toneburst

I've killed another LCD :( I must be one of the most inept MIDIBox builders out there, I think... I put the connector on the wrong way around. Just like I did the last time (when I trashed my really expensive red 20x2 I bought via a friend in the States.... Ordered another identical unit on eBay. Next time I'll try and make a neater job of the soldering, too. a|x

I've just been looking through bsidv2_parameter_chart and I'm a bit confused as to how, or if, I can setup my Novation XStation to control some parameters of the SID V2 LEAD or Bassline engines. My controller allows knobs and sliders to send out NRPN data, but I'm only able to set a single decimal number for the MSB and LSB, and am only able to output values in the range 0 > 127 for any given parameter. Is it going to be possible to use the XStation to control key parameters like Cutoff, Resonance, filter Env. Depth of for the LEAD and BASSLINE engines? I'm not looking to map every single SID control, just be able to tweak a few parameters from my controller keyboard, before I've completed the CS. I posted a similar query in another thread, so apologies for the duplication. Cheers, a|x

Hi Thorsten, good call. I did do that, actually, which cleared some of the noise. I've found applying a gate to the output in Live clears things up nicely, anyway, and the noise isn't noticable while a note sounds, so it's really not a problem. I might have to invest in some kind of hardware multigate if I were use it live, though, as the cumulative noise of 8 ungated SIDs might be more of an issue. I'm loving the sound though! Enough to make any slight concerns over noise levels insignificant. a|x

I'd go for this idea, too. Having said that, if I can work out how to implement the current NRPNs on my XStation, I'd be happy for the moment (see my separate thread). a|x

Wow.... Just connected a keyboard for the first time, and.. this thing is addictive!! It sounds really GOOD!!! I'm worried I'll never get the CS done now- I'll be too busy playing it :D Thanks for the advice re the non-working SID slot. I'm not quite sure how to do what you recommend Futureman- sadly I'm a bit of an electronics newbie, unfortunately. Sounds like a good idea though. Any tips on which components I should test? a|x

Very impressive! It's fascinating to see another variation on the all-in-one 8-SID board. Those illuminated buttons are great, too. Great work!! a|x

Just managed to get the v2_vintage bank uploaded, after re-downloading the sysex file (thanks for the suggesting I try that, TK), and am having fun flipping through the presets. One thing I do notice; there's an awful lot of 'oscillator leakage' going on. I was under the impression this was much less of an issue with the 8580/6582 SIDs. I was (probably naively) expecting a lower noise-floor. Think I'm going to be reaching for the gate effects when recording this... a|x

That's odd; the sysex file must have got corrupted somehow... I downloaded it again (it was the same version I had before, from the 'midibox_sid_v2_0_rc26' release), and this time it works! Cheers, a|x

Great news!! I've been hearing sounds from my MB-6582!!! I've installed 2x 8580 SIDs in slots #1 and 2, and I've managed to get the V2 editor working, so I can at least hear the default LEAD, BASS and DRUM sounds. The Bassline sounds great, though it would be nice if the resonance went a little higher. I may end up having to build one of Seppoman's external CV-controlled filters, I suspect. Drums seem very quiet, for some reason Multi mode doesn't seem to work, but I guess this is because I only have one working Core. Unfortunately, I haven't yet been able to load the v2_vintage sound bank, so I can't hear what the SIDs can really do, but I'm excited to have got this far. On the downside, still not a peep (or a bleep or a bip) from SID socket #7. I have a horrible feeling that I've done something really nasty to some of the pads in this area. A little while ago, I bought some liquid flux from eBay, and attempted, without really knowing what I was doing, to use it to help solder some of the stubborn pads I've been having so much difficulty with throughout this project. It looks like it might have done something nasty to my board, because around some of the pads I used it on, the board has gone black. It looks like one pad in particular has been completely destroyed. I can't see any sign of the metal of the pad, and the hole through the board seem bigger than it should be, which is rather worrying. I tried to remove the black stuff with the tip of a scalpel, which I think was probably a Very Bad Plan. Although I tried to be very careful about it, it looks like I've managed to scrape off some of the red coating of the board, around the pad. I'll take a couple of snaps of the offending area tomorrow. I'm not sure if this is the cause of Socket #7 not working. That particular solder joint seems firm, at least, so I guess there is some solder inside the hole, at least, so despite it looking horrible, the component may in fact be adequately connected. I'm beginning to think that the transistor may be trashed. Replacing it will involve more desoldering though, a prospect I relish hardly at all... :( a|x

This is a weird one, but seems reproducible: With MIDI I/O connected to my MIDISport 2x2, my MB-6582 seems to hang on startup if the interface is switched to 'MIDI Thru' mode. Is this expected behaviour? Maybe there's some kind of MIDI feedback loop going on that crashed MIOS on startup. Anyone noticed this before, or is it maybe a quirk of my particular board? a|x

Hmm... not sure if it 0.2 solves my issue or not actually. I just realised that I had the MIDI jumper installed so that all the MIDI data was being routed to/from Core #3, and I only have SIDs installed in slots #1 and #2, so I guess it probably wasn't going to work, anyway... Having corrected that issue, I've found 0.2 seems to work fine. Except I can't seem to upload 'v2_vintage_bank.syx' from the SID V2 release folder/Presets. I get a message "This file does not contain a bank with 64 or 128 valid patches!'. a|x

Can't seem to get this to work on my MacBook Pro/MacOS X 10.5.6/M-Audio MIDISport 2x2. The editor starts up, then pops up a warning about the MIDI Configuration having changed. I can set MIDI In and Out ports, but if I do a Scan Hardware, it says it can't communicate with the SID. MIOS Studio seems to be able to do so. I've tried MMJ and Mandolane Java MIDI plugins, and get the same issue with both (though with MMJ, the ports of my MIDISport are correctly named, whereas they aren't with Mandolane, for some reason). Any tips to get it up-and-running? a|x

Thanks chimchim, that sounds like good advice. a|x

As Wilba said, the 20x2 is just for testing. I happened to have one lying around already wired, and was having trouble stripping the ends of the ribbon cable for my new 20x4 (I kept cack-handedly cutting through the entire cable, rather than just the insulation, so it was getting shorter and shorter!), so I plugged in the old one just to see if my Cores and SIDs were working OK. a|x

Thanks a lot for the soldering advice. You're absolutely right. Funnily enough, most of the other joints look much better, but I did have trouble with this particular section, and a few of the other pads. I've got a mechanical solder-sucker, and I've actually been trying to do what you describe with some of the other dodgy-looking joints- remove the old solder and add more. I've been nervous of turning my iron up all the way though, for fear of melting stuff other than the solder. I think I might have to try and find a pointier tip for the iron, too, as the one I have is quite long and thin, but the actual point is quite blunt, making it hard to heat the pad without running the risk of melting the material of the board itself, next to the pad. I have another tip somewhere that is fatter, but has a sharper point. I'll go over the joints in that section again and resolder. Are there any particular components I should be particularly careful to avoid heating too much? I guess the transistors are the most temperature-sensitive parts in this section of the board... Thanks very much for your detailed advice once again, Wilba. a|x

Thanks for the detailed reply Wilba. I'm at work at the moment, but I was able to nip home at lunchtime, as I live nearby, and take some quick snaps of the offending area of the board. Here's the area above SID socket 7, from the top of the board: ..and from the bottom: Apologies for the ropey image quality. I had to sharpen them in Photoshop, because I didn't have time to setup a tripod decent lighting, unfortunately, so they came out a bit blurry. I didn't have time to have a close look, but it's entirely possible I used one of the transistors intended for the SID section at T1. Thinking about it, I soldered this one before I did the SID sections, which would explain why I appeared to have too few of the transistors left, and then discovered this lone transistor later. However, the 'left-over one' was soldered into one of the SID channels that seems to be working OK. Is there likely to be a problem with the LCD backlight, if I've used the wrong Transistor at T1? My test display doesn't have a backlight (well, in fact it has an EL backlight, I think, but I don't have the transformer to power it). a|x

Hi Wilba. Thanks very much for getting back to me again! Yeah, I noticed that. I'm not too concerned about that, as this is just a temporary screen for debugging. I have a 20x4, but got impatient trying to make up the cable, found this old 20x2, and thought I'd use that, just for testing. It's definitely not a SID issue, as I've never put a SID in that socket. My testing so far has consisted of • Insert 4x Core chip • Upload SID Testtone application to all 4 Cores • Connect Pins 14 and 27 of each (empty) SID socket in turn All sockets output audio tone on left/right channels of each pairs audio output, except SID socket #7 • I then tried connecting pin 14 of SID socket #8 to pin 27 of SID socket #7 No audio output • Then I reversed the procedure, connecting pin 14 of socket #7 to pin 27 of socket #8, and this time got an output from the left channel of output 4. Soo... I think it must be a problem with the output stage of SID socket #7. Unfortunately, I'm an electronics dunce, so I don't really know how to go about testing the various components in this part of the circuit. I do have a simple multimeter, but I'm ashamed to say, beyond simple voltage tests, I don't really know how to use it. I can't see any obvious bad soldering around this area of the board, but I could well be missing something. a|x

Ooops! Very silly mistake! I should obviously have been uploading the MB6582 version of the SID application. I've now done that, and woooo... it works! I've only tried SIDs in slots 1 and 2, but they definitely seem to work now, which is brilliant!! Loads of background noise, mind. Can't remember if I was getting this before, when I had the SIDs in the modular SID board from SmashTV, but I'm definitely getting notes, and it sounds cool! Have uploaded MB6582 to Cores 1 > 3, and left the Test-tone application on Core 4, until I can work out what the problem is with the audio out from SID socket #7. Exciting!!!!! a|x

Cool, thanks for the info Wilba! a|x

I got a bit impatient, and thought I'd try inserting my two old CSG 8580R5 SID chips in SID sockets #1 and #2, and try uploading the SID application from the 'setup_8580.hex' file, again via MIOS Studio. The application upload went well, though it took longer than I thought it would. After MOIS rebooted, the application successfully formatted all 8 memory chips, which was a relief, as I had trouble soldering the sockets. I plugged-in my headphones, and was greeted by a loud buzzing noise, and the occasional crackle. I tried triggering different notes from the keyboard in MIOS Studio, but just got slight variations on the same loud buzz. Then I remembered that I should have jumpered across the audio I/O headers, so I added the jumpers. Unfortunately, that didn't seem to make any difference, and I'm now wondering if I might have trashed my SIDs. This suspicion is strengthened by the fact that both SIDs seemed to get noticeably warm (though not actually hot), almost as soon as I switched the power, on. I'm pretty sure I had them working in my modular SID v.1, so I think they were functional before I put them in my MB-6582. Is it likely that I have damaged them in some way? I really hope not, though it's not the end of the World, as I have my 8 chip order from Wilba. a|x

OK, I've been doing some resoldering on the back of the board, and am happy to report that te LCD now works with all 4 cores! When I say 'resoldering' I basically just mean remelting the solder on the dodgy-looking joints, trying to get the solder to adhere to thos stubbornly cold pads. I actually bought some liquid flux the other day, but I'm embarrassed to say I don't know how to use it, so I've been struggling on by just turning the iron to a higher temperature than normal, and trying to hold it to the pad for a little longer. That 7th SID socket is still not working, though, annoyingly. Anyone any ideas how I should troubleshoot this? I'm now getting a tone from the socket is I connect pin 14 to pic 27 of SID socket #8, so the 1kHZ tone is not getting to socket #7, but nothing is arriving at the audio output. I don't know enough about the signal-path to know where the problem is most likely to lie. There don't seem to be any obvious soldering issues in this are- but then again, there may be issues that a more experienced solderer would notice immediately. Also, anyone any idea why my MB-6582 should interfere with my FM radio, from several metres away..? a|x

Ah... I didn't think I'd cut it off. Glad for the confirmation I'm not completely losing my memory (if not my marbles). a|x

Well, progress is being made! I've installed all 4 Core chips, and managed to upload the SID Testtone application to all 4 (one at a time) via MIDI from MIOS Studio. All the output buffers seem to work except for SID 7, for some reason, which is encouraging. I don't get any tone when I connect pin 14 of this SID socket to pin 27 of the SID chip socket 8 either, so I'm guessing the signal from Core 4 isn't getting to SID socket 7 at all, for some reason. I will have to check my soldering around that area. Also, for some reason, the LCD outputs of Cores 2 and 4 don't seem to work (I just get a row of blocks on the top row of the LCD, but no change when I upload a MIOS application etc.). Again, I'll have to check my soldering, I guess. Slightly worryingly, I was getting a clear display from Core 2 yesterday. I guess it could just have been a bad solder joint, and moving the board around today broke the connection. Also, I found the missing transistor, on a separate little bit of cardboard. Not sure if I cut it off the strip myself and forgot about it, or it was on it's own from the beginning... Really good to get my first sounds, anyway, even if it was just a 1kHz tone... a|x

Cool, that's exactly what I had in mind, actually. Was just wondering if switching between the 2 inputs to the AOUT while it was on might cause issues. Cheers, a|x

Ah, answered my own question: http://www.ucapps.de/midibox_sid/mbsid_aout_interconnections.pdf As with many answers, though, it throws up more question: I have a spare Core. Would it be easy to make up a box containing this core, the AOUT_NG, and a switch so that it could alternatively be controlled directly from the SID? Would I need any special electronics for this switch to work? Would the AOUT_NG, the Core in the box and the one in the SID be able to cope with being switched like this? a|x