t_xen

I seem to have trouble getting my hands on an AOUT_LC, even when going through the proper channels. :-\ But I am not afraid of picking up a soldering iron...... ;) I want to put 4 of them on my 4xSid. Seeing as how I do not have the means to etch a circuit board, I've been looking at veroboard for when I have to "wing it" without a pcb. I checked out the AOUT_LC schematic and poured over the connections. I grabbed ExpressPCB and used the grid as solder points, and came up with this design, and I'm about to start putting it together. I wanted to post it here to share. There are no labels for components on it, and some of the resistor leads will share holes, so it may look a bit confusing. THE RESISTOR ARRAY IS CONFIGURED FOR THE MBHP_SID ONLY Build pics to come. :)

Here's the schematics. PSUv1 for the single Core and SID with minimal control surface I built. And PSUv2 that I've halted on building untill I know what kind of current draw I'm looking at. I don't think the 12v 1000mA adapter I'm using will be able to meet power demands when I start expanding the hardware because the external VCFs I plan on using are here. http://www.musicfromouterspace.com/analogsynth/STATEVARVCFFEB2006/STATEVARVCFFEB2006.html For all the demands, would guessing a 2 amp load to be a "safe" range? :)

I may want to consider finding an old C64 PSU brick, but I'm up for a challenge first. :) Here's what I have to work with. I have a walwart rated at 12v 1 Amp My previous setup was 12v and ground going to the 5v regulator. With the backlit LCD, DINx1, 1 Core, and 1 Sid, I threw a working chipset fan from an old motherboar on it. The fan was tapped on the 12v before the regulator to cool it fearing it would get hot to dissipate the extra voltage. J1 on the Sid was also connected to the 12v line. It wasn't too noisy, but still some noise nontheless. The power for the Core and Sid were connected to the Vout on the regulator. I realize now that that was most likely a pretty bad setup. (I'll post a scematic later to show how it was connected) This didn't hit me untill after I started building another power distribution-type module. On the one that I was building (yup, a schematic later), I have five 5v regulators on it. Then I though "How much current draw????" and stopped building it. I figure If I attempted that with the 12v 1000mA adapter...... I really don't want to fry anything. My thoughts on the right PSU..... I will need it to handle hardware addons. It will need to handle a completed MBHP_SID x4 with AOUT for four 12v full on analog (not DSP IC's) external VCFs. I want as little noise on this puppy as possible. ;)

HL-SDK Is that .5a for a single core or all 4? dcer10, I laughed when I thought I should have thought of that before. thnx ;)

After having constructed the core and sid boards successfully, I got more and now have all the hardware for a SIDx4 minus LED's and a front panel. The thing on my mind the most is powering it. This was the current configuration before tearing it down. After that, I though of a way I could set the boards up to reduce space, but I abandond this idea since I would not be able to stack all the modules next to each other because of the way the big caps had to be mounted for this. This idea could be useful for those building a 1xSID with a minimal control surface in a compact case design. 8) I'm pondering the new power design for the SIDx4. I have three 5v 1A regulators. The last one was enough to run the whole setup. (the pic didn't include the LCD screen and 1x DIN input for menu buttons and encoder) My question is, how many mA is that pulling? Is there a way for me to figure this out? What I'm trying to determine is, will a single 5v 1A regulator be able to handle the power requirements for 3 core and 3 sid boards (the slaves) or would it be better to give them their own regulator each? On the rest, I've almost completed an 8xBankStick module. I still have yet to build the two 4xDIN and 4xDOUT. I've almost completed the power and serial cables. Still working on a panel design. the end result will be detrmined by the case I find that will suit my needs. ;)

Sweet! :D But is there a "reliable" site where I can get this ? I don't know if it's a temporary problem, but I can only get about 2 pages in. ??? Thnx it's not apple, it's not windows, it's not Linux. Java just sucks. Period!

Does anyone have an "any condition" AOUT board or how I can get one etched? (I've never have tried etching a board before) :P My SID filter is very weak. I barely get any resonance, and only start to hear it when I have the freq turned all the way up. soo.... I'm going to use a VCF module to make up for it. ;D

The fan does create a little bit of noise, but I also have a LINE6 POD v2 that has a noise gate on it and it does help to filter out most of it, and it's a mean sounding little beast. I'll post some sound clips once I have a convenient method of recording it. ;D

After some slight confusion on the serial cables, My MbSID is up and running. Here's the PIC. Yes that's a fan there (ignore the abit logo). ::) Here's the PSU construction involves using a single 5v regulator powered from a 12v 1000mA wall adapter. The reason for the fan is from stories that the regulator may get very hot. So slapped some thermal compound and a fan on it, and connected the fan to the 12v line from the adapter. the Sid's J1 is also connected to this. I used the optimized PSU setup, but no caps to filter out any current wonkyness (is already filtered off the wall adapter). The fan might have been overkill, but it will keep it cool, and the audio output noise is decently low. Again thanks to TK, Smash, and the rest of the community for your help on this amazing DIY project. 8)

Smash, I thought the 1:1 connection issue (which I did read) referred to the r2 board. :P (yes I moved the connection over and it works.) TK, Yes I did have the power connected already on the sid pins. I felt the problem were the pins for the data after I looked at the image I posted. ;) Three words, you guys rock! :D Thanks again!

Ok, I'm about to resolder the interconnect, just to besure there are no shorts and that I have the pinouts correct. Smash refers to J2 on the SID to reflect MIOS v1.8 (I have a SID r3, and Core r4 boards). I want to make sure that I understand how this is supposed to be wired. Basically, I started soldering all the wires on the core first, and then began to connect them to the Sid, according to the Optimised PSU schematic. I noticed that while I was wiring, the SID does not have a pin on J2 marked "MD". Therefore I went ahead and started over with the Sid's J2 connection. Here's how I have my pins wired using the board diagrams from the MBHP store. Is the interconnect wired correctly according to this image? Thanks for the help. :) > update. I just did a double check, and believe I have made an error in connecting both modules. according to the PSU diagram, the pins on both boards marked "SC" are not connected. so this leaves the unmarked "MD" connection on the SID into question. Since this is unmarked, is it not used any longer on the core and sid, or does this still need to be connected?

Ok. Now I do not get the periodic sysex messages any longer. I have uploaded the mios_v1_9a_pic18f452.hex I can still send apps to the PIC but I do not know if it is working or not. When I upload any SID app, I start to get a high pitched tone from the audio output than never stops untill I reload MIOS again. Does this mean the PIC is ok, bad wiring or dead sid? I'm at a loss on this. I shall attept to resolder all the connections later to see if I just have a bad solder joint someplace that I cannot see under normal inspection. any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'll continue to post my findings here.

I tried sending a different app to it again and the proccess started all over again. I can upload apps to it, but no sysex messages. when I send the interconnection .syx file to it, I also get a "cmd 01 (not saved)" message. have I perhaps done something really wrong? ???

Oh. I feel like a Dolt. I tried sending an application to the PIC but it wasn't getting the sysex request so it was just sitting there waiting. I switched off the midibox, turned it back on, then got the one sysex message. After that, MIOS sent the application to the PIC, with the result of getting the sysex message every few seconds again. -I am so smart, I am so smart! S-M-R-T, I mean S-M-A-R-T.

I received my PIC 18f452 with the 1_2 bootstrap loader. I was getting the sysex request every 2 seconds. I was getting ready to flash an app and then thought I should update to the new MIOS version. I flashed the PIC with the mios_v1_9a_pic18f452.hex and now I get no upload requests. I made an attempt to reflash it with the update_with_old_mios.hex to see if I could "roll back" to the previous version and now I get these messages. I get the initial sysex message: timestamp 472829000 us: Sysex message: F0 00 00 7E 40 00 01 F7 and then it throws this message: timestamp 474754000 us: [D0 1A] channel 1: key pressure D1 pressure: 0 and sits doing nothing. I can flash it with the "old_mios.hex" update and it accepts the upload, but still no sysex messages but the 2 and nothing after that. I doublechecked the wiring on the MIDI connections (used cable for the midi connectors) and the wiring is fine. I checked the voltage on all the pins and those are fine too. At this point I'm at a loss other than figuring out how to recompile it with activepearl and sending it as a sysex file if that will work. Or did I hose the PIC and it needs to be reburned entirely?

I too can understand the "up late getting other things done when you've been awake for 20 hours with only 4 hours of sleep the previous night" situation. (this is me almost everyday after working 10 hour shifts). So, I know about the grogginess when working late, a lot. :) anyhoo, I'll PM you with my info so I can get the missing cap. Thanks again, cuz now I can move forward with this! 8)

damn you stryd_one. :P I don't speak html, I speak in networks. I was mulling over it when I was heading home. gahh. Ok. So I was allready smart enough, cuz it's my default brower at home, but I was hitting his site from a machine that was without firefox. :) (even a technoid can feel like a dumbass from time to time) ;D Thanks guys. I'll post some pics after I finish the boards up.

I click on the above link and get "click here for past revisions". I get the board image but no live map. Am I just that oblivious? I almost feel like an "uneducated" customer calling into tech support (my day job). :P

well, there is no live board map for the R3 board version, so I'm dry fitting according to the designators on the R2 live board map. On the parts list for c8, 12-14 (for the R3 board), and according to the live board map (R2), there should be 4 caps of the same value. the .1uf 's. I only got 3 in the kit (I'll check on this myself and ask about that if I cannot figure it out). Anyhoo, the R2 board map shows c4 as the 470pf cap. I have a ceramic disk marked 471. Could that be it? Then I'm left with this blue dipped Cap marked with "335 M5E". is this an extra one? or the missing cap for C8, 12-14? Some of the other n00bs seem to have trouble with the Core and say the SID is easy. I finished out the Core in about an hour after opening the package. :) I think I'm starting to get somewhat confused with the SID kit and the parts that came with it. perhaps it would have been easier if I just got the plain board and sourced my own parts instead of buying the kit. :( I'm not about to give up yet.

I did. Printed up the parts list, and sat sorting through the components. :-[ Is there something that's just blatantly obvious that I'm missing? I read the page at least 4-5 times making sure I understood everything before ordering the kit. :-\ I'm used to having the parts labeled by the distributer (mouser) for other synth projects that I've created (RJW VCO musicfromouterspace.com). I mean, I'm sure I'm not missing anything from the kit. It's just the idetification of these 2 parts. examp. I cannot put a 1uf cap into c3 if there is no marking on it to tell me that it's 1uf. maby I'm being just too paranoid about blowing out my SID. HELP!

What caps are what that came with my kit I just received? ??? Here's what I assume. Poly styrene 2 small 470J 50V - I assume these are the poly 470pf (c1,2) 2 large 5800J 50V - no Idea unless 5800pf?? ceramic 3 (yellow bead in center of LED) marked K5U 104M (c8,12,14) assumed these are 100nf or .1uf 2 small disks marked as 102 (assumed these are probably 1nf or.001uf) (c3,7) 1 that looks to be "yellow dipped" with 334 on one side k5m on the other (c10) then there are 2 that I'm not sure what they are. one that's "blue dipped" markings are 334 M5E one small disk marked 471 that's what I'm guessing so far but, please correct me if I'm wrong (avoiding the infamous magical blue smoke before soldering) I tried searching mouser for some kind of referance to what the parts look like, and what the markings would be but am unable to locate any of these. at this point, it's mostly been educated guessing. I am a n00b but I try my best. :P

Got the Core and SID kits in the mail today. YAY! ;D The boards look really awsome. They made my eyes go :o I'd say professional quality, Smash. THANK YOU!!!!!! I'll be making more orders in the very near future. 8)

I have 1 cannibalized SID from a well taken care of C64 and 5 working soundcards with the OPL3 chips. The MidiboxSID project has the option of controlling 4 sid chips. is there a possibility of using an OPL3 module along with a SID Module instead of another SID? Yes of course, I am a n00b. :P