technobreath

Hi, After I started building my enclosure for my SID synth, there has been some talk about wich display to use for it. And I was immediatly happy with the idea of OLED. Looks really nice, superb contrast, clear colors etc. However, me being a some kind of a newbie on display selection, I quickly ran into trouble. I found out that many of the OLEDs require custom driver programming - wich I am not, a programmer. So short story, I have had big trouble finding out wich ones are compatible out of the box - some are confirmed to work and some confirmed NOT to work. And I also have trouble getting the color I need. Most usual colors are available, but not in all forms. For example, the only white OLEDs I could find were at Reichelt (creds to jojjelito for tip) but they were only 2x16, wich is fine for a midibox64, but kinda too little for the mbSID :). So here is my idea. I haven't seen another thread about it, so I gathered I'd make one myself. What if we make a thread here, where people can contribute with their info on what types of OLEDs, size, color, controller, compatibility, wich they find or know about. There are a few popular pages where people here use to find displays, for example newhaven, crystalfontz and not least ebay. It would be interesting if we could gather as much sources for OLEDs (and LCD wich diserve to compete in some way hehe) as possible in one thread, and maybe it should end up in the wiki if there is enough info after a while, where it is easier to update and maintain. Let's see where this takes us! :)

If this thing is compatible with mbhp I will be ordering a bunch soon. They are not spendy at all... Wow.

EDIT: I deleted the old pics from the blog, and replaced them with lower resolution ones, so it doesn't take ages to load with internet speeds I take for granted :P hihi. Finally! :sorcerer: The case build has started! Keep in mind when looking at these pictures: The actual case is going to be cast with fibreglass, and this is only the wood model wich is gonna be used for making a mold. So this is a L O T of work! I have shot tons of pictures during the work, and some of them make it in here :thumbsup: : Drawing up some drafts with dimensions to bring with me to the workshop. Drawing up the bottom plate on a piece of 15mm plywood. A must have tool in a wood workshop - this has served my grandfather before me for many years! Another must have tool in a workshop - as the bandsaw, this has also served my grandfather for many years before me! Drawing currently in use on the wall with the ensemble of screwdrivers :). A must have tool for making stuff like this - for transfering angles. Angle transfered from one side to the other. The bottom panel under the bandsaw - yes I was already finished with it, I just had to shoot the pic of it there, because it looked cool. Sanding the sides. It isn't easy to cut to the final shape with the bandsaw, so, for not spending 10 minutes on each cut, I speed through it and sand it a little bit afterwards. Also, yet another must have tool - not only for acurate measurements (wich is not the case at all working with wood as u don't measure plywood in 1/10 of a millimeter anyway) but also great for transfering measurements quickly! A lesson in: How to cut plywood with a worn-down bandsaw blade? Short story: DON'T! Long story: My brother in law had used the bandsaw for cutting aluminum window shaders to size some days before, and left me with a totally distroyed blade. If I knew, I would have gotten a new one, but none of the shops who has them was open on saturday :angry: The "cable cave" on the back. AND - I had my head under my arm or something, because the first cave-frame wasn't high enough - fixed with yet another layer of plywood. Backside of the case taking form. Inside just thrown together - doesn't matter at all, since it's only support for the mold making process anyway! Setting up some support ribs inside. These also has the right angle for the front panel to just lay on top of them. This way I can easily make the sides and the rest of the case, without having to think about getting all the angles perfect before mounting the front panel plate. Front panel cut to shape - almost. The horn on the front is gonna have a steeper angle, see the 3D drawing. Here, the angle for the front panel is clearly showing. A carved out angle on the bottom front. Used one of those machines you sharpen knifes with to carve this out, and sanded it afterwards to final shape - in lack of a better tool I had to improvise! A final picture together with a lighter, so u guys can see the approx. size of the whole thing. Roughly 20x40x10cm. Hope you like it so far. Will post more pictures when I build more. No more work today on this, as this has taken me about 8 hours of work. A lot of sanding and making sure the 90 degree angles are correct - if they are not, the mold won't release from the model! Have a great evening / morning! Technobreath

Thanks, I think it's gonna look really badass.

The swinsids were supposed to emulate filters no? I thought that it was the lack of analog filters was taken care of firmware wise. I know little about swinsid in general, but it should be a direct working replacement with the limitation that u can't filter external audio, but the internal audio should be just as with the original, only fake hehehe. Where do I get a swinsid? I want to try one out... Or two... I also thought there was a midibox firmware specially aimed towards the use of swinsid. Maybe TK could answer these questions of yours...

Whats your psu specs? And if the female connector is bad - it shouldn't be - it might be wilba's domain to help u out with a new one... Also, measure the voltages with it stuffed with ICs might give u a hint if something is wrong somewhere. If psu current specs are too low, regulation may suffer, and u get bad voltage values... I should really get myself a sammich, because I know nothing about its circuitry other than what I know in general about mbhp circuits. What about the LCD, does it get the right voltage... There is different voltages to be put to use with different LCDs, but if u got it with the kit, I'm sure u have that under control. Sorry, can't help u with more specific info than this. Nils? Wilba? Hehe, one only need to cry out... Tbreath.

Kopla cool. I have no questions about using click track at gigs myself, as this would open up the possibilities of using different electronic music stuff like sequences and other cool stuff. Unfortunately the people I usually play with have no experience and training in counting when playing, even the lead singer and guitarist just shake their head when u speak musical theory like bars and stuff with them, wich left me to just give up on the whole thing. They are great at playing what they do, but if they have to count, u need to come up with custom methods of explaining how to do it to make em understand. Kinda frustrating for a keys player like myself who wants to use tempo synced sequences. That is impossible with them. In my younger days I used to play in a hi end brassband, lots of competitions and stuff wich we won a lot hehe, so I have a loads of training in playing, counting and listening and adapting to 15 musicians around me. So this might be a great idea for many people, both, people who unconsciously just count automatically, and for people like my friends in the band who doesn't feel it. With this they can see it ;-). I'm no big builder yet, have many midibox projects going but none finished up yet. But can your box be used standalone? Without a seq? I would like to build one, but I don't have any plans for a mbseq. I realize it is not very usefull if u don't sync it to an external source wich also control whatever u want to sync to the rest of the band, but it would be usefull even for gigs with no electronic music involved too. A metronome with such visible abilities could be used for everything from deciding start tempo for a song and show it to the whole band without audible click track, to count training for my buddies. The usual one-led handheld metronome won't cut it on stage if u need everyone to know what tempo u are at. Maybe a drummer could control it. The control surface is easy enough to design and build, but the programming I wouldn't know where to start with.... Any of this sound like a good idea? If this cam be realized - with both midi sync wich sounds simple enough - can use whatever midi track to control it, either it is a mbseq or cubase track - and also as a standalone metronome. Would require to write a program for it... This sounds in my ears somehow exciting hehe, and I would like to have a solution for that, but have no idea how to program it... Would also be cool to be able to store many songs on a bankstick - just find it in the menu with a encoder, and hit start. And midi sync can be used for more complex stuff, with songs changing beats etc. Jordan rudess comes to mind hehe. Somehow messy post, but scattered in here is a wish list for features I would like to have if this box was mine. If someone, or you program, I would gladly help design the physical parts of the box ;-). By the way, is it all in that box seen on the video? How is the possibilities for breaking out the visual indicators from the control circuitry? I'm thinking that maybe the LEDs could be placed somewhere everyone see them, and that for example the drummer can have the controls at his spot... Of course it is not a problem when it is midi synced only... Then u can place the whole thing whereever u want... Maybe it could be built with a midio app like yours, and a specialized metronome app running on another core, much like what you have now... But the control surface and program should be made in my case specifically as a metronome with capabilities like song / part / scene select, also tap tempo function and beat type selection. Maybe a kind of radio button style selection for the most normal beat types. Would be an awesome thing to have... Our biggest problem has always been a sloppy drummer who just put his finger in the air to feel the tempo before he starts or show the other people the tempo. So songs end up often with too great difference in tempo each time we play em, and usually too fast, wich makes the vocalists complain, and also gives the bass guitarist a hard time following bass riffs that are fast to begin with hehe. A metronome with memory for songs and a visual indication that everyone can see would solve a lot of these common problems!

Hi. Exciting project. And quite big also. I haven't taken the time to go through any of your specs and compare to shopping list, so I won't comment on that. What I can say is that one encoder wants two DIN connections. I don't remember the specifics by heart, but I think there are some limitations to how u connect encoders and buttons on the same mux chip, I think its something like if u have one encoder on the chip, you can't use the 6 others for buttons, I think u have to divide it into multiples of 4. May be that I am totally wrong, and I'm sure someone will correct me if that is so. I haven't got a great many hours of build experience with din modules, so take my statement for what it is hehe. Good luck!

Remember that resistors and pots also add noise to the circuit - higher value equals more noise. Not sure how much this means for your application though... Audio circuits is great fun, simple to do whatever u want. Me myself and I are atm designing a line mixer. Seems the biggest part of the job is to actually decide what components to use, as the design by itself is extremely non complicated ;-)

Just some general stuff: No. Current is not something that you squeeze into the circuit. you can use a 100 amp psu if u want to, the circuit won't demand more than it wants anyway... So says Ohm. Are u sure it's 12V? Not surprising if u had magic smoke release in the first place :D. Again, one would assume that u broke something when there has been magic smoke release... OK, seriously, I don't have very much spesific knowledge about the circuits of the sammichSID. But the thing is, if you wire everything correctly in the first place - and make sure the voltages are right - not assuming, but making sure, it will work without magic smoke. If voltages are too high at some component in there, it will damage it, and if u attemt to test more without correcting the first error, it will most likely cause more errors. So back to the first question, if the powersupply is too powerfull. Now that magic smoke release is a fact, simply swapping the powersupply won't fix the circuits that are welded or burned off... - as I said, swapping powersupply to another amp rating is not gonna do nothing in the first place at all, as long as the amp rating actually is high enough - if it is lower than required, regulation will fail or become unstable. Not enough current supplied = not high enough voltage. This is not magic :) but very logical, and if you study ohm's law, you will see why. As I said before, if u make sure 100% that everything is correctly set up in the first place u save a lot of time - if something fails, it will be 10 times the job to locate and correct the error. :)

The d connector is usually used for custom breakout stuff for example aout stuff - control voltage, and is not something u need to have if u just want the synth as is, and is not gonna control external stuff from it. Feedback pots are not either necessary, but it takes the audio output, and route it into the sid again. This is a mod and is not used either in the original mbsid design, but makes up for some nice variation of the original sound. Phat. The purpose of those now that u know it, might provide a alight hint on how to wire them too... Much info is gathered in the wiki also.

Yo! Just a short update. The usians finally came through, and sent me the cloth I ordered a long time ago. This is gonna be used for the front panel. Rest of the case is being cast in plain fibreglass. Colors for the case was originally green / black, but the cloth wich is gonna be cast in transparent epoxy, were not available in green, so it the theme changed to blue / black :). Thanks to www.compositeenvisions.com for delivering promptly - NOT. Well well, I got it in the end... Well here it is - a small teaser - Have a look and enjoy! Stay tuned for the case build soon! Tbreath

Daaark matta! Nice - love it.

@ smashtv. Hehe, u smashed that right in there. With the fine adjustment hammer even... What's the thing here? Is this a powersupply or just a twist on the regular psu circuitry on the standard PCBs?

Have u guys ever hooked a scope to this psu solution? Looks very interesting, if it doesnt make noise what so ever... Getting away with one transformer only is a nice thought...

A second core makes it more expensive yeah... But not by thaaat much. Other than that -> what nils said.

Sounds like you have it under control... But before u decide the outputs and switching them like that, read the manual for the sid v2, and see how that switching is done already. I am not sure myself, since I haven't yet finished mine yet.

The way it works, one core for each two sids. The sid v2 IIRC is supporting this, and this is the current version. Now, I'm no coder at all, but my best guess is that the sid app is so complex, and already some advanced coding skills have been in work to make it to the place we are at today. The obvious solution would be to use two cores in the same box, talking to eachother, so that u have one LCD, one control surface for both of them. Remember this thing u are building is modular, so u can do a completely working two sid version and when u get the funds, u can add on the second core and the third sid. Also when more money is available, u can buy a 4th sid and have dual stereo in the end. No need to spend a the money at once if u can't afford to do so. Obviously u need a sid board for each sid also. As for outputs, u can do whatever u like. If u have electronic design skills, u can make a simple signal mixer to blend the two first sids to a mono signal, but that is lame. After all, the firmware is built for stereo. When u add a third sid, this could have its own mono output, or u can make a mixer and a pan control to blend it right in there with the stereo signal from the other two. If u have no design skill in electronics, best and most economical way is to buy a small mixer. In the end no matter how u turn this around, you will have one mono output from each sid. It's just different how people treat it afterwards. Some feed a pair of mono signals to a stereojack. Wich does nothing else than spare u of using two mono jacks. If u only have two sids, if u look logically at it, u need a stereo input to feed it to, wich is either a mixer with a stereo channel strip or two mono strips, or straight into a stereo amp. The in-box mixer really becomes interesting to have when u have more than two sids, or if the amp u are using is mono only, in that case, get another amp hehe. A mono only system is not giving it synth enough room to play hehe. In case u wonder about mixing the signals from more than two sids in-box, to build that u need a potmeter for the pan control and a handful of resistors, pluss a couple of caps. Nothing really complicated about if u know how to build it... What im saying, it would be a very basic circuit, no magics at all, but u need to know those basics before u get there. I am working on some designs for just this case, but they are not ready yet, and I have no idea when, but if u google for audio mixing circuit, u can go with the passive variant, I'm sure u will find all u need if u are able to read and design from schematics... And one last word of wisdom, the info on the mbsid, what it is, what it is not, what it can do and don't, is all on ucapps.de. Oh, and welcome, and have fun! Don't worry about it taking time to build hehe. Give itself time to do it right the first time, and plan what u are doing, so u are not doing 10 things at once, that way u have a much better chance of success the first time. Searching for errors is more pain than making sure its right the first time.

Yo! Hehe, its by far not the ugliest I have seen hehe. I really like that LCD. What kind is it? I would like that one for my own stereo sid case! I was originally going with a black and green theme, so I purchased 2 lcd with green letters. But I changed my plan to a black and blue theme, because I wanted to cover the front of the synth with colored "carbon fibre cloth", and they were only available in blue, red and yellow, besides black and white, so blue it is. And that lcd seems very easy to read.

Hi, I get the idea u have on no LEDs, but personally I would want to have them, a lot of them. Easier when setting up stuff, and u don't need to have the plugin on screen when editing the common stuff. Of course, this is all up to u, but I would put some LEDs there. Not for all functions, but for the most common ones that u use, and that is common between the different plugins. For example, I, who use a lot of analog synth plugs, would like to have the status on LEDs for wich osc is active, what waveform is used etc... Stuff that is about the same on all of my plugs.

@ gilesjuk. PSU with positive and negative voltages aren't hard, it is basically the same as positive only, u just need it twice. One rail for + and one for -. And another transformer. Two outputs with centertap. I have several sort of finished designs, none wich I actually finished building yet, in my ammo clip. They are aimed at powering sid machines, but to change the design to support +/-12 and +5v only is just a matter of very small changes in the design, and would be slightly less complicated than my original schems too. I can post my schem drafts with docu if this is of any interest, just let me know.

Cool!