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

Searched for the posting and found it, puuh, 8 years already, time flies!

Maybe it helps, there is a diff attached in the posting. Good luck! Many greets, Peter

 

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

Hi Carsten,

Welcome to MIDIbox!

VFDs are awesome, aren't they?

Unfortunately, i've stopped upgrading my VFD v4, as it runs a really old core, and i will upgrade that main rig to a v4+ with OLEDs soon. While i still love VFDs, the new Matias keys are just teh awesome! :).

My old v4 is unfortunately "stuck" with a really old SEQ firmware and cannot be easily upgraded, as it still runs on a STM32F1 and had some manual patches to enable both VFDs. I never ported/repatched the newest firmware versions after some time, because i was just happy with the functionality and memory got more scarce on the STM32F1. I remember, that it was quite tricky to get both Futaba VFDs working - there should be an old thread around here somewhere with some patches in it, that you could try.

An Atari 800XL was my entry drug, too, "GRAPHICS 8"!  :)

Many greets and have fun!
Peter

[Starting MB6582 build]

Random restarts (or the unit sometimes not starting up) remind me of a 5V rail problem i had early on, back then still with the original C64 PSU.
The current draw on 5V (using a VFD) was just too high and it went under 4.7V or so on the 5V rail, the PSU was overloaded.
So, which PSU are you using and can you measure your 5V rail voltage during operation?

Patches need to be uploaded with a Sysex transfer, so all should be good there as long as you can access all banks.

Many greets and good luck!
Peter

[Starting MB6582 build]

Do you have a datasheet on the color-cycling LEDs?

If a LED is matrix-driven with 1/8th duty cycle, that means on - off - off - off - off - off - off - off -on - off - ... - so they might actually reset their color cycling because they are powered up all the time again?

Many greets,
Peter

[midiphy SEQ v4+]

4 minutes ago, jingo said:

Nice work! Gratz :)! May I ask how to obtain the latest firmware? Does one have to build it from the svn repository? Or is a binary with the hw-config somewhere available for download? Thanks and Best Regards :)

 

Hi jingo,

thanks, currently it is all only checked in to subversion (especially the hardware configurations), but I asked TK. if he could build a new release for the launch :). Until then, here are the hardware configs:

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

I've also attached the STM32F4 "project.hex", that i've used for the tutorial, so you don't have to build it on your own. But it would probably be best to wait for the official release.

Many greets,
Peter

project-hex.zip

[midiphy SEQ v4+]

Thanks a lot, guys!

All kudos go to TK., Andy and Adrian, they did all the work - i only had the video camera running while building a SEQ for myself and posted it on youtube, no big effort! :)

There are also other good news: we managed to get hold of a stack of 1MB flash variant waveshare STM32F4 MCU boards - the standard is 512KB on the waveshare boards and while that is sufficient for the current SEQ v4+ firmware, Thorsten already said, that he expects to extend the firmware in the future, probably requiring more flash memory than 512KB.

Now, as we want to make sure, that every midiphy SEQ v4+ is fully capable of running this awesome sequencer, also for years in the future, we will give away the new 1MB MCUs as a free "addon" to every original Core kit customer now purchasing a UI kit. So, you will have an additional "free" 512KB MCU in stock, that could be used for the LoopA or any other MIDIbox project later on. Thanks a lot for early supporting us, while the other parts were not available. You know who you are! :)

Will keep you updated, when the cases are finally available.

Happy soldering and many greets!
Peter

[midiphy SEQ v4+]

Good news! The second and final part of the video tutorial is now available. Thus, we also made the UI essential kit in the shop available, so if you want, you can start soldering the major parts of the sequencer now:

https://www.midiphy.com/en/shop-details/119/28/midibox-seq-v4-ui-essential-kit

 

Regarding the cases, Adrian has finished the first batch of cases and will ship them soon to Germany. We are still missing the perspex windows (display protectors), but those will be sent via express, so we hope to make up a bit of time here.

We will make the cases available in the shop, as soon as we receive them, it should be before the holiday season.

Many greets and enjoy! :)
Peter

[midiphy SEQ v4+]

Yes, hard at work with finalizing the video tutorial, my biggest youtube video project ever with 200GB of input video material :-O and nearly 50 chapters!

But it is looking very good! Will put it up as soon as possible, after it has been reviewed by Andy. 

Adrian also has the first batch of cases in hand, the white case tops are already being printed/labeled, the bottoms still need painting, but it is all on the way.

The final LED resistor value adjustments in the BOM are not mandatory, especially if you already ordered the BOM from mouser. They are just a recommendation to match brightnesses of the individual components across the unit better, i.e. we have very slightly reduced the superflux RGB LED brightnesses to match the OLED brightness, we did also reduce the MEC LED brightnesses to better match the superflux RGB brightness and needed different resistor values for the Beat LED, because the new diffused multicolor 5mm LED was a bit bright with the original values. All in all, nothing dramatic, just final touches :).

Many greets,
Peter

[Stephan Bodzin live @ Piz Gloria for Cercle]

Really good & uplifting, thanks for sharing! :)

[MidiBox 20 years Birthday what a run : )]

Yes, true!

Happy birthday, Thorsten! 

Many greets,
Peter

[Starting MB6582 build]

Both are looking great!

It is always good to see new MB6582s in the world and that there are still people not hopping on the VST bandwagon! :)

Many greets and enjoy your builds!
Peter

 

[6N137 on MIDI8 and MIDI-IO Boards]

yup, good info! very nice!

[midiphy SEQ v4+]

Regarding the wrong part number itself - it was not "wrong" for a long time, there is a fair chance you already have the right parts - i filmed the first video of this LeMEC-R area only two or three weeks ago, back then the BOM tool reported the correct part. The wrong part number was introduced on our side, while updating some final parts, but it is now fixed again, as Andy wrote.

@TK. if your build as a beta tester is also affected, please write us a message, will send you the replacement resistor networks, so you can enjoy the new activity matrix! :)

Happy weekend!
Peter

[midi socket 5pol Din 180°]

3 hours ago, latigid on said:

Maybe ask @Hawkeye if you want some cheap DIN sockets. I think he has a few.

uuuuh.... i would not dare to sell those! :). Mike, if you want some really cheap ones, search for "Diodenbuchsen" on pollin.de, currently they are sold for 1.9 cents per piece (yes, no typo! :))

Of course i could not hold back and ordered some a while back! What i received was part rusty or they had at least discolored metal and i would only use them for test projects, never for a SEQ or a LoopA :). As i ordered them from my business account, my return options were a bit limited - but as they clearly did not look as shiny as in the picture advertised, I told them, that i was not too happy with their looks, corroded metal and all, and they agreed to send me new ones (they seem to have a lot :), which they promised me would be "flawless". In the end, the ones i received looked about the same and i decided, that it cost me (and poor Andy! :)) already too much time and I stopped that side project! They will be great for a nice "art" photo project with about 2000 MIDI connectors in a single picture, though, but I did not yet have the time for that, hehe! :)

In short: you get what you pay for and after this very interesting reorientation by a cheap seller, i am now fully with Andy and Bruno, don't save on the connectors! You might just be recording the best live song in a long time, then a MIDI connection to a synth goes bad and that was that... :). The bad thing here is, with crappy connections you may be introducing "bugs" that are really hard to localize, as they just appear sporadically, you might think there is a software problem somewhere, when indeed, it is just a loose contact.

Have a nice weekend, y'all!
Peter

[midiphy SEQ v4+]

@rosch...soldering and filming again, but the release date might come close towards end of November... (100GB of input video material already of which 30GB need to be shot again, because I made a mistake :)). But Adrian is working on the first batch of cases, and all will be done, we are confident! Also, @TK. is currently also test-building the new UI boards! :)

Many greets and have a great weekend!
Peter

[dipCoreF4 and dipBoardF4, a compact Core.]

Nifty!

[midiphy SEQ v4+]

@Phatline yup, Andy is right, but can't film all the time :), we have the UI kits in stock, but will delay sales until the docu is available.
Also, in parallel @TK. is building an additional UI kit (he received new PCBs and UI parts from us). This way, we want to make sure, that all is perfect before it goes out to you.
Adrian has completed the final case changes and we've verbally committed to a first production run of cases, so i hope it will come all together nicely somewhen in November, when the weather is bad and you want to build stuff! :)

Many greets and have a great weekend,
Peter

[midiphy SEQ v4+]

@Antichambre

we had no followup communications on the dustcovers, but got to a prinicpal agreement, so they should still be on the table.

We'll get to it, when the dust (hehe) of the first UI kit and case sales settles  :)

Many greets,
Peter

[midiphy SEQ v4+]

Thanks guys, all credits go to Andy (for the design), Adrian (for the case) and TK. (for the software)!
Just wanted to inform you that filming of the second part of the video tutorial has finally started. It will still take a bit of time to get to a production length of another estimated 2 hours (or maybe 3 hours with case installation and wiring informations), but we're on it! :) When it's done and published, the UI kits are ready for sale, we're stocked up and received another batch of OLEDs from Taiwan this week.

Have a great weekend!
Many greets, Peter

[midiphy SEQ v4+]

As promised, new photo session images for your consumption! :)

The first image shows the installed blanking plate, that covers the holes that are necessary for rackmount mode,
The second image shows the new "shade of blue", exactly as we wanted, it came out very nicely from the paint shop, thanks Adrian!
The final image image shows everything in action with a new, maybe more eye-friendly color scheme.
The activity matrix in this picture is currently in "TPD emulation" mode. There might be more modes later on, if we are allowed to add them to the firmware ;-).

Hope you like it, we definitely do! :)

Many greets,
Peter
 

[MIDIbox SEQ V4 Release + Feedback]

@Rio

blm8x8: minimal bitmask changes for the midiphy frontpanel matias switch superflux backlighting, conditional logic not active for a standard v4

tpd: added additional mode for slightly different midiphy frontpanel mini led matrices, conditional logic is not active for a standard v4 (+ optional external tpd)

Many greets,
Peter

[MIDIbox SEQ V4 Release + Feedback]

@Rio no worries, it was only a "minimal invasive" patch that, as Andy said, would not touch or affect any non-midiphy SEQ v4+ variants. We visited TK today, thus the subversion commit comment "for personal discussion", which also had a smiley behind it. I tested the patch on my side thoroughly and expected it to be accepted by TK., but if it would not have been, it would have "cost" only a single subversion commit number to rollback.

Many greets,
Peter

[midiphy SEQ v4+]

As a small update to everyone interested - the new v4+ user interface hardware kit as been handed over to TK. today by Andy and myself. He had a look at a completed v4+ (pictures soon!), and will validate the UI boards once again from his side, we want to be sure, that all works nicely before sending out the new kit to users.

I will start filming the construction video tutorial of the UI boards by next week. It will take a while until the tutorial is ready, but we will get there. Meanwhile, Adrian should be able to start production in bigger quantities, as the case looks really good!

Many greets and have a great weekend!
Peter

[Starting MB6582 build]

@the_duckchild

Thanks, and which kind of color change LEDs are you thinking of, would you have a product link?

The MB6582 only supports single color LEDs everywhere, but you can use different colors of LEDs in different sections of the frontpanel, although many people prefer to stay with a single color.

If the "color changers" only require two pins and then internally do the color changing, then they could work, if they are standard 3mm LEDs, although your build would probably be blinking madness :)

Many greets,
Peter

[[solved] Midi Router not routing buses]

Hi there,

great build!

I am not 100% sure, but I think, internal busses can not be used for MIDI Routing. Even if the interfaces are "there", i have not done it before and am not sure, if it is supported, TK. knows more!
Afaik busses are only used for Transposition, Arps and Jamming and always effect internal other tracks only. I'd be pleased if someone would correct me, if i am wrong!

But: what you can do is have a look at FX -> Duplication, this should fit your needs perfectly! I've used it successfully to send out same notes to two samplers on different ports, and you can also edit what is sent, to which port should be duplicated and how many channels should be active during duplication. This can be used for nice effects, like sending alternating notes to different synths and such :)

Many greets,
Peter