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Hawkeye

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Posts posted by Hawkeye

  1. Troubleshooting midiphy SEQ v4+

    in MIDIbox SEQ

    Posted

    1 hour ago, ilmenator said:

     Question: what was it then?

     

    There is a number of possible reasons, from electrostatic discharge, shock (dropping) it, to that one not being as resistant to heat, a slight manufacturing diversion, or soldering it for one second to long - maybe the soldering iron was over the central part while soldering...

    We had some issues with the red ones in the current batch, that's why we test-burn all of them for a few hours in LeMEC conditions (assuming you are using 47R) and only ship good ones, Andy has built a cool testbed PCB for it - which could also be used for MIDIbox RGB pixel graphics arrays later on, we will add it to the shop, when we have a bit of time.

    So, to answer, either this one was bad undetected, developed the fault after shipping, or the handling caused it, it is impossible to say now -  that's why we put 5 of them for free into every bag of 35, so you have replacements.

    Can you measure the red forward voltage and compare with the other ones you have in reserve? If my theory holds, its Vf should be significantly higher than on the others, that's why it still lights up when using your DMM in diode test mode and does not light up in the LeMEC.

    Many greets,
    Peter

  2. midiphy SEQ v4+

    in MIDIbox SEQ

    Posted

    Agreed, the solution with tweezers and a lot of solder works nicely, had to do this a few times, too! Just try to avoid "pull-up" movements with the tweezers, as these might lift the pads.

    Another trick is to use two irons at once, if you have them available, even a backup 5€ cheap one from the hardware store will work :). For that, you also use a lot of solder to tin all pins first to achieve thermal conductivity. But then you heat up both sides of the smt part at once, holding both irons flat to heat up all pins. Then you can very easily push off the smt part after just two or three seconds of heating - usually no damage done and the removed part can be reused.

    Many greets and good luck!
    Peter

  3. midiphy SEQ v4+

    in MIDIbox SEQ

    Posted

    Hi Gerhard,

    thanks a lot for your efforts and work on this!

    We appreciate alternative parts lists a lot, they can surely help to save quite some money!

    One thing i've noticed while quickly browsing it: be aware, that some LEDs may have different specs regarding brightness, for example the 5mm RGB LED for the beat indicator looks like it is a "clear variant" - i've built an early version of the v4+ with one of those and it was a lot brighter than the diffused version in the mouser BOM - therefore different SJ resistors for that LED type would be required. Or you could use one of @Antichambre 's cool aftermarket beat LED diffusors :).

    Generally, we'd recommend not to save too much on connectors (like MIDI ports), as your sequencer should live for many years and those connectors will be exposed to some mechanical wear and tear over time - nothing is worse than a MIDI connection going bad during a live jam! :)

    Many greets and have fun building your v4+!
    Peter

  4. midiphy SEQ v4+

    in MIDIbox SEQ

    Posted

    @jingo great to hear, that you are happy - could you re-ask the arpeggiator/bus question over in the MIDIbox SEQ v4 release + feedback main thread? More people using it are watching it and at least TK. should have an answer :-).

    @synaptech you are not the only one - checked a few other parcels we sent on their way to the U.S. - it seems customs processing is slow at this time of the year. Might it have to do with the government shutdown?
    I found this: https://www.miq.com/resources/news/article/u.s.-federal-government-shutdown---u.s.-customs-and-border-protection-update/
    I can confirm however, that one of the first v4+ cases has reached the continent of Australia and has been successfully delivered :).

    Many greets,
    Peter

     

  10. midiphy SEQ v4+

    in MIDIbox SEQ

    Posted

    Congrats, #6 is looking good! Sorry to hear about the display, we will get it fixed!

    Can you make sure, that you jumpered J15_S to 3.3V on the wCore PCB?

    But that is probably not the problem - as you describe it, if the OLED lights up to full brightness, when it is slightly twisted, it definitely sounds like a hardware problem/cold soldering joint on the OLED PCB, just as you said. Could you send it back to us (in a Maxibrief (Warensendung), 5cm max letter "thickness", protected by bubblewrap)? No need to uninstall the pinheaders. We will refund your return shipping costs and send you a new OLED afterwards. Then, we will talk with Sunlike, the display manufacturer - they do a quality check of every display on their side before shipping out from Taiwan, but if it is a cold joint, the problem may have manifested after their test.

    Many greets and have a good end-of-the-year!
    Peter

  11. MIDIbox SEQ V4 Release + Feedback

    in MIDIbox SEQ

    Posted

    @rbv2 Understood! If you can convince TK. that this is a new feature, that would be used by a few people, he might implement it - an implementation possibility would be as a new option "ALL affects: All Steps/Only current measure" or to change only current-measure notes in ALL mode while pressing additionally another hotkey (to indicate that only the current measure notes should be changed).

    @k2z3k0 from the Handbook:

    • Undo: an undo function for the last Paste/Clear/Move/Scroll/Random operation.

    So, this is intentional behaviour, UNDO is just a buffer to revert the last note edit operations.

    Many greets and have a greet weekend!
    Peter

  12. MIDIbox SEQ V4 Release + Feedback

    in MIDIbox SEQ

    Posted

    @rbv2

    this section explains the ALL modes nicely:

    http://wiki.midibox.org/doku.php?id=mididocs:seq:beginners_guide:start#using_fast_and_all_buttons

    In short, it depends on where your cursor is. I tested on a 32-step (2 measures/bars) pattern and placed the cursor on a note, then in ALL mode turned the encoder where the cursor is -> this then successfully changed the notes in all two bars. Hopefully this is helpful and what you were looking for?

    There are also more modes like editing with a "falloff", where only neighboring notes are affected, and there is even a selection menu where you can modify which steps are modified, e.g. for rhythmic note change, all optimized for live play! I did not know that function yet, after all this years, something new to learn every day, the software is amazing! :)

    Many greets,
    Peter

  15. USB powered Multi MIDI Thru PCB

    in Miscellaneous

    Posted

    In case you are looking for an inexpensive and an easy-to-build MIDI THRU solution, Andy has built a new PCB for this job! :)

    It is good for low-latency MIDI distribution, supports normal and TRS MIDI connectors and offers a visual MIDI traffic indication using a superflux LED. Also, it is multi-chainable to 8x MIDI DIN and 6x TRS MIDI or even more outputs. Using these boards, you can extend your SEQ MIDI OUTs to drive a lot of MIDI synthesizers with minimal latency! :-).

    The USB port is intended for easy portable jamming setups, or you can alternatively power it via a pinheader.

    We've also included a build photo tutorial.
    https://www.midiphy.com/en/shop-details/0/35/

    0eb3b61ee64ee90925dde22d75b05104.jpg

    Enjoy and many greets!
    Peter

  20. [solved] Big Hello to the comunity + need some help with SeqV4 and VFD displays

    in Testing/Troubleshooting

    Posted

    Hi Carsten,

    the sequencer automatically loads the MBSEQ_HW.V4 file at startup - and the file must be existent in the root directory of your SD card.

    You should be able to browse the SD card from MIOS Studio even without working displays, then you should see the file in the root directory (this makes sure that your SD card access works) and should also be able to edit in from within the filebrowser, if changes are required.

    You should be able to get your frontpanel working without displays this way, too. If you have a wilba frontpanel look in the wilba directory and download a MBSEQ_HW.V4 from here:

    http://svnmios.midibox.org/listing.php?repname=svn.mios32&path=%2Ftrunk%2Fapps%2Fsequencers%2Fmidibox_seq_v4%2Fhwcfg%2F

    Many greets,
    Peter

     

     

  24. [solved] Big Hello to the comunity + need some help with SeqV4 and VFD displays

    in Testing/Troubleshooting

    Posted

    Hi Carsten,

    no problem - once you've managed to set the compilation toolchain up - this should work at some point in time, you could use the toolchains provided for windows or linux, one of them will work, you could try to apply this patch to app_lcd.c which resides in trunk/modules/app_lcd/clcd. The lines with a "-" should be removed, the lines with a "+" should be inserted instead. Then recompile and cross your fingers :).

    What i basically did was switch the display addressing mode from 8-bit to 4-bit and also added some delays, which was required as the Futaba VFDs asked for different timing.

    Unfortunately, i cannot guarantee that it will work, it has been many years!

      

    [hawkeye@impulse /home/code/midibox/mios32/trunk/modules/app_lcd/clcd]$ svn diff app_lcd.c

Index: app_lcd.c
===================================================================
--- app_lcd.c	(revision 1124)
+++ app_lcd.c	(working copy)
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@
   display_available |= (1 << mios32_lcd_device);
 
   // initialize LCD
-  MIOS32_BOARD_J15_DataSet(0x38);
+  MIOS32_BOARD_J15_DataSet(0x28);  // 4-bit mode
   MIOS32_BOARD_J15_RS_Set(0);
   MIOS32_BOARD_J15_E_Set(mios32_lcd_device, 1);
   MIOS32_BOARD_J15_E_Set(mios32_lcd_device, 0);
@@ -110,7 +110,7 @@
   MIOS32_LCD_CursorMapSet(cursor_map);
 #endif
 
-  APP_LCD_Cmd(0x38); // experience from PIC based MIOS: without these lines
+  APP_LCD_Cmd(0x28); // 4-bit mode... experience from PIC based MIOS: without these lines
   APP_LCD_Cmd(0x0c); // the LCD won't work correctly after a second APP_LCD_Init
 
   return (display_available & (1 << mios32_lcd_device)) ? 0 : -1; // return -1 if display not available
@@ -136,10 +136,30 @@
   }
 
   // write data
-  MIOS32_BOARD_J15_DataSet(data);
+  u8 t = data;
+  t &= 0xf0;
+  MIOS32_BOARD_J15_DataSet(t);  // high nibble
   MIOS32_BOARD_J15_RS_Set(1);
+  MIOS32_BOARD_J15_RW_Set(0);
   MIOS32_BOARD_J15_E_Set(mios32_lcd_device, 1);
+#ifdef MIOS32_DONT_USE_DELAY
+  for(int delay=0; delay<250; ++delay) MIOS32_BOARD_J15_RW_Set(0); // ca. 250 uS Delay
+#else
+  MIOS32_DELAY_Wait_uS(250); // exact 250 uS delay
+#endif
   MIOS32_BOARD_J15_E_Set(mios32_lcd_device, 0);
+  
+  t = data << 4; // low nibble
+  MIOS32_BOARD_J15_DataSet(t);  // high nibble
+  MIOS32_BOARD_J15_RS_Set(1);
+  MIOS32_BOARD_J15_RW_Set(0);
+  MIOS32_BOARD_J15_E_Set(mios32_lcd_device, 1);
+#ifdef MIOS32_DONT_USE_DELAY
+  for(int delay=0; delay<250; ++delay) MIOS32_BOARD_J15_RW_Set(0); // ca. 250 uS Delay
+#else
+  MIOS32_DELAY_Wait_uS(250); // exact 250 uS delay
+#endif
+  MIOS32_BOARD_J15_E_Set(mios32_lcd_device, 0);
 
   return 0; // no error
 }
@@ -163,12 +183,33 @@
     return -2; // timeout
   }
 
-  // write command
-  MIOS32_BOARD_J15_DataSet(cmd);
+  // write data
+  u8 t = cmd;
+  t &= 0xf0;
+  MIOS32_BOARD_J15_DataSet(t);  // high nibble
   MIOS32_BOARD_J15_RS_Set(0);
+  MIOS32_BOARD_J15_RW_Set(0);
   MIOS32_BOARD_J15_E_Set(mios32_lcd_device, 1);
+#ifdef MIOS32_DONT_USE_DELAY
+  for(int delay=0; delay<250; ++delay) MIOS32_BOARD_J15_RW_Set(0); // ca. 250 uS Delay
+#else
+  MIOS32_DELAY_Wait_uS(250); // exact 250 uS delay
+#endif
   MIOS32_BOARD_J15_E_Set(mios32_lcd_device, 0);
+  
+  t = cmd << 4; // low nibble
+  MIOS32_BOARD_J15_DataSet(t);  // high nibble
+  MIOS32_BOARD_J15_RS_Set(0);
+  MIOS32_BOARD_J15_RW_Set(0);
+  MIOS32_BOARD_J15_E_Set(mios32_lcd_device, 1);
+#ifdef MIOS32_DONT_USE_DELAY
+  for(int delay=0; delay<250; ++delay) MIOS32_BOARD_J15_RW_Set(0); // ca. 250 uS Delay
+#else
+  MIOS32_DELAY_Wait_uS(250); // exact 250 uS delay
+#endif
+  MIOS32_BOARD_J15_E_Set(mios32_lcd_device, 0);
 
+
   return 0; // no error
 }

    Good luck and happy holidays! :-)

    Many greets,
    Peter

  25. midiphy SEQ v4+

    in MIDIbox SEQ

    Posted

    Thanks, niklasni1! :grin:

    Good news: we've received a first batch of cases from Adrian, and have listed it in the shop! :)

    https://www.midiphy.com/en/shop-details/0/45/midibox-seq-v4-lh-case-essential-kit-

    https://www.midiphy.com/en/shop-details/137/46/midibox-seq-v4-rh-case-essential-kit-

     

    It might be sold out quickly, but the next batch of cases is already ordered, the availability situation should improve over time.
    Also, we've created "superkits" allowing you to get every essential part you need at once (containing Core, UI and Case kits).

    https://www.midiphy.com/en/shop-details/137/47/midibox-seq-v4-lh-full-essential-kit-

    https://www.midiphy.com/en/shop-details/137/48/midibox-seq-v4-rh-full-essential-kit-

    0483b3e7782a6f68f30a2796331a47aa.jpg

     

    Enjoy building and happy holidays! :)
    Peter

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