Doug Wellington

I'm in California with the bone marrow donation people at the moment. (Today is all prep work - I actually donate the marrow on the 17th.) When I get back to Tucson, I'll be able to finish sending invoices and get shipments out...

Minimum order to get this price was 1000 pieces. I can order as many or as few as I want to, but the fewer I order, the more they cost... I don't know what postage will be to Germany. I'm in California right now, preparing to donate bone marrow. When I get back to Tucson, I'll find out what the shipping cost is...

Yes, I ordered the second batch - it should be here some time in January...

I've been having an interesting time here with my 17 year old daughter :o :-[ but I should get the rest of the invoices for the US orders out this weekend after we recover from the holiday. Happy Thanksgiving!

I've never touched a Phatty, so I don't know... But, yes, the other model is the one used on the Nord... I have ordered 1000 of the switches, so there is no order deadline - first come, first served...

Yeah, I'm aiming for that price range myself. I'm in the process of rearranging the shop for the new mill, the press and the big compressor that I need to power the press. As soon as that's done, I'll start cranking out panels. I'll do the machining, stud/standoff insertion and silkscreening myself, but I have to contract out the anodizing. FWIW, I have now invested in the Pantone color system, so I'll be able to mix custom silkscreen colors!

"DNR" ? Democrat...Neutral...Republican ? With a little pointer below it that you can move depending on your mood? :D

[tongue in cheek] I think you're a hypocrite there Stryd - if you truly believed what you profess, you would have removed yourself from the world a while ago. [/tongue in cheek] :P

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Na9-jV_OJI Doesn't stop me from being compassionate about my fellow human beings...

[paraphrase] Bad news - chip prices have gone up about 2 euro, two people haven't paid and are off the group buy. Good news - both PICs and PCBs have arrived. [/paraphrase] I'm not sure where that leaves us - does Joachim cover the difference in cost for the chips or do we have to pay more? I offered to buy the left-overs from the two people who were booted, but I haven't received a reply...

I was on the list to get an openstomp, but the $350 price tag was a bit much for me. I may get the Line6 pedal - it's the same DSP as we're using in the Qix...

Well, he *DID* come up with the language, after all... ;) A couple of our CS types here at work got a chance to go see him talk at a recent seminar, so they're now all converts. Of course, there are a couple other guys here who hate C++, so the hallway conversations have been quite interesting! Well, I always wanted to be an engineer... :) I started out as a mechanic back in the 1970's, and then worked as a machinist for a couple years after a stint in the USAF. I worked my way up to general manager of the shop, and realized that we had grown too big for the owner to keep everything in his head, so I bought a computer and started tracking inventory and production schedules. The shop was overextended and not making deadlines, plus I realized that I preferred working with the computer, so I quit the machine shop in 1987 and moved to Tucson to start my computer career, working my way up from installer, to programmer, to system administrator. A few years ago, I realized that I really missed the tangibility of working with my hands, making things, and a Woodcraft store just happened to be opening up a couple miles from my house, so I bought a bunch of big tools (jointer, planer, table saw, etc) and started making sawdust. About the time I was putting together my wood shop, I also decided to get back into music electronics. (I forgot to mention that I had started building Heathkits back in the 1970's and that I had repaired and hot-rodded tube amps in the 90's - wow, I just looked and found the first edition of my tube amp newsletter online! http://www.harmony-central.com/Guitar/tame.txt Man, that's got to be at least 15 years old! And while I'm walking memory lane - I wrote up the first slap bass lessons on the Internet - you can still find the first three at: http://www.harmony-central.com/Bass/Lessons/ 1993, baby!) Anyway, I bought a few MOTM, Blacet and Oakley kits, and started soldering. Somehow I ended up finding the x0xb0x, and that lead me to the MB-808, which lead me back here to MIDIbox land. And at some point, I realized I wanted to put together my own designs, so I bought Eagle, various design books, etc. Then I started organizing group buys and farming out prototype work, and I quickly found out that I could do a better job if I bought my own machine tools. So here we are...! Doug

I've been doing various martial arts since the late 1970's. About ten years ago I switched from the hard styles (Japanese, Okinawan, Korean) to the softer styles (Chinese). I studied Wu Style Taichi, then Chen Style, and then one day I found a book on Bagua Zhang. Imagine my surprise when it listed a teacher right here in Tucson! I actually started with him doing Xingyi Chuan instead of Bagua, but I think that was a good choice - the Xingyi system is simpler and emphasizes the fundamentals of internal strength. Once the school started bringing the Gao Style Bagua teachers over for training sessions, I started working with Bagua, and I haven't done as much Xingyi since... My teacher is also an OMD, specializing in acupuncture and cranio-sacral therapy, so as part of the school, we not only study the martial arts, but also the healing arts. Various forms of qigong are part of that whole process... :)

Windows CE, eh? For CE programming, don't overlook the Microsoft Press books - they are very good. I used to write programs for Windows 98, and I still have the books by Petzold, Prosise and Richter... As for C++ itself, my book collection may be a bit dated since I started C++ programming in the early 1990's ;) but I started with Stan Lippman's C++ Primer. You may also like Deitel and Deitel's "C++ How to Program". I also have Stroustrup's C++ Programming Language for reference. There are a bunch of other books that I've used off and on over the years: Scott Meyers: Effective C++ Scott Meyers: More Effective C++ James Coplien: Advanced C++ Programming Styles and Idioms Koenig & Moo: Ruminations on C++ Lippman: C++ Gems When you want to learn more about the history and design of the language, check out: Stroustrup: The Design and Evolution of C++ Lippman: Inside the C++ Object Model

There are two possible procedures - for some situations, they take "peripheral blood stem cells" by hooking you up to an apheresis machine - this is sort of like the kidney dialysis process - they circulate your blood through a device that removes the needed cells and then returns the rest to your body. This is done as an outpatient procedure and you basically just sit in a chair for a little while with a tube in each arm. Many times, they need actual bone marrow. While it is more serious than the apheresis process, I'm not sure I'd call it "major" surgery. About 3/4 of marrow donors are put under a general anesthetic and the rest use epidural or spinal anesthetic. You are placed on your stomach and two small incisions (~5mm) are made in your lower back, then needles are inserted through those incisions into the hip bone. Then they attach a bottle to the needle and collect the marrow. Once they're done, they pull the needles out and bandage you up. Since the incisions are so small, they don't need to put in stitches. Some people are back at work the next day, and others take up to a week to return. It doesn't take long for the incisions to heal, and it takes 2-3 weeks to completely regenerate all your bone marrow... It's been a good inspiration for me to get back to regular meridian qigong practice too... :)

In 2006, I found out that saxophonist Michael Brecker had leukemia and needed a bone marrow transplant. Well, I'm not the kind of person who donates money to causes, I'd rather take action myself. I'm in the States, so I signed up with the National Marrow Donor Program. (<http://www.marrow.org>) I wasn't a match for Michael, but a couple weeks ago I was matched with another leukemia patient. I'm now in the middle of filling out forms and traveling back and forth to Southern California for exams, blood donation, and ultimately, around the end of the month, I'll go over for a couple days to actually donate bone marrow. Yes, that means I'll be out of commission for a couple days, and yes, it will probably be painful, but I'll heal up and regenerate my bone marrow in a couple weeks. I believe that life is precious and the earth is a beautiful place, and if I can help someone else so that they can stop suffering and live a bit longer, it will be worth it. I hope some of you will consider becoming marrow and/or organ donors yourself...

I just got notice that Marquardt is raising prices for any order placed after November 30...

Yes, many people have complained about that. But Eagle is cheaper than all the other really good programs... What do you find to be painful about it? I rather like it myself. And yes, the panels are expensive, but you have to remember that they are making a very small number of panels (probably one, right?) for you, and they will ship quickly. If you want large numbers of panels, there are cheaper places to go. How is it cripple ware? Do you mean because it doesn't read or write other file formats? It's a great combination with TurboCAD...

I went through this very thing earlier this year. :) You may have to experiment a bit to see what work flow is best for you. I'm truly cross-platform and I use OS X, Linux and Windows. I wanted something that would be cheap and portable, yet I'm willing to pay for something if it works. Here are some of the things I tried: PCB layout: Eagle gEDA Kicad Kicad and gEDA work great if you're not on a Mac. :( Fighting to get them working was losing me time, money and sleep, (I want to layout boards, not recompile software - I do that enough at the day job!) so I went ahead with the full version of Eagle. I'm still learning it, but I think I made the right choice - it's the most common program in DIY circles, there are lots of Eagle projects out there on the web to download, and it works on all three platforms I use. Plus, I'm a POVray user, so I like Eagle 3D - http://www.matwei.de/doku.php?id=en:eagle3d:eagle3d 2D Graphics/Panel design: CorelDraw Front Panel Designer Illustrator Inkscape This is especially an area where there is no winner or loser (of course, if you're using Linux, you get to choose Inkscape, and Mac users get to choose from Illustrator or Inkscape). I do my own silkscreening, and for whatever reason, pretty much the whole silkscreen world uses Corel, so it's easier to go with the flow. Illustrator and Inkscape are fine as well - knowing Illustrator isn't a bad thing, especially in the professional graphics world, and of course, Inkscape has the best price, although it seems as if the Inkscape native file format is on the wane. Now, if you're going to have a lot of panels made, it may be worth downloading Front Panel Designer from Schaeffer or Front Panel Express. (It only works on Windows - did you get your free copy of Codeweavers CrossOver yesterday?) The program itself is free and makes it easy to design panels and have them made - you just email the design file to the company and you get that panel delivered to you exactly as you designed it - great for prototypes or small quantities. For larger quantities from a cheaper vendor, or if you want to have them drill your panel and have someone else do the painting/marking/screening, you can buy a DXF file export add in from them for $150. I use that DXF export tool a lot myself - makes it so much easier to transfer info to Corel, TurboCAD, use in my own CNC tools, etc... CAD/3D design: AutoCAD/AutoSketch Blender POVray Rhino Sketchup SolidWorks TurboCAD Wings3D I looked into a lot of different CAD programs, but I decided I really wanted something that supports 3D. You can divide the 3D world into different parts - modeling and rendering, etc - lets look at modeling. OK, if you're looking for free 3D, look no further than Blender. Great product, great support. Only problem is it doesn't really play nice with anyone else. Sigh. Other modelers I looked at were Rhino, Sketchup and Wings. (Let's go reverse alpha order on this...) Wings3D is a free subdivision modeler and works quite well, other than the fact that it doesn't import or export DXF files. Sketchup is another free tool, this one from the evil empire over at Google - it's great for quick mock-ups, especially when you use the "draw-a-geometric-figure-and-extrude-it" method. Again, output file formats are limited, but you can buy "Sketchup Pro" for $500 and get the ability to work with DXF files. (I'm getting ahead of myself here, but TurboCAD can read SketchUp files, so if you use TurboCAD you won't need the Pro version of Sketchup.) Rhino...ah, Rhino, what a great program! I think this is one of the finest modeling programs available. It uses NURBS, which means you end up with superior curved surfaces. Other modelers use polygons, so if you want a tight curve, you have to use more and more polygons to simulate that. Rhino is usable for both 3D modeling and CAD work - you can design with as much accuracy as any other CAD program. Speaking of CAD programs, well, there are a lot of those too. Solid Works is the current king of the heap, along with a couple other high end packages (Pro/E, AutoCAD, etc). Sadly, Solid Works *starts* at $4000 (US) and goes up rapidly. AutoCAD isn't really much cheaper. While not as glamorous as Solid Works or Pro/E, TurboCAD is definitely the low price leader. I was about to buy TurboCAD Mac for ~$150, when they had a sale on TurboCAD Pro. (If you can wait for the sales, you can save quite a bit of money on TurboCAD! Download a demo and get on their mailing list...) With version 15.2, TurboCAD just added support for importing Rhino files too. Before I forget, back to 3D rendering for a minute. I use POVray, since it uses a text file for scene description. (And it's free, which doesn't hurt!) Most of the pictures at http://www.midiboxaddict.com/mb808/case were created with POVray. If you're a programmer, you should be able to learn POVray in an evening. I really like it for rendering panels, since the text input file is very specific about locations, and if you use variables as in other programming languages, you can easily modify row or column positions, knob sizes, etc, by changing one global and re-rendering. OK, recap - I use Eagle for schematic and PCB work with POVray and Eagle3D for pretty pictures, Front Panel Designer for panels, Sketchup for cases, CorelDraw for graphics, and TurboCAD to tie it all together. Works for me...

Sorry to take so long, everybody, but I just sent out PMs to the first group of people on the list. Only problem I had was that the PM editor doesn't know who "xploited" is - whoever you are, do you have a different MIDIbox name? I'm going to order the second batch of faders this week. ;D

There are only two holes in the switch for the LED legs. Since the LEDs are in the corner, it may be possible to have the third leg bend over the side of the switch...

The feel is very nice. As for LEDs, please check out the pictures on my web site and look at the bulk order wiki page for more info - I can get the switch caps with or without LED holes. If there is enough interest, I can also get switch caps with labels (e.g. "1" through "8" as on the Monodeck II)...

A while back we discovered who made the switches in the Monodeck II - http://www.monolake.de/technology/monodeck_gallery.html - it's Marquardt, the http://www.switches.com people! These particular ones are the square 6425 series. (I may also do a bulk order in the future for the 6450 series switches - the rectangular ones that Nord uses.) A couple of us definitely wanted these switches, so I have already ordered an initial batch. I can easily get more, so I thought I would open up a bulk order page for anyone who is interested. You can see some (bad, sorry) pictures of these switches at my http://www.midiboxaddict.com/parts web page. The bulk order page is at http://www.midibox.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=dougwellington_bulk_orders ... EDIT: I can get caps with or without LED holes - please see the wiki page for more info.

The original idea was indeed for the x0xb0x... :)

"EB-oh-neee....! and EYE-vor-reeee! we're together in perfect..." *WHACK!* eep... shutting up now...