bsilverberg

Hey guys, thanks for the encouragement!! I agree, I also like having the chips 'out' just like valve amps. I'll have to check on the lcd for you. It was a leftover lcd that was lying around that I had originally purchased for my MB-6582 build, but it was too Big!! It was a classic smack-the-forehead moment to say the least. :)

The second SID board is forthcoming. In the meantime I should win the award the UGLIEST p.o.s. looking SID build ever...on the planet!! I would like to thank being cheap, being impatient, and having almost no time or good tools to work on it as my primary inspirations. But you know what? It works perfectly and sounds Amazing!! Besides, all it was ever supposed to do was test SID's (as can be seen by the funky ZIF socket).

Ah! Excellent!!! Thank you so much for your insights and for steering me in the right direction! After some more digging, I found a pdf in the wiki that details the interconnections. Thanks so much! I originally started building it thinking it would be a simple mono SID tester. I used a ZIF socket for the SID for quick loading and unloading. But as I use it and add on to it, I want to grow it more!

Please excuse the rookie noob question, but, I've successfully built a 'mono' minimal control surface MBSID with Core8 and have started adding buttons/encoders. Tons of fun! But that got me thinking about making it stereo like a sammichSID. My question is, how/where do I interface the second SID board? I looked through this site (and others) and couldn't figure it out. And will I need to change anything else in my existing setup to make it perform in stereo (other than adding a stereo out jack from the combined outputs?) Thanks! Ben

And if anyone needs the paste-over 'canvas' front panel layout for that board (or the rev 2 board), I've got an extra with the adhesive backing still intact. Also, I'd like to add that the MB-808 is a totally doable project. Doug's site is slowly coming back online and there's enough info on there now to complete it if you take it slow and pay attention. One of the best and most rewarding projects I've ever built. Thanks! Ben

Awesome!! You look like you're programming in zero gravity. :)

You can see one implementation here: http://www.mulletronic.com/diy/mr9090/ (I've built this so I can tell you the circuit is good)

Here you go! I'm hoping that the site being down means he's working on getting the forum back up. MB-808_Manual_Beta.pdf

Matrix mode seems to correspond to the SID Engine selected, but Meter mode only responds to SID Engine 1. Is this by design or is there something wrong with my setup? Thanks! Ben

I just finished the CS of my MB6582 and everything appears to be working properly. LED test passes fine. Matrix mode, I guess is ok, since I'm not 100% what I should be looking for as light patterns do change with patch changes. But, I assumed that the Meter Mode would resemble the sammichSID whereas what I played would modify what I see. But on the MB6582, regardless of whether I'm playing notes or not, it lights the same set of LED's, some solid, some flickering. It's that way for quite a few of the patches. On other patches, just one or two LED's light up when I play. I will say, the Poly patches do look exactly like the sammichSID in how they light up. I assumed Meter Mode would resemble a VU meter or organized patterns depending on where I play on the Keyboard just like the sammichSID. Am I doing something wrong? Can someone weigh in on this? Is there a YouTube video or something that shows what the Matrix in Meter Mode should look like when played? Any help is much appreciated! And, yes, this thing ROCKS!! Thank you so much, Ben

Send them all out, eh? Well, I will say this about the 'swapping solution' - many of those SID had been sitting dormant for years and had built up some oxidation (or what have you) on the leads. It's possible that the mere exercise in pulling in and re-inserting was enough to "clean" the SID leads off for better contact. I know that wounds 'weak', but as long as it works, that's my story and I'm sticking to it! Seriously, if there is something more specific for me to check, please let me know. I'd hate to get to the finish line only to have to revisit this issue. Thanks!

You ARE a Midibox HERO! I pulled all the SIDS, mixed them up and put them back (randomly swapping two with two other spares I had) and wouldn't you know it? IT WORKED! Not really sure why, but everything now plays as it should without any noise problems! Thank you so much! Now on to build the control surface... Thanks, Ben

Hello! I just finished the base pcb (v2) using Option A power source. It's stuffed with 8 8580's and 4 cores. Voltages look good. Test tones all work. I hooked up a simple keyboard controller (using MIDI OX as passthrough) and tested each set of SID's by selecting MIDI Channels 1-4 and playing a few notes. Everything checks out EXCEPT in the top octave of notes (rightmost side of the keyboard going down about an ocatve or so, maybe a little more) there is noise or distortion (like a momentary electronic burp) when a new note is triggered. The noise isn't present when hitting notes in the middle and low range of the keyboard and it's ONLY triggered on note changes. If I play the same note over and over it's fine. Now here's the kicker - It ONLY happens on my chips labeled CSG8580R5 (all from different years/batches). But is DOESN'T happen on the two chips labeled MOS8580R5. Anyone have any ideas what's going on and what I can do? Is this maybe related to the caps to the left of each SID? They're set to 22nf for all. Is my testing method faulty? Is there a better way to test? Thank you so much for any help you can provide. And, as usual, this place ROCKS! Ben

Thorsten, Thank you SO much for the insights into the MB808 programming and the sysex commands! However, I believe Janis may have figured out my problem - the key was here in the asm file: #define DEFAULT_BANKSTICK_MODE_CS3 4 ; Song mode (using CS3 to ensure compatibility with Atmel EEPROMs which only provide 4 CS addresses) When I re-defined it to '2' instead of '4', Chip 4 formatted properly! So perhaps the 'Song' format "looks" different than the Pattern mode format on the chip? I'm going to move the 'Song' chip to CS7 and try it from there. Again, thanks to all of you for helping me out! Thorsten, I love this amazing machine you have helped bring to life. I applaud all your hard work. Thanks, Ben

Janis, thanks for this snippet of code! After hours of troubleshooting, I discovered a few interesting things - 1) In the MB808, the first chip in the chain (Chip A=0) on the bankstick will never format since there's already a 24LC512 on the mainboard residing on the same data backbone and sharing the exact same 'address'. So, that problem is SOLVED! 2) My workaround to force a re-format, without there being a menu option for it, was to write 'FF' across the whole chip's memory range eseentially erasing it, using a crude serial programmer I threw together, and PonyProg. Then when reconnected, the MB808 would attempt a re-format. 3) And this is a real pickle: Chip#4 (or 'A=3' as labled on the bankstick schematic pdf) ALWAYS fails on the Format. I have no idea why. It attemps a format, writes some gibberish to the chip and fails. My wiring is sound as I am able to format every other address successfuly. No matter what physical chip I swap it out with, and no matter what method I used to connect it to J4 on the core, that one ID and ONLY that one ID fails each time. Weird. Any ideas?? Thanks! Ben

Thank you so much for the help! I appreciate it! Unfortunately, there is no 'FORMAT' option off the Menu as there is on the MBSEQ. That's exactly what I was looking for, similarly thinking that they were so similar. But it's not there! I even tried flashing the MB808 with the MBSEQ firmware, but the buttons/encoders didn't respond properly. Anything else I could try?

Could not find my answer doing a search, so I thought I would ask - How do I format the Bankstick in my MB808. When I FIRST plugged it in, it went though the formatting routine, but some of the chips failed (due to poor solder joint). Now that it's fixed, I want to RE-Format the Bankstick so that it's properly initialized. When I start up the MB-808 it simply does a quick check to see if it's there, but does not format it. I've tried re-arranging the chip order. I've also tried re-flashing the HEX file for the MB808. But no luck. It will not re-format! I can't find it as a Utility anywhere in any of the menus. I thought perhaps its a "hold down a button on startup" type thing, but not sure which. Do I need to pull the chips and erase them in an eprom programmer? I hope not, I don't have one! ANY help would be GREATLY appreciated! Thank you, Ben