Ixox Posted September 17, 2006 Report Share Posted September 17, 2006 Hello,First thanks again to Thorsten (and the other who helped him in any way) to make this midibox possible.Here are some pictures of my Midibox FM.I find pictures blogs very interesting and some of them very usefull to build my midibox. I like thinking this one may be usefull for some.All Parts are working. I played a little (without box it's not as fun as with) with the matrix and the 4 controlers and that made many controls very quickly reachable... This matrix is a very good idea.I add a 5th DIN to have the 4 OP and 4 Instruments buttons available independently.I found the idea in this thread ( http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php?topic=4940.0 )All PCBs are from SmashTV. First the PSUs... One wall adapter without the plastic (8,2V 600mA) and one made from Throsten pdf... The transformer is a 2x15V AC that's why i put a 7915 and a 7815 before the 7912 and 7812. I dont know exaclty the consequences of that but that works. (The 7912 refused to work without.. The input voltage is about 26V DC when no current is produced).First the core, the 4x20 LCD and the back side connections to the Opl3 module.The Opl3 Module... the DIN4, DOUT4 and the additionnal DIN and the bank eeproms.The 3rd DOUT has the ouput connector to the matrix rows.The Matrix :The Operators/instruments selector :The 8 select button, escape, config and main encoder.The 4 encoders :Now i have to build the box... I'm afraid the matrix will be hard to put inside...I'll see....Xavier Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ixox Posted September 20, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 20, 2006 Every thing seem to fit rather well :)I leave the protection film and drew on it where to make the wholes. I drilled with the film on.I used a dremel little drill machine with a vertical column support.2 things i noticed.- The surface is nicer on the side you drill. So drill on the front face of the surface.- I used medium/slow turn speed and i push down the maching rather slowly.The last wholes i made are muche better than the first ones which were done on the backside and and with high speed.Current design done with The Gimp.... my lazertran paper is waiting....Remarks or suggestions are welcome,Xavier 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ixox Posted September 28, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 28, 2006 I made some progress...Here is the final control surface before lazertran transfer.To clean the 3mm and 4mm wholes, i used my drilling machine with a 9mm screw (not sure about the word), and i drill very slowly and carefully just to remove the dirty aluminium surplus around the wholes... (I pushed harder on the wholes for the screw to make a kind of screw shape appear). It worked rather well.(Sorry for my foot..... :-[ ;D )Waiting for the varnish to dry on the surface and for the paint to dry on the case.(Next time i will use varnish spray... My brush was to big and leave some very little bubbles and some print.)Here is the control surface.I cut the lazertran to make the whole between the 2 coats of varnish... The paper was hard enough to be cut propely and the second coat make every thing looks cleaner.And the whole set...I'm waiting for some 2,5mm screw to be able to fix the LCD.I now have to drill the case and screw all the PCBs inside (and may be fill the 2 empty 24C256 places.)And it will be finished.....Xavier Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBunsen Posted September 29, 2006 Report Share Posted September 29, 2006 Nice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr modnaR Posted September 29, 2006 Report Share Posted September 29, 2006 with that screen, did you have to do any software changes to mios?cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ixox Posted September 29, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 29, 2006 Thanks.... :)with that screen, did you have to do any software changes to mios? No change at all !Line 1&3 corresponds to line 1 of a 2x40 LCD.Line 2&4 to line 2.I may try to change something but i'm afraid that will not be simple : It is that when you scroll the menu with the main encoder all the screen scrolls and it's weird... It would be much nicer to have only the second line scrolling.The main page also is weird with the '|' at the end of the first line (you can see it in the first post) ... Removing this "|" and putting 2 spaces instead of 1 between the instruments would be nicer.Xavier Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr modnaR Posted September 29, 2006 Report Share Posted September 29, 2006 perhaps if only the bottom line was to scroll, the select buttons would no longer correspond to the top line, as mios would know what their functions are at that particular point, but you wouldn't because it would be frozen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ixox Posted October 17, 2006 Author Report Share Posted October 17, 2006 I received the transformer to replace the noisy wall adapter and it is much much better.But i ordered a 7,5V transformer and after 2,5 weeks of waiting and many emails i received my order with a 12V transformer inside...I will never order to alscomposants.com again... French people, avoid that site... With 6 diodes before the 7805 and a heatsink, it seems to be OK.My midibox FM is finished...I spent many houres of fun... It was very interesting... Thanks again thorsten.Here are the last pictures :Before closing the boxes.... All the wires were uselessly too long exept 2 which were really too short....Next time i'll spend more time trying to cut them at the right length.Closed.... This big box to control the tiny OPL3... strange...But i like very much how it sounds !!! ;DNo back to my "little surface, maximum control" SID...And then maybe i'll do some music again.Xavier Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TK. Posted October 21, 2006 Report Share Posted October 21, 2006 Thats really worth to be moved to the "MIDIbox of the Week" section!Great Work, Xavier! :)Although I really have to warn other people: a 4x20 LCD is not the optimal solution for a MIDIbox FMBest Regards, Thorsten. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stryd_one Posted October 22, 2006 Report Share Posted October 22, 2006 Although I really have to warn other people: a 4x20 LCD is not the optimal solution for a MIDIbox FMHmm, I had started to consider it.... What's the problem? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TK. Posted October 22, 2006 Report Share Posted October 22, 2006 The problem is, that the menu pages are organized for 2x40 usage (8 buttons below the menu items).Also the main page doesn't wrap so nice on a 4x20 screenBest Regards, Thorsten. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ixox Posted October 22, 2006 Author Report Share Posted October 22, 2006 Hey... I'm glad and proud to see my midibox here... thanks Thorsten. ;DThere seem to be very few Midibox FM compare to SID... Too bad...In fact the 4x20 LCD works rather well.The 2 rows of 4 buttons bellow the LCD is intuitive. no problem to find immediatly which button to press.The more weird is the scrolling of parameters with the first menu of the second line which become the 4th of the first line when you scroll right...etc... difficult to get used to. Concerning the main page "Instrument view" is not nice but "full view" (see CFGmenu) is really perfect...Can be specified as default in the main asm file#define CS_MENU_DEFAULT_VIEW_MODE 0Xavier Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rambinator Posted October 26, 2006 Report Share Posted October 26, 2006 great design!some questions:1) can you explain how you built the case? i mean the wooden box. i am not shure what would be the best way to make a stable box.>I cut the lazertran to make the whole between the 2 coats of varnish...>The paper was hard enough to be cut propely and the second coat make every thing looks cleaner.2) what tool did you use to cut the holes? 3) in the light areas of the panel... is the lazertran transparent (that you can see the metal) or is it more whiteish opaque?4) do you have a closer pic where i can see the joint between the lazertranpapers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ixox Posted October 27, 2006 Author Report Share Posted October 27, 2006 Thanks... I'm happy you like it.... :)Answers:1 - the case is a teko 364... Arround 20 euros in france.. plastic box + aluminium surface.Available every where...I painted the plastic part in black... The original color is not very sexy.I also added some feet to make it nicer and more stable :2 - What is the english word for that : a "cutter" in french...It took me about half an hour for all the wholes.... But it was not perfect.3 - Lazertran (ink jet) becomes totally transparent (where there is no ink) after the second coat of varnish.4 - No.... I can do it tomorow with the light day if required.If you mean the joint just at the left of the matrix... it is not very nice... Xavier Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rambinator Posted October 28, 2006 Report Share Posted October 28, 2006 1 - the case is a teko 364... Arround 20 euros in france.. plastic box + aluminium surface.Available every where...I painted the plastic part in black... The original color is not very sexy.I also added some feet to make it nicer and more stable :hm, ok i'm building with wood so this is something different2 - What is the english word for that : a "cutter" in french...It took me about half an hour for all the wholes.... But it was not perfect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.