Category making things

I have just ordered the last of the parts needed for building the first MIDIbox SID-NUXX. Provided everything goes as planned I will simply have to wait for the parts to arrive, then assemble the synth. If that goes as planned, I can build one for Bryan, a second one for myself, then determine what will be done with the other two PCB sets. :D

Oh, I had to pull a weird hack to order the front panel PCBs. It will require me to cut out the center of each board, but that shouldn’t be too difficult.

Now I’m going home. :D

Paper models of the front and rear panels and associated PCB for the MIDIbox SID-NUXX.

Making paper models of the mechanical parts for things is really handy. For example, the bottom two ones up above there helped me identify a problem with the alignment of the LCD and pushbuttons. Takes about 20 minutes to make, works out really well. Those bottom two are the front panel itself, and the PCB which is sandwhiched between the LCD and the front panel, in order to hold the LEDs, rotary encoder, and pushbuttons.

Oh, and yes, this project is starting to wrap up. As soon as I finalize the design for the front panel and order the parts, it’s all a matter of waiting. Then provided the parts all fit together, it’s all then a matter of final assembly and documentation and the MIDIbox SID-NUXX will be complete.

MIDIbox SID-NUXX Paper Rear Panel Test Fitting

Huh. Imagine that. It fits.

That’s the paper version of the rear panel for the MIDIbox SID-NUXX being test fit before I order a metal one. I’m pretty surprised that it fits, but… I must have done something right earlier. I may make the Audio In / Out jack holes a little larger just to be safe. And I also want to reword the copyright stuff along the bottom, I think.

Oh, and those angled white bits at the top are vent holes. They’ll be open in the real panel.

MIDIbox SID-NUXX Rear Panel Beta
(Click for full res view…)

That right there is my proposed idea for the rear panel of the MIDIbox SID-NUXX. The angled slots at the tops are vent holes, the grey rings around the corner holes are countersinks, and the hashed rings around the Audio In and Out holes denote the space taken up by the plastic retaining nuts.

So, what do you think of it?

I’m not sure about the labeling beneath Power, and MIDI In / Thru / Out. I think that maybe it should be moved up a bit… But when the labels aren’t in a straight line, things look odd. Done. I think it looks okay.

I’m also not sure about the ‘MIDIbox SID-NUXX’ text. It should fit in well, because in real life the vent holes should appear dark. But should I have a bit more text beneath it? Maybe www.nuxx.net? Changed this too. I think it still looks all right.

It works. Makes noises, menus work, etc.

It works. All of it. Everything on the board. Except for one little snag (one part label is printed backwards) the whole thing works as designed.

The input buttons, the LCD, the MIDI LEDs, the memory, all of it.

The voltage regulators run a bit hot (~150ºF when the LCD is connected) when using the 12V SID. Using a 9V one instead should make things a bit better. I don’t like this, but there’s really no easy solution short of using an external switching power supply and redesigning the board. Which I’m not going to do. It’s well within tolerances, though.

I think that next I’ll build a board to handle the 9V SIDs, then I’ll have two complete boards for myself. Then I’ll build either one or two enclosures. I’m also tempted to shove one into someplace interesting… Like a MIDI keyboard. :D

MIDIbox SID-NUXX Mainboard v1.0 S1 PCB – Top
(Click for Mainboard v1.0 S1 Album)

Well, they are here. This means that tonight I’ll be assembling the first of the MIDIbox SID-NUXX Mainboard PCBs. Hopefully they will work. :D

For now I’m going to get some cheese bread from Hungry Howie’s for dinner. I know it’s not healthy, but it’s cheap and easily obtained.

Oh, I need to keep sticking with cheap because I just committed to spending $2525 to have the central air conditioner in my house replaced. This new one should be more efficient and it’ll actually work.

Hrm. I got stuff done today. Personal stuff, but stuff none the less:

· MIDIbox SID-NUXX PCBs ordered: v1.0 S1 (photo gallery retired) (S1 means ‘set one’, as in, the first set of boards I ordered)
· MIDIbox SID-NUXX Bill of Materials mostly published to the forthcoming wiki, which will eventually become all of nuxx.net.
· Watched STS-121 lift off and reach orbit.
· Made more iced tea, and drank almost all of it.

Getting the PCBs to the state of ordering took a lot of time. Much of it involved manually looking over parts and ensuring things are exactly what I wanted, and that they fit. Then the documentation… Waiting for the online DFM check… Needing to eat… Writing a new CAM job… etc.

Anyway, yeah. Now it’s time for bed.

MIDIbox SID-NUXX PCB (In Progress…)
(Click for 300dpi version.)

Ah. It’s finally coming along. I’ve redrawn the schematic (image no longer available) and laid out the board. Now comes the few days of tweaking and polishing and validating that everything seems to be right. Then… The scary part. That is, the day when I plunk down $80 or so to have five of those boards made. And hopefully I’ll have done everything right and they’ll work.

So, yeah. It’s coming along well. I’ve also got all of the basic parts here for the front panel, so I can begin laying that out. That will take a slightly different approach, because I have to fit this LCD, a rotary encoder (or two buttons), six buttons, and two LEDs in the front panel of something about the size of an external hard drive enclosure. Oh, and build a simple board so it can all be connected with a few simple cables.

If you can’t tell, yes, I’m looking forward to it. I really like doing this kind of stuff.