toneburst

Well, things have ground to a halt again. I made the mistake of trying to fit my new element to my soldering iron while still tired from a night out last night, and stupidly disconnected all the cables from the old unit without making a note of which connected to which, so I have no idea how to connect up the new one. Worse, in trying to test, I think I probably connected one of the heater wires to the temperature-sensor, so I've probably hosed the whole thing, now. The element is one of these http://cpc.farnell.com/SD01069/tools-storage-handling/product.us0?sku=unbranded-sl-nih&_requestid=233869 Does anyone out there happen to have an iron that uses one of these, and could maybe tell me which wire to connect to which? It's a Union Brothers BP-53, but I think they're also sold under the Soloman brand. Here's the wires: And this is the base part of the solder station: a|x

Just picked up my Schaeffer panel order. For those who haven't bought panels from Schaeffer (or their US equivalent), they come in an enormous box. Inside, there's a big bit of card, with the panels shrink-wrapped into the middle. I'm dying to unwrap them, but I'll hold off until I can take a snapshot of the packaging, which is rather wonderful. The panels themselves look really good. I changed the divider colour from the original red in Wilba's layout to blue, to go with my LEDs and display, but otherwise it's exactly as Wilba designed it. I also received the replacement element for my soldering iron today, so I should be able to get back to putting together the main-board soon. a|x

Cheers for the encouragement, Dave. I'll post some pics soon. Doesn't look too exciting now though- just a half-populated mainboard. Hopefully the panels should arrive soon though :) For the record, I've just checked the Customs charges breakdown on the box, and apparently they charged an £8 handling fee (which seems a bit excessive to me, but there you go), and the rest was VAT. a|x

I think they don't charge at all if the duty adds up to less that £7, as far as I can work out.. a|x

Hi Dave! cheers for the welcome! Getting the boards from SmashTV is definitely the way to go if you plan to use the PT-10 enclosure, I'd say. If you're planning on putting the project in something else, then that might give you more leeway, I guess. On the other hand, SmashTV/Wilba's 8-Sid-capable kit might be overkill for your purposes. I figured I may as well go the whole hog and fill all 8 slots, given that even a basic SID synth is going to end up being quite expensive anyway. I can't remember off the top of my head what the breakdown of customs charges was. I think it was basically the VAT + a handling charge. It came to just over £25 in total, and I bought both PCBs, and the Mainboard kit. Hope this helps. a|x

Well, I've hit a bit of a hitch: my soldering-iron has stopped working. The tip doesn't get hot enough to melt the solder now. I've tried cleaning and re-tinning it, but it still doesn't melt the solder, so I guess the element has failed. I've ordered a replacement, but until it arrives, my MB-6582 build has ground to a halt, unfortunately. On a more positive note, I got an email from Schaeffer on Friday to let me know that my panels are on their way though, so hopefully I should get those this week. a|x

Hi Flexinoodle, they're literally completely clear when not on. I haven't tried connecting any of them up yet, so I don't know how bright they are. a|x

Hi, I've been away from the MIDIBox community for a while now, but have been periodically checking back for new developments. When I saw Wilba's amazingly slick MB-6582 design, and saw how well-documented it was, I thought it was time to dip my toe back in the water, so to speak. Finding that SmashTV was stocking both the PCBs for the main board and control-surface, and a kit of parts for the main board, too, was the clincher though. Soo.. over the past couple of weeks, I've been ordering parts. I now have everything apart from the diodes for the CS (I'll be ordering them today, probably), and the panels from Schaeffer. As Wilba warned they might, Schaeffer did complain that they couldn't do the panels in 1.5mm thickness, but I managed to convince them to give it a try, anyway. Fingers crossed it will be OK... I managed to source most of the other bits and pieces from UK suppliers (I'm based in London). The 20x4 LCD and 3mm ultrabright LEDs from eBay. I went for a white-on-blue LCD and clear blue LEDs (though I may swap the LEDs for ones with a blue lens). PT-10 case from RS Components (a special order item, but only took about a week to arrive) Tact-switches from Rapid PCB spacers from a company called Toby, who I'd never heard of before Knobs from Novation/Focusrite Encoders from VOTI, in the Netherlands And last but most definitely not least, PCBs and main-board kit from SmashTV in the US. I've also added myself to Decembers SID bulk-order, though I do already have a matching pair of SIDs. I must say, I'm hugely impressed by how good SmashTVs PCBs look! They're beautiful objects in their own right. Almost seems to a shame to sully them with my inferior soldering... I noticed that the CS board isn't labelled, but it's not a problem, as there are very few different kinds of components on there, anyway, and the symbols are perfectly clear. I'm really impressed by how professionally the order from SmashTV was packaged-up. Tim, if you're reading this, apologies again for my email re. customs duties: I know it's not your fault. I've got a lot of soldering ahead of me, but hopefully, at the end of it all, I'll have a really cool synth, plus the satisfaction of knowing I built (if not actually designed) it myself. Wish me luck, guys!!

Hi Kartoshka, wow, that was cheap! It's costing me a LOT more to have Schaeffer do it. Having said that, they are doing engraving too. I've actually got some sheets of Lazertran here, so what I should have done is just had the holes cut in the panels and done the legending myself. Not sure how black the black would be that way, though... a|x

This looks great! Looking forward to giving that a go, as soon as I've got my boards from SmashTV and got them working...! a|x

Just thought someone might be interested: I just managed to get hold of some knobs like those on my Novation XStation from Novation UK. They're a bit pricey, at £10 + VAT + Delivery for 10, but they'll go quite nicely with my MB 6582, I think. I said I needed 11, and the guy siad he'd throw in an extra one for free. I can't find any closeup photos of them, but you can kind of see them in this photo: They're quite nice and simple, and have a soft-touch rubber-like coating. I'm not sure whether I'm going to go for the ones with the pointer or not, or if I'll get a choice. I'm going to talk to the guy on the phone tomorrow, and I might actually see if maybe I can get some of the Focusrite ones instead, since Novation and Focusrite are part of the same company, now, apparently. I'll let the forum know how I get one. a|x

Don't worry. Being an impatient sort, I went ahead and ordered directly from Schaeffer, anyway, so I'm out now. Cheers guys, a|x

Can I be added to the list, please? Cheers! a|x

My order from SmashTV is apparently on it's way to me as I type, so that's exciting! I'm thinking maybe a PacTec PT-8 box for the SID v.1 I never quite got finished... a|x

I'm interested in this one too. I'm in the UK, and would be looking for a panel with either pale blue text and dividers, or white text and pale blue dividers, since I'm going with a blue LCD and LEDs. a|x

Any chance of another bulk-order on these in the near future? After a long time away from the soldering-iron (and ucapps), I've decided my life is not complete without one of Wilba's lovely MB6582s... a|x

Hi Artesia! It's SID-related if I ever do get around to getting a copy of the case made and stick a Core and SID in there ;) Alex http://www.toneburst.net

Anyone seen the new Waldorf synth http://www.waldorfmusic.de/en/products/blofeld Looks gorgeous, and obviously inspired by their earlier 4-Pole filter case. http://till-kopper.de/4pole_pics/front.jpg I'm thinking of shamelessly ripping off their design as an enclosure for a single-chip (or dual chip v.2) SID synth. I love the white, too! Alex http://www.toneburst.net

Ah, cheers stryd_one! Good thinking! Looks easy enough to implement too. Maybe it would be possible to make them change colour when pressed using a 2-colour LED.... Alex http://www.toneburst.net

Verrrrry nice! I especially like the illuminated buttons. Do they have their own LEDs, or are they just transparent and the whole inside of the case is lit up? Where did you get them from, if you don't mind me asking? I've been thinking about having a transparent front-panel made up, then painting most of it, but leaving label text, and maybe a ring round all the encoders unpainted. I'd then light the inside of the box with some ultrabright LEDs (blue like yours would be cool). It's all gonna have to wait until I get a few other things out of the way though, sadly :( Really nice work! Alex http://www.toneburst.net

Hiya, it's a while since I did any MIDIBox stuff I'm afraid (got sidetracked into other things). I honestly can't remember if I did get the Mike's MIDIShop boards working, but I suspect not. I know I did manage to burn out one of my PICs by sending 14v instead of 5v through it, and that the working SID synth setup I have so far consists of 2 Smash TV boards (no control-surface yet, though I was only planning a 'Step-A' to start with) . Unfortunately I don't have time at the moment to troubleshoot the Mike's boards, but I'll have another look next month when I have a bit more spare time. Sorry I can't be more help right now, and good luck with it! Cheers, Alex http://www.toneburst.net

There's a page on their website where you can enter the products you'd like (in English), as far as I remember. I seem to remember when I submitted a request using my home address, nothing happened, whereas when I used my work address (a university), my samples appeared quite quickly. You don't have to make up a story, but using a company address rather than an obviously residential one might help. Alex http://www.toneburst.net

I'm in SE London. I can send you some of the C64 Mk.2 keys. Which ones are you after? alx

I'm afraid I did :( I was having a bit of a spring-clean, and after reading some posts about how hard it is actually to get any of the bits off the C64 boards, and how capacitors and other components deteriorate over the years, I decided to chuck them. I did slavage a couple of the main power switches and sockets, but the rest went in the bin, sadly. I stripped all the keys off the keyboards, and removed the multicoloured wires connecting them to the mainboard, and binned the rest. Not sure what I'll ever do with the keys, to be honest, but they were too nice to throw away. I'm a hoarder at heart, but live in a small flat. I'm just running out of room for stuff..... Alex http://www.toneburst.net

Ah, I remember now- that's the difference between the 900 and 950. No timestretch on the older model. I still have a stack of old Akai floppies in a box somewhere here, I think. I used to have fun with the timestretch/pitchshift function on my Emu ESI-32 too. Timestretching stuff, then time-compressing back to the original length always seemed to mangle samples nicely. I've been using the ESI again recently, actually. I'm recording loops from old tracks so I can remake them as Ableton Live sets. Alex http://www.toneburst.net