sakodak

You should probably avoid IR too.

You're going to be looking down on a metric shit-ton of them -- ultra bright probably isn't the best choice unless you're the type that always wears welding glasses. :)

Updated. I could probably stand to resize the pics too, but I just don't feel like doing that right now. :)

Added to the wiki: http://www.midibox.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=encoders

To this day I can't get the Skate or Die theme song out of my head. I also miss sin-scrolling Rush lyrics.

Do you mind if I crop & annotate your pictures for the wiki?

If you give me some time I can take some pics and post them, but basically you bend the four clasps back, remove the bottom and bend down (or up, depending on your perspective) the half-circle thingie. Re attach to the bottom, bend the clasps back. Technical, eh? :)

No. There are some build differences, and you need to pay close attention to the voltages so you don't blow up your SIDs, but mostly the same parts work. If you follow the build guide Wilba instructs you to make allowances (like using headers) for changing out SID types later. Right. If you buy the mb-6582 base PCB and the base PCB parts kit, you have everything you need to do a base midibox sid (except for a power supply.) Of course, this is with no control options. Right. You'll need an LCD, LEDs, some diodes, rotary encoders, and switches (and probably some things I'm forgetting.) Unfortunately there's no control surface parts kit yet. You could also order SIDs from Wilba if you wanted to fill out the other 6 SID modules on the base PCB. You could also decide to not use the control surface PCB and roll your own. Lots of people have decided to do just that. See this post (particularly the first picture): http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php/topic,12413.msg108374.html#msg108374 Don't thank me yet -- I'm new too and I could be feeding you a line of shit for all both of us know. :)

The mb-6582 is basically all the modules you'd need for an 8 SID MB SID (beautifully) reworked onto a single PCB instead of spread out amongst a bunch of separate modules. You can use all of it for 8 SIDs, or just part of it for one or two SIDs. It's pretty convenient. There's also a control surface board that serves the same purpose -- it's one board to conveniently mount all of the parts of a control surface. Much like the base PCB you can use all of the sections or just the parts of it you want. The drawback is that you're stuck with the layout that Wilba came up with for the controls. It may or may not work for you. But you don't have to use it, you can hook up the controls however you want to the base PCB.

I'll be much better at this when I actually start building, but my understanding is that: yes, you can pick and choose what you want on your control surface. You just connect the encoders and buttons to the correct pins on a DIN module and you're good to go.

I'm new at this too, so someone correct me if I'm wrong. For two sids you need two SID modules and one core module. That's it. You can control two SID modules per core and since you only have two SIDs, that's all you need. As far as a control surface goes, I don't know how you can get more clear than this: http://www.ucapps.de/midibox_sid_manual_fp.html Have you seen that? If so, do you have any specific questions on any of that or need for clarification?

I haven't ordered mine yet, but I believe they do the screening too. You can find the template in the wiki: http://www.midibox.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=wilba_mb_6582_panels I'm also on Doug's waiting list. I may go ahead and order from FPE too, since I'm an impatient bastard. That same link above will get you the panel in fpd format. You can download Front Panel Express (google it) and load up that file and it will tell you how much it costs (I forget the exact procedure, but if you're capable of tying your own shoes you can figure it out.)

That is the best advice for smd: have a fine pint. Or three.

Thanks. I've been lurking around for quite a while (as mentioned.) If I wanted to do things the easy way I wouldn't be here. (Seriously, I don't know why I didn't think of that. I've never bothered to set up an RSS reader, but I guess it's time I did.)

I didn't want to make a new thread for this, but I have a quick question: Is there a wiki page like Doug Wellington's page: http://www.midibox.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=dougwellington_bulk_orders that lists all the Albs group orders? I'm still trying to familiarize myself with the forums and wiki, but from what I can tell this thread is the most recent one for these orders. I'm just looking for one place I can check, maybe set up a once-a-day perl screen scrape to see if there's been any changes so I can finally get myself on a list for these knobs. (I've been saving for years to do this, and finally just bought a bunch of stuff. The only things I need now are the knobs, case and faceplates. And to actually start the build process. :) I'm waiting for all the ordered parts to get to me.) Anyway, if one doesn't exist that's OK, I was just curious. Thanks!