Otterfan

I'm just checking in to see the status of the new AOUT. I don't want to pressure anyone, but I'm very excited about a new board. It looks very promising!

Oops! Saw the topic and it made me read your JX8P as a JX3P. So do you have a data logger? :)

Just to reiterate, the PG200 does not use MIDI to communicate with the JX3P or the MKS-30 (it doesn't even use a MIDI connection--it's got a strange pinout), so you couldn't use a MIDIbox to control it without some hardware modification and lots of programming. There's a kit for modifying the JX3P to use MIDI ccs to control it's parameters. There's also a similar kit for the MKS-30, but I can't find the link right now.

Cool. That National shunt looks plenty stable. :)

Back to the issue of repalacements for the shunt, has anyone tried the adjustable LM4051? I've done some back-of-the-envelope calculations to show that you could get a 2.047998 v reference with the right resistors. (If anyone's interested, it's R1=1.01M (1M + 10k) and R2=696.665k (680k + 15k + 1.5k +150 + 15). The high-end devices have a 0.1% output voltage tolerance, so with well matched resistors it should spec out at least as well as the MAX6007A. They're less than $3 here in the States and Digikey stocks them. I've ordered one and also a Motorola TL431 (an even cheaper programable reference, but with 0.4% tolerance). I'll test and post results once I get around to it.

Everything you could ever want to know about the sound potion of the Gameboy processor (the Z80) is included in this document. At least it has more than I could bother to read...

I've got an MKS-30, and I've been looking for a PG-200 replacement for years. Unfortunately the PG-200 doesn't use MIDI to communicate but rather a proprietary Roland digital protocol, so you can't build a MIDIbox to control it. It shouldn't be hard to build a box that could use this protocol, but unfortunately I have never been able to find anything about it--most importantly it's clock speed and message format--nor have I been able to find a pg-200 with the proper cable (which were also made exclusively for Roland and cost $60 new) for any price I'd be willing to pay. Fortunately there's now a MIDI modification kit for the JXP3 that lets you control all of it's parameters in real time using MIDI ccs, so you could use a MIDIbox or any other knob/slider box to control it. And it's only 79 euros, which makes it much cheaper than a PG-200 for much more functionality. There's also a similar kit for the MKS-30, but it's 120 euros and did I mention I'm cheap?

I've seen this direct transfer method a few other places, minus the silkscreening, plating, etc but using cheaper glossy inkjet photo-papers: http://www.5bears.com/pcb.htm http://homepage.eircom.net/~ei9gq/pcb.html http://max8888.orcon.net.nz/pcbs.htm This guy even suggests another kind of cheap paper that will do "silkscreening": http://www.fullnet.com/u/tomg/gooteepc.htm I don't know how any of these work, but it might be worth trying a few cheaper papers before spending $15 on 10 sheets.