mmalluck

So I finally dug my mb-6582 out of the 'to be completed' project box and got it working this weekend; only took me 12 years! Unfortunately, I found one of my 6582A's are dead. Any idea where I could source a replacement in this day and age? My mb-6582 is wired up to use 9V and I don't really want to go about changing that. This being the case, would a 8580 work in a pinch? Should I even consider something like armsid?

I dropped the original mount holes into the FPD for those who are interested. I just have to figure out what countersink I need. MB-6582_frontpanel_r2_cheapest mod.zip MB-6582_frontpanel_r2_cheapest mod.zip

I'm about to drop down a chuck of change to get my front panel made by the lovely people at Front Panel Express, but first I have a quick question. Aesthetics aside, is there any reason why I wouldn't want the corner holes to mount my front panel to the pactec case? I'm kinda shying away from the idea of only having JB-weld hold the control surface to the front panel. Having solid corner mounts would make the assembly a little easier too.

The 250010902 cable has eight wires and may work better for that reason. If you don't want to buy 60 of these you might want to see if they'll send you some free samples. I'm trying to see if they'll send me a few for my MB.

I got my core module up and running so I was finally able to test those LCDs. I only smoked-off one LCD in the wire debugging process.... go me! Anyway, the LCDs work fine with the core module as is. No negative voltage is needed. That makes these some of the cheapest 40*2 displays out there. I'll probably buy a few more before too long. They're going to come in handy. Happy to help the community. ;) IMG_1348.JPG

I'm actually very curious in trying out the high liquid midi mod and will probably get one at some point. I thought it would be neat to go a step further and replace the original processor with a PIC. I see the possibility injecting your own sound data rather than just be limit to what's in the on-board ROM. If I was feeling really enterprising it would be a simple matter to remove the rom chips, hook them up to a parallel port, cycle through all of the addresses and read out the contents into a file, which could then be used to make custom ROMs or stored on the PIC and be used directly for playback. Maybe dump out the contents of the speak and spell, the speak and math, and the speak and read into some kind of uber speech dictionary. Just have to burn it to a eprom, throw in a PIC to interface, and liberate the original synthesizer chip and you're all set to go. Just some musings. I wish I had time to work on all of the projects I come up with.

I've got a few of them in hand, but I haven't hooked them up yet. I'm just waiting to get my hands on Midibox main board, which i should have later this week. I'll breadboard together something and let you know what I find this weekend.

I always thought it would be cool to midify the old Texas Instruments Speak-and-Spell. It has a gruff sound that the speakjet just doesn't give you (I'm a softy for old nostalgia and I played with this thing a lot as a kid). I realize it's not really a synthesizer as it's just playing back recorded sounds, but I think we could really unlock what is possible through PIC control (play random sequences with varying speed control etc). I've seen others use old units for circuit-bending and fun stuff like that. I've also heard audio bits worked into an occasional song. Over the years I've gathered up some related documents, but I've never had the chance to sit down and put anything together. If I can find them I'd be happy to share them with the community. (I couldn't find them on this machine, but I did find all of the relevant links) Synth data sheet: http://www.gamearchive.com/General/Data_Sheets/TI_TMS5220.pdf General workings: http://members.tripod.com/werdav/speakell.html

If you like that switch, this one from Electronic Goldmine might do you well too. $7.00 for 10 switches. I know I'm picking up a few for my SID and SEQ boxes. Just a thought.

I can't convince myself this is a negative contrast display, so I've plunked down $4.95 and I'll see for myself ;). I really didn't need much excuse because I'm going to take advantage of some of the switches they have on there anyways. I've scanned the datasheet from Tianma for my unit and it doesn't make any mention of a negative display voltage, unlike the one referenced by BG Micro (page 9) in the wiki... That may have just been a note added by BG Micro directly as the original datasheet on Tianma's for the wiki unit doesn't carry the negative contrast note either. Humph... It's not a wide temperature band display, so I may still get lucky. I'll let you guys know once I find out. Worse case scenario, I make use of the 9vac from my c64 power supply to feed a small isolated step down transformer and pull my negative V from there. No biggie.

Any more left? I could use 2 displays.

Might as well put me down on the bottom of the list for a full kit..... The wife will have to forgive me later ;-)

Hi Everyone, I'm just scrounging up a few parts and I came across a cheap source of char LCD screens from my favorite electronics surplus company. I honestly don't know much about the LCD drivers already built into MBIOs so i can't to say how much effort would be needed to get these working, but at $4.95 each, the price is right. Anyone care to venture a guess? It looks like most of the info needed to build a driver is included on the included datasheet.