Advice for a complete novice

[Guest justsomeguy]

Hi there:

I've done a fair amount of 'simple' electronics (headphone amps, blinking led's, etc) and would like to try my hand at buildling a simple, small,  motorized fader mixer to use with Reason and/or Pro ToolsLE.   This project seems to be exactly what I was looking for.  Although I find the sheer amount of information here a bit overwhelming.  

I've done a fair amount of reading here, and I have a few questions that I can't seem to figure out.  Any  pointers would be great.

1) it would seem that "all i need to do" is build a Core, an AIN module and a DOUT module, connect the AIN up to the motorized faders, the DOUT to the midi out and power up.   Is that the case, or am i being naive?  ;D

2) Assuming i managed to build the simple programmer for the 18Fxx chip and got the right firmware,  are there any other modifications i need to make to the firmware, or is it "plug, solder and play" ?  

Thank you in advance for your answers.  

All the best,

Steve

[smashtv]

1) it would seem that "all i need to do" is build a Core, an AIN module and a DOUT module, connect the AIN up to the motorized faders, the DOUT to the midi out and power up.   Is that the case, or am i being naive?  ;D

Almost, the motorized faders are directly read by the core, so no AIN board is needed for just motor faders.  If you want potentiometers, CV inputs, etc. then you need the AIN.

The DOUT connects to the core to drive LEDs, relays, etc.  You will need one or more if you use LED's on your control surface.

The only MIDI connections are on the core IN/OUT.

2) Assuming i managed to build the simple programmer for the 18Fxx chip and got the right firmware, are there any other modifications i need to make to the firmware, or is it "plug, solder and play" ?

You should consider building a MIDIbox LC, it will have the advantage of working easily with most audio software without much setup, and it's plug and play in the sense that no firmware mods are needed to do what you want.

The firmware programming is actually a 3 part process:

1) Burn bootloader with PIC programmer

2) Upload MIOS via MIDI IN on your box.

3) Upload chosen application (this could be LC, MB64, SID, etc) via MIDI IN on your box.

Notice only the first step requires a PIC programmer, any future firmware updates are done without having to open up your box and pull the chip.  That said I burn the bootloader for free for anyone who sends me thier chip and I sell PICs with the bootloader on them already for those who want to skip the effort of building a programmer that only gets used once.

I hope this answers more questions than it creates!  8)

Best

SmashTV

[Guest justsomeguy]

Hi SmashTV:

Thanks for the speedy reply. So to clarify, If i were to build the Core module, that would be all the hardware I'd need (plus the motorfaders obviously) to build a simple fader box?  

If so, I'll likely just get one of your core kits with the bootloader-burnt pic and start from there.  

thanks again in advance for the info.    

[Screaming_Rabbit]

Hi Steve

No just a core is not enough, you unterstood SmashTV wrong.

You also need a MF-Board http://www.ucapps.de/mbhp/mbhp_mf_interconnections.pdf and if you want touch sensors, which makes sense if you are using Motorfaders, you need a DIN-Board http://www.ucapps.de/midibox_lc/midibox_lc_enc_ts.pdf as well,

Greets, Roger

EDIT:

A Tip: Print out all the pdf-files on large paper (I used A3 paper-sheets). This way you get a much better overview to understand the different modules and their use in different applications.

[smashtv]

you unterstood SmashTV wrong.

Whoop my bad!  They are read directly by the PIC, but -driven- with the MF module.  Hard not to misunderstand with my babbling. ;)

Best!

SmashTV