jrkirkish

Alright, I've built my second core, and now this one doesn't work. I'm just going to go through the MIDI troubleshooting guide and tell you guys my results for each test. At the bottom are pics of my core. First off, I'll describe my current situation. I put a SMASH CORE module together, and power it up. The LCD displays the top row of solid blocks for a second or so, and then goes blank. I am not trasmitting any MIDI. I even tried the LED in the MIDI out port trick. I am at an impasse. Now, for the diagnosis: Measuring the Vdd at the points listed in the CORE midi troubleshooting guide leaves me with 7.6-something volts. Not five. Measuring ground as per the same guide leaves me with 13-something volts. That's really high. I checked all the pins as stated in the CORE building guide before installing the ICs. Well, that's it except for a Quick question: My pic, from SmashTV is already burned with MIOS, right? I don't have to upload MIOS, right?

bump, cause I'd like to know how this project is going.

Any chance of getting some pics of the guts? Especially the control panel/LCD. I am planning a 1/2 space 1 U rack MBSID. Step A, and would like to see how you have everything wired.

And has anyone ever heard of an interface that does? I tried uploading MIOS back into my interface (lexicon Omega) using the loopback trick. I sent the .hex file manually, to force it. Now I opened up the IN and OUT midi monitors. I saw the hex file being transmitted, but did not see it being recieved. So does my unit filter sysex messages? Have you ever even heard of such a thing? And I also have an M-audio oxygen 8 keyboard controller that has a USB with midi out. No midi in. could I use this to transmit and upload MIOS?

no, nothing. And I know it's not my computer because I tried the LED thing on the MIDI out port on the board.... it doesn't light up. I was looking at some other threads where people were having problems and I saw this: Compaired to this guys CORE, my C1 and C2 are transposed with C7 and C8. Could that be the problem?

I don't believe it. I managed to screw up counting the pins AGAIN. But this time I've got it right. I have 5 V on pins 1-12, 11-12, and 31-32. Everything's golden there. I looked at this: http://www.ucapps.de/howtodebug/mbhp_core_extract_measuring_vdd.gif, and everything is good except for pin 25. that reads about half a volt. I also checked this: http://www.ucapps.de/howtodebug/mbhp_core_extract_measuring_gnd.gif and everthing seems alright. I'm just hoping somebody can look at my scans and say, "Well there's your problem" Thanks for the help, and yes, I too am surprized that I was able to put this together with such little knowledge...

Even better than photos - I have a scanner!

alright. I have infinite resistance between 31/12 and 32/11. This is not good.... maybe I should just order another CORE kit.... sigh...

Wow, I'm a dumbass. I was counting the pins from the wrong corner. ::) But now I've got a similar problem: Pins 31 and 32 only read 11mV. All the other readings (taking into account that I'm now measuring the right pins) are good.

I've found a replacement for mandolane. It's free, too! http://www.humatic.de/htools/mmj.htm works like a charm, for all you mac guys.

Pins 1 and 12 on IC 1 don't give me 5v. it's more like 250mV. I tried IC1-pin 12 to ground, and that gives me the same 250mV. I don't get it. Everything seems like it's soldered well, it's just that it's not working. Grrrr. And as an aside, my IC3 is getting really warm. Really warm. is that normal?

This is exactly why I have a 500 MHz Celeron windows boxen sitting around, I guess... Thanks.

Sure. Here you go: Thanks.

Alright, I just built my CORE and wired the LCD in. I'm powering it with a 9 v wall wart. Everything seems to look alright, but.... When I open MIOS studio, and try and set up the MIDI device routing, I cant. I highlight the in on my midi interface, and the MIOS studio in port and press connect. Nothing happens. Well, it actually says that I'm running an unlicensed version of MIOS studio. I thought this thing was open source?!? I can't uplode MIOS because I can't get my interface and CORE talking to each other. Now what do I do?

That's awesome. Blown away. Now just to make everything ergonomic in the user-interface department.

Well, I'm trying to do my part by getting my head around the chord generator. Here's what I've found: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chord_%28music%29#Types_of_chords As you can see, it has just about every chord you could imagine there. If we did it this way, it would be a BITCH to code. Unless you're a music theory machochist ;) So I'm going to suggest this again, just because I don't think I was quite clear enough before: Have a bank of notes and have the user enter in a number between -24 and +24 (two octives up and two down). Now just sorta sequence those notes whenever a note is played on the controller. For example, I enter: 1,5,7,5,1 on the arp and whenever I would press C on the controller it would play C,E,G,E,C. And of course you can edit the note length and stuff, how many times to repeat, weather or not to add delay... I'd really like to get some feedback on this idea. It just seems so blatently obvious that an arpeggiator should do this. This is really the *killer feature* that makes me want to build this, and I know the Waldorf Gecko, the Oberheim Cyclone and the MAM map 1 can't do this. I'm not sure if any other arps can do this. Other than that, once we get a total feature list, I'd be more than happy to try and figure out where each feature goes in the menu system. Flowcharts and all that... So I guess now our main short-term goal is to actually list all the features it's going to have

I think it's time for me to start thinking about an enclosure... Since I really can't find any threads about this (bulding enclosures), I guess I'll start one. My biggest question is: How do I cut square holes in a quarter inch of aluminum? I've got this nifty little project box (one unit half rack sized), and the front panel is freakin' thick aluminum. How would I go about cutting a square hole for the LCD? Dremel, what bit? Drilling holes along the perimeter and then filing down the rough edges? Or should I just get somebody with a flow-jet to do the work? I'm on good terms with my old high school shop teacher (even 6 years after graduating), and he's helped me with projects before (even helped me build a guitar in his free time). But I'd like to know if it would just be easier to do a panel in AutoCAD and send it off some place to be manufactured. Next, what's the best way to mount my PCBs to the inside of the box? I need to have the outside of the box relitively free of screws sticking out the top and bottom (as this box it going to be wedged into my synth rack on three sides). I'm thinking double stick tape. Or maybe that would produce a static charge.... I guess I intend this thread to be a repository of information about building enclosures, so If you've got any questions, or more importantly answers, please reply.

Lets see... I don't know if it's been mentioned, but syncing to the MIDI clock would be nice. I honestly can't think of anything else I would want out of an arp besides what's above. And the chord-sequencer Idea of mine What I would like this to be, and this is just industrial design part of it, is very small. maybe fit in a 3x5in project box. Something that wouldn't look out of place sitting on my controller. Small. So I guess that means just a CORE module and the 'step A' control panel. I can't really envision a need (I'm sure there would be a desire, though) for any larger control surface. Is there anything I can do to contribute to the project? You can count me in for testing, for sure, but I'd like to know if there's anything else I can do. Don't mean to be nagging, but what's the ETA of the software? I'd love to be building this now, instead of a SID (so much simpler!) Edit: You know, a harmonizer would be cool too.... ;)

Well, if you're going to steal features from stand-alone arpeggiators, pretty much anything you do is going to be an improvement. For example, on the Oberheim Cyclone, you have to enter the BPM in hex. yeah. that's right, hex. Other standalone arps include the MAM map 1 (which I've been looking for one for a year now) and the [forget the name of the company] gecko. I would kill for something with the feature I said, but maybe I'll just build a seqv3, I guess ::) ;)

Well, I looked in Finale, and there's like 75 different chords that it can arpeggiate. That would be too much coding. way too much. Here's what I suggest on how to select the arp. chord: Have a number ( say 6, or however much memory can support) of notes the arp can play. Have the user edit each of those notes, and the arp will play those. For example, the screen would have 6 'banks' or memory locations or whathave you, and the user would input a number 1-12 for each location. The arppegiator would read each location and for the next note in the arpeggiation, would go to that location. Entering 1,5,7, would result in a major chord being arpeggiated (in relation to the number of half-steps up from the root note) I think this makes sense, tell me if it doesn't.

I think it would be cool (and this is just the lowly opinion of a noob) to have the same control set as the 'step a' SID control surface. A few buttons, and an encoder. make it a standard, of sorts.... And I've played with the arpeggiator in Finale (music sequencing software), and it seems really cool to tell it to "arppegiate a chord with a 2nd, 5th and 7th with whatever note I play as the root," as an example. I'll post a screen shot of all the available chords it can arppegiate later. Though this would probably be a LOT of coding, and a good amount of theory. or maybe not. Maybe I need to pick back up my 'C for Dummies' book and help out on this project. :P

I would also like an 8580, just one, shipping to USA. Tell me if you have any left.

Great. I'm not even started with my MBSID and now I've gotta build this one. Thanks.

Alright, I've got two keyboard controllers. I would like to use them both without having to build (or,... gasp!.... buy) an interface with multiple inputs/outputs. Here's what I'm thinking. - build a MIDI Y cable. Have the two ends of the Y go to each of the controllers, and the other end of the Y go into my synth rack. Would that work, and not violate MIDI protocol? Or should I just go get a nice, rackmount, USB interface?

So you're going to build the full 'step C' controls, right? Does that just require one DIN 'board, or are more required? And sorry to hijack the thread, but I'm (going to) build a simple 'step A' MBSID. Do I just need one DIN 'board, or are more required? Sorry for the noob question, I'm just sticking my head in the rabbit hole and seeing that it goes pretty deep. ;)