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TheAncientOne

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Everything posted by TheAncientOne

  1. A minor thought, since the cards are going to be busy enough without having to act as connectors for the user interface, how about using an LTC and going into the PC serial port: Zero hardware at the PC end Just a thought Mike
  2. http://www.rapidonline.com/ Excellent UK based parts supplier. Very good prices, and a decent range. Fast too. I ordered at 3.00am this morning,(long story), and parts were dispatched this afternoon. Mike
  3. There is also a limit due to the speed of the PCI bus we're talking radio frequencies here, and this can cause very severe problems. PCIexpress, is supposed to allow 'out of case' connectors, but I not seen any implmentations yet. Mike
  4. I think the case is one of these. Maplin used to sell them too, but don't list them any more. I'm putting my SID A in one, though without the Joystick. http://www.rapidonline.com/productinfo.aspx?tier1=Tools%2c+Fasteners+%26+Production+Equipment&tier2=Cases&tier3=Instrument+Cases&tier4=Sloping+front+cases&moduleno=62625 The board are: Core: 63mm x 82mm SID: 63mm x 82mm I remember someone, perhaps Smash himself, saying they were drilled so they could be stacked. Hope this helps Mike
  5. If oin 4 is connected to pin 8, then it means the DB50XG, has no real MIDI out, but spoofs the MIDI out connection as a MIDI thru. Which supports Manics research, that at least a MIDI out was in the Waveblaster Spec. As I said earlier, I'm going to start with a basic interface for external MIDI, which as least gets me a useable tool, then it might be worth looking at a MIDIbox <--> Waveblaster. I'm not doing a 'piggy back board, but putting a cable mounted pin header on some ribbon cable because there are different daughter boards out there. We're getting somewhere, anyhow! Mike
  6. Thanks for that Strd. epanorama is down at the moment, but the version I posted was their latest one. Have just got out old soundblaster card and testmeter. Answer: not that easy due to it being a multi layer board as far as i can tell. With the AWE32 top edge up, looking at the component side, with the PC case back plate to the right. Assuming a normal 26 pin IDC header numbering, Which for the AWE32, (whose header is horizontal), means pin 1 at the top row right. The odd pins bar pin 13 are all to ground. web searching for a while would seem to provide a consensus that 1,3,5,7,9,11 are digital ground and 15,17,19,21,23,15, are analogue Pins 6, 10,and 14 are to 5 Volt. The elektor magazine article is a bit confusing, due to the fact that they mounted the waveblaster board UNDER the host PCB, thus the pin outs on their connector are mirrored. Jury is still out on the MIDI in. I'll post more when I get my waveblaster boards. I thought there is one around here somewhere, best guess is in the box with the other AWE32, which I can't find either. . . . The expansion on the AWE64 is different again - I think it's some kind of sample ROM. Turtle beach did a card that had sample RAM on it, but it loaded the samples via MIDI. Reports were that 4Meg of samples took 45 minutes.... Oh, and if anybody wants some RAM for an AWE32, I've just found about 8 sticks: free, your postage. Mike
  7. Thanks for that Maniac! All other external box designs I've seen have pin 8 listed as 'NC'. I've got an Adwave32 on the way as a tryout, and will see what that has, which may be useful in finding what is on the Adwave card. I'll report back as soon as I can get to try it out. Mike
  8. ONe trick is to do the switching with a high-side PNP darlington, and do the level shifting with a cheap opto-isolator driven from the PIC pin. That way, if a transistor fails, the PIC doesn't get killed. If you can wait until next week, I'll be back in the workshop and will give it a try for you. What colour are your LED's, (I'm thinking about their forward voltage drop). Mike
  9. This is the ST page fro their range of high side and low side drivers http://www.st.com/stonline/stappl/productcatalog/app?path=/comp/stcom/PcStComOnLineQuery.showresult&querytype=type=product$$view=table&querycriteria=RNP139=1025.0 You can drive both ends of the matrix this way, put the current limiting resistors in the source side, and if you vary the source voltage, or PWM it, there is your dimmer. Allegro do a range of source drivers with the shift register built in, though I'm not certain if there ia a second source. http://www.allegromicro.com/sf/65958/ I'm wondering if using the NATO stock guides might be useful: the military demand a long availability and often second sourcing, so we might as well get some of our tax back by using their expertise. A couple of thoughts anyway. I used the ST chips to drive an 8 x 8 matrix for a lighting display, using 'frames' of 8 bytes cycled out of an EPROM by a fast counter, then incrementing the frame count to animate the display. I put the current sharing reistors on a 16pin DIL header, then I could change the display voltage quickly on site. When I have a couple of jobs done, I'll dig up the proto and post the drawings. I suppose I could have 127 patterns and drive it with a core off a sequencer channel... Hope this helps, though I hadn't even thought about the combined button/LED system. Looking at the sheet for the sink darlingtons, VCE(SAT) is 0.9 to 1.6 making it too high for the combined one. Time to look for a MOSFET switch array? Hope this helps Mike
  10. This is a repost of something I tagged on the end of a post about using waveblaster cards without a PC. My original idea was to get the PC to act as loader/controller for several old cards, I can see that there are 3 addresses available, though with soundblaster you might run out of DMA's. You could save IRQ's by ditching the serial and parallel ports, and perhaps even the floppy, at run time. I had this vision of benig able to get 3 or 4 x 32 soundfont voices, and all with parts that were essentially free. I'd use an ISA bus motherboard, and a very stripped down OS. Like this http://www.litepc.com/products.html. They do an embedded Win98 that is rommable and costs $25. They quote boot times of less than 4 seconds. If I could get it to boot from flash I'd be a very happy bunny. Store the sound samples etc on a laptop drive for quiet and cool. I had initially thought of a LINUX core set up especially, but the WinLite products mean no messing with drivers etc, it might be possible to get a 'quick and dirty' system up fast. The only real programming effort would be in the HUI. Internally, some work on the power supply, such as seperate power for the backplane, and some shielding might go some way to keeping the PC' background hash out of the audio, and the current pull of a laptop hard drive woudl prevent the seek noise breakthrough I've had several times. So my take was cheap PC hardware. Make a big stand alone expander based on old soundcards. A portable VST host sounds cool too, though a lot more CPU horsepower would be needed. A few ideas anyway. Mike
  11. Did you get any luck ? I have a Vic 20 I was planning to ebay - have you got anything to swap? I'll dig it out and check it next week Mike
  12. Unless the Yanaha is non standard, the normal waveblaster connector does not provide MIDI out: AFAIK, waveblaster cards are MIDI-in only. You can give it orders, but it doesn't report back, (rather like a few component suppliers). [tt] 1 Digital Ground 2 NC 3 Digital Ground 4 MIDI IN 5 Digital Ground 6 +5V 7 Digital Ground 8 NC 9 Digital Ground 10 +5V 11 Digital Ground 12 NC 13 NC 14 +5V 15 Analog Ground 16 NC 17 Analog Ground 18 +12V 19 Analog Ground 20 Right Audio Out 21 Analog Ground 22 -12V 23 Analog Ground 24 Left Audio Out 25 Analog Ground 26 Reset (logic low) [/tt] Pinout courtesy of www.epanorama.net Modified to show analog and digital grounds. Hope this help. Your MIDIbox of course cab have MIDI out, but it will have to keep track of the state of the daughterboard. For my money, initially, I'd just do a host adapter and get on with experimenting. Bit of veroboard and a kength of ribbon with an IDC. Use a seperate backplate, because not all daughter boards, (there are others - I've just bought an 'Adwave32' off ebay for £5),l share the same mounting hole arrangments and socket location as the Yamaha. Keep it loose and you've no problem. A rave fanatic friend tell me categorically that Creatives own original waveblaster board for the AWE32 etc is only any good as a beermat OK now for another, totally opposite idea. How many AWE32's etc can you fit in a PC? How about using an old PC using a basic OS/driver to run say 4 AWE32/64's as voices? MIDI in, and perhaps a MIOS based control surface. Something using a low power CPU, then it wouldn't need fancy fan cooling, run with minimal IO and graphics card for setting up. The AWE64 Golds is/was quite reasonable. I use one in my MP3 machine, because it has proper phono sockets. Given the (free) price of old PC's, I wonder if this is worth trying as a recycle? I've got two AWE32's sitting here, that I can't bear the thought of stripping for chips, (I mean, paid £120 for one way back when - I don't think I had a night out for 2 months to afford it!). Is this a thought? Even as a sample player it might be worth a try. I do like the thought of 'old PC as appliance' - like my smoothwall, another excellent community project. http://www.smoothwall.org/ Mike PS I nearly posted this link from a friend http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dHD-4oG78E instead of epanorama - (I may have invented the Freudian paste) - I guess it's worth passing on: <Scottish Voice> Captain you're 40,000 light years off topic, I tell ye we've not got the crystals to get back to MIDIbox central. . .
  13. My estimates in UK pounds: Resistors, including 0.1% ones, from Rapid, about £5 Capacitors, £7 Ordinary semiconductors, diodes tranistors CMOS Logic etc £11 Pots and trimmers £8 Tempco resistor from Oakley, £4 Specialist chips £35 My guess is around £80 - £90 overall. Then you'll need a case, hardware and main supply, though a wall wart is fine. This needs a little explaining. You might get the specialist stuff cheaper - I haven't bought them - all some were from the bits box, and some are temporary pending a final decison . The THAT300p is only available from Profusion in the UK at £6.98, min order 2, plus VAT and Carriage, I'm still trying to track some 2SC1583 Dual transistors for comparison. I'm doing a bulk buy of 1% 0.25w metal film resistors for a whole bunch of things at once, including a 9090 and a Soundlab, so I've priced resistors at £1.80/100. I had to 'guesstimate' a bit, because of this. The parts list is available on the Oakley site. I can verify that the PCB is 1st class. Rapid seem to be the best for a lot of the parts, though tracking some Alpha pots in the values Rapid don't have is proving a bit tricky, without paying Banzai's prices - though they aren't bad, I just resent paying over £1 for something I buy in other values for less that 50p, (currently got stock pots on wires). If you are in the UK, and are going to do one, let me know and I can perhaps get a better deal on some of the more specialist bits. Hope this helps Mike
  14. Having repaired Pulsar stuff, I can assure you that the mains was opto isolated in some dimmers/switchpacks, and, (though I may be getting mixed up with Strand and Thorn), pulse transfomer isolated in others. Most of the light panels seemed to be some kind of stainless plate with studs welded on to the back, set in, or on top of, a plastic bezel, though some were a self adhesive sheet. The early Rossula stuff seemed to be isolated by virtue of large value resistors(!). One club had a persistant touch panel fault that I only traced after attending one night: a DJ with a grudge and a piezo lighter. Fortunately after the first incident I'd fitted the 4011's with decent sockets The original Steim crackleboxes used the combined front panel and touch pad, as of course did the 'stylophone' et al. Getting your touch pads gold plated may cost more, but will keep them healthy longer. Back in the day, I used to print front panels from a BBC micro graphics package in glorious black on whatever colour of paper I wanted, stick it to thin alloy panel with spray mount adhesive, and cover it with thin acrylic sheet, or clear 'sticky backed plastic'. Dural is way better than pure aluminium, being nicer to cut and drill as well as stronger/stiffer for the same thickness. In those days there were several aerospace contractors in the this area, and scrapyards always willing to sell on some offcuts for a few beer tokens I'm going to use a variant of this tecnique to prototype my next lot of panels, though now I have access to a photo quality printer that will do over 19" wide. They may never go 'final'. Mike
  15. Oakley MIDI bassline http://www.oakleysound.com/tm3030.htm Snag - some of the chips are expensive and awkward to get Plus - very stable and authentic. Mike Edited to add: Just done an inventory of what I've bought PCB's in for: a case of grab them whilst they're available. The result is a bit scary...... I had a rush with some money I had around Christmas, and managed a few 'last chance' deals... Apart from a bunch of MIDIbox stuff There is: A Ray Wilson Soundlab A Ray Wilson Analogue sequencer A Trevor Paige 9090 A P3 sequencer (well, the boards are on the way - I got lucky with one of Sequentix's last spare sets) A Thomas Henry SN Voice. I keep scanning the Elby designs site, because I really want a Monowave and perhaps an ASM2. Then there is the AVRx which I really like the look of, though fortunately they haven't released the board yet. and having had a tidy out, I found some stuff from the 80's I'd kept, assembled but un-cased, 2 E&Mm 'Syntoms' and 2 'Synwaves', and some stuff I can't fgure out yet. ....... My name is Mike and I am a Synth addict.....
  16. Bit of detail here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/theprofuk/334533418/ Mike
  17. If you did that and are still relatively sane, I think PIC is not going to be a problem. Mike (still having flashbacks about a FORTH system for 68000, though the treatment is helping).
  18. A long time ago (usual story..), I did some gear for listening to VLF phenomena. The gear had to be shielded, but as light as possible. some of the cases were made of blue PCB material with thin brass angle soldered to it. It was still OK last time I saw it, and had done a lot of field trips. The design had the copper to the inside, and was laquered over to prevent corrosion. Perhaps the stuff we used was better than standard FR4. I think adding a couple of light vertical rails to a module panel might not be too bad, and for self build cost is a major factor. The reason for using the Fibreglass over thin alloy was it's resistance to knocks for it's weight, though if a dural had been available this might not have been an issue. Thinking of the VLF stuff, the dawn chorus effect might make some good ambients, though getting out somewhere away from much e/m background was more of a challenge. We even used to take clockwork watches, and had the walkman pro, for recording, in a shielded case. I guess stryd might be able to get some better recordings if he goes walkabout.Examples: http://www-pw.physics.uiowa.edu/mcgreevy/#latest http://www.vlf.it/ <Personal minor rant follows> Why are so many analogue synths slavishly following a 1970's design aesthetic that, at the time, had no other virtue than price? The Moog modulars have pretty poor ergonomics, even though they look good. They seemed to have caught up with the usability concept by the MiniMoog, then Norlin dropped the ball again with the Poly. The man who put those little slider caps on is going to spend an eternity in hell condemned to futile attempts reproduce a sound exactly.... We have a whole range of options available. The schaeffer stuff at least comes in other colours, and MIDIboxers seem to be more adventurous. But there is a lot more out there. My local CNC panel shop ican offer me back engraved plastic, (mirror image engraving), over a metal panel, as a basic, coloured cut vinyl on the panel for backgroundand no front engravings to get full of yuck. There are lots of other options too. Comparing things on this site with some of the heavy hitters of the analogue world is an eye opener. You guys seem to produce such interesting stuff. I've been looking at 80's aircraft ergo-tech. Modern aero panels are all soft key screen except for vital intruments, (which may have to wait until MIDIbox NG), If they get cheap enough, touch screen is another way for some stuff. I want practicality and ease of use for my failing eyesight. Have you noticed how good so many cockpit layouts look, and not a stylist in sight - everything is designed to be easy to use under stress, which wouldn't hurt any on stage gear either. Roadie-proof is a different problem. . . . . My last attempt at a piece of audio case design was an Elektor preamp with an anodised ally engraved front, a blue display and LED's with a nice laquered beech ply slip case. I felt quite good about it until a friends Girlfriend said "Hey, that's cool, did you get it at Ikea?" <pill taking effect now...> Which is a fine rant from a man whose first music project out of the new set is a cracklebox housed in a wooden Chinese ginger box with upholstery nails as contacts. . . . . . Mike
  19. Congratulations TK, a fantastic achievement. Thank you. Mike
  20. OK then - I'll change mine back too. <---------------- I'm the one at the back. Mike
  21. I think it's a Balance or Cross-Fader curve, gives a centre flat spot in some makes too. Mike
  22. Way to go! Best feeling in the world when it all starts to work. <opens a small can of applause> Mike
  23. Dear MTE I'm knocked out by the design, as well as the videos which give a real feel for what you've done. It's also given me an idea too. One of my friends is Miss Jinny, a Manchester DJ working the the dark world of Goth/EBM. She is also partially sighted, A few weeks ago she was discussing using Traktor. Your control surface has given me a very good idea for a way to make it easier for her to work with Traktor. I've never used it myself. Does traktor send MIDI info as well as respond to it? and can you get things like track info as well? Sorry for being lazy here - if I know a few basic answers, I can thiink about a specific control surface. Thanks - and again, superb design work. Mike
  24. I might need to coin a new mnemonic here: "RTFDS" = "Read The Fantastic Data Sheet" Only joking - you've been bitten by a well known 'Gotcha' here. Most regulators have a 'drop out' voltage - in other word the minimum needed difference between input and output voltage, less than which they won't work. In the case of the LM350 this is 1.5 Volts, dropping to 1.0 volts at the devices maximum working temperature. The only way to use one would be to jack up the initial regulated voltage to (say) 7Volts and spill off the last 2 Volts in the LM350. You'd still need to get rid of 5 watts though - which means some kind of heatsink. Tweaking small changes in output voltage is a bit of a sneaky one, sometimes. Mike
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