it's not possible to get in and do anything to them. You'd be better off just getting a new transformer and starting from scratch. The only thing you could check is that there may be a short in the wires somewher between the brick and the plug, but it's unlikely if you have five with the same symptoms. On a related note, you say that the PSU's are the black brick type. These were left over from the ill fated 264 series (plus/4, C16, C116). Do any of them have the square type computer connector on the back?? I've got a plus/4 with no power supply, I had to make an adapter to use a round C64 connector, but if you have a square connector going spare i'd be very very interested!

I can't say I followed all the stuff in those last couple of posts, but it all seems pretty encouraging. With regards to the PWM outputs, I used to have a SIEL mono which did something similar, basically adding the harmonics in different proportions. I think that had a really nice sound because it was not particularly accurate. I'd be all over this project if it could perform as part of a modular system. That is, i'd want the core to output two sets of CV and gate triggers. One to trigger an analogue filter, and one for an envelope generator. It's actually a project that i've been wanting to develop for some time, but I don't have the skills necessary to code the cores to produce the actual waveforms. Initially I thought that it would be cool to have a PIC based wavetable synth, but now I think it would be better to have a 'drawbar' type harmonics mixer, if that makes sense. That way you could mix in any number of odd and even harmonics and create new waveforms from scratch. I'm inclined to want to keep this thing simple, so just having the oscillators in the digital domain would be enough for me. I'd happily make up any number of filters, envelope generators and so on from analogue circuits. Imagine, an MB DCO with the VCF & VCA from a MiniMoog ;)

Yeah I read about it not long ago, but have you checked out the prices from the AMS shop that'll be carrying the PCBs?? Not sure i'd be shopping there any time soon!

That is cool! Does it generate the note that you press, or just 'a' note?? Now, if you can make it do different waveshapes, and play in tune, I'd definitely have a use for it ;)