Hawkeye

Yes, the MB6582 baseboard fits in the C64 breadbin... In fact, TK. had one inside his Commodore case (before that, it was a module based setup and it was quite full in there ;-)) with a DIY frontpanel on vero board... Many greets and have fun building! Peter

While building from scratch with modules sure is great, it may be viable to invest in a MB6582 baseboard... it already integrates 4x Core, 4x SID (stereo), a passive output mix section, the necessary DIN and DOUTs and headers for a control surface (button and led matrices) in one not so big and not so expensive PCB. You can nicely play all 4 cores (= 8x SIDs) with one keyboard (in polyphonic mode) - it sounds great. You can start small with a single SID, and then stuff it with more SIDs, later on. Many greets, Peter

Big problems with that one - i tried the exact same version, would not initialize in 4-bit mode, was right into hacking the driver, then it burned on me :-) Edit: ohh, i love their description: "Mit dem bekannten 4-Bit und 8-Bit Interface sind die neuen OLED-Displays ganz ähnlich dem HD44780 Standard." saying "they are quite close to the standard"...

Fully agreed, switch is mandatory, the alphas sans switch were very nice to me.

Hi, I´d say, there is probably a connectivity problem with the filter capacitors on your "bad" channels. Can you check all traces from the filter caps to the sid socket and reflow the solder spots there? Many greets, Peter

Hi Arkay great to hear! If there is really a quality issue, that is an important warning, was about to buy a few for the new LED ring boards... :-O Many greets, Peter

Hi Skunks, the LM2596 is a switcher - dunno how fast it switches, it might be good - but if you´re into DIY, you could just build one like these - cheap parts overall, linear and noise free :) http://www.retro-donald.de/pages/hardware/basteleien/powernetzteil.php Here are a few pictures of my build - am very happy with that PSU: Many greets, Peter

Hi Roman, ich kann die Vehemenz schon verstehen, wer sich einmal durch solche Menüs durchgequält hat, wird alles tun, um zu verhindern, das nochmal jemand sowas baut ;-). Ich hätte hier von den technischen Daten den absoluten Oberhammer-FM-Synthesizer rumstehen, leider ist er aber wegen der Menüführung momentan nur als Presetschleuder zu gebrauchen ;-). Ciao, Peter

Personally, I´d recommend to buy a more expensive one, that reacts quicker - my Satistronics ones were very laggy - they are currently used as paper weights, waiting to be transplanted into something really unimportant, like ahm... the local neighborhood nuclear reactor temperature gauge or sth :)

Hi, to complicate things even more, the hex spacers were called "thread hex" by mouser and they are listed in step 5 - here is the mouser item link... http://de.mouser.com...8Cjr79rUnGjlgHx These M3 threaded hex spacers are pretty common, and you can get them at reichelt, too, in all different lengths, but you need 10mm for the CS. Don´t worry too much, if you don´t get everything in the first order run - I think, I ordered three times, before everything necessary was shopped :) Many greets, Peter

Hi Scifo, all product links are correct - you don´t need the DIL header, it was just recommended to check, that your crimped flat ribbon cable connections are ok, but i´ve yet never made one with connections not working, so you might also skip that item :). Regarding the corner screws, of course you can omit them and build it as Wilba recommends it, he designed the unit, so it is surely not wrong! :). When the two JB-weld components are mixed properly and the glue is applied to a slightly sanded surface, JB-Weld sticks perfectly and it will be very hard to break it... Best regards, Peter

Thanks, TK! The file browser is very helpful (also the Virus sysex support! :-)) :sorcerer: Everything is running fine here - bootloader .10, newest MIOS studio, latest SEQ from subversion :) Bye, Peter

The higher price may be because the artwork has not been connected to one single hpgl outline... You can download the "cheapest" FPD, get the hole dimensions and positions from the "more expensive" FPD and transfer them to the cheapest, but it is a bit of work in the frontpanel designer... Many greets, Peter

Of course, they are purple :-D

Hi, yes, if you use 8580/6582s and drill some ventilation slots or holes, it *should* be thermally ok, there was a forum poll a while ago, where some people said, it is getting quite warm in there, so i´d generally not remove the fan hole, just in case you want to add a fan later on. You can put a fan grill on it, to "close" it, even without fan. Regarding knobs - I´d recommend you wait for a new bulk order by Martin/Kristal to get some of the awesome Waldorf knobs - they fit really well on the MB6582 and are highly recommended - otherwise, any other "industry standard knobs" with 6mm D-shaft will fit. The expansion port is a standard 25-pin sub-d breakout port, to attach any internal headers you like to external gear. Adding that port is also recommended, as you might like to add analog filters or external voltage controlled amplifiers later on! Edit: if you are thinking about a very useful mod to the back-panel, think of adding an improved-diameter hole for a professional 6.3mm mix-out socket. That mod is described in the photo tut on page three or so. Many greets! Peter

Hey, thanks :) this should be the one with corner holes and without Manga art :-) http://www.mb6582.org/plans/MB-6582_frontpanel_r2_with_mount_holes.fpd Many greets and have lots of fun building! Peter

Very Nice! :frantics: It works, big improvement on Win 7 64 bit (STM32 SEQ V4)! Now, it is possible to upload firmwares in MIOS studio without typing "help" "help" "help" in the console first (some trick to reinitialize the USB connection?). Also, the MSD USB mode works now, had the same problems as Altitude... I previously always removed the SD card from the SEQ and manually backuped sessions. For further testing, I just copied a 20 Meg file to the SD card and read it again in this mode, it worked without hickups (ca 180KB/sec write speed and 400KB/sec read speed). During USB transfers the LED matrices flicker a bit, but that is rather cool (BPM, Track position + Current step number). The update process was also without problems for me. Thanks, TK! :sorcerer: Many greets, Peter

Hi Skunks, cheap switching PSUs like the linked one may introduce switching noise on the audio output - better go for a high-frequency switcher or a linear PSU. (You could filter the harddisk switching PSU with additional capacitors and maybe an inductance (LC-filter), but it may not remove all switching noise). Graantjes, it may be that your original C64 PSU was a bit too weak to drive the MB6582.. I had the same problem with mine after adding a power-hungry display... so nothing to worry about, they are known for that (and it is better to replace them anyways, as their old voltage regulators can fry your precious SIDs in case of a failure). Many greets, Peter

Hi, I fear, it is quite common, that some people won´t respond or pay in a bulk order, so I guess we are safely above the 150 pcs limit, which is already great ;-). It will be lotsa work shipping out all these parcels. Thanks again for your work and many greets! Peter

Hola, here´s some pictures of my build: Orange_hand proposes the connectors on the baseboard and it really works well, too. Just make sure that they fit in, because it is quite tight there :) Many greets and have fun building! Peter

Hi and welcome! Great choice with the MB6582! Tim/SmashTV definitely is the right person to order from - and you should get the MB6582 PCB set (CS + baseboard) plus the Baseboard kit + PICs. Total cost, when fully built (including eight 8580s) will be approximately around 550-700€, including taxes. Many greetings! Peter

Yes, while it surely is possible, it probably is not worth the effort :) I just wanted to have the fourth digit in the SEQ V4 because of bling reasons, it is not really necessary for functionality ;-) Have a great weekend! Peter

Hey there, if your 808 sequencer is based on the SEQ V4... yes, you can - you need two free DOUT shift registers to display the BPM digits, these shift registers also allow you to add a "current step number" display with three seven-segment digits. Here is a short demo video, you see it in action in the lower right part of the screen... Edit: sorry, just realized, that you are probably referring to the official MB808 - this one is SEQ V3 based and uses the old 8-bit core, I think a three-digit BPM indication should be no problem with it, four digits would require a firmware modification. Many greets, Peter