q-p Posted December 19, 2012 Report Share Posted December 19, 2012 Just want to say thanks for this! The build was pretty easy, other than putting the LED 595 sockets in backwards and finding out after I noticed the heatsinks were almost glowing red. No harm done though. Caught it in time. The 595's still work. Anyway, the Optrex LCD is amazing! I have one on my Ambika and aside from OLED, those are the best displays I've seen. The only bummer is one of my 6581's I lifted from a C64 I found for $5 at a thrift store about 8 years ago is bad. OSC 1 is not outputting. I've swapped the two chips around and the problem follows the chip. The other 6581 I got on eBay and it works just fine. Oh well, time to hunt down a couple 8580's. One thing I've noticed is there is a lot of envelope bleed. I read in a post on here somewhere that this is how it is and not much can be done about it. Is this true? Is there a noticeable difference between the 6581's & the 8580/6582's? Nothing that a little gating cant fix I guess. Can't wait to really dig into this thing. So far the sound is way better than I had anticipated. First time using an actual SID chip. -Adam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johey Posted December 19, 2012 Report Share Posted December 19, 2012 I just received a notice for my package. Custom taxes of EUR 25, but that's life. Looking forward to build it, whenever time allows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nILS Posted December 19, 2012 Report Share Posted December 19, 2012 q-p: Nice, glad you like it. Once you get a bit more into it you'll see just how awesome it really is. Regarding the vca bleedthrough - yes that's just the way it is. :console: Johey: It's worth it :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
q-p Posted December 19, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2012 q-p: Nice, glad you like it. Once you get a bit more into it you'll see just how awesome it really is. Regarding the vca bleedthrough - yes that's just the way it is. :console: Johey: It's worth it :) nILS, thanks for the quick response! thats what I thought on the bleedthrough. Not a biggie. one thing I did forget to mention. The encoder seems a bit flaky. When I am browsing patches, it will occasionally jump back or forward. Sometimes its only a couple patches, sometimes it could be as far as 50. I can change patches no problem with the up and down buttons. I double checked the solder joints and they look solid. The solder has nice flow on both sides of the pads. I suspect the encoder is bad. Would you know the Mouser part number so I can order a replacement? This is, of course, making tweaking a pain. But, I am rockin the ctrlr panel, so not all is lost :) Johey: bummer, but yeah, so friggin worth it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nILS Posted December 19, 2012 Report Share Posted December 19, 2012 Check if the encoder pins are properly soldered - if they are, contact Wilba, he'll help you :thumbsup: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johey Posted December 20, 2012 Report Share Posted December 20, 2012 Johey: It's worth it :) I'm sure it is. 70% of base board completed. Hope to have it running before Christmas. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johey Posted December 21, 2012 Report Share Posted December 21, 2012 (edited) When connecting the control surface board to the base board, there is a difference in the hardware layout from the guide. In the guide, the female header for the display is 8x2 but the component and the baseboard is 9x2. The male connector, however, is 8x2, as well as the display. My worry is that when you align them, the display will be inserted from D7 to the hole pair after 5V, leaving B- unattached, if the screen printing on the base board is correct. I cannot see how I can connect the display aligned with the correct hole pairs. If my description is too messy I can shoot a photo. Edit: never mind. It is likely correctly connected according to the datasheet of the display. B- and B+ is probably something else. Edit2: B- and B+ is likely supposed to serve the backlight. How am I supposed to connect them? On my display, backlight are pin 1 and 2, then comes 5V and GND. The last pins, 15 and 16, are data pins. On the base board, B+ and B- are placed after the last data pins, not connectable. Am I supposed to solder wires to the backlight pins? Edit3: After studying the board quite a while I realized there must be a trace from pin 17 to pin 1, so I soldered a wire and it works so far. :) Edited December 22, 2012 by Johey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johey Posted December 22, 2012 Report Share Posted December 22, 2012 Done! Awesome piece of goods. Nice set of preset patches. Wow! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiliconHeaven Posted December 26, 2012 Report Share Posted December 26, 2012 Q-P by any chance did you take pictures of your completed PCB's? Or anyone else. Would you mind posting them if you did? Honestly, I would like to see if I'm doing things right. Especially the bits with the LCD. :-D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johey Posted December 26, 2012 Report Share Posted December 26, 2012 (edited) I did not take any photos while building, but it is quite handy to take apart, so here goes... http://midibox.org/forums/gallery/album/176-sammichSID/ (Edit: The album was removed :( .. Photos attached to a post further down this thread.) Please note that I made the B+ patch a little different to what Wilba suggests, because I missed that piece of information. It does not matter though, as there is a direct connection from my point to Wilba's. As I use an unshielded left over pin from a resistor, I think it's better not risking to connect to wrong pins. Also, note that I did not install the second cooler on the current limiter, just because I read the guide to fast. Nothing to do about it, as I am using a self adhesive cooling paste (because that's what I had within reach). I don't think the extra cooler is needed though, but you should install it as it is suggested by Wilba. Edited December 29, 2012 by Johey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiliconHeaven Posted December 27, 2012 Report Share Posted December 27, 2012 Thank you very much! At least yours is working lol. I'm still stuck. :-) good times tho.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
q-p Posted December 28, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 28, 2012 Q-P by any chance did you take pictures of your completed PCB's? Or anyone else. Would you mind posting them if you did? Honestly, I would like to see if I'm doing things right. Especially the bits with the LCD. :-D As a matter of fact, yes I did :) http://www.flickr.com/photos/muksys/sets/72157632275393853/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Academic Planner Posted December 29, 2012 Report Share Posted December 29, 2012 Finished building the V3 sammichSID and ran into the same issue as Johey regarding the LCD pin difference (What was Wilba's original suggestion? I missed it!) and the same flaky encoder as q-p (NO fun to program from the front panel!!). These two sour points aside, I soldered a wire per Johey's suggestion and it sounds/looks great! Now if only I can do something about that encoder! Is it too late to jump on the final batch for a second one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nILS Posted December 29, 2012 Report Share Posted December 29, 2012 Regarding the encoder and 2nd sammichSID you want to contact Wilba directly :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johey Posted December 29, 2012 Report Share Posted December 29, 2012 I also had a bad encoder. Wilba has promised to send me a replacement one. Academic Planner: Did you order your Sammich from this latest batch? Then you probably got a mail with the topic ORDER POSTED. There is the original suggestion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johey Posted December 29, 2012 Report Share Posted December 29, 2012 Hm. My gallery was removed when the site change face. Now I could not find out how to put them in a gallery. Here are all photos individually. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Param1 Posted December 30, 2012 Report Share Posted December 30, 2012 (edited) Congrats. This is an adorable little synthesizer :smile: But what do you mean with V3 ? Not a biggie. one thing I did forget to mention. The encoder seems a bit flaky. When I am browsing patches, it will occasionally jump back or forward. Sometimes its only a couple patches, sometimes it could be as far as 50. I can change patches no problem with the up and down buttons. I double checked the solder joints and they look solid. Uhm, wtf. I soldered 3 Sammichs and I got this on all 3. Well, to be more precise, when it jumps, it jumps back, mostly by one. Thought it was my fault. Edited December 30, 2012 by Param1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johey Posted December 30, 2012 Report Share Posted December 30, 2012 (edited) Anybody having a non-flawky encoder on the sammichSID from the latest batch? Edit: Just sent Wilba a notification about this thread regarding skippy encoders. Edited December 30, 2012 by Johey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TK. Posted December 30, 2012 Report Share Posted December 30, 2012 Probably I know why it seemed that the encoder was working "flawky": it was configured in "fast mode" by default, and in "normal mode" when the shift button was pressed. This was the intended behaviour at a time I was young and always in hurry :frantics: - meanwhile I think it was a bad decision! :turned: Could you please check if your encoder works better with v2.042? -> /edit: indeed, the issue has been fixed with this version as confirmed in the feedback thread! :smile: Best Regards, Thorsten. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
q-p Posted December 31, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 31, 2012 Ah very nice! Encoder is now gravy. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johey Posted January 1, 2013 Report Share Posted January 1, 2013 TK., enjoy your beer for fixing my encoders! :afro: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ilmenator Posted January 1, 2013 Report Share Posted January 1, 2013 Hey, the pics sport the new Lexan overlay, the first time I notice this - very nice indeed, congrats Wilba! Is the LCD window transparent, or is there a cutout in the Lexan? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johey Posted January 1, 2013 Report Share Posted January 1, 2013 There is a transparent window, very thightly cut so you need to insert it with a slight degree of force and there is no risk it will pop out by itself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TK. Posted January 1, 2013 Report Share Posted January 1, 2013 TK., enjoy your beer for fixing my encoders! :afro: Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ilmenator Posted January 2, 2013 Report Share Posted January 2, 2013 There is a transparent window, very thightly cut so you need to insert it with a slight degree of force and there is no risk it will pop out by itself. Yes, but is there a layer of transparent Lexan on top of the window, or is the Lexan cut out where the window is? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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