mat_s

great! i think i understood. thank you very much fro all that and your explanations in the wiki also. a detachable aout_ng is going to be my next hw project :D

exactly the information that i wanted, thanks! so i think i will change my plan and make an external box for the AOUT (and using a 15V psu for it). so could I use the midibox sid either connected to an AOUT box (to send CV to my external filter) or disconnected from the AOUT ?

thanks guys! sorry there are several points which i get confused. i'll start by the beginning. how to power a AOUT from inside a midibox sid. that is to power the AOUT_NG. i found the link on how to make the bipolar psu. but that need a 15V(DC?) input http://www.midibox.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=bipolar_12v_psu so my question is: for people building the aout in a midibos sid, do they need to build circuit 2 of the bipolar_12v_psu and connect it to the 14V out of the sid optimized psu? not sure what is a "center tap transformer" mentioned in schema 1, but we don't have that in a midibox sid right ?

hi, i have also been looking at the sid documentation. but i could not find definite references to the voltage range (i saw somewhere +5V/-5V but not +12V/-12V)...

Hi, i got my midibox sid working. using the 8580 chip and a c64 psu (optimized). now i am looking at ms20 filter clones: the filtered coffee from analogue solutions there is CV in for HPF and LPF, is in the range of +12V/-12V. what i wonder is if adding an AOUT_LC or an AOUT_NG would allow me to have CVs out in the range +12V/-12V? (or will i need to modify the midibox sid psu also ?) I have been looking at the AOUT pages, and the AOUT_NG wiki, but i could not find the answer. more generally should that setup work well with this ms20 clone? i need your advice as i have never used CV before... cheers :) Mathieu

ok, thanks for the infos. :)

Hi i am building a stereo sid v2 with a minimum control surface (4*20 lcd + 1 encoder + 14 tactile switch) i now realized that i probably have the space to add a row of 5 encoders in between the lcd and the tactile switch underneath. they could be used to edit the first 5 parameters displayed on the LCD. (same as the "knob" function on the step C control surface). problem is my sid is not yet finished (i need to order more crimp terminals), so i can just think of it in theory (by reading the online manual). so my question is for those who already have a working sid, does the 5 "knobs" seems to be a good idea for a minimum control surface ? also i will have up to 10 parameters displayed on screen (4*20 LCD). in case of a menu with 10 parameters only, will i be able to scroll down once in order to get the last 5 parameters on the top row to be able to edit them with the knobs? or maybe i would have to hack the code for that ? at last i am also thinking of hacking the code to get the 5 "knobs" to work as "assign" knobs while not in edit mode. does this seem possible to do in regard of the current implementation ? thanks :)

yes, thx for the link! i think http://uk.farnell.com/ might have them also (or some similar) they have a huge choice of crimp terminals under Connectors > Crimp Terminals > Sockets hopefully i will find what i want before too long :P

Hi, i am going to run out of crimp terminals, which i got from smashTV. i am looking for the metal bit on the left they are great because they can be easily crimped with a pair of pliers, and i am looking for the same one in the UK, but so far can't find any. anybody know of a UK or europe shop which sell them ? from searching the forum, it looks like http://www.reichelt.de sells them, unfortunately i don't know german, so if someone could post a link it would be great. any help much appreciated cheers :)

thx for the explanation!

thanks for the quick answer! yep i had realized that. i was wondering if it had to do with the fact of having several SID chained together at the power input (which i don't have in this setup). i am still curious about the theory behind this capacitor at the sid power input, if somebody has a link or keywords i could google, that would be great!

hi, 2 things i did not really understand about the optimized psu ( http://www.ucapps.de/mbhp/mbhp_8xsid_c64_psu_optimized.pdf ) 1: (ca. 1000 uF is ok) -> not sure what that means ? is it that C5 (originally 2200uF/16v ) should (or can) be replaced by one 1000uF ? 2: i guess this cap is needed for a sidV2 even with only 1 core+ 2 sid ? is there some names for the reason of having this capacitor or for the technique used there ? i would fancy to google some explanations but not sure what to search for... actually i had forgotten about these caps (and they are rather bulky). fortunately i think i have the space to solder them underneath both J2 of the SID. thanks :)

Hi, i need to replace one of the fuse in a c64 psu. the burned fuse is: ELU glass tube slow-blow 250V 1.6A as seen here (first one): http://www.thlaudio.com/fusemne.htm can someone confirm that i can replace it with the glass time-delay underneath? (and still have my psu protected) http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=452&criteria=fuse%20time&doy=5m9 the inside seems pretty different though... cheers :)

thanks guys, most helpful. so i am going to print that on A4 sticker paper. exactly the idea that i needed. :) (and if it is too ugly i will go for frontPanelExpress, but not before i completely finalize the thing.) so cross fingers my next post will be pictures of the box. :)

Hello, i am still on my midiBox dual Sid v2. now i have to cut the frontpanel (aluminium) and back panel (plastic). front panel has: LCD, panel mount encoder, and 14 alps 12mm tactile buttons on a matrixboard. back panel has jacks and dins. i quickly figured out that if i start cutting without planning carefully, it will definitely look unaligned and ugly, and there will be a high risk of things not fitting right. so, i spent the last week learning and drawing all with a free vector drawing program called inkscape. http://www.inkscape.org/ a very good program by the way! now that all is drawn, i was wondering what would be the best way to cut by following the drawings. i could print all on some thick paper, cut out the holes from the paper, place the paper on the panels, and draw the holes on the panels, remove the paper, then cut following the marks. does it sound like a good solution ? what kind of pen would you recommend to use to mark the plastic and aluminium ? or would there be a more precise way to cut the panel using the drawings i did ? about the actual cutting, i plan to use a center punch and a cheap dremel type tool. i plan to drill as much as i can and finish off using small files. any advice would be much appreciated, as it is the first time i do that kind of thing. :o many thanks cheers :) mat.

thanks, you confirm my guess. i think i understood the difference now. cheers :)

oh, i was not really worried about performance. i was just being a bit lazy and wondered if i could simplify the spaghettis inside the box. :)

ok, i understand now. thanks wilba. :)

Hi, i am building a sid v2, with 1 core and 2 sids. only ! core, so i don't really need the CAN connection. so my question is: could i connect the LCD in 8bit (using all the pins on core J15) instead of 4bit, since i don't need CAN ? in a previous thread i read about a compile option in mios.h #if PIC_DERIVATIVE_TYPE == 4 LIST P=PIC18F4685, R=DEC #include <p18f4685.inc> #define PIC_DERIVATIVE_CODE_SIZE 0x18000 #define PIC_DERIVATIVE_RAM_SIZE 0xd00 #define PIC_DERIVATIVE_EEPROM_SIZE 0x400 #define PIC_DERIVATIVE_IRQ_WORKAROUND 0 #define PIC_DERIVATIVE_T08BIT_INVERTED 0 #define PIC_DERIVATIVE_SET_LCD_4BIT 1 #endif i guess i would need to change PIC_DERIVATIVE_SET_LCD_4BIT to 0 ? any chance that it could work ? or am i having the wrong idea ? thanks! (oh, btw i wonder if my lcd is a pled type ? i would say no, but i am not sure. i bought that one: http://character-lcd-lcds.shopeio.com/inventory/details.asp?id=1143&cat=Lcds&sub=Character%20Lcd)

thanks :)

hi, i am building my psu just right now, and i have a question. about the following connection: would it be ok to make the connection almost anywhere on the relevant tracks (after the switch and bridge rectifier basically) ? or does it has to be specifically from the 2200 16v cap to the 330nf cap ? i was thinking of connecting the ground pin of the regulator to the +5V side of the 100nF cap. is it alright ? sorry for the n00b question :-\ cheers :)

hello, as said, no "vs" indeed. they are both doing a big favour to the community. i can just talk about Smash. i ordered from him, mainly because his pcbs look very nice. and i found him very friendly, professional and flexible. delivery to UK was also quite fast (like a week or so). 5 stars to him :) cheers mat.

thank you!

Hi all, i am back with another question. thanks for all the help so far :) i am looking at the c64 optimized psu. some people use a heatsink on the regulator. but on some pictures, some people don't. what's the deal there. is the thing getting hot ? shall i order a heatsink or is it good without ? i am making a fairly simple sidBox: a 2x20 lcd, 1 core, 1 sid, 6 buttons, 1 encoder. and maybe later one more sid and 4 more encoders. thank you :)

excellent, thanks for the confirmation. :)