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Building my own Midibox Sid Synth. Outa Time? Just want to start this. Now.


Philtron
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Ok, i'm late. But i want to build and/or have this one: http://www.midibox.org/dokuwiki/wilba_mb_6582

I do not have very good soldering skills and i only have 2 MOS 8580s this far. But i'm dreaming of this machine all this years. So, i think it is time. 

Another Problem is the documentation. Most of the links are dead, parts are no longer available, etc. So, i need help, i think. 

Maybe someone does have part lists, documentations, an unfinished one or a finished one or parts?

Maybe ... i hope ... 

THX for thinking about that
Greetings Phil 

Edited by Philtron
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  • Philtron changed the title to Building my own Midibox Sid Synth. Outa Time? Just want to start this. Now.

I built my MB-6582 last year, so relatively recently...

In the process I pieced together a few handy references that helped me with my build...

 

Good luck with yours...

 

 

Planning the cost of a build, based on various component options:

 

 

PCB Sets are still available here:

https://modularaddict.com/shop-by-brand/midibox-ucapps-de

 

Nice pre-made Aluminum panel sets available here:

http://thebeast.co.uk/?product_cat=midibox

 

As a bargain basement alternative to aluminum, you could have panels fabricated as if they were PCBs, which saves a ton:

 

 

If real SIDs are too difficult to find and/or too expensive, take a look at the best clone options:

 

 

How to program your Microcontrollers:

 

 

...Or just buy some pre-programmed chips:

 

Where to get the "Just Right" power switch:

 

 

Which SID filter capacitors to use:

 

 

 

A useful voltage testing guide:

 

 

There are many power supply options available, but this one is by far the easiest:


 

 

THE definitive guide for making the control surface:

 

 

A nice little PCB that simplifies Char LCD Wiring:

 

A useful way to join the boards together:

 

 

Optional Encoder Backlighting:

 

Edited by dwestbury
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  • 2 weeks later...

Yeah this is a brilliant summary.  No, it isn't too late to build, so long as the PCBs are still available which is the main thing.  Everything is still available and the MOS chips are getting harder to find, so I turned to ARMSIDs. (it took me 2.5 years to build, in spurts, on-and-off).

 

Be warned it is a big project with lots of soldering to do - not that hard, just tedious, but other way to look at it is that it's all practice, practice, practice!

@dwestbury, do you have a link to a complete schematic?  I'm in need of one since today I finally finished the last bits of this, but no ekyboard input and nothing on LCD.  But power sound and the dancing LED matrix all work fine.  Almost there.

 

Which brings me finally to my next point - this is a fairly big project to assemble so take your time with it and don't be frightened or discouraged.  Some times things don't wor 100% but there's help here.

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3 hours ago, sbm said:

Yeah this is a brilliant summary.  No, it isn't too late to build, so long as the PCBs are still available which is the main thing.  Everything is still available and the MOS chips are getting harder to find, so I turned to ARMSIDs. (it took me 2.5 years to build, in spurts, on-and-off).

 

Be warned it is a big project with lots of soldering to do - not that hard, just tedious, but other way to look at it is that it's all practice, practice, practice!

@dwestbury, do you have a link to a complete schematic?  I'm in need of one since today I finally finished the last bits of this, but no ekyboard input and nothing on LCD.  But power sound and the dancing LED matrix all work fine.  Almost there.

 

Which brings me finally to my next point - this is a fairly big project to assemble so take your time with it and don't be frightened or discouraged.  Some times things don't wor 100% but there's help here.

I just got another mos so, i think, its time to start ;). 

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15 hours ago, sbm said:

@dwestbury, do you have a link to a complete schematic?  I'm in need of one since today I finally finished the last bits of this, but no ekyboard input and nothing on LCD.  But power sound and the dancing LED matrix all work fine.  Almost there.

I don't think complete schematics were ever published for the MB6582 variant of the MIDIBox SID v2, but all of the schematics for the individual modules are available here: http://www.ucapps.de/midibox_sid_manual.html

The MB6582 is a pretty faithfully merged combination of the original modules, so I was always able to refer to them when I ran into issues...

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On 8/17/2021 at 9:34 PM, dwestbury said:

I built my MB-6582 last year, so relatively recently...

In the process I pieced together a few handy references that helped me with my build...

 

Good luck with yours...

 

 

Planning the cost of a build, based on various component options:

 

 

PCB Sets are still available here:

https://modularaddict.com/shop-by-brand/midibox-ucapps-de

 

Nice pre-made Aluminum panel sets available here:

http://thebeast.co.uk/?product_cat=midibox

 

If real SIDs are too difficult to find and/or too expensive, take a look at the best clone options:

 

 

 

How to program your Microcontrollers:

 

 

...Or just buy some pre-programmed chips:

 

Where to get the "Just Right" power switch:

 

 

Which SID filter capacitors to use:

 

 

 

A useful voltage testing guide:

 

 

There are many power supply options available, but this one is by far the easiest:


 

 

THE definitive guide for making the control surface:

 

 

A nice little PCB that simplifies Char LCD Wiring:

 

A useful way to join the boards together:

 

 

Optional Encoder Backlighting:

 

Thx @dwestbury since i'm reading through your posts i'm realizing what i am up to do ...

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

@dwestburyHey thanks for that.  I'm still forging ahead with building this, but life and this annoying thing that brings home the bread got in the way....

I did follow it and also happened to verify that my 4 PICs were working OK before and after flashing and loading the software - but, can't hurt to follow this guide as a double-check....for the holidays.

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