Hawkeye

Fully agreed, use a modern switcher, it is 2017! ;-) An other alternative, especially if you already have a fully built MB6582, that you do not want to modify is to use a crowbar circuit after the original C64 brick. If that old PSU goes haywire and the vreg outputs more than something like 5.6 volts, the crowbar will trigger and short the 5V output to ground, thus (hopefully) blowing the PSU fuse and protecting your MIDIbox! :-). These boxes should be available, when googling for "c64 power protector" or "c64 overvoltage protector". But this is only a hack, the best solution is to go for a modern switcher :-). Many greets, Peter

Nice and good luck with your sale! :-) Don't let go of the K2000R, it is awesome! Me just upgraded an old and beat-up K2000R to modern specs (new display, p/ram extension, rom wavetable extensions, sample ram, quiet fan, scsi2sd storage, transformer noise removal...). I originally grabbed it on ebay for 170 bucks, and all i can say is : woaah! :-). People are probably scared because of its complexity, but methinks, it is really worth to spend some time with it, it beats many of my other digital synths without even breaking a sweat! :-) ... Am still looking for a sampling option, though, if you want to sell your sampling kit and keep the rest of the synth (it works fine without that board), 50 USD + shipping? Many greets, Peter

Great job, everyone! ;-) Have a great weekend, Peter

it happened on the same evening/night i tried to get it running, i must have made some silly mistake, it was hanging in free air, might have shorted something... or it was not 5V tolerant :-). Anyways, good job, iZZE! I hope you get it working, too, Altitude, it has been a while! :-) Many greetings, Peter

Hey, well done! :-) Am really interested in your findings and what was necessary to get it running! Does it involve 4bit-mode, mods on the baseboard or modified timing code in the firmware? That's where I was with my last OLED, then it burned on me :-/, then I switched to a VFD :-). Many greets, Peter

@jarvis can you test Norbim1's suggestion of lowering the 5V supply current with a diode? This may be the reason for the problem, the new boards might have slightly different specs, a few mV difference may cause the trouble, if it has been close to the datasheet specs before with the old board... Many greets, Peter

In this case, blowing should be more efficient than sucking ;-) (at least if your case has a few ventholes. Also, heat-sinks glued on to the SIDs with thermal glue will work wonders, if there is airflow in the case). Many greets, Peter

No problem! :-) Yes, the display has 128 pixels horizontally, each character of the big font uses 16 pixels, so you will only have 8 columns (any configuration of SCS_LCD_COLUMNS_PER_DEVICE above 8 cannot work due to physical display restrictions). Many greets, Peter

...because 16x8 = 128? :-) Many greets, Peter

Congrats! You might need the 1.5A switching vreg, when the control surface is installed, if it is quite close to the limits now... There are some LEDs on there, while they are matrix-driven (only a few are "on" at any given point in time), this might add another estimated 50-200mA of current consumption on the 5V rail (depending on the LEDs) ... Many greets! Peter

Hehe, it just came to my mind after watching your key progression, but i just re-checked, i was wrong, because you actually used more keys than on the Guetta keyboard! ;-) The chip-iness of the MBSID arp is insane! Really great! Many greets, Peter

Yes! Very nice! And a great synthesizer! :-) Many greets, Peter

Looks good! (Just looked into the datasheet, advertised as a direct 7805 replacement, 1.5 amps, perfect! Also the switching frequency above 300kHz is really good!) Now you know, why you will always have a special bond with your MB6582! It is just something different than buying brand-name synths from a retailer! :-). I also have to thank you for your inspiration "the 7th sid" as a new songtitle! As a sidenote, i also had power supply worries in my MB6582 build after upgrading to a VFD (which puts more load on the 5V rail), some of my old C64 PSU bricks just would not deliver enough 5V juice, I then built a linear psu with a 78S05 (up to 2 amps on the 5v rail) with a huuuge heatsink. Nowadays, i would also go for a switcher, which is more energy efficient. But, on the other hand, in these cold winter nights, a linear psu as a footwarmer comes in handy! :-) Hehe! Many greets, Peter

Thanks for measuring! 840ma of 1000ma is too close, as there isn`t even the CS installed... subtract 10% error and it will go into shutdown... Upgrade the switcher to 1.5 amps... that is also the spec of the 5v rail of the original C64 PSU... Many greets, Peter

@Altitude are you also using the Recom 5V/1A (not the 1.5A) version in your build? My next gut feeling says, that 1000mA might just not be enough for 8 SIDs and 4 PICs... Many greets, Peter

Oh! Good you did not order an expensive 12V PSU and sorry for the wrong advice! It seems Zam was right all the time! Did you measure the current previously on the 12V line or on the 5V line? Might it be, that the Recom has to provide > 1A after installing the 7th SID (that should not be the case...)... In other words, are you using a fan or a display, anything that might be power hungry on the 5V line? For testing, could you disconnect the display, install a 7th SID and start it up? Do you get the startup sound? Best regards, Peter

Well done, man! You clearly need one of these for the next jam session!

Ilmenator: hehe, well, there are those occasional evilbay sales... but i passed on the last poly rack sale due to government restrictions, too ;-). But i think, even the single voice evolver has some really cool features and yet a quite low price (~ 300 bucks).

No problem with a SMPS, but is it really necessary? It might introduce noise, if the switcher is bad (if you have the specs and have a high switching frequency guaranteed, don't worry about that point!). A simple transformer -> diode rectifier -> smoothing cap array will do the job fine (aka an unregulated power supply), you have two regulators bringing it down afterwards: a 5V high-quality switcher for the digital parts and a 9V linear vreg for the SID opamps (analog part), no need to have an exact, regulated/switched 12V input... Many greets, Peter

That's why off-site documentation is bad... broken links, documentation gone... Fortunately, i also had this step covered, see here: Pictures should be embedded! Going for a 1/4 inch mix output is highly recommended! Many greets! Peter

TAG: Fully agreed, it would be great for the community to have it and it would be much easier to extend! The thing is just, that the efforts of transferring the code from PIC assembly to 32-bit C are not to be underestimated at all! MBSIDv2 has got to be one of the most complex DIY synth architectures on this planet. Really, i often get lost in the possibilities even after 6+ years of having one... :-). You can find the current state of 32-bit MBSIDv3 in the MIDIbox subversion code repository, it just begs to be worked on by community members. Fork it and have a go: http://svnmios.midibox.org/listing.php?repname=svn.mios32&path=%2Ftrunk%2Fapps%2Fsynthesizers%2Fmidibox_sid_v3%2F&# Many greets and have a great Sunday! Peter

...I still think, he occasionally beats my SEQV4L (in the upper right corner of the video) with the drumstick, from time to time! :-D

Thanks J! I am so thankful for your synth suggestions a few years back. All of them were fantastic! :) (But i gotta tell you, last week i managed to acquire a really cheap dave smith evolver desktop, that really begs for a programma interface! It is a great 4 osc (2 analog/2 digital) monosynth with supercool modulation possibilities, if you don't have one, yet... ! :-)) Have a great sunday! Peter