m00dawg Posted April 20, 2011 Report Posted April 20, 2011 Well it took two late nights but my sammichFM now powers up and shows Ready! I'll be trying to load the firmware today, though I haven't been brave enough to supply power to the FM chips just yet. Wilba, you did a fantastic job with the kit! It has all the wonderful details that made building it fun and even relaxing. The little things, like having the header pins snap-in (which meant I didn't have to take the header down, tack it, then burn my finger while trying to adjust it so it's vertical) and having snap-in sockets. Very cool, and the LCD looks sexah too! Quote
Ixox Posted April 21, 2011 Report Posted April 21, 2011 WOW... Impressive.. Congratulation for this beautifull little box. I'll definitely have to order one... maybe next month. I'm surprised to read in the feature list: "4 simultaneous instruments of 6 voice polyphony each, plus drum kit. Each voice is a 4 operator waveform." That makes 24 voices of 4 operators + drum kit ?? That sounds much more than in the opl3 spec: "6 four operators melody sounds + 3 two operators melody sonds + 5 rythm sound". Did i miss something ? Thanks, Xavier Quote
Wilba Posted April 21, 2011 Author Report Posted April 21, 2011 No, you're right... I'm paraphrasing TK's MIDIbox FM specifications here: http://www.ucapps.de/midibox_fm.html Maybe it should be written as "4 simultaneous instruments of up to 6 voice polyphony each, plus drum kit. Each voice is a 4 operator waveform." Or you can propose an alternative. Quote
Ixox Posted April 21, 2011 Report Posted April 21, 2011 OK. thanks for the clarification :-) Maybe something like : "6 four operator voices played by 4 simultaneous different instruments plus drum kit." Xavier Quote
trilader Posted May 7, 2011 Report Posted May 7, 2011 (edited) I think there is an error in the voltage testing picture (the one with the colored dots) for the base PCB. Pin 2 of IC9 (2nd from the top on the left row) is connected to GND and not +5V. I noticed that during the voltage/continuity testing phase and looked it up in the PCB layout PDF. Regards trilader Edited May 7, 2011 by trilader Quote
m00dawg Posted May 7, 2011 Report Posted May 7, 2011 Are you using the 1.0 version of the build guide? I believe that issue has been fixed in that version? Quote
Wilba Posted May 8, 2011 Author Report Posted May 8, 2011 I emailed the link to the v1.0 build guide but forgot to update the link in the wiki. Fixed now. Also, until the build guide is updated again, I recommend MIDIbox FM v1.4c which fixes issues with short notes for drum sounds. http://www.ucapps.de/mios/midibox_fm_v1_4c.zip Quote
fussylizard Posted May 8, 2011 Report Posted May 8, 2011 Crikey! I slack for a few months and come back and Wilba's gone and designed a whole new project. Beautiful job as always! Quote
trilader Posted May 8, 2011 Report Posted May 8, 2011 Ok, no problem then. I was on my desktop and didn't look at the version number. Quote
kristal= Posted May 25, 2011 Report Posted May 25, 2011 Maybe a potential PSU candidate for the sammichFM? http://www.pollin.de/shop/dt/MjA3OTQ2OTk-/Stromversorgung/Netzgeraete/Steckernetzgeraete/Steckernetzteil.html Reichelt doesn't carry suitable PSUs, at least I haven't found one. Quote
m00dawg Posted May 25, 2011 Report Posted May 25, 2011 That looks like a switched PSU to me (though I'm having Google Translate fail). You'd want a linear regulated PSU as the best option typically. Switchmode will work, but can induce noise (and usually causes a big flame-war here on the forums about half the time it's mentioned :) ) Quote
Hawkeye Posted May 25, 2011 Report Posted May 25, 2011 Also quite often, voltage-switchable psus like the one you mentioned do provide the maximum current (1A from specs) only at the lower voltage settings. Quote
kristal= Posted May 25, 2011 Report Posted May 25, 2011 @m00dawg: Well, the description says "stabilisiert" i.e. "stabilized", which to me indicates that it's a transformer based psu. Do switch-mode PSUs need to be stabilized? Probably not. But I'm not sure about this. The product description is quite poor. @Hawkeye: The sammichFM draws about 200mA according to the sammichFM building guide. If 1A is provided only in the lower voltage range, I guess at least 200mA should be provided at 9V. But still guessing... @all: Any recommendations for a transformer based (linear) power supply here in Germany/Europe? :clover: Quote
Imp Posted May 26, 2011 Report Posted May 26, 2011 Don't you guys have local fleamarkets? There are lots of those PSUs available round here... Quote
Hawkeye Posted May 26, 2011 Report Posted May 26, 2011 Regarding a linear psu, you can also build them yourself (but be careful with the high voltages) for low credits. http://sound.westhost.com/power-supplies.htm for an overview Coils are available at Reichelt "Flachtransformatoren" for 5-8€ a piece. Linear PSUs are difficult to get (or expensive, 80€+), because they are considered special nowadays, switching PSUs normally do the job more efficiently (albeit for a few audio audio people who hear ´em :-)). Quote
kristal= Posted May 26, 2011 Report Posted May 26, 2011 (edited) @imp: We sure have, but I'm too lazy to visit one. Why leave the house if the mailman can bring me one ^_^ @Hawkeye: You have a great DIY-attitude :-) But with my experience, I will likely blow the sFM into pieces instead of powering her. Therefore I will stick with my switch-mode PSU first and see if induced noise will occur. If so, I'll try the Pollin PSU and report on the forum. Edited May 26, 2011 by kristal= Quote
talon Posted May 26, 2011 Report Posted May 26, 2011 Try looking at the Boss guitar pedal range of PSU's, no doubt you'll find one to match. Quote
Wilba Posted May 26, 2011 Author Report Posted May 26, 2011 I recently discovered a 9V DC 300mA plugpack worked perfectly. Quote
m00dawg Posted May 26, 2011 Report Posted May 26, 2011 Regarding a linear psu, you can also build them yourself (but be careful with the high voltages) for low credits. http://sound.westhost.com/power-supplies.htm for an overview Coils are available at Reichelt "Flachtransformatoren" for 5-8€ a piece. Linear PSUs are difficult to get (or expensive, 80€+), because they are considered special nowadays, switching PSUs normally do the job more efficiently (albeit for a few audio audio people who hear ´em :-)). That's usually my favorite option, though for the Sammich I didn't want a huge power brick as I can't build my own PSUs smaller than a commercial solution. Plus, there's that epic thread about adding circuit protection stuff and all that so I figured the Sammich might be best served via a $20 regulated power brick someone else built. Quote
toneburst Posted June 1, 2011 Report Posted June 1, 2011 I haz Sammich! Just arrived this morning. Haven't checked contents, but I'm sure it's all here. a|x Quote
pulsn Posted June 3, 2011 Report Posted June 3, 2011 (edited) I haz sammichFM too! I just picked it up today from the german "Zoll". Seems everything to be there. Now please...another batch of sammichSIDs...my 8580s are freezing alone in the box... :brr: ;) Maybe some kaffeSEQ too? :tongue: Edited June 3, 2011 by pulsn Quote
Elop Posted June 6, 2011 Report Posted June 6, 2011 I can not edit in the wiki! here a link for a PSU that works fine with both sammichSID and FM :clover: (Europe/Germany) VOLTCRAFT® USPS-600 Quote
ilmenator Posted June 7, 2011 Report Posted June 7, 2011 I can not edit in the wiki! You'll have to log in with your forum's username and password first. Go and try :smile: ! Quote
kristal= Posted June 29, 2011 Report Posted June 29, 2011 The PSU from Pollin turned out as a switch-mode PSU from goobay. But I do not notice any noise. At least when no sound is generated. In contrary to my sammichSID, where I always noticed a slight hum even when no sound was generated. So my question is: how do I have to understand the sentence "They generate far too much noise in the audio." from the building guide? Only noise within the sound generation or a general noise on the audio outputs? Quote
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