glitched Posted May 5, 2009 Report Share Posted May 5, 2009 Hello:Thanks to the help I received from people on the midibox and electro-music diy boards, I have (nearly) completed my MBSID redux. (I say nearly because, although it is operational, I have ordered another SID board from Smash TV and will install a 6581 in it, soon.) This one doesn't have an official name yet.A little background:In 2007, I dove head-first into the MB SID project. With very little electronics knowledge, I was able to purchase the right components, create the optimized psu, and produce a functional synthesizer.My idea was to put the guts into an NES case; the bastard child of a Commodore 64 and Nintendo NES. I thought I did all the right things, including making a template and purchasing a Dremel, but I misjudged how difficult it would be to cut holes by hand with that tool. The result wasn't perfect, but somehow fit the lo-fi aesthetic.I had great fun making tunes with the "NES_SID", but didn't like looking at it much, kinda like the Beatles didn't like looking at Pete Best.After some research, I decided that the "standard" PT-10 case would be perfect, but I wanted the front panel to be my own. I did like Wilba's design, but there's just too much going on for me. All I needed was a basic control surface.From there, it was "simply" a matter of measuring my control elements and plotting them in Front Panel Designer. (This part was aided by several helpful people on the aforementioned boards.) I was really nervous about sending the final .fpd to FPE because I had never done this before, but I bit the bullet and in a few (long) weeks, I had my front panel.It was perfect. I mean, this was amazing to me--I had actually done everything right! What made me happier is that it only cost me $30 because of the minimal design.What about the back panel? Well, as luck would have it, I had a spare set of acrylic panels from an x0xb0x project that I eventually completed, got tired of, and sold. It's perfect as well. Well...almost perfect. Aside from its fragility, it has the perfect size and number of holes for my inputs and outputs.Finally, although I love the minimal look, I may add graphics in the future; however, I've been reading up on some of the issues you guys have had and am not sure I want to dive into that with this project.By the way, after listening to the filter capacitor experiments, I opted to change my .068uf capacitors to two .01uf caps (one WIMA 5%, the other Xicon 2%, just for the heck of it). The sound is very smooth on the low end, but the resonance is less prominent. There is much less distortion, which I like.Some pics (see the rest at: http://drop.io/mbsidv2): Thanks again!Regards,-d Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stryd_one Posted May 5, 2009 Report Share Posted May 5, 2009 Nice :) I like the minimal unmarked face... kinda reminds me of that black PC keyboard...--> MBOTW Forum ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
puddingbrumsel Posted May 5, 2009 Report Share Posted May 5, 2009 i love the minimal look ... real nice one. The frontplate made by schaeffer ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glitched Posted May 5, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 5, 2009 Wow, I appreciate the honor of being MBOTW!I'm very happy with the minimal look, but regretted putting those screws on the front, at first. I now like them on there because it makes it look like a secret military device or something. Hum...maybe that's what I should call it! SMD - Secret Military Device! We'll see...Anyway, the front panel was made by Front Panel Express (frontpanelexpress.com), which is the sister company of Schaeffer. I can vouch for the quality of their craftsmanship. Everything was spot-on. It takes a while, but if you can wait 2 weeks, it's worth it.Thanks again!Here's another shot of the front (I need a better camera): Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fussylizard Posted May 7, 2009 Report Share Posted May 7, 2009 Nice! Can't wait to finish mine! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glitched Posted May 9, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 9, 2009 A couple notes:Acrylic backpanel pros/cons:PROs+ Cool looking!+ Uh...not un-cool looking!CONs-Fragile!-Weak!-Breaks easily!I have already broken a corner of the back panel. Although a dab of superglue fixed it, it's not perfect. I broke it when I was taking the top off; I wasn't even exerting any major force and, "craaaaack."Also, one has to be very careful when plugging/unplugging leads. You can see the acrylic bend as you do it--it does not give you a great deal of confidence in the strength of the material! Anyway, I just had the back panel laying around, so that's why I used it. Just be careful, that's all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smithy Posted May 10, 2009 Report Share Posted May 10, 2009 I am once again suprised how good an lcd can look with a few trimpot tweaks compared to sample pics from a manufacturer. I keep forgetting this, and the samples pics are really off putting because the characters look so dull against the background:Your LCD's characters look really nice and bright white, instead of dull and yellowish like in the pic above.They should use pics like yours to advertise them!I agree on the minimal look, its very sleek! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stryd_one Posted May 15, 2009 Report Share Posted May 15, 2009 Your LCD's characters look really nice and bright white, instead of dull and yellowish like in the pic above.They should use pics like yours to advertise them!His LCD is actually not correctly adjusted for brightness/contrast, see how dark the squares are in the background? That's why they don't look like they do in that CF pic, and why marketing shots don't look like that - if the LCD looked like that when set to 'default' levels, it would not adjust well, you'd be advertising a flawed component...At least CF used a real photo and not shopped text+colour on top of a pic of a powered-off LCD :) (Why do so many places do that >:( ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smithy Posted May 20, 2009 Report Share Posted May 20, 2009 His LCD is actually not correctly adjusted for brightness/contrast, see how dark the squares are in the background? Yeah i see that, but the forecolour just looks so much better than the one in the CF pic, id almost prefer to see the squares rather than have a dull forecolour! :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glitched Posted May 20, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 20, 2009 The LCD actually looks closer to this, when properly adjusted (see attached).Actually, it looks a lot better than that in real life, but I can't get the right settings on my camera!100_0818 (Large).JPG100_0818 (Large).JPG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stryd_one Posted May 29, 2009 Report Share Posted May 29, 2009 A good demonstration - notice that in comparison to that, the CF pic has the backlight a bit brighter, which reduces contrast with the lettering, which means the lettering does not look as bright... Yep, CF didn't adjust their display perfectly either ;)Edit: or, the one-sided backlighting on the CF means that it needs to be that bright...Actually, it looks a lot better than that in real life, but I can't get the right settings on my camera!Probably not your fault - some cameras have 'polarised' lenses so that they can help with lighting, and that makes it impossible to get perfect shots of LCDs... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lylehaze Posted June 16, 2009 Report Share Posted June 16, 2009 Nice project.. looks great.My question: Where did you get the knob?I have a single encoder that needs a knob just like that one, instead of the basic bright-aluminum one it has now. (or is that aluminium?)Thanks,LyleHaze Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glitched Posted July 29, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 29, 2009 Nice project.. looks great.My question: Where did you get the knob?I have a single encoder that needs a knob just like that one, instead of the basic bright-aluminum one it has now. (or is that aluminium?)Thanks,LyleHazeThanks.The knob was taken from a fully-operational Alesis Midiverb IV unit. One day, I was searching for a case to put my MBSID in, and the Midiverb was the unfortunate victim. I never used the racked case, but found that the knob fit the "D shaft" encoder, perfectly. I also toyed around with taking one of those giant Sony volume knobs and putting it on there, but it just looked silly.I have no idea where you could get a knob like the one on the Alesis (but there are tons of used MV's on ebay). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Labelwhore Posted July 29, 2009 Report Share Posted July 29, 2009 I have no idea where you could get a knob like the one on the Alesis (but there are tons of used MV's on ebay).You could probably just call Alesis, and say you need a replacement. Not the cheapest option I'm sure, but I bet it'd work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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