Hawkeye

Thanks for your interest! Happy August! Time flies, when there is a lot to do! :) We are working on it! While orders are not yet being accepted (stocklevel is virtually set to 0, even if nearly everything is in stock), you can already check out a preview of the new shop at midiphy.com - there are very few items yet visible, and we will add more items and documentation in the coming weeks. We hopefully can start selling the PCBs mentioned in the video tutorial quite soon (they are validated and working), but we need to test-build and validate the new/changed PCBs, before we can sell them. Yes, John from MA stated, that he wanted to resell all boards! Probably, shipping will be quite a bit cheaper, when you directly order from him in the states! As far as the last discussion went, he might not stock every "essential" part, just the PCBs. A good thing is, Andy worked hard and we have the next PCB fab run inbound, so all new/altered PCBs should arrive in the next two weeks or so. Yaaay! :) If they work out, all V4+ PCBs should be final and be in stock in hopefully sufficient quantity! Many greets, Peter

Nice one! Will have to take you up on that, when there is a litle bit more time, the synths are getting too dusty lately! :) Many greets, Peter

@Phatline: midiphy is the name for the euro MIDIbox shop, officially blessed by TK. :). The shop might also stock up other quality MIDIbox user projects, like Bruno's awesome MBTIA. The focus is on quality over quantity, so we won't stock everything there is, but we want to document everything, that is stocked in the shop as thoroughly as possible, so that it becomes viable for MIDIbox beginners to build. @AntichambreThanks, Bruno! Still working on the shop, but we should be able to send out the first core-based PCBs in August (basically all PCBs that were covered in the first tutorial). Enjoy the summertime! :) Many greets, Peter

Really great job on the SMT hot air soldering tutorial, Smithy - this is indeed a really nice and inexpensive alternative to the classic fine-tip soldering approach! Also, thank you all very much for the praise of the first part of the build video tutorial! Will start with the second (and final) part of the tutorial, once the release version case and the final UI PCBs are in! :) Many greets, Peter

Progress is being made! After quite some hours of video documenting (6 hours of input video material, over 60 GB), here is the first part of the promised extensive video build tutorial (edited down to 2 hours). Many thanks to Smithy and Andy for watching the video up front and for providing corrections/recommendations (added as subtitles or later on in the ERRATA section of the youtube description text) where necessary. We will add a second (and final) similar video tutorial for the rest of the build (User Interface PCBs and case installation), once the case and final PCBs are ready. Adrian and Andy are working hard to finalize those: the case needs to be a tiny bit optimized for the 3U Rack installation option and Andy is preparing the updated JOG PCB (which will be called JA) for the last-minute TPD addition. Thank you both! Will keep you updated, when you can obtain the PCBs, that are referenced in the above build tutorial. If you want to build a SEQv4+, you could start with these, while the rest is being finalized. Many greets and have a great weekend! Peter

Congratulations, looking good! :) Many greets, Peter

Are you using JPGs? Can you try to reduce the file size (say < 1mb, e.g. by reducing jpg quality). This might help. Many greets, Peter

Excellent job and good video documentation! Many greets and have a great weekend! Peter

Thanks for your interest, Mike! Originally, i did not want to add every suggestion to the codebase, especially to avoid code spaghetti and to keep this unit streamlined from a software perspective, but i really like the proposal to be able to remote control it! Currently, all hands are full with the shop start and v4+ documentation finalization, but i can add the requested features, when there is time (autumn/wintertime). You could also try, the current LoopA is fully checked in to the subversion repository (apps/sequencers/LoopA). With the new run of v4+ boards, we are also stocking up LoopA boards, we could make them available sooner (planned was after the documentation), so if you are content to build without extensive video documentation yet (after the v4+ i know it takes a lot of time, so that will probably happen in autumn), you could have the boards relatively quick. Andy already wrote a short text docu on how to build them, it should be no problem for you! Many greets, Peter

Of course: 44.5cm width (+ side screwheads, 1 or 2 millimeters on each side) 14 cm depth (front to midi ports) 8 cm height (standing on the table, incl. rubber feet) without the encoder knobs. With encoder knobs, i'd say currently 9.5cm height, it should go down to 9.3cm - read below. In conclusion: the case is really compact (for its contents!), we had to do some optimizations to have the waveshare MCU board fit in there, especially we need low-profile female headers on the wCore PCB. But these are available and unproblematic, now all works out. Do you have the Heidenreich case measurements for comparison? I'd be interested! Regarding the encoder knobs: we will probably suggest to Adrian to counter-sink them "into the frontpanel", i.e. have bigger cutouts, like another famous sequencer out there :). This has to do with them not scratching the frontpanel when pushing them down, and optimizing height for another few millimeters. Have a great weekend, y'all! Many greets, Peter

Thanks for the nice words, Andy, Bruno and slo! @lacuna regarding your questions: Encoders: Alps STEC 12 with push button - these are really high quality and super-reliable. Used them in my first SEQ built somewhen in 2011 and abused them a lot in the last years - they are still like new, my absolute favourite encoders, nearly unbreakable. Smaller (illuminated) buttons: MEC switches, as the Matias main switches, these are also high-quality and rated for a lot of key actions before they will give up. These MEC switches allow to access secondary, utility and certain menu functions, also start/stop/pause/record and the mode wheel on the right-hand (jog wheel) side are triggered by the illuminated MECs. It will all get clearer, once we have the key labels ready, which will also be posted to this thread, when ready. Regarding the preordering question: there will be availability updates right in this thread, we plan to provide this for quite a while, as it has just been too much work for everyone to not do that, so you could get parts whenever available and it is convenient for you. John from Modular Addict said, that he would want to sell the v4+, core and auxiliary PCBs in the U.S., if you are not from Europe and want quicker and cheaper shipping. @slo regarding your idea to have a list of official builders - great idea, maybe not to be discussed in depth in this thread, but it sure would be an option for people wanting a unit and not being able to build it. Additionally, we really strive to bring the "i can't build it barrier" down and make an extensive video documentation of the whole process (my biggest video project so far), so maybe more people can be pulled back into the fun of DIY, that would be at least my personal hope and motivation! Many greets, Peter

If you like its looks or usability better, go for the V4, absolutely! Regarding the V4+: only the case is smaller, the important control elements are even bigger (high quality Matias switches) and the workflow has been optimized, but this is highly subjective! The case can be smaller, as it has just been developed for the V4+. And it contains only quite integrated PCBs, everything from the Core to the MIDI8 board just takes up a little bit less room than the predecessor, while offering the same functionality. You can find first informations here (a long read, case pictures in the end!): and there will be a new thread regarding the V4+ including "real pictures" of the finalized proto unit in a few days here in the forums. Many greets, Peter

Thanks guys, your praise is highly appreciated! But, i must pass it on: all the kudos (again) go to Andy, aka Latigid on and of course TK., who both did the grunt work! Andy designed all PCBs, communicated with suppliers (often in China) to get difficult-to-obtain parts, communicated with Adrian regarding the case, created all Wiki entries and Thorsten built the very first working unit and created specialized software for the all-new additional "selection row" of the V4+, which among other things allows for direct track selection (and multiple-track selection). I just built and documented the second proto unit, slipped in a last-minute-idea, which Andy instantly implemented without being grumpy and without asking further questions! Amazing! So, on my part, all was very easy, when standing on the shoulders of giants! :) As Andy's "new frontpanel idea" now is a reality, he said, that he would soon open up a new official "SEQ V4+" forum thread, containing a few pictures of the cased proto unit (with every module/PCB in, and it all works, yay! :)), that will contain updates regarding availability, form and function and special software features of the V4+. This new thread can then also be used to ask any questions about the V4+ you may have (build process or software features). I am still finalizing the first part of the video build tutorial, which will also be featured in that thread. As a personal conclusion, after building the V4+, it is my opinion, that while it is probably primarily targeted toward immediate/advanced DIYers, everyone willing to hold a soldering iron with a fine tip (wide-pitch SMT parts only) can build it, if he/she has enough patience. Have a great day and many greets! Peter

Well, if you (Hurlup) have a little bit more time on hand, you could also wait for the new SEQ V4+, that Phatline as an experienced builder could build for you. Everything should be available in the next months, and the case should be a non-issue. There should be a forum thread with "final" informations regarding the new V4+, as well as nice pictures of the cased proto unit here in the forums in the next days, so that you can see how it will look with all components installed. Not that i want to discourage anyone from building a V4, which is excellent! The V4+ will be very similar, just feature a smaller, more compact case and an (imho, this may be very subjective!) improved workflow. Many greets! Peter

Hi, glad you are interested! Yes, it will be available and we are working hard on it. And we will be providing an "essential parts kit", that contains all hard-to-source parts like small-form-factor OLEDs, the waveshare core with the bootloader preflashed (so you don't need a STLink Programmer) and the necessary superflux LEDs, Matias Switches and keycaps. The rest is available on Mouser. There will also be a complete video tutorial documenting all DIY building steps in detail. But: all of that still needs some time though, as we additionally ran into some minor problems. As we want to make the V4+ hardware as perfect as possible, it takes some time to get rid of some final problems. Also, there might be a new feature incorporated into the V4+ and the case, to make up a bit for the delay! :) We will release a video tutorial of the build process of the new Core and auxiliary boards (wCore, USB breakout, SD card breakout, MIDI8, MIDI IIC, Line Transmitter) soon, these boards are all perfect, in stock and ready to go - you should be able to buy them within July or August, if you want to start building some parts soon. Andy is updating two SEQ boards, these need a PCB rerun and we need to communicate with Adrian regarding minor case adjustments. Methinks it will probably be somewhen in autumn, until you can hold a V4+ in your hands. But: there will be updates and the first part of the video tutorial should be online soon, i've already got uncut 60GB of video source material, that needs video editing and voiceover work. Will be doing that shortly. Enjoy the summertime meanwhile! :) Have a great weekend! Many greets, Peter

Just as romsom said, an easy tip to avoid floats is to calculate with high precision 32bit integers and regard a few bits of these integers as floating part. I.e. if you have 32bit integers available on your platform (MIOS32 has this) and you want to use 8 bit floating precision, you would have 24bit integer precision. You can then just multiply input "floats" with the number 256 (2^8), and calculate everything with the "upscaled" integer values. Depending on operation, you need to divide again, that can be quickly done by bitshifting (e.g. >> 8). If you need the output, just divide by 256 again, or bitshift down. In short words: just calculate with upscaled numbers, and then downscale again, when results are needed or when operations (e.g. multiplying two upscaled numbers) require that. Many greets and good luck! Peter

Great work! That jogwheel, made out of wood?! Many greets, Peter

Very nice! Awesome integration of hardware & software! You should be able to embed the youtube video by just copying and pasting the full youtube video link (not the youtu.be abbrevation), doing that for you: Have a great weekend! Many greets, Peter

Thanks for pointing that out - have to ask Adrian, but it would make sense to also label the lower (blue) section of the case for consistency - the port names should be futureproof, we have 4 IN/OUT directly on the core and 4 OUT via IIC - it won't change in the future, even if there would be a newer core installed at some point in time. Many greets, Peter

Thanks, all kudos go to Adrian - he has done a fantastic job on this one - the painting really is excellent and we have an internal set of PCB holders, that will easily mount the combined LeMEC/Plate (encoder / backlit matias switches) PCBs and the Jogwheel boards. I have not built the docu version yet, but am confident, that it will work out really nicely. Methinks there will be no space problems like some other cases had, but it is a quite compact and portable case, i was positively surprised, when the package arrived! Also, it is a prototype, we still need to add the "Beat LED" , and of course the label texts - as far as i would guess, it should be possible to label the backside ports on the "white portion" of the SEQ (the bent frontpanel), so this should work out. Also, the blue color might change slightly - we are aiming for RAL color 5023 - if you google "RAL 5023", you can preview it. Adrian is still working on the 19" rack mount kit, that can be screwed on instead of the blue "sidewalls". The bottom of the case has holes that can be used to change the port orientation (backwards-facing in rackmount orientation) - also these holes should be able to be "blindfolded" with blanking plates for certain Irish people! ;-) Many greets! Peter

Outstanding work, congrats! Am always delighted to see new TPDs in use around the world :) Many greets! Peter

@tedysuwarnady did you even read the questions asked and suggestions made, that might help you to solve the problem? Sorry, but for myself it makes no sense to continue to support this effort.

Thanks for creating a separate topic! Two questions: * Do you see any debug outputs in the MIOS Studio console, when starting up MBNG? * After MBNG has started (even with the display looking bad), can you enter any commands in the MIOS Studio console? E.g. typing "help" should show you a summary of available commands. These two questions should allow us to determine, if MBNG is running properly or is having problems at startup. If the app is not running, please double-check that you are using the correct STM32F4 hex from the midibox_ng.zip package that you downloaded from ucapps. You can also try to put default.ngc and default.ngl in the root directory of the sd-card. These files are provided in the cfg/default directory of the midibox_ng.zip. When the default.ngc is loaded, it should log that in the MIOS Studio console. Good luck! Peter

Ah, what an unexpected topic! :-D Key features for myself in "dream mode" (so it might sound unrealistic, but we are dreaming, right?) would be: * 32 INs / OUTs to attach all synths and gear to a single base unit with direct MIDI wires. * In other words: one router, that aggregates all MIDI equipment directly and speaks to everything, also different controlling MIDIboxes, e.g. an MBSEQ, a LoopA, multiple MBNG controllers. * As multiple devices need multiple different routing setups, i'd love to see "additive routing", so that not only the whole route set can be exchanged, but only the routes for certain devices can be exchanged, while the rest stays the same. I.e., I might want to change routes for one attached ProgrammA, but leave all other routes (i.e. to/from the SEQ) as they were, so i'd just want to switch out a subset of routes. * And something we already spoke about in that rather long mail thread, let's call it "known device names" :) * Potentially a filter (i.e. to filter MIDI beat clock from a single input port) or a even a loop detector to avoid deadlocks * Sysex routing (i.e. be able to route sysex streams, that don't have a CHN from one port to multiple ports but not to all ports - important for the MIDIbox NG) * If possible, a more detailed MIDI packet protocol inspector and "flow graph" display. Yes, its bling, but you'd expect that from me! :) And it might help to see what is going on inside the box! :) Many greets! Peter