Dolphinicus

Having been out of touch with the forum for the last few months, I have a couple of questions, that I don't know whether have been answered or not, in other threads. :-\ 1) Can anyone tell me whether I can move up from the V2 PIC, to the V3 PIC (with appropriate software uploaded, of course) in the V2 motherboard? (I haven't completed my V2 system yet, as I've been concentrating mainly, on building more modules for my modular synthesizer. ;) ) 2) Also - could anyone tell me whether I could have more than 8 CVs and Gates from the V3? My primary sequencing concern IS for CVs and Gates, as I eventually hope to have my modular synth large enough, to not need any other synthesizer equipment. ;) (It's currently big enough for 3 voices, not including drum sounds.) Thanks for any possible answers on both of these questions. :) I hope to get my panel done soon as well - if all works as I hope, it'll be a panel that no-one has seen before. ;) ;D Ryk http://www.sdiy.org/damian - my modular synthesizer's homepage

Not just for a modular synth or something near that, but for anything? I came up with the idea yesterday, of building my MIDIbox SEQ into a curved wood panel. Such that with the panel mounted into it's cabinet, looking down at it, it'd be curving to the inside of the panel, from top to bottom. :) I'm just in the midst of trying to find out the best way to make it. Curving the 1/4" to 5/16" thick wood, or making it out of sheets of veneer, glued together, to bring it up to the required thickness. Shall see. :) Curious as to whether anyone's done anything like that. :) (After seeing so many other user's machine's photos here, I want something different. :D )

Thanks for mentioning that the sanded Acrylic tending to become more clear with finger oil! :o :o I was going to go out to a local plastics supplier this week to GET a rod, for my buttons. Now - I'll be asking them about a polypropylene rod. :) Great looking buttons from your end! :) I'll need one big enough for 5mm LEDs though, if I do the inside drilling bit. No troubles. :)

When first powering up a 2x40 (BG Micro) display - has anyone out there every seen it displaying from left to right: 3 black blocks, 1 space, 4 black blocks (character sized) and then over 3 or 4 seconds, the blank space filling in vertical line, by vertical line - and the display turning off finally? I haven't yet changed the system to know that it's gone from a 2x20 display to a 2x40; I haven't hooked up the ICL7660 chip, to change the +5V to -2V for the proper power; I HAVE checked wiring from core to 2x40, 3 times (maybe 4) now - and it's all correct. (Though - realized at work yesterday - I'll have to check and see if I have the 10 pin connector plugged in correctly. ;) ) I'm just hoping that I haven't statically destroyed the display - by not being grounded when removing it from it's case. :( Also - (remerbing reading this in the troubleshooting section) - I wondered if somehow I DO have the +B/-B connections backwards, as I DID see the backlight (dimly) come on for about 1 second and then shut off, after rebooting the core - two times. Curious as to whether anyone else has seen this or not. Thankfully I bought 4 of the displays. :o My original intentions though, were to eventually have 2 sequencers. I'm just hoping I haven't killed one of the displays, by not having an anti-static strap hooked up. :o :( Thanks for any possible help. :) Oh! Also! Does anyone have pics up anywhere, as to how you've hooked UP the 2 2x40's? I'm trying to think of a neat/clean way to do it. :o :o

Yes, you can. :) My first 4 wired encoders are showing up on the LCD, using the MIDIO128 app. for control varification. :)

can I also use that app. to test encoders? I'm just about to layout my PCB for my 16 steps of buttons and rotary encoders and wondered if I could test the encoders with the currently loaded MIDIO128 app? Or - should I just upload the MIDIbox SEQ app V2 that I'll be using, for testing purposes? (I'm doubting the latter, as I haven't set up the Start / Stop / etc. button layouts yet.) Thanks for any help. :) (I just did a forum search for 'test +encoder' and didn't find an answer.)

Y'know? If I had an easy way to recover the copper from used PCBs - there's a HUGE WEALTH of 4 layer PCBs (BLANK!! :o :) ) at work that I could salvage. ;D In the mid 90's though, I bought a 4' x 3' piece of single layer copper board for only $86 Cdn. I still have over half of it left. It's been wonderful for all of my PCB manufacturing ever since - so, no mining to do. ;) :D

That's excellent info. that I'd been searching all around the place, FOR! :D Thank you greatly dcer!! :) :) In reference to connecting the Core to my first completed DIn module, it took me a few hours over 3 days to realize why it's not working - was due to my hooking up the 'SO' to the 'SO'. Figured that out yesterday, and my first perfboard of 8 buttons now works fine, in testing it with the MIDIO128 app. :) (Seeing Ultra's mention of that, in his message). I'll just have to pick up some 5 pin SIL connectors for ribbon cable, this weekend. :) Off on a minorly related tangent ...... still trying to figure out the best way to enclose my LEDs above my tact switches. (Which have 9mm stems.) I'd originally thought of and tested clear silicone, which works wonderfully - but the thought earlier this week that occurred to me were: could repetitive touching of silicone, leave any type of residue on my finger(s) that would be poisonous? I'll have to go and search for the MSDS sheets for silicone to find out, before making ...... 37 LEDs (for switches) like that. :o (To see if it's safe. I hope it is, because they sure look great! :D ) Off on one last minorly related tangent ....... I tried a test today, for labelling my panels (which are wood). I applied a few colours of pencil crayon to the panel which I may be using for my MIDIbox SEQ. (Which I colour my knobs with - see my webpage in my sig for a photo example). I then applied a portion of water based purple stain to the wood, to see if the pencil crayon colourings would REPEL the stain - so that they show through. It looks like the pencil crayon markings DO! :D I'm going to test it on the wood again, once I sand it, before colouring with pencil crayons - to stain it again. If it works as well as I hope - all of my panel labelling for my entire modular synthesizer will be done with pencil crayons. :) (Including relevant art / etc. for each panel mounted device.) K. Sorry about ranting ..... :o :) Just remembered: I went to www.maximic.com to see about ordering 2 MAX525's as samples, but I couldn't. :( They exceeded the sample amount limit. :( :( (Bummer - as I've ordered samples from them before.) I'll be checking back with them later to see if I can purchase them directly from Maxim. Oh well. :)

IGNORE below the line! :) I just figured it out! :D :lol: I was connecting the Core J9 to the SI on the DIn. NOT the SO! ;) Just thought of that - tried it, and DUH. That was my mistake in the first place. All 8 buttons are working fine in the test! :) Back to constructing the rest of this unit. :) --------- My brain, is in pain. :o The MIDIO128 app. was successfully installed, after TK told me which file to upload to the core, from the MIOSStudio software. In verifying connections, I've found: - ground is properly connected through my 8 tact switches on my perfboard, making connection to the DIn (SmashTV) module - using my multimeter, I verified button 4 (D3) dropping pin 13 on the '165 from 5V to Ground. - I built a new temporary cable with 2 x 5 pin connectors to go from J9 only on the core, to J1 on the DIn (I had previously hooked up 10 conductor ribbon cable to connect J8/J9 to J1 on the DIn). (All 5 lines on the new connector cable, verified by my multimeter, for conductance on each of the 5 wires, from connector to connector) I'm showing absolutely nothing in the MIDI monitor in MIOSStudio, when I press any of the 8 buttons. :( All connections have been verified by the multimeter in the cabling. I've been searching everywhere except for this Troubleshooting thread for ideas to test things. What else could I try? I even fired up the 'MIDI keyboard' in MIOSStudio, trying different functions, which all displayed properly on my 2x20 LCD. This may sound silly but - I've assumed that the connectors for the 5 pin cable are going from Pin (Core - J9) to pin (DIn - J1). No? I'm stumped as where to look next. (Photo(s) available if req'd).

Thorsten - I'm having very similar troubles right now. :( I'd uploaded the MIDIO128 application from the Serge software as well - and got the same response that Durch had posted about. My 2x20 display just sits there, still saying 'Ready' after doing the upload. (getting to 500 and that's it). I've set up 8 buttons (common ground, to the Vss pin / etc.) and none of the 8 show up in the MIDI In / Out monitors in the MIOS Studio. I checked the ribbon cables that I've built, and everything's hooked up correctly from the core's J8/J9, to one of the dual row 5 pin connectors on the SmashTV DIn PCB. Nada. Nothing. When I went originally to upload the MIDIO128 .syx file, the MIOSstudio is only looking for a .HEX extension file. That's why I went and downloaded the Serge application. Now - here's my question - do I just load the MIDIO128.syx file inTO the MIOSStudio app. for uploading (properly) to the core? (The SmashTV core, has the Bootstrap loaded in the PIC already). Thanks for any help. :) I'm trying to design the layout for the buttons w/ silicone'd LEDs above them, and am currently using a piece of perfboard, with the 8 buttons mounted. I wanted to test them first, before going any further. (Soon after, taking out my 2x20 and installing my first of 2 2x40's. :) ) Signed - feeling stupid. :o ;)

Shipping time from BG Micro in Texas, U.S.A. to Southern Ontario, Canada was 20 days! :o :o I received my 4 displays yesterday though. :) Very impressive. NEW. A little bit of desoldering as well, but that'll give bonus parts! Woohoo. :) Shipping from them to other parts of the U.S. will definately be quicker. :O :) Shipping costs to Canada (for other Canadians) were $10.00 U.S. Shipping outside of North America is listed at, at least, $15.00 U.S. Just so any others, know. :) Now to get started on laying out my tact switches / siliconed LEDs above them, circuit board. :) I hope to have this entire unit together, before Christmas. :) I'll have to make some custom knobs for it as well. :D Speaking of that - I'm making my own knobs for my modular, out of wood. If anyone would like to see my first examples, I have a new pic up at my website, showing the 28 that I have done, out of the 145 that I need right away. :) http://www.sdiy.org/damian/index.html

Has anyone out there had any bad experiences from BGMicro? I still haven't seen the 4 2x40 displays that I ordered, 3 weeks ago. I sent them email inquiring about shipping time / tracking # / etc., almost a week ago, and haven't had a reply at all. The order were under $20 U.S., but I'm still a little bit concerned, as the final parts that I need for my MIDIbox SEQ will here any day and I'd like to build the unit with more than the single 2x20 display that I have at the moment. :o Thanks for any help / thoughts. :)

Thanks greatly for posting that! :) I found it in my searches on here for the availability of 2x40 displays, in North America. :) I've placed an order for 4 of them. :) Under $20 U.S.! Woohoo! :D By chance - would you have a photo of them in operation, so I can see what they look like in action? I read something about 'blue / black / grey background' in their display mention. That'd be even cooler to me, as I was hoping to get away from the yellow background type of display. :)

Hey sir. :) No trouble in enabling J5 to be enabled. I've been browsing the code, learning / becoming used to things. :) THANK YOU for explaining the lack in MBSEQ V2! I'll continue finishing the unit then, as V2.x exists and use my MPU-101 for the moment and get used to the entire system. I'll either build a new system later for the V3 functionalities, or update this one, with the new processor and grab an MBHP_IIC_MIDI module. :) Thanks for your help! :)

Thank you! Now THERE, is an excellent way to implement it! :D I don't have any busswire, but I'll strip 24g wire, wrap it around each leg and use that as the connection for each of the legs! Thank you for that suggestion. I don't want any of my LEDs crashing like a Comet brand plane. :P Once I work out what appears to be the most workable connection, I'll photo the progress of assemblage, and put it up on my webpage as well in the 'Eventual Builder's Guide' section. :)