Sammich SID - 2 questions

[otto1]

First, just scrolling through and playing patches I've noticed my LED's aren't doing anything. Do I have to be in a special mode or is it an electronic issue?

Second, I can't find anything in the manual about changing the volume. Through headphones this is pretty F-ing loud but I can't find anywhere to change it.

[Wilba]

As the build guide suggests, switch to a Multi engine patch and play some notes, you should see LED bars showing as the engine cycles through each oscillator to play the notes.

If you don't see LEDs showing, then something is wrong. It might be hardware related. Check you've soldered everything correctly on the control surface PCB. Did you perform voltage tests on the control surface PCB? If they all passed, you can try testing the LEDs...

Take out the two 74HC595

Connect ground to one of pin 10-15 of IC3

Connect 5V to one of pin 10-16 of IC4

(connections can be done with a bit of thin wire like a cut resistor lead between pins of the IC socket)

One LED should light.

If it doesn't, the problem is in the soldering here, or the LEDs are backwards, or the resistors aren't soldered, etc.

Try that first, if the LEDs are good then you can work towards the PIC looking for shorts/breaks.

[otto1]

Ahh, sorry I missed the multi engine thing.

and the volume? I read the users manual on ucapps, searched the forum and found lots of people with low volume issues but I'm starting to think there is no volume control on these, correct me if I'm wrong?

[Wilba]

So does this mean the LEDs are working?

There's a volume control for the entire SID, it's in the CFG menu.

However, setting this lower actually increases the amount of digital noise on the SID. Don't ask me why.

You probably shouldn't be plugging headphones into the audio socket, but if you want some way to adjust the volume, you can just attenuate it with some resistors or potentiometers, or get a volume control cable.

http://www.amazon.com/Koss-155954-VC20-Volume-Control/dp/B00001P4XH

[TK.]

Btw.: with the setup_sammich_sid.hex file of the latest RC34 release, the LEDs should start to flicker ca. 2 seconds after startup for ca. 3 seconds

Best Regards, Thorsten.