c0nsumer

You might want to take a look at OLEDs. They look excellent as well, and are a lot cheaper. Unedited photos here and here. -Steve

Heh. Thanks, but... yeah. anyway. Grab yourself a copy of Eagle and try. If you force yourself to stick to the grid and learn the application, it's really not hard to do something decent. It takes a bit of learning, but it's not very hard. For what it's worth, that MIDIbox SID-NUXX was the second decent sized board layout I'd done. The first was the prototype for it. Once you play around you'll get the hang of it, and you'll have no problem making boards of any kind. -Steve

Price? Datasheet? Shipping?

The encoders aren't all of it, though. They are just two switches, designed to make/break contact in a particular way as the rotary encoder is turned. Mechanical limitations aside, the rate at which they are scanned (by the software) limits how fast they can be turned. I've personally found it to be plenty fast, but I don't think you can just flick them back and forth. (I can't do this in my car either...) Dig around in MIOS / whatever to figure out how often they are updated. Then based on that you can figure out the maximum number of 'clicks' per second (or whatever) that they will be able to handle on your implementation. (I think it'll be scanrate / 2, but I may be wrong... Someone please correct me if they would. And then that rate would only be ideal if the contact of the switches happens to fall at the exact time the scan is happening.) -Steve

Thanks. The layout is actually crap, it could have been a lot better. I did it in about 15 minutes because I needed one that night. It's even sized for the PCB stock I had on hand so I wouldn't have to cut any. :\ Next time I'll make a full, proper PBrenner6 or whateve.

This board here was plated with a similar product. Works great, and I tend to use it on all my boards. -Steve

I figured, but I just wanted to confirm. Thank you. :) -Steve

Just to confirm, IIC_MIDI support will remain, though? -Steve

Have you tried Alps encoders? The ones I am using (long shaft version) have a nice, solid THUNK feel when turning them. Remember, because they are switches, if you are turning them faster than the hardware (namely, the Core and the software running on them) can recognize, they *will* skip or do other strange things. -Steve

I got a bit bored and threw this together quickly. It hasn't been tested yet, but it should work. If you build it, or breadboard it and test it, please let me know how it goes. I can't get any of the needed FETs locally and I'm not placing another Mouser order for a while. (I checked... RS only has the wrong type.) It's a 1.5" x .5" (stick of gum sized, or so) BankStick with LED indicator on a single-sided PCB. The indicator is triggered by activity on the IIC Data line, so it'll blink every time anything happens via IIC. No real way around that. If you want something to blink only when reads/writes from the EEPROM happen, use a DOUT and change MIOS or whatever. I'd personally prefer this because it's done in hardware and will work regardless of changes to the Core or MIOS or whatever app. Parts are as follows: D1: 1N4148 -- 512-1N4148 IC1: Microchip 24LC256 / 24LC512 in socket. -- 579-24LC256-I/P - 575-193308 T1: 2N3820 (TO-92) -- 512-2N3820 LED1: 3mm LED -- 638-204HD R1: 220? (Change based on the requirements of your LED.) -- 291-220-RC JP1: 1x4 .100" header of whatever style you prefer. -- 571-1032394 .brd, .sch, and .pdf and .ps exposure masks are available here: http://www.nuxx.net/files/bankstick_activity_led.zip -Steve

While poking around, I came across this article which describes how to make a blinking LED to indicate the status of a DMA line on an IDE controller. Looks to me to be usable on the data line for the BankStick. If I'm reading right, I2C (IIC) runs at a max of 3.4MHz, and this should be plenty safe to use on there. The only problem I can see is that all the 2N7002 parts I'm finding are in packages like SOT-23, SOT-223, or SOT-563. If I get some time, maybe I'll make up a little board layout for one (or more) banksticks, this package, and an LED. Or I guess you could point-to-point it and then just pot it all in some hot melt glue or something. -Steve

Of course. :) That said, though, I wouldn't want to spend a couple hundred dollars and a many hours planning out a MIDIbox (of whatever flavor) and not have somewhat decent tools and supporting hardware for the assembly. So, one probably would want to spend a little more... Of course, DIY electronics aren't about doing something for cheap... -Steve

I'm curious, what is everyone's reason for wanting LEDs on their banksticks, in particular, blinky ones? Is it to see if they are being accessed at a particular time, or just for the blinkyness in and of itself?

For resistor assortments: Digikey part RS125-ND. (See lower right of this cat page.)

Hmm, yeah... I guess I am probably overthinking it a bit. -Steve

My thoughts were just that maybe somehow his config was causing something odd to happen, and using a .hex file which can be proven to work on mine on his would definitively say that it is hardware or not? I know it's a bit redundant, but I was trying to troubleshoot all paths, even those which should be okay. -Steve

Mind sharing the name of the supplier anyway, just to get it out there? -Steve

You have a step-A control surface, right? Only a single rotary encoder and six buttons? (I'm confirming this.) Do you have a DINX1 and the six buttons / rotary encoder connected to it? To which input are each button and the rotary encoder connected? The next thing I would try is 0-ing out all the inputs which you aren't using in those two files and recompiling. I can do this for you if you'd like, but I need to know the exact hardware setup you have. If you want to see what modifications were made for my Step A MIDIbox SID (what I believe to be a very similar setup), look here: http://www.nuxx.net/wiki/MIDIbox_SID-NUXX_-_MIOS_Changes -Steve

I apologize, sorry. I was pretty tired when I wrote that... Can you post your mios_tables.inc and cs_menu_io_tables.inc?

In laying out something with a specific saw-off area one will waste a good bit of space, because it requires that the saw-off area contains only optional parts. In my opinion it would be better to have a more tightly packed board where one can just leave off the optional components. I'd happily look into laying it out once V2 is a bit more nailed down, although I may not have the software to do the layout. (Non-profit Eagle is limited to 160mm x 100mm.) I'll cover that later, though... -Steve

I should probably also mention that buying a good soldering iron is also very worthwhile. I personally use a WES51 purchased from All-Spec and it is an excellent tool, and that price is great. I would also recommend a WP25 if one doesn't want to spend $95. And be sure to get appropriate tips with each... I personally prefer 1/32" and 1/64" conicals, but that's a matter of taste. Oh, and be sure to buy enough solder. This is something you want to be of good quality, and something which you don't want to run out of. I like .25" Kester 285, but you might have to find a RoHS-compliant alternative if you are in Europe or a number of other places. -Steve

Ah, nice. Thank you. :) I first need to detail every menu item which exists, and just figure out a different way to arrange them, then see if it is useful. Not that your menuing system is bad at all, I just want to try and do something different, and hopefully it'll be useful. I see what you are saying about the TC application as well. That's just the level of comments I'm needing. Thanks! -Steve

Personally, for parts that cost a few cents or a few tens of cents, I usually buy two or three spares, just in case. You never know what might cause them to be needed, and overspending by $1 - $5 isn't worth the hassle of having to re-order because you lost, broke, or fried something. I also tend to keep spare sockets, fasteners, resistors, LEDs, rotary encoders, caps, knobs, buttons, etc around. It's quite handy when you have a sudden, urgent need to make something and the parts are right there. -Steve

I'm not sure if you're talking about my boards or not. If you aren't, you might want to take a look here at the project I've been working on. It's a single-PCB MIDIbox SID, and all documentation you need to acquire some of these boards for yourself can be found there. As V2 isn't ready I can't say they are compatible with it, but they sure work great with v1.7303a. (I may redo them, or do something similar for V2... Not sure yet.) -Steve