Juggle

No Formlabs here, just the "Cheap" MSLA's - the translucent switches and the grey were done on a Phrozen Sonic mini, and the blue were done on an Elegoo Mars Pro. They both have almost identical print quality but the phrozen has a more efficient LCD so it can print a little bit faster. I've also found it to be a little more reliable despite the Elegoo feeling like a higher quality machine out of the box. The caps can print vertically right on the bed, it's a bit over an hour to print 15 of them that way. But these were all done tilted 30 degrees in two directions and then supported 5mm off the bed...so they take a bit over 2 hours to do 15. The tops come out a bit smoother printed this way since X/Y resolution is finer than the Z so the curve of the button top comes out nicer. It's a minor difference and really hard to show in the photos (the shot of 6 translucent caps tries to show the difference. The top row were printed tilted, the bottom row was printed vertical.) Printing them on supports is a bit slower and means more post processing...but it's worth it for them to feel nicer under my fingers :D

Oh, and if anyone is interested I'm more than happy to share the files for the panel and 3D printed parts as well as to give more details on any of them!

I actually started building this back when the sequencer was at v2. But rather quickly decided I didn't have the budget to pay for all the components at the time so set my initial parts off to the side. 3 years ago my wife got me the PCB for the front panel for Christmas and a few months later for my birthday I got myself the rest of the components I needed. Though I was still planning on making the front panel myself with my CNC. And the only endmills I had on hand were 3mm so square switch caps weren't going to work. I wound up designing my own switch caps and printing them on my 3D printer - but was never very happy with them. My FDM printer just didn't have the resolution to do what I wanted. I tried printing them in ABS and vapor smoothing them...but they were just too inconsistent for my liking. They worked though...so I lived with them: You can see in the closeup photo - they just kind of came out too lumpy for my taste. But it worked. I printed up some simple brackets that snapped into the rack mounts and ran with it. Unfortunately I then found that my MBSID had developed some kind of issue and I now no longer had a functioning hardware synth to control with it. (Still trying to debug the SID - just hasn't been a high priority.) Then this year for my birthday I got a Behringer Neutron and started finally having some fun with hardware again. I had bought the neutron in hopes that it's patchbay would sate my interest in modular synths - but instead it had the opposite effect and near the end of this summer I decided to start building a modular synth. The modular is still a work in progress - but I added an aout_ng in the synth and have started to really enjoy the sequencer finally. Only - with the addition of the aout USB power was no longer sufficient. And I had never really mounted the boards - they just kind of dangled behind the panel. So I decided it was time to "finish" the sequencer more properly and add a 5v power supply, mount the boards, and enclose the whole thing. First step was to dig out my CAD model from when I made my panel and start modeling up what I had in mind. I had to make it a bit deeper than I was hoping to make room for the MIDI boards on top - but I really didn't want them hidden in the back either so I decided I could live with the compromise. I printed out the new side supports and cut a piece of MDF for the base. Already this was a big improvement and the whole thing felt more stable and sturdy! I added some heat set inserts so I could remove the top and back easily without damaging plastic threads. I also added some threaded inserts to mount the core and line driver modules. The power was a bit trickier. I didn't want the power cord coming out of a side...but I didn't want it slanted like the back either. So I designed and printed a plastic piece to hold a switch/fuse/jack combo - and I'm quite happy with how that worked out. It's very easy to find with my fingers reaching around from the front without having to look. And with it's own meanwell 5v supply I don't have to worry about voltage dips. With the sequencer now much more mechanically stable I figured I needed to step up on the caps/knobs. Earlier in the summer I had invested in a SLA printer since I needed custom concentric knobs for a different project and was unable to find any commercially that I was happy with (at least in quantities that made sense for me!) So I printed up a new set of caps in translucent resin. I also designed some new knobs...they're a bit taller and more tapered than the ones I had made previously and feel a lot better to my fingers. It was now looking and feeling a LOT better! The SLA printer made much more accurate switch caps and knobs that feel more professional as well as looking more professional. But...I'm still not quite happy. I don't care for the translucent green...and I still need to come up with a better way to label the switches. So with the detail of the SLA printer I figured - why not try embossing the labels right into the switch caps? They came out better than I had hoped! The text is nice and legible...and with a lacquer-stik I was able to fill them for a nice finished look. Even cramming some of the longer labels like "transpose" in there was possible with a nice narrow but legible font. But I wasn't happy with the boring grey. So I started experimenting with adding epoxy dyes to the resin and was able to get some different colors. They're a bit more muted than I'd like but better than grey. Though - having to individualize each cap is a bit tedious! Still not quite done...but getting closer. I need to make some changes to the sides - I want to add finger grips since I've found it's nice to grab and carry that way. I also need to add something to keep fingers from going all the way in the sides - especially now that there's 110v fairly close on one side. And I need to revise my power mount so it has a flange for the back panel to mount on. Just...now that it's so much nicer to use I'm finally spending more time using it than building it so progress is slowing :D I'm still a bit confused about some functionality though. I'm trying to set it up to play a pattern through CV1 and pass MIDI from a keyboard through to CV2 - but no matter what I do I keep getting the MIDI from the keyboard on CV1. There's probably something simple I'm overlooking but the config seems basic enough from my read of the docs. I have track on set to use CV1 Chn. 1 and as expected it plays on CV1 like I want. But when I go into the MIDI router and set IN1 #1 to go to CV1 Chn #2 - it still comes out on CV1. I've confirmed I can change track 1 to use CV1 Chn. 2 and it comes out of CV2 like I expect...but the midi router just doesn't seem to be doing what I think I have it configured to. Getting close to asking for help figuring this out...but not quite ready to admit defeat yet ;) Anyway - just wanted to say thanks to Thorsen, Wilba, and everyone else who's contributed for the amazing work that made it possible for me to build this so far. I figured it's finally complete enough to share and hopefully help inspire some other builders!

Both my original and replacement came from Mouser....so most likely it was my own poor ESD precautions or mishandling that did it in.

It's alive! Thanks @TK. for the debugging suggestions. Got my new DAC today over lunch and quickly swapped it in and confirmed the sequencer was able to generate CV outputs! Looks like tonight I'll have to wire up the other 4 jacks and get them all adjusted. And then get a DOUT connected up for some gates. Should have a fun noisy weekend ahead of me!

Realized too late I probably should have posted this in the Testing/Troubleshooting category, but forgot about it until after I had posted. Whoops. Thanks for the feedback TK. Been through all of those and it looks like the voltage isn't changing at the DAC outputs so I'm pretty sure at this point that the problem is the DAC. Went ahead and ordered a replacement, now just waiting on delivery since apparently I used up my mail services quota for the month or something and instead of the usual two days from DigiKey the USPS has decided to send it by donkey or something since it's going to be a full week :( Will check back in after Friday when the replacement comes and hopefully gets this working!

Oh, and forgot to mention that I did set it to AOUT_NG in the CV outputs menu as well.

Been having enough fun with the seqv4 I built 2 years ago that I wound up buying a Neutron to try semi-modular which in turn led to me starting to build a full modular system. I had bought an aout_ng board from modular addict when I bought the boards for my seqv4 but since I didn't have anything that used CV at the time it just sat in a box. Now that I have enough of a modular together to start doing something with I'm really wanting some CV out on my sequencer so ordered up the bits and built the aout_ng board and ordered a set of line driver boards which I built up so I can put the outputs in modules. I'm mostly building my modular on the cheap with stripboard circuits and 3D printing panels, so that's the approach I took for my CV outputs as well. The push buttons are to select normal/bi-polar but for now I just have jumpers for normal to start simple. I've also only wired up the first 4 outputs to jacks so far. I'm pulling +/-12v off my modular power supply and have confirmed +/-12v on the appropriate pins of the TL074's. Note - I used JST-XH connectors for power and J1 so I couldn't mess up and hook anything important up backwards. I had been powering the sequencer over USB...but found with the line drivers connected the current draw was more than the Disco's regulator could handle and my LCD's would loose contrast so I switched to my lab supply at 5v and now things seem to run much smoother and the LCD's look better across the board. I also make a mistake on my J19 jumper from the STM32 to the line driver TX and initially had one of the connectors backwards. I figured that out and fixed it...and it seems the line drivers have survived as I've been able to use the testaoutpin in mios studio to confirm that the line drivers appear to be functioning. Though I'm a little confused as the help for testaoutpin says it will set the pins to 4v but when I run the command it says it's setting it to 5v. Measuring right at J1 I see about 3.7v - 3.8v though...sometimes I do see 4v. Measuring at the DAC I see about .2v less than what I read at J1 but I do see the voltage change with testaoutpin commands. But I only see 0.033v or less out on the outputs whether I use the caliaout command through studio or if I use the menus on the sequencer. And changing the trimpot makes almost no difference. I haven't tried wiring up a DOUT yet ... I still have a few old ones (R2's) from smashTV that I never built that have been patiently waiting almost 15 years for me to use them...so I did solder one up tonight (I'm going to want some gates anyway!) but won't have time to wire it up until tomorrow. And I'm half tempted to just order some new R6 boards anyway since I like the jacketed 10 pin connectors more than the old pin headers :) Did I damage something when I had the reversed connector on J19? It seems like the DAC may not be working...I haven't looked closely at the schematics yet but it doesn't seem likely that that would have fried the DAC. Seems more like it would have damaged the line driver chips if anything. And In fact I ordered replacement line driver chips just in case since initially I thought I had done just that. - though now they appear to be functioning and I'm wishing I had ordered a new DAC instead. Photos of just about anything releveant I can think of attached. Note - what looks like it could be bridges between pins 12-14 of the DAC are just reflections on the flux residue. I've checked it under a magnifier and there are definitely no bridges on there. Am I missing something that should be obvious...or even something less obvious? Or do I need to order a new TLV5630 at this point and break out the hot air station?

I thought it was just me :) For some reason I have to keep resetting my password every time I login - but the past week or two I haven't been getting the reset e-mails. This this morning suddenly a dozen of them came in at once! Still not sure what's up with my password. I use a password manager and have also tried cutting and pasting it from a text file to make sure I'm entering it the same way when creating it as when trying to login...but it still doesn't recognize it when I return and I have to do the lost password thing again every time :(

Woo Hoo! Looks like that solved it. I hate it when projects drag on this long due to waiting on parts :P Looks like I flashed it back in mid to late November probably with "midibox_seq_v4_094" But once I finished assembling it I grabbed the hwcfg file out of SVN. But...I don't see any changes in the config file between the version of the sequencer fw I just downloaded and the version I had on my drive from November...Not sure what I did with the version I've been working with...just overwrote it with the version from the fw package. But it appears to be working! Now to go finish cooking and eating Easter dinner so I can work on adding some LED's...and then try to figure out what's up with my old PIC based core's so I can get my SID and FM synths going again so I can really test this out :D Thanks for the ideas and help everyone! Oh and Phatline in case you want to see it here's your test program up and going which led me to question the software side instead of hardware!

Ok, this gives me some hope. Video of the test is uploading...but every button and encoder registered some response with your test code. I'm wondering if maybe I missed a release or something and had a mismatched config file for the release I flashed...going to try re-flashing the seq code and uploading a fresh config file. Crossing my fingers....

Hmm, does that apply to the Core_STM32F4? Looks like it's on an older revision of the Core32. On the F4 the array is R33 and I didn't see any notes about leaving it out in the assembly instructions. I've left the LED's out since getting them at the right height is tricky and I'm still finalizing my panel. I'm cutting my own panel with a homemade CNC I built - Due to the selection of bits I have the smallest radius ID I can do is 3mm right now (I have some smaller bits on order) so I redrew the panel with 3mm radius corners instead off right angles - and then 3D printed and vapor smoothed custom caps to match. I'm also still debating what material I'm going to use for the final panel so I'm not quite ready to mount the LED's yet. And Hawkeye's build thread for the SeqV4 with wilba panel specifically mentions testing the switches before installing LED's. (or encoders...but since I was waiting on my LCD's I went ahead and installed the encoders as well - except for the central one which again is waiting on final panel decisions. I originally thought it might be an SD issue as I did see a bunch of messages about the SD on the LCD's when it was freaking out - but with the CS disconnected the core seems fine by itself. Working through MISOstudio I can load/edit/save the config file no problem and all of the command line stuff I've tried seems to work as expected. That said...there is one are of concern I do have with my core. I had previously used this Discovery board in a quadcopter with a custom made IMU and slightly modified TauLabs firmware - but retired it about two years ago when the TaulLabs project was forked and getting the new fork (dRonin) running on my FlyingF4 we discovered some issues with the Discovery F4 and that application that led us to decide to drop support for it. (And while I'm thinking of it yes I did upgrade the firmware on the Discovery board - it was actually already upgraded before I started on the SEQ but I confirmed it just to be sure.) Anyway - when I was building the quadcopter I ordered some machined headers for mounting the Discovery...but the discovery's pins didn't fit in them and I wound up ordering some other headers to use. When I assembled the Core I forgot about that - found the machined headers in my parts bin and installed them - only later to realize the Discovery won't go in. So I dug out the old headers I had used to mount it on the quadcopter (benefit of being a packrat) but the idea of desoldering 80 machined pins seemed like a great way to kill my Core PCB. So instead I double stacked the headers - the Discovery plugs into the headers that fit..and the pins of those headers are plugged into the machined headers on the Core (since they did fit.) It's a bit tall and ugly...but should be ok. I checked continuity off the top of the Discovery and bottom of the Core after doing it and all seemed well...but I mention it just in case.

I started to try that. I didn't trace the circuit yet to confirm which are in the circuit first - but after I had them all out I tried just putting U1 back in by itself and saw signs of the same problem. I checked everything I could think of around U1 but nothing was jumping out at me.

Thanks for the feedback guys. But the resistor networks look correct to me: I can't see the markings on the ones on the other side to confirm...but...if I could see the markings they'd be backwards so not seeing them is basically confirming that they're installed the right way around. These are the networks I used: https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/264-10K-RC Which as far as I can tell are the same ones specified in the parts list. I triple checked the soldering on them and there's no missed connections and they all look like clean joints. So as far as I can tell they're the right networks, installed the right way, and properly soldered. Any thoughts how to debug from here?

I've been working on a SeqV4 with wilba panel since this past December. The last parts I was waiting on (my LCD's) finally arrived this week and I was excited to get it finished this weekend. However once I hooked up the LCD's and connected the CS I found that something is definitely not right. What I'm experiencing is VERY similar to what was described in this thread: However I only have the STM32F4 core and CS along with the two LCD's wired up. And I did connect the CS on the rear not the top. I still suspect I may have a mistake in how the CS and Core are connected though as I keep getting mixed up front/back top/bottom trying to think the connection through. Quick overview: I checked all the Resistor array's and they all look correct: I don't have any LED's mounted yet, and confirmed that U7 and U8 are 74HC595's while 1-6 are 74HC165 and they're all installed fully and in the correct direction. If I power up the Core/LCD's without the CS connected it seems fine. But if I power it up with the CS connected the LCD's freak out big time and keep flipping through all kinds of different stuff. Connected to MIOS I see a bunch of things being triggered like in the other post. If I turn the first encoder (on the far left) it will trigger a bunch like this: All the way up to pin 143 If I pull out the shift registers it doesn't go crazy...but...obviously none of the buttons/encoders work either. I've checked over the board several times and don't see anything obviously wrong, no missing solder connections, no bridges, no missing parts other than the central encoder I haven't installed yet and the LED's. I kind of suspect that SI and SO are backwards as it seems that SI is connected to SI and SO to SO and saw a reference in another thread suggesting they should be connected SI to SO and SO to SI...but can't for the life of me figure out how to mount the header to allow that. Oh, and yes I do have the wilba config file loaded...this one: http://svnmios.midibox.org/filedetails.php?repname=svn.mios32&path=%2Ftrunk%2Fapps%2Fsequencers%2Fmidibox_seq_v4%2Fhwcfg%2Fwilba%2FMBSEQ_HW.V4 Really appreciate any advice or help. I figure there's probably something obvious I've messed up and keep overlooking.

Loving it! I really need to spent a bit more time figuring out what exactly I killed on my SID so I can get back to working on the CS for it instead :)

In close to the same boat myself: Though I don't still have any computers old enough to use my old parallel port programmer. And I'm just trying to get a new enough version of MIOS on my 18F452's that MIOS studio will recognize them. I do have a pickit 3 though and it seems to flash and verify...but I get nothing out of it after :( Not even the MIDI data like you're seeing (even though I was getting it before trying to re-flash.) I can help a tiny bit....This page: http://www.ucapps.de/mios_bootstrap_experts.html Has a diagram from TK on how to wire the pickit to the PIC: http://www.ucapps.de/mbhp/pickit_dip40_adapter_board.pdf Hope you have better luck than I've had the past week with my pickit. If you do get yours working I'd love to hear how - or just send you my pic's to re-flash since you're only a few states away ;)

Thanks, I saw that thread and read through it several times. I know my board was working before I tried to reflash the PIC - I spent an afternoon playing with the SID before trying to do the update :) But after trying to flash nothing. Even the software loopback which worked for that poster isn't working for me (even though I get no errors flashing it and the programmer says it verifies.) None of the wiring has changed - but I popped one of the other PIC's in just to be sure and I still see a MIDI message come across as soon as I power it up with one of my old PIC's. I haven't found a way to change the configuration bits settings as mentioned in that post...that is the one thing I can think of I could still dig deeper for.

Should be supported, I can't find a full list of all chips supported by the pickit3 but the docs do say all 18F devices are supported for "Programming on the go" (where the hex file is pre-loaded into the programmer allowing the programmer to be used by itself - neat trick I didn't realize it could do.) so they should be supported for normal programming as well. Also forgot to mention I tried using both the full mplab IDE and the IPE programming tool - on both mac and pc with external power. Both allowed me to select the 18F452 as the device and when programming check and confirmed that the device ID matched as expected.

Thanks, it's the programmer that's really giving me an issue right now but I appreciate any guidance. Yes, that comment in the readme was why I contacted TK directly. These boards are running really old releases. The bootloader is outdated and just upgrading within mios studio isn't possible - that's what I had done previously (12 years ago) when I built these. I missed the 1.8 update however which from what I've been able to dig up appears to be when the bootloader changed and which was a somewhat more involved update as a result (since it had to update the bootloader as well.) The upgrade paths from this far back are ugly and complex so TK said he'd rather assist them individually than write up all the options. I'm assuming there is a path for those who don't have a programmer, but since I do the method TK suggested to me was reburning the chips. I also realize that SID V2 won't go on here...however there is a newer build of SID V1 than what I was running and I was on mios 1.7 (I don't have LCD's wired up to the other cores right now, but they're probably on the same release.) So I had been hoping to at least update it to a more recent MIOS so mios studio would recognize it again and if there were any bug fixes or features gained even better. I do plan on upgrading one of these cores to a PIC18F4685 but want to sort out my programming problem before getting any new chips. I'm not opposed to buying a pre-burned chip (Note all 4 of my current ones were pre-burned by smash_tv - even though I had two PIC programmers at the time and was using them more regularly.) Unfortunately right now I only have 2 SID boards and 3 SID chips (though one is a 6581 and the other two 6580's or maybe it's the other way around I get numbers mixed up easily.) I'm happy with a 2 SID setup for now. Someday I'll run across another SID and build up boards to bring it up to 4...but for now I'd be quite happy to have 1 going again and hope to have 2 going not too long after. That's part of why I'm posting. I've searched through the forums but haven't seen any recent posts by anyone in the US offering to burn chips since smash_tv retired. I order from overseas fairly often but would rather not deal with shipping them over an ocean when I've got a programmer sitting right here. If someone closer to me offers I'd probably consider since it wouldn't be as bad of a wait as dealing with someone out of country. Though...since I have a pickit3 Ideally I'd like to just take care of it without dealing with the post office at all. I had meant to mention in my original post that I'm in the US ( SW corner of AZ ) and open to this possibility. Just forgot to include it. The bootloader was on it (and still is on the other 3) but it's an older bootloader (probably 1.1b based on the stickers on them since I don't remember ever doing a bootloader update) so mios studio didn't recognize it even though I was getting MIDI messages to and from it. Now it's not doing anything after by burning attempt :( But the other 3 are still starting up and spit out a message or two when powered up.

I built a MIDIBox SID V1 back in 2005 and got it working. I also built a MIDIBox FM but never got as far as even powering it up, and I bought parts for an early revision of the sequencer but didn't get anywhere with that. I ended up not having the budget for cases, panels and knobs - and my keyboard only has USB MIDI so I have to route things through my computer to use any of this and it was just too big of a hassle at the time and life got in the way of making it better. Now a few years later I've built a CNC machine and 3D printer for myself so knobs, cases and panels are all things I can do in-house :) I also saw the sequencer is now running on a STM32F4 Disco board an I even happen to have the right one on hand. Sweet! So I'm looking to blow the dust off what I have and get some stuff working and to build a Sequencer V4 finally. I've already got my disco board running the seq software and my wilba PCB and Core32 PCB showed up yesterday - and my components for them should be here tonight so that's progressing well. Updating the older stuff...I'm not having as much luck with :( I started with the SID. First I hooked it up and spent an afternoon playing with it just confirming it still works :) Then decided to update. I have 4 core boards currently, all with bootloader 1.1c (according to the stickers from Smash) and MIOS 1.5 based on what the LCD showed as the SID would boot. 1) In the SID - was working but see below 2) With the FM - may or may not have the FM code on it already - but is old enough MIOS studio doesn't recognize it - but I do see MIDI messages when I connect it. 3) Was for a second SID no clue what's flashed on it, powers up and I see MIDI messages but MIOS studio doesn't recognize it. 4) Was for a sequencer but that's moved on to bigger core's :) So this is now a spare. They all have the PIC18F452 as far as I know. I only peeled the label off the one in the SID to confirm. The latest MIOS says when updating something this old to contact TK directly - which I did and he was very helpful suggesting that since I have a pickit3 my best bet would be to use a special bit of code to reset the ID and then just flash the new bootloader from the latest package. Which I tried on the PIC from the SID. It seemed to work. I had to use external 5v to power it because the internal wasn't able to create enough voltage (I tried direct USB ports, powered hub and non powered hub on both mac and pc with no luck so stuck with external.) With external 5v applied the programmer doesn't complain and appears to program. I also tried doing a verify and it came back as good (I also tried loading a different .hex and hitting verify to confirm it's actually verifying - and that did fail as expected.) But when I put the PIC back into the core and power it up - I just get black squares on my LCD and nothing on MIDI :( So I'm hesitant to try and upgrade the other 3 core PIC's...but one is essentially a spare now and the 4th will be a spare if I upgrade this core to a PIC18F4685 so I can run the latest SID V2 which apparently can now handle 2 SID's from one core. But I'm also hesitant to order a PIC18F4685 since I'm having such a bad go of flashing here. I've tried the software implemented loopback test on the MIDI debugging page and don't have any luck with it either - even though this board was working before I tried re-burning the PIC. Attached are photos of the setup I'm using for flashing. Orange wire is PIN1 with the arrow on the PICkit which should be MCLR so my wiring should match: http://www.ucapps.de/mbhp/pickit_dip40_adapter_board.pdf Also a photo of the #2 core (the contrast pot has been modified since my LCD's need a negative contrast voltage IIRC.) Anyone have any thoughts on what I'm doing wrong? Would love to get these core's updated and finish up the control surface for the SID and finally get the OPL3 going after all these years. Especially if I get this sequencer built ;)