m00dawg

Ah I thought those were separate diodes. Now I get it :) On that note, however, I was unable to find that exact model with my distributor (Allied Electronics). I am guessing that I can get a higher rated rectifier (say 600V, 50A or something), just not a lower one in this case?

So I am trying to build the C64 PSU on a simple protoboard (I only used a small section for the BankSticks so I figure, why not?). I have a few questions however: 1. Has someone already made a board for this and might I have the EageCAD? I saw a triangular board but was looking for a square and, while I'm learning EagleCAD, I don't have enough skills to make a square one :) 2. If I have to use the protoboard, no biggie, but I was going to forgo the LED. I figure I can tell it's own simply by the LCD panel and other LEDs I'll eventually have. So, if I remove the LED, I assume I don't need the diodes from the power switch? And, I assume the reason there isn't a connection on the diagram for the VS on J1 is because it is already grounded from VS on J2? Also, and this might be a bit newb, but how does the power switch work? I noticed that there is two sections for the switch and I'm not sure what switch to get, nor how to wire it. Thanks All! Tim

This does not relate to the waiting list or anything. I actually had a simple, and maybe elementary question about connecting the front panel PCB to the base PCB. I noticed in the pictures on the wiki, that the cables have been directly soldered to each board. For some reason, I have an aversion to soldering the ribbon cables over using headers, but was having trouble determining from the pictures if this was possible? Just a mild curiosity and wanted to know ahead of time what to expect. Thanks again for putting all this together guys!

Ah thanks for clearing that one up TK!

I seem to be having some timing issues on certain stock patches and was curious if people were having similar issues. When I play the Lead Patch (the one that is selected at power-on, A001), the timing sounds very good. However, when I play something on patch A118 (Lead Stacco2) it sounds about a 1/16th note delayed. I can reproduce this by recording a simple lead in Cubase as a MIDI track, quantizing it, and playing it back. If I use patch 001, it sounds in time with the metronome. However, if I play patch 118, it is delayed. I also noticed this with the drum kit patches and, actually, it's quite apparent with them since the drums do not fall in line with the rest of the song. Does anyone have similar experiences? Is this just the nature of the beast or perhaps something else? I thought it might have something to do with an envelope fading in too late but as I don't have a control surface (apart from the LCD anyway :) it is hard for me to determine.

*oh* ok. I thought that is what those connections were for on the schematic but their evil red color threw me off :) Thanks a bunch for clearing that up for my tiny little brain :)

So I have been scouring ucapps.de as well as the forum and wiki but cannot seem to find a visual example of how to add another SID to 1 CORE for stereo SID action. I have a basic Midibox SID v2 setup (just added a LCD and BankSticks as a matter of fact :) and am using the SmashTV CORE and SID boards. I'm scratching my head over where to go from here and was hoping someone can direct me? I am certain it is already somewhere on the website, so I apologize in advance that my search skills are lacking.

I think most people figured that MidiNES was the best option. I'd still like to see a MidiBox implementation, but the MidiNES pretty much whoops ass.

So while I cannot answer your main question, I thought I might mention that M-Audio sells a USB<->MIDI adapter that works well. I use it to control my Midibox SID. I'm sure other vendors sell that same. I'd definitely recommend picking one of these up; you never know when you might need some MIDI connections :)

Oh...how convenient. My apologies for not thinking of that in the first place :)

Haha! Oh yeah...those are sweet! The one on OCC cut through a like 4 inch chunk of aluminum. It was unreal.

So I know you can buy panels from a Germany-based company according to ucapps.de, but is there a US distributor that can be used and does anyone know the costs involved? I'd like to start housing my stuff in a box, even if not completed, at least it gives me something to work towards. I haven't found to much and was curious if anyone had any suggestions?

I think part of this may fall under one of the other forum sections, but I wanted to see what other MidiBox SID owners, particularly in the US, have done to make a case for the SID. I only have the bare minimum right now (CORE + SID) but would like to start housing this in something that I can extend at some point into a full control surface. I do not want to use the C64 case. Something about that makes me a little sad inside :) Rather, I would like to design something not unlike the Access Virus Classic and some other designs I have seen here. I know there is a distributor in Germany to design the front-panel, but was curious as to what people used in the US for this sort of thing and how much it costs? I thought about just building the thing out of wood, but would still need to do something for the panel and just have no idea where to start :)

In case anyone was curious. I did buy some PCB mount phono jacks but they did not seem to fit. The solution? I grabbed 2 panel mount 1/4" headphone style jacks from Radio shack. I then took an extra CD-ROM audio cable, cut the ends off, and used two of the pairs which I soldered to the jack. It actually works surprisingly well for now although the solution is somewhat ugly at best, at least without a case to go around it (that's for the future :)

I have Cubase SE and you can do this by mapping the knobs on your physical device to send the correct Midi CC signals. For instance, I can set my two soft knobs on my Virus to send Midi CC 32, for instance, which maps to the cutoff of one of my VSTIs. There may be a way to map any knob from any device to the proper CC in Cubase, but I haven't found a way. I have been told that Fruity Loops does it exceptionally well; you just wiggle the MIDI knob you want to map and then click on the VST knob you want to map it to. Nice :) Anyways hope that helps. If you find a better way of doing it, let me know!

Well, eventually I wanted to build the whole Midibox SID in all of its full glory. For now, though, I wanted to start small and simple. The RCA PCB mounts seem like they would be the best bet to start with. I already soldered the SIP pin headers so I can always just switch when I need to start expanding. I was able to find some from Allied Electronics. They are based close to where I live (same state at least) so we shall see how that goes. I'll keep in mind the panel mount PCB's though...that actually is a good idea :)

Seems like there were some good ideas here. Has anyone tried out building a single-board computer or tried integrating this into MBox stuff yet? The MIDI cartridge looks like it's probably going to be the best bet otherwise, although $90 + shipping seems like a lot of $$$ to throw down for a simple soundchip...

Ah that makes sense. Yes, I do plan on adding LEDs and an LCD module once I get the initial stuff built. I think I will either go with your suggestion of using the C64 power-brick (it's not like I really use the C64 itself too much anyway, so I suppose it can share) or just break out a custom power board. For now, it sounds like I can go ahead and return the extra power-brick I had to buy from RadioShack (bleh) and worry about the big stuff later :) Thanks for the help!

So I have been showing my friends at work the progress of my MidiBox SID and one, being one who enjoys the raw sounds of the NES, was curious as to if there was any work towards using the NES ALU in a MidiBox project? So, uhh, is there? :) I was curious if anyone thought about how to accomplish this. Originally I was trying to control my SID chip using the C64 and a MIDI adapter, but found out that the US version is not tuned correctly due to the refresh-rates between PAL and NTSC and also the core CPU clock. I assume this would be less of an issue with the NES and that perhaps the ALU could be controlled with a modified cartridge? Either way, I was just curious if anyone had given this, or any other similar project any thought? The FM and SID MidiBoxes look to be very awesome and it seems like it could be expendable to other soundchips as well? Just curious :)

As would I. I would like two FM chips if possible.

I was curious as to how many amps the CORE and SID modules together draw? I was thinking of taking a 9V or 12V power brick and splitting the output to both modules so I only need a single plug. I have one 12V 1A and one 9V 800mA but I plan on taking one back if possible and using just one of these. I plan on adding the additional modules (LCD, Knobs, LED array, etc.) but will probably stick with one SID for now since it will take some time to find more of these guys (particularly the 8580 it seems). I saw the schematics for using the C64 PSU, but would like to use something more custom and to leave it for my C64 just in case I want to play with it (albeit it no sound of course :) Any help is appreciated!

I bought the MIDIBox CORE and SID kits from SmashTV and thus far have been amazingly satisfied. The thing had everything I needed except for a few things, most of which are minor. One thing that was missing (no doubt because not everyone wants to use them) were RCA / Phono PCB mount plugs. There is a pinout for them of course, but I am having trouble finding a suitable vendor here in the USA. Anyone have any suggestions? I am also looking for SIP and DIP plugs and cables in various sizes since I don't have tools to make them and want to avoid having to solder wire to the pins. Thanks!