mrpaul58

Hi There I've finished my first ever MBSid and love it. I built the step A, adding 2 encoders for cutoff and res and 5 analog pots for the assignable knobs. It all works perfectly except when I try to make my own patches using the computer... I've tried Sidcontrol with various VST hosts, Jsynthlib following the instructions at the midibox site and also tried the logic environment. On each of these I have no trouble playing notes through the computer and can also change the preset that the Sid is on, but it wont react to any cc changes... I've tested to make sure my computer is sending cc's out so they are definitely going into the midibox. Is there something I may have missed in one of the .asm files to make the MBSid recognise cc's coming through the midi in??? anything else spring to mind that could explain why this is happening? Thanks Heaps Paul

Great! thanks for all the help, I'll try it out for sure and post up my results when it's all done. Paul

Thanks for the replies.... Nebula, that panasonic battery with 9 amp hours seems like just the thing, so I think I'll go that way, thanks. I'd rather not power my equipment straight from a 12 volt battery as none of the manuals of my pedals say 9-12v input so to avoid risk I'm gonna go for a 9 volt regulator for sure. I calculated how much current the gear I already have uses up, its 435Ma + the casio which I think is about 780 Ma....The manual says its 7W power consumption and if it runs on 9V do I divide W by V to get amps??? If so thats .78 so I'm guessing it's 780 Ma...correct? So everything plus the sid box I'm guessing will be around 2 amps max maybe even 1.5, which means the 3A 7809 will work? I couldn't find one of those but I found a 3A LM350K, would that do it? I'd have to make a circuit wouldn't I?...thats ok I think I could figure it out. Dragonmaster, just wondering what you mean when you said linear regulators are 40% efficient? does that mean I'll waste a big chunk of battery power? I found this http://www.powerstream.com/dc6.htm which is a switching power supply but looks like it may do the job... What is PSU filtering? is that a filter to get rid of the ground buzz? you said you can't filter a PSU when it's battery powered? do you think this regulator converter thing above would work or will bring in lots of buzz which I wouldn't be able to get rid of? You asked about my amp, I've got a pignose hog 30 on the way so it comes with it's own rechargable lead battery so that will be covered. I've already ordered a 16x2 LCD so I'll start with that, I'll leave some room if down the line I want to switch to a 20x2. Paul

Awesome! thanks so much for your help, :) I'm amazed at the kind heartedness of this whole midibox project, along with the forum and wiki, so much info that you guys have put in so much work for us all to use for free!! Thanks again!! :) So, I'll build the circuit with the normal 78** regulators first and find out how much current it draws, then, if its gonna be a lot, I might look at the low drop out ones, I didn't realise the LM2941 had adjustable output voltages, thats great.... I'm thinking the 16x2 might still do me fine, I plan on doing most of my preset making on the computer through midi, so I'll only really need it to see what preset I'm on...does that sound right or will it cause me trouble when debugging, etc? there are buttons you can use to move along the screen right? so I'll be able see as much as on a 20x2 just not all at the same time?? Thanks for the idea of the low level battery indicator DragonMaster, any advice on how to build one? I'm guessing there is lot's of info on the web where I can find out about making one... My other busking equipment is all typical 9 volt gear that run on batteries...Sp404 Sampler, 2 looping pedals and an old Ht700 casio synth. I guess if I got fancy, I could get some type of car battery and power it all on the one battery to stop having to recharge a whole bunch of little batteries after every time I play...hmmm, so I'd just put a 9 volt regulator between all the gear and the battery and skip the 7809 on the sid box, right? ooo the more I think about that the more I think it is the way to go....yes yes, so that would be a 12 volt lead battery? any advice on finding the right car battery?, weight is no issue as I will have a trolley, and does anyone know of a 9 volt regulator out there that can handle a heap of current going through it from 12 volts? Thanks!!! Paul

Hi There I'm super new to all of this and have not posted on this great forum yet!....Hopefully my question is not way too newbieish... I've got my parts and SmashTV's pcb's on the way to make my first midibox sid, V2 with 2 6582 sids. The catch is I want the choice to be able to run it on batteries aswell as a 12v wall PSU so I can busk out on the street....Because of this, I'm skipping the back light on a 16x2 lcd, and making control surface A with no extras except for 5 analog pots/sliders for live tweaking to keep the power consumption down... I've done some reading on low drop regulators and thought a lot about different options. I haven't been able to find much info on the net on replacing a 7805 and a 7809 with low drop regulators, and I really don't have much of a clue when it comes to electronics, so I'm hoping to not do that and keep it as true to the original schematic as possible.... I came across this 12v 1800mah rechargable battery on ebay...http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=270182413327&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=017 I believe it says the voltage when the battery has run out is 10.8V, and as the 7809 needs 11V(?) to run I'm thinking I'll get quite a bit of time out of this battery without too much wasted energy left over... Just wondering if there is some big reason that I may have missed why this battery would not power both sids and the simple core hopefully for around 3-4 hours??? If there is, is there another option I could try without too much modification to the original schematic? Thanks Heaps!!! Paul