Thursday, November 27, 2008
Progress
So I got started stuffing the baseboard. got all the surface mount resistors, the diodes, the bridge rectifier, crystals and about 2/3 of the IC sockets done in about a couple of hours. At this rate I should have the baseboard complete in a few days.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
At last!
My baseboard parts kit finally showed up today. The postman kindly left it next to the letterbox, which is on a main urban road. Nice work NZ Post.
So I amd starting construction finally on the MB-6582.
Pics and updates to come as it develops/
So I amd starting construction finally on the MB-6582.
Pics and updates to come as it develops/
Friday, November 7, 2008
Yay!
After quite a few attempts I have finally managed to make a working bankstick.
I bought some cheap 256bit EEPROMs from Jaycar so I didnt fry the remaining 8 good 512bit ones I had that I need for my MB_6582.
Also got some IC sockets and built the bankstick on a prototype board. Powered it up, it saw the bankstick and formatted it. Plugged one of the 521k ones in and that formatted fine aswell.
Started playing around with trying to make the control surface but haveing problems with that too. I cant get the rotary encoder to work for the menu encoder, its givin very randonm results, more investigation required.
But in more exciting news, SmashTV has got MB_6582 parts kits for sale on his site. Just ordered up a kit, 2 512bit EEPROMs (for spares) and some 2 pin female pin header connectors. Came to $151.55us including shipping. I chose airmail this time to try and save a bit of money, I hope everythign turns up ok.
Also looked at the parts list for the control surface. I already have nearly everything I need. Just need the buttons really. Once I get a panel and buttons I should have all the parts. I will start on the mainboard as soon as the part kit arrives, but Im expecthing that to be a few weeks, Smash is usually pretty busy.
I bought some cheap 256bit EEPROMs from Jaycar so I didnt fry the remaining 8 good 512bit ones I had that I need for my MB_6582.
Also got some IC sockets and built the bankstick on a prototype board. Powered it up, it saw the bankstick and formatted it. Plugged one of the 521k ones in and that formatted fine aswell.
Started playing around with trying to make the control surface but haveing problems with that too. I cant get the rotary encoder to work for the menu encoder, its givin very randonm results, more investigation required.
But in more exciting news, SmashTV has got MB_6582 parts kits for sale on his site. Just ordered up a kit, 2 512bit EEPROMs (for spares) and some 2 pin female pin header connectors. Came to $151.55us including shipping. I chose airmail this time to try and save a bit of money, I hope everythign turns up ok.
Also looked at the parts list for the control surface. I already have nearly everything I need. Just need the buttons really. Once I get a panel and buttons I should have all the parts. I will start on the mainboard as soon as the part kit arrives, but Im expecthing that to be a few weeks, Smash is usually pretty busy.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Letting the smoke out
Picked up male and female dsub sockets and a socket case to build a bankstick. Checked out the very simple schematic and wired it all up but when connecting it oo the core module its not detected.
Checked the wiring, which I thought I may have gotten wrong. Swapped around a couple of the wires and tripple checked it, it now matches the scmematic exactly.
Plugged it in and nothin.......... until there was a pretty identifieable smell and the Dsub case got very hot.... and smoke came out....
Opened up the D-sub case and it had gotten hot enough to melt the solter on the EEPROM pins... thats hot.
Quadruple checked, yep, its all wired up exactly as the scematic, its only 5 wires to ground and then 3 more than are actually in use so its not like its complex.
I have a feeling that the eeprom is well and truely fried now anyway, I have got another 8 but they were supposed to be for the MB_6582 but I guess I can get some more.
Just picked up a couple of IC sockets for the EEPROMs so I can build one with a socket rather then soldering directly to the EEPROM, so will see how that goes.
Also, the LCD arrived from Crystalfontz USA, in like 3 days! They sent it international priority at thier cost, which is about $35US, so awesome service.
Wired it up and it worked a treat, looks great too..
Checked the wiring, which I thought I may have gotten wrong. Swapped around a couple of the wires and tripple checked it, it now matches the scmematic exactly.
Plugged it in and nothin.......... until there was a pretty identifieable smell and the Dsub case got very hot.... and smoke came out....
Opened up the D-sub case and it had gotten hot enough to melt the solter on the EEPROM pins... thats hot.
Quadruple checked, yep, its all wired up exactly as the scematic, its only 5 wires to ground and then 3 more than are actually in use so its not like its complex.
I have a feeling that the eeprom is well and truely fried now anyway, I have got another 8 but they were supposed to be for the MB_6582 but I guess I can get some more.
Just picked up a couple of IC sockets for the EEPROMs so I can build one with a socket rather then soldering directly to the EEPROM, so will see how that goes.
Also, the LCD arrived from Crystalfontz USA, in like 3 days! They sent it international priority at thier cost, which is about $35US, so awesome service.
Wired it up and it worked a treat, looks great too..
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Sweet!
Well I got a response from Crystalfontz USA, they have sent me off the correct LCD at thier expense, now THATS customer service!
I have recieved my order from Volti for the rotary encoders and EEPROMs so as soon as the new LCD arrives I can get started with building the basic control surface.
I have recieved my order from Volti for the rotary encoders and EEPROMs so as soon as the new LCD arrives I can get started with building the basic control surface.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Not so stupid after all
Well, I have been looking through the datasheets for the LCDs and I can find no mention of negative contrast so I deceided to wire up the red LCD to see if it fired up, and it did.
So I wired up the origional one that I thought was negative contrst and I get the 2 bars that you usually get when they boot, but it stays on the screen.
This leads me to believe that this LCD is munted.
Considering the fact that Crystalfontz actually sent me the wrong part, as I had ordered a 20x2 not a 20x4 and the one they have sent me doesnt even work, I am emailing them now to see what they are willing to do about it.
My bet is nothing considering I am all the way over in NZ but worth a shot otherwise I have basicly blown money.
Heres the sexy red one.... looks alot better than in the pic.
And heres the busted green one
So I wired up the origional one that I thought was negative contrst and I get the 2 bars that you usually get when they boot, but it stays on the screen.
This leads me to believe that this LCD is munted.
Considering the fact that Crystalfontz actually sent me the wrong part, as I had ordered a 20x2 not a 20x4 and the one they have sent me doesnt even work, I am emailing them now to see what they are willing to do about it.
My bet is nothing considering I am all the way over in NZ but worth a shot otherwise I have basicly blown money.
Heres the sexy red one.... looks alot better than in the pic.
And heres the busted green one
Friday, October 10, 2008
It lives!
WIred up another ribbon cable to connect the SID module and then a power cable for the sid module and realised that the placing of the power connectors on the optimzed power supply board werent.... optimal... so resoldered the headers into a more useful configuration.
connected the SID module to power and the Core module and powered it up. Tested the power comming to the SID IC socket and it 8.98v, which is pretty much perfect. Wired up an audio out socket and connected that to the SID
Popped in the SID module and uploaded the Sid test software, powered it on and there we go, a pretty high pitched saw wave.
Uploaded the Midibox SID software and rebooted. Using the Midi Keyboard in MIOS studio the midibox SID is working perfectly!
I dont have the EEPROMs for the bankstick yet so theres only one patch available and I dont have the rotary encoders for the control surface as yet so its pretty limited but the base is functioning !
Click below for pics
It lives! But its blind
Well, worked out all the problems and have solutions for them all !
nILS sugegsted it was the bridge rectifier that was dropping the extra volt out of my 5v DC. He suggested that I connect the power to J2 rather than J1 as this bypasses the power regulation part of the circuit, which I dont need because Im using the optimized power supply. Does mean that becuase there is no bridge rectifier that you HAVE to get the polarity round the right way though :)
So I did as nILS suggested and I then connected up the core to my Mac using the USB-Midi interface I bought. Had a few problems with working out MIOS Studio, mostly because the the archiver utility thats comes with MacOSX decided that what I wanted it to do when I double clicked the downloaded .ZIP file of MIOS Studio was to unzip the .ZIP file and the unzip the .JAR file it contained, giving me the contents fo the .JAR file in a folder, which I took ages to work out what to do with (which was delete it and use Stuffit to unpack the .ZIP)
So difficulties with over zealous software aside, I managed to get the expeted string upon boot when monitoring the midi ports in MIOS studio, which means its alive!
Uploaded a couple of test apps and they uploaded fine.
Also worked out that I had mis-read the LCD wiring schematic and it was backwards :) De-soldered and re-soldered that and now I haev LCD backlight ! But no characters, even when using the LCD test in MIOS Studio and when using any of the LCD test apps.
As it turns out 2 of the 3 LCDs I bought from CrystalFontz are negative contrast, meaning they need -5v to control contrast. Oh dear.
Fortunatly I have tracked down a schematic to create an inverter that will take between 6 and 12v AC and turn it into 5v+ and 5v-, which is whats needed here. So, another trip to Jaycar required this weekend to build this up, also, I am goign to attempt to add external pots for contrast and brightness control, which will be a nice feature to have.
In the meantime though, I am going to wire up the LCD that isnt negative contrast just to get this going. Its one I plan to use for my green MB_6582, which is the last one I am building so will need it wired up to a plug anyway.
Oh and the rare parts kit for the x0xb0x arrived yesterday.
nILS sugegsted it was the bridge rectifier that was dropping the extra volt out of my 5v DC. He suggested that I connect the power to J2 rather than J1 as this bypasses the power regulation part of the circuit, which I dont need because Im using the optimized power supply. Does mean that becuase there is no bridge rectifier that you HAVE to get the polarity round the right way though :)
So I did as nILS suggested and I then connected up the core to my Mac using the USB-Midi interface I bought. Had a few problems with working out MIOS Studio, mostly because the the archiver utility thats comes with MacOSX decided that what I wanted it to do when I double clicked the downloaded .ZIP file of MIOS Studio was to unzip the .ZIP file and the unzip the .JAR file it contained, giving me the contents fo the .JAR file in a folder, which I took ages to work out what to do with (which was delete it and use Stuffit to unpack the .ZIP)
So difficulties with over zealous software aside, I managed to get the expeted string upon boot when monitoring the midi ports in MIOS studio, which means its alive!
Uploaded a couple of test apps and they uploaded fine.
Also worked out that I had mis-read the LCD wiring schematic and it was backwards :) De-soldered and re-soldered that and now I haev LCD backlight ! But no characters, even when using the LCD test in MIOS Studio and when using any of the LCD test apps.
As it turns out 2 of the 3 LCDs I bought from CrystalFontz are negative contrast, meaning they need -5v to control contrast. Oh dear.
Fortunatly I have tracked down a schematic to create an inverter that will take between 6 and 12v AC and turn it into 5v+ and 5v-, which is whats needed here. So, another trip to Jaycar required this weekend to build this up, also, I am goign to attempt to add external pots for contrast and brightness control, which will be a nice feature to have.
In the meantime though, I am going to wire up the LCD that isnt negative contrast just to get this going. Its one I plan to use for my green MB_6582, which is the last one I am building so will need it wired up to a plug anyway.
Oh and the rare parts kit for the x0xb0x arrived yesterday.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Now the tricky stuff
Well, my package arrived from SmashTV with my MB_6582 baseboard and CS Board and also the Core, SID and DIN module kits, so a-soldering I will go.
Soldered together the core kit pretty quick, took about an hour and a 1/2, only annoyance was that one of the resistors in the kit was wrong. I had an extra 2.2k ohm and was a 1k ohm short, so I had to buy one from Jaycar. I tried Dick Smith Electronics, but they have all thier resistors in bins that are labeled with the colour bands, not the values and they dont have a guide there. Idiots.
Also soldered up the SID and DIN kitt, they were even quicker, did the both of them in about an hour and a halk, getting pretty good at soldering, all of the solder work is nice and clean and pretty uniform.
Also, soldered up a ribon cable for the LCD so I can see if I can get anything out of this badboy.
So hooked the core up to the optimised power supply, which is putting 5.12 volts out, checked the voltage on the IC sockets for the PIC and for the octocoupler andwas only getting 3v. With some investigation I foudn that I have to remove the voltage regulator from the Core module if I am using the optimised power supply. Did that and soldered a bridge between the 1st and 3rd pins.
Now Im getting a bit better, but still only just over 4 volts. Not too sure whats going on here but figutred that too low a voltage cant kill anything so thought Id give it a go.
Popped the PIC and the octocoupler in the IC sockets, connected the power supply and the LCD aaaaaaaand...... nothing....
I dont have a midi cable to connect to MIOS studio so I cant tell if the core just isnt booting or if there is soemthing wrong with the screen. I have just gone over and over the schematic and thankfully IM using rainbow ribbon so its reasonably easy to identify which wire is which. As far as I can see I have got the LCD wired up perfectly fine. I will double check the datasheet to make sure that the pin out on the LCD matches standatd but Im pretty sure it does seeing as its a Crystalfontz one.
Could also be that the voltage is just oo low, I am going to have to ask the great oracles of nILS, wilba and SmashTV on the midibox chat server.
Will get some midi cables today and then at least I can see if the Core is booting up.
Soldered together the core kit pretty quick, took about an hour and a 1/2, only annoyance was that one of the resistors in the kit was wrong. I had an extra 2.2k ohm and was a 1k ohm short, so I had to buy one from Jaycar. I tried Dick Smith Electronics, but they have all thier resistors in bins that are labeled with the colour bands, not the values and they dont have a guide there. Idiots.
Also soldered up the SID and DIN kitt, they were even quicker, did the both of them in about an hour and a halk, getting pretty good at soldering, all of the solder work is nice and clean and pretty uniform.
Also, soldered up a ribon cable for the LCD so I can see if I can get anything out of this badboy.
So hooked the core up to the optimised power supply, which is putting 5.12 volts out, checked the voltage on the IC sockets for the PIC and for the octocoupler andwas only getting 3v. With some investigation I foudn that I have to remove the voltage regulator from the Core module if I am using the optimised power supply. Did that and soldered a bridge between the 1st and 3rd pins.
Now Im getting a bit better, but still only just over 4 volts. Not too sure whats going on here but figutred that too low a voltage cant kill anything so thought Id give it a go.
Popped the PIC and the octocoupler in the IC sockets, connected the power supply and the LCD aaaaaaaand...... nothing....
I dont have a midi cable to connect to MIOS studio so I cant tell if the core just isnt booting or if there is soemthing wrong with the screen. I have just gone over and over the schematic and thankfully IM using rainbow ribbon so its reasonably easy to identify which wire is which. As far as I can see I have got the LCD wired up perfectly fine. I will double check the datasheet to make sure that the pin out on the LCD matches standatd but Im pretty sure it does seeing as its a Crystalfontz one.
Could also be that the voltage is just oo low, I am going to have to ask the great oracles of nILS, wilba and SmashTV on the midibox chat server.
Will get some midi cables today and then at least I can see if the Core is booting up.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Clean x0x
Was looking around on the x0xb0x forum and it looks like even though there are more kits comming soon for the x0xb0x that the waitlist is about a year, so decided to have a look at self sourcing the parts.
Downloaded the x0xb0x BOM parts list and had a look over it, can get just about all the non rare parts from Mouser in the US on a single order and found a guy selling rare parts kits on Ladyadas forum for $96us including postage. Guy is in Oz, I ordered one so hopefully that will arrive quite quickly.
The parts kits for the MB6152 dont seem to have a date on them so I will probably end up getting the x0xb0x finished before the MB6152 :)
Can get the PCB and panels from adafruit and already have a pactec pt-10 so shouldnt be difficult to get my hands on all the parts.
In the meantime, just waiting on my order to arrive from SmashTV so I can get started on the simple Midibox.
Downloaded the x0xb0x BOM parts list and had a look over it, can get just about all the non rare parts from Mouser in the US on a single order and found a guy selling rare parts kits on Ladyadas forum for $96us including postage. Guy is in Oz, I ordered one so hopefully that will arrive quite quickly.
The parts kits for the MB6152 dont seem to have a date on them so I will probably end up getting the x0xb0x finished before the MB6152 :)
Can get the PCB and panels from adafruit and already have a pactec pt-10 so shouldnt be difficult to get my hands on all the parts.
In the meantime, just waiting on my order to arrive from SmashTV so I can get started on the simple Midibox.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Eureka!
Found the problem! Well, found that there wasnt really a problem, the problem had to do with the way I was measuring the voltage.
Thanks to a conversation with SmashTV on the midibox.org chat server today I worked out that to get the 5v you connect the 5v+ and the 5v ground and to get the 14 v you connect the 9v positive to the 14v+ out and the 5v+ to the 14v + out, resulting in 14v !
So anyway, I now have a working optimal power supply, which is good because I also got a notification from SmashTV that he has shipped my order today. It was sent express so hopefully it will arrive quickly so I can get on with building the midibox.
Thanks to a conversation with SmashTV on the midibox.org chat server today I worked out that to get the 5v you connect the 5v+ and the 5v ground and to get the 14 v you connect the 9v positive to the 14v+ out and the 5v+ to the 14v + out, resulting in 14v !
So anyway, I now have a working optimal power supply, which is good because I also got a notification from SmashTV that he has shipped my order today. It was sent express so hopefully it will arrive quickly so I can get on with building the midibox.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
The Anger Generator
Managed to track down the parts to make the Optimised Power Supply for the Midibox SID (or Anger Generator as I call it).
There was one part which I wasnt able to get and that was the B40C800 bridge rectifier. I tried making my own one out of diodes but it made my head hurt. First attempt at building it was a massive failure so I decided to start from scratch today and have been much more successful.
It didnt help that it seems the more visual schematic I was using had the 5v+ pin on the power marked wrong. A bit of prodding with the multi meter soon sorted out that problem.
Giving up on making a bridge rectifier out of diodes I used a DB104 bridge rectifier, which is rated slightly higher (.2amps and 60v) than the B40800 but this is just a max rating so Ive been advised by nILS that this should be fine.
There is one rather unusual thing, in that on the 14v power line Im getting 9.02v. When I put the multi-meter on the output of the bridge rectifier I get just over 12v. Im not sure if maybe the bridge rectifier is dropping 5v out of it somehow,but I thought that would generate quite a bit of heat, and the bridge rectifier doesnt seem to be getting hot. Becuase the power before the rectifier in the circuit is AC I cant really measure it properly to see what the supply is outputting.
Now as I will be using an 8580R5 SID chip the SID power only needs to be 9v. This would normally be regulated by a resistor on the SID module board but Im wondering if now I can just leave that resistor out. I will have to talk to one of the more learned on Midibox.org to see if anyone has any ideas.
I have tried 2 different power supplies, and even though one of the power supplies makes a disturbing buzzing noise, I get the exact same voltage out of it.
Its progress at least, my soldering is getting alot tidier with all this practice and Im getting pretty decent at de-soldering :)
Click the pic for more.
There was one part which I wasnt able to get and that was the B40C800 bridge rectifier. I tried making my own one out of diodes but it made my head hurt. First attempt at building it was a massive failure so I decided to start from scratch today and have been much more successful.
It didnt help that it seems the more visual schematic I was using had the 5v+ pin on the power marked wrong. A bit of prodding with the multi meter soon sorted out that problem.
Giving up on making a bridge rectifier out of diodes I used a DB104 bridge rectifier, which is rated slightly higher (.2amps and 60v) than the B40800 but this is just a max rating so Ive been advised by nILS that this should be fine.
There is one rather unusual thing, in that on the 14v power line Im getting 9.02v. When I put the multi-meter on the output of the bridge rectifier I get just over 12v. Im not sure if maybe the bridge rectifier is dropping 5v out of it somehow,but I thought that would generate quite a bit of heat, and the bridge rectifier doesnt seem to be getting hot. Becuase the power before the rectifier in the circuit is AC I cant really measure it properly to see what the supply is outputting.
Now as I will be using an 8580R5 SID chip the SID power only needs to be 9v. This would normally be regulated by a resistor on the SID module board but Im wondering if now I can just leave that resistor out. I will have to talk to one of the more learned on Midibox.org to see if anyone has any ideas.
I have tried 2 different power supplies, and even though one of the power supplies makes a disturbing buzzing noise, I get the exact same voltage out of it.
Its progress at least, my soldering is getting alot tidier with all this practice and Im getting pretty decent at de-soldering :)
Click the pic for more.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
More parts arrivals, de soldering etc
Had a bunch more stuff show up. The complete commodore 64 that I had origionally planned to pillage for parts, the 3 power supplies and the LCD screens.
Decided I dont really need to pull the c64 appart now, I have enough power sockets and switches off the rfacemotherboards I bought so I will keep that complete as a momento for now.
Slight prpoblem with the crystalfontz order, I had ordered a red 20x4, a green 20x4 and a green 20x2. They sent me a 20x4 instead of the 20x2, which is the one I had intended to use for the minimal control surface so not really sure what to do. The shipping cost involved in sending it back to replace it will be huge so I have to think about if I want to do the minimal control surface with the 20x4. Im not really sure what the software implications will be as far as the 4 button interface so will have to do a bit more research.
Also got stuck into some de-soldering and managed to get the power socket and switch off one of the motherboards. It was my first experience of de-soldering and the 20 year old solder did not want to give up its bounty. Finally managed to get the solder all sucked out and the parts off, Im sure it will be alot easier next time.
Tried to get some of the parts for the optimised power supply today. Headed down to Jaycar with a parts list and didnt have much luck. The bins are really poorly labelled and organised and the staff arent much use. Ended up comming home and finding the parts on the Jaycar site. Its worth the $5 shipping to not have to deal with the useless staff there.
Got more pics to upload, will do that tommorow, off out to Sonic Tonics 3rd birthday tonight !
Decided I dont really need to pull the c64 appart now, I have enough power sockets and switches off the rfacemotherboards I bought so I will keep that complete as a momento for now.
Slight prpoblem with the crystalfontz order, I had ordered a red 20x4, a green 20x4 and a green 20x2. They sent me a 20x4 instead of the 20x2, which is the one I had intended to use for the minimal control surface so not really sure what to do. The shipping cost involved in sending it back to replace it will be huge so I have to think about if I want to do the minimal control surface with the 20x4. Im not really sure what the software implications will be as far as the 4 button interface so will have to do a bit more research.
Also got stuck into some de-soldering and managed to get the power socket and switch off one of the motherboards. It was my first experience of de-soldering and the 20 year old solder did not want to give up its bounty. Finally managed to get the solder all sucked out and the parts off, Im sure it will be alot easier next time.
Tried to get some of the parts for the optimised power supply today. Headed down to Jaycar with a parts list and didnt have much luck. The bins are really poorly labelled and organised and the staff arent much use. Ended up comming home and finding the parts on the Jaycar site. Its worth the $5 shipping to not have to deal with the useless staff there.
Got more pics to upload, will do that tommorow, off out to Sonic Tonics 3rd birthday tonight !
Friday, September 26, 2008
More orders
The refund from http://www.voti.nl/ finally came through on my credit card so I have placed the order again for:
21 x SW-ROT-01 €18.48 EUR
9 x EE-24LC512-DIP €28.35 EUR
shipping €8.40 EUR
Total €55.23 EUR
The rotary encoders will give me enough to build a complete control surface for one mb_6582 a simple control surface for the simple single SID im building first. theres enough also that I can hopefully expand the control surface on the single SID to include at least a filter section.
The eeproms will give me enough to build a single chip banktsick prototype that will store 128 patches and then also a full 8 chip bankstick to store patches, ensembles etc.
CrashTV was saying in chat the other day that he will probably get my order for MB_6582 baseboards, controll boards, core module and SID module shipped today so hopefully will be able to start construction next week.
21 x SW-ROT-01 €18.48 EUR
9 x EE-24LC512-DIP €28.35 EUR
shipping €8.40 EUR
Total €55.23 EUR
The rotary encoders will give me enough to build a complete control surface for one mb_6582 a simple control surface for the simple single SID im building first. theres enough also that I can hopefully expand the control surface on the single SID to include at least a filter section.
The eeproms will give me enough to build a single chip banktsick prototype that will store 128 patches and then also a full 8 chip bankstick to store patches, ensembles etc.
CrashTV was saying in chat the other day that he will probably get my order for MB_6582 baseboards, controll boards, core module and SID module shipped today so hopefully will be able to start construction next week.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
More arrivals
Another 2 packages today. The first one is the 3 motherboards I bought on ebay the second is the important one, the 10 6582A SID chips!
All of them brand new old stock and manufactured in the same week, week 23 of 1992.
The 6582 SID chip is by most considered to be the best and most stable SID, with the bet signal to noise ratio, made by MOS and CSG. Though there is something to be said for the less stable nature of the 6581 as its the original character of the SID sound and is the most widespread. Unfortunatly though recovered SIDs often have faulty oscillators or filters.
The 6582 was never released in production c64s, they were a replacement part.
Flickr blog posting still isnt working so you can head over to flickr to check out the pics, heres a bit of SID porn for you....
Click for the full set
All of them brand new old stock and manufactured in the same week, week 23 of 1992.
The 6582 SID chip is by most considered to be the best and most stable SID, with the bet signal to noise ratio, made by MOS and CSG. Though there is something to be said for the less stable nature of the 6581 as its the original character of the SID sound and is the most widespread. Unfortunatly though recovered SIDs often have faulty oscillators or filters.
The 6582 was never released in production c64s, they were a replacement part.
Flickr blog posting still isnt working so you can head over to flickr to check out the pics, heres a bit of SID porn for you....
Click for the full set
First parts arrived.
So I got my first delivery of parts last night. It was the PT-10 cases from PacTec.
There are some MAJOR scratches on the aluminium faceplate but its not really a concern as I wont be using those faceplates anyway. Still, pretty poor form.
I have pics on Flickr but the blog posting from flickr doesnt seem to be working. Even test posts fail.
Click below for the full photoset
Also, the order I placed at http://www.voti.nl/ was refunded to allow me to add some 24LC512 banksticks to the order. Of course now I have to wait about 3 days for the refund to show on my card so I can place the correct order. At least it didnt kill my paypal account this time.
There are some MAJOR scratches on the aluminium faceplate but its not really a concern as I wont be using those faceplates anyway. Still, pretty poor form.
I have pics on Flickr but the blog posting from flickr doesnt seem to be working. Even test posts fail.
Click below for the full photoset
Also, the order I placed at http://www.voti.nl/ was refunded to allow me to add some 24LC512 banksticks to the order. Of course now I have to wait about 3 days for the refund to show on my card so I can place the correct order. At least it didnt kill my paypal account this time.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
The happenings so far.
I have been keeping a log of whats been going on with trying to source parts. It was origionally just going to be a build log to keep a record of the time and money I had spent building these but thought I might as well keep a complete record, including all the painful dealings with Paypal and overseas parts distributors.
Heres what I had so far:
Midibox Build Log
15/09/08 Purchase 2x Mainboards, 2x Control Surface Boards, 200 green 3mm LEDs and 200 red 3mm LEDs from SmashTV for $100us + $3 handling and $33.87 shipping for a total of $136.87us
15/09/08 Won auction online for 3x E-boards from C64s with 8580R5 SID Chips. $49us. Waiting to find out the shipping cost.
15/09/08 Bought PacTec PT-10 Case from nz.farnel.com for $45.51nz +$10nz shipping. Total $55.51nz
16/09/08 Bought 10 new 6582A SID chips from ebay. £128.50uk including shipping.
16/09/08 Decided to build a standard single SID midibox SID with simple control surface as a test and to test the SIDs I have bought. emailed SmashTV to ordered the following from SmashTV to build this:
1 x 02 Core KIT with PIC18F4685. Pic header "0000000000000012" 1 x 06 DIN KIt 1 x 13a SID Kit
17/09/08 Got a response from SmashTV. He advised the best way to add to the order was to refund the order and create a new one The order was refunded but now have a problem with PayPal. Not able to complete and order on http://www.avishowtech.com/ now, I have contacted PayPal. 9 emails so far. No response. Was able to pay for the SIDs using PayPal fine.
18/09/08 Ordered 3x LCDs from http://www.crystalfontz.com/: CFAH2004ARMIJT: 1 @ $30.29 = $30.29 - Parallel Character LCD 20x4 - RoHS Compliant - Red LED Backlight - STN Negative, Blue - Transmissive -20°C - +70°C 6:00
CFAH2002AYMIJT: 1 @ $26.00 = $26.00 - Parallel Character LCD 20x2(CFAH2002A-YMI-JP) - (CFAH2002A-YMI-JT may be substituted) - RoHS Compliant - Yellow/Green LED Backlight - STN Negative, Blue - Transmissive -20°C - +70°C 6:00
CFAH2004AYTIJT: 1 @ $34.63 = $34.63 - Parallel Character LCD 20x4 - RoHS Compliant - Yellow/Green LED Backlight - FSTN Negative - Transmissive -20°C - +70°C 6:00 Waiting to hear back about shipping cost. Expecting it to be ALOT.
18/09/08 Called Farnell to fidn out what was going on with the Pactec PT-10. Was advised that minimum order was 24 units for this part and that there would be a 4 week lead time.
18/09/08 Added my name to a bulk order list on midibox.org for 20 red and 20 grey waldorf knobs
18/09/08 Ordered 2x PT-10s directly from PacTec on thier website for $62.61us including shipping
18/09/09 Made the order wtih SmashTV using Azzas Paypal account. Ordered:
1 CORE KIT, OP1=With PIC18F4685 9.95, OP2=0000 0000 0000 0000, SHP=New Zealand-Express Item # id02 $24.95 USD 1 DIN KIT Item # id06 $12.00 USD 1 SID KIT Item # id13a $15.00 USD 1 6582 BASE PCB Item # id72 $20.00 USD 1 6582 CS PCB Item # id73 $20.00 USD 2 LED3MMRED Item # id44 $10.00 USD 2 LED3MMGRN Item # id43 $10.00 USD
Amount $111.95 USD
18/09/08 Recieved the invoice for the knobs. Wasnt able to pay it due to the same PayPal error that I recieved for SmashtTV
19/09/08 Created a new paypal account, associated my credit card with it and test order to crash worked ok. Emailed Goblinz to ask him to send me a new invoice to that address. Paypal suck.
19/09/08 Got notification from Pactec that my cases have shipped ! Also got an email from Crystalfontz. Total including shipping is $135.92US.
22/09/08 Bought 3x c64 power supplies from ebay for $75AU including postage.
23/09/08 Paid 48.12 GBP for 30 Red and 30 Grey Waldorf knobs.
23/09/08 Bought 20 rotary encoders from http://www.voti.nl/ for $26 euro including shipping of 8.60
Heres what I had so far:
Midibox Build Log
15/09/08 Purchase 2x Mainboards, 2x Control Surface Boards, 200 green 3mm LEDs and 200 red 3mm LEDs from SmashTV for $100us + $3 handling and $33.87 shipping for a total of $136.87us
15/09/08 Won auction online for 3x E-boards from C64s with 8580R5 SID Chips. $49us. Waiting to find out the shipping cost.
15/09/08 Bought PacTec PT-10 Case from nz.farnel.com for $45.51nz +$10nz shipping. Total $55.51nz
16/09/08 Bought 10 new 6582A SID chips from ebay. £128.50uk including shipping.
16/09/08 Decided to build a standard single SID midibox SID with simple control surface as a test and to test the SIDs I have bought. emailed SmashTV to ordered the following from SmashTV to build this:
1 x 02 Core KIT with PIC18F4685. Pic header "0000000000000012" 1 x 06 DIN KIt 1 x 13a SID Kit
17/09/08 Got a response from SmashTV. He advised the best way to add to the order was to refund the order and create a new one The order was refunded but now have a problem with PayPal. Not able to complete and order on http://www.avishowtech.com/ now, I have contacted PayPal. 9 emails so far. No response. Was able to pay for the SIDs using PayPal fine.
18/09/08 Ordered 3x LCDs from http://www.crystalfontz.com/: CFAH2004ARMIJT: 1 @ $30.29 = $30.29 - Parallel Character LCD 20x4 - RoHS Compliant - Red LED Backlight - STN Negative, Blue - Transmissive -20°C - +70°C 6:00
CFAH2002AYMIJT: 1 @ $26.00 = $26.00 - Parallel Character LCD 20x2(CFAH2002A-YMI-JP) - (CFAH2002A-YMI-JT may be substituted) - RoHS Compliant - Yellow/Green LED Backlight - STN Negative, Blue - Transmissive -20°C - +70°C 6:00
CFAH2004AYTIJT: 1 @ $34.63 = $34.63 - Parallel Character LCD 20x4 - RoHS Compliant - Yellow/Green LED Backlight - FSTN Negative - Transmissive -20°C - +70°C 6:00 Waiting to hear back about shipping cost. Expecting it to be ALOT.
18/09/08 Called Farnell to fidn out what was going on with the Pactec PT-10. Was advised that minimum order was 24 units for this part and that there would be a 4 week lead time.
18/09/08 Added my name to a bulk order list on midibox.org for 20 red and 20 grey waldorf knobs
18/09/08 Ordered 2x PT-10s directly from PacTec on thier website for $62.61us including shipping
18/09/09 Made the order wtih SmashTV using Azzas Paypal account. Ordered:
1 CORE KIT, OP1=With PIC18F4685 9.95, OP2=0000 0000 0000 0000, SHP=New Zealand-Express Item # id02 $24.95 USD 1 DIN KIT Item # id06 $12.00 USD 1 SID KIT Item # id13a $15.00 USD 1 6582 BASE PCB Item # id72 $20.00 USD 1 6582 CS PCB Item # id73 $20.00 USD 2 LED3MMRED Item # id44 $10.00 USD 2 LED3MMGRN Item # id43 $10.00 USD
Amount $111.95 USD
18/09/08 Recieved the invoice for the knobs. Wasnt able to pay it due to the same PayPal error that I recieved for SmashtTV
19/09/08 Created a new paypal account, associated my credit card with it and test order to crash worked ok. Emailed Goblinz to ask him to send me a new invoice to that address. Paypal suck.
19/09/08 Got notification from Pactec that my cases have shipped ! Also got an email from Crystalfontz. Total including shipping is $135.92US.
22/09/08 Bought 3x c64 power supplies from ebay for $75AU including postage.
23/09/08 Paid 48.12 GBP for 30 Red and 30 Grey Waldorf knobs.
23/09/08 Bought 20 rotary encoders from http://www.voti.nl/ for $26 euro including shipping of 8.60
Ta da !
Decided to make a blog about my synth construction antics.
I am currently sourcing parts to build a few different synths.
I have managed to source just about everything for the first one, which I will use to get familiar with the midibox architecture ebfore delving into the MB_6482.
1. Prototype Midibox SID.
-single SID chip
-simple control surface
-bankstick
-2x20 LCD display
2.MB_6482
-8 SID Chips
-complete control surface
-bankstick
-4x40 LCD Display
3. x0xb0x Roland TB-303 clone.
I am currently sourcing parts to build a few different synths.
I have managed to source just about everything for the first one, which I will use to get familiar with the midibox architecture ebfore delving into the MB_6482.
1. Prototype Midibox SID.
-single SID chip
-simple control surface
-bankstick
-2x20 LCD display
2.MB_6482
-8 SID Chips
-complete control surface
-bankstick
-4x40 LCD Display
3. x0xb0x Roland TB-303 clone.
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