MBSID: Control surface responsiveness, keyboard?

[Guest BassCadet]

My apologies if these topics have already been discussed..

I built a PIC16F877 based MBSID about a year ago, but I haven't used it much because of the lack of the control surface. When you're on the mood, plugging the midi cables and wondering why the sysex dumps won't be transmitted is a real mood killer. So I'm planning to upgrade the system to a MIOS stage, either step B or step C.

I noticed that the modulation value in the old version (v1.4) was reset after another key was pressed. If someone here with a step C MBSID could inform me if the cutoff, resonance etc knobs will affect the sound when it is being played and if it will be effective after the key has been released. I hope this was only a matter of the old firmware version.

Has anyone thought of a keyboard attached directly to MBSID? If I understood correctly, the AIN module could interpret CV signals and thus could receive the voltages output from a piano scale keyboard. But could the master core receive these key signals and direct them to the sid module and other slaves? Or do I need an extra core module for that purpose? It would be a bit of waste to build up a whole MIDIO128 system if the keys already output some voltages that could be interpreted easily.

If there is someone with the knowledge if the PIC18F452 is programmable with PIC16F877 programmers (AFAIK the microcontrollers are pin-wise identical), I would be glad to know. My programmer represents JDM standard, but the specs of the programmer didn't mention 18F series at all. However, the programmer works with IC-Prog that is aware of the 18F series.

[lemonhorse]

Hi BassCadet,

If there is someone with the knowledge if the PIC18F452 is programmable with PIC16F877 programmers (AFAIK the microcontrollers are pin-wise identical), I would be glad to know. My programmer represents JDM standard, but the specs of the programmer didn't mention 18F series at all. However, the programmer works with IC-Prog that is aware of the 18F series.

I had no problems with my (non modified) JDM writing the PIC18F452 - dare it :-)