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PIC Burner

May 5, 2006

Tonight I made a parallel port PIC programmer from the MIDIbox PIC Burner schematic. Except I left off the power supply (I’ll use my benchtop one (photo gallery retired)) and added a DIP18 socket for the PIC16F88.

I’m able to switch V_PP, V_DD, Data, and Clock on and off with the proper voltages coming out of them. Unfortunately the software isn’t recognizing the programmer nor is it able to identify which PIC has been inserted in it. Ah well, I think it’s a matter of parallel port settings, which I’ll mess with another night.

Oh, and I had to etch two PCBs for it, because I screwed up the first one. I also learned what was most wrong with the PCB for the Casio SK-1 MIDI Modification which I screwed up. I think I didn’t let the photoresist ‘develop’ for long enough. I’ve found that with a fairly warm lye solution (the bottle had been soaking in hot tap water for half an hour) it takes about 1:30. With a room temp / cold solution after 12 minutes things still aren’t right. And when a contrast-y image appears, there is still some photoresist left in some points, which makes for an unclean etch.

At least now I know. Now I can go to bed and stuff. Oh, but only after I wash the lead off of my hands.

Camera Lenses

May 3, 2006

Well, first off, both of my auctions sold via buy-it-now. This is good, especially as I purchased the lenses for less than they actually sold for. Not much less, but I didn’t lose any money.

Second, after talking a bunch with a bunch about lenses, I ended up ordering two lenses instead of the single Canon 60mm macro I had been previously considering.

What I ended up getting is the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II which is an especially cheap 50mm lens which receives some great reviews. It’s less than $80 shipped, and almost every review I read of it says that it’s an excellent lens just to have around.

The second lens I ordered, which also receives excellent reviews, is the Tokina 100mm f/2.8 AT-X 100 PRO D Macro. It’ll do 1:1 (life-size) at 30cm, and seems to be pretty well made.

So, the end result is that for an additional ~$100 I’m getting a 100mm 1:1 macro, a 50mm walk-around / portrait / whatever lens, and protective filters for both. Also, the Tokina comes with a hood in the package….

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SIDbox Update

May 2, 2006

Well, it looks like I’ve identified a problem with the SIDbox layout. Per this thread I shouldn’t be using a stand-alone oscillator for the SID. Whoops. That means any finally assembled boards will have a jumper running from where the oscillator goes over to pin 18 of the PIC. Not a big deal. Won’t break anything, it’ll just work around a potential problem.

Second, I asked the guy who writes and has designed the core of the MIDIbox stuff if he’d be all right with my selling these boards as kits. He had some suggestions, but he sounds pretty okay with it. I’m just not sure I wish to make the investment. The thread about that can be found here if you are interested.

So, I’m laying the board out again, and I’m going to be getting six prototype boards which should work well, but aren’t usable as kit boards.

I guess the question is whether or not I should attempt to put this together as a kit. I’m thinking an initial (or single?) run of 50 would work well… I just wonder if I can afford it. And I still can’t answer the question of why I want to do it. It just seems like something fun to do.

electronics making things moved from livejournal

Canon 50mm EF Macro Lens For Sale

May 1, 2006

Well, I put my macro lens up for sale on eBay. Hopefully I’ll net just over $400 after I sell it.

On top of my grey market question from previously, is there any reason you all can see not to buy a refurb lens? I can get the lens in question (the Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM) for $299 refurbished, $379 grey market, or $384 new. I’m really thinking I should go with the $299 refurb one, as that’s a huge savings. The lens hood will add another $27 or so, but that’s all right.

The auctions I’ve posted can be seen at the following two URLs, which will become active after 10:00pm EDT and 10:30pm EDT respectively:

Canon EF 50mm f/2.5 Compact Macro — LIKE NEW 50
Canon Life-Size Converter EF – Like New! Macro 50mm 50

If any of you would like to buy either of these pieces, please let me know before the auctions start so that I can cancel them.

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SIDbox v1.2 — Boards Ordered

May 1, 2006

SIDbox PCB Layout v1.2
(Click for SIDbox Gallery…)

Well, I did it. I just submitted an order with PCBFABEXPRESS for six PCBs made to the board layout seen above. US$78 for the boards and $15 shipping, and I should have them some time next week. I also placed an order with Mouser for the ‘new’ PICs (PIC18F4620), the parts for the new MIDI input / output handling (the IIC MIDI Module as opposed to straight off the PIC), and the stuff for a PIC programmer I’m piecing together.

With any luck I’ll have a working SIDbox prototype by the time I head off to the UK. This will be nice. If everything is as I hope, from here on out I’ll just have to etch one more PCB and everything after this will be soldering and assembly. Well… Except for the design of the rear panel for the case, but that won’t happen until I’m certain that I have a functioning board / synth.

Oh, I just remembered that I also need to pick up a USB to MIDI adapter… Hrm. Okay, have to find one of those. Still, things are coming along nicely.

This weekend I headed up to the northern Lower Pennisula (of Michigan) to visit my grandparents and meet up with for dinner. I also went to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (and received a mighty sunburn) and Hartwick Pines State Park. Photos from each are forthcoming.

I guess tonight I’ll just go and try to acquire some PCB etchant from Radio Shack. Then I’ll confirm / finalize this PCB design for the PIC programmer, etch it, and… That’ll probably be the whole evening.

electronics making things moved from livejournal travel

Macro Lenses

April 28, 2006

Well, I think I’m going to get a new macro lens. I’ve currently got the EF 50mm f/2.5 Compact Macro with the Life-Size Converter EF and it makes for a really nice setup. However, with the Life-Size Converter attached, I can’t focus past maybe 2m, so it makes the lens macro / close up only.

I think that I’m going to purchase the EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM and off the 50mm and Life-Size Converter on eBay. I should be able to get enough to at least cover the cost of the new lens. The 60mm should be a good replacement, because then I can use it for both macro and walking around, and as a USM lens it should be a good bit easier to focus manually.

So, yeah. New lens. I think. I’ll probably wait until Monday to decide, though… I don’t want to rush into this decision too much. Also, the two camera shops I’d likely order from are Jewish-owned and thusly closed for the Sabbath. Even if I order the lens now, it won’t ship until Monday.

I also finially ordered a circular polarizer. I should be getting a 67mm Hoya S-HMC Circular Polarizing filter via eBay well… Hopefully soon. I wish I had it for tomorrow, but alas… I don’t.

Oh, yeah, I’m hoping to go to Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes tomorrow. That should be nice. I hope.

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eBay C64 Issues

April 28, 2006

Well, the problems with the eBay auction for the C64s is working out well. I’m talking to the guy on AIM and it seems my shipment did get mixed up with one from another auction.

It seems like everything is going to get sorted out. I may end up with only one SID out of the deal, but that’s all right.

acquired things computers moved from livejournal

eBay Wins Again!

April 27, 2006

While I don’t normally have a problem with eBay auctions, I’ve just had the first transaction which may turn into an issue.

In this auction, #8796103506 I won a C64 and spare motherboard. The auction lists the items as follows:

Hello and welcome to my auction!
What I have here is a Commodore 64 unit with a spare motherboard for parts / chips. It's in great shape but I no longer have the power supply for this unit...therefore I was unable to test it before I put it up for auction. I remember it working when put in storage years ago but as with anything recently untested of this age..it is...yep you guessed it...as is. I'm thinking that this would be a great chance to grab some sid, vic, or ram chips for your next project. I just need to clear everything out of my house! If you can give these units a good home this please feel free to bid!
Thank you, take care, and good luck!

The description doesn’t sound too bad, and with the photo (mirrored here) showing an intact C64 and a board with all chip locations populated, I figured it would be a reasonable place to look for a few SIDs.

Well, what I ended up receiving is what you see above. The C64 is missing keycaps, the motherboard is missing parts, and its layout doesn’t even match the one shown in the auction. I can understand untested, but wholly misrepresented? I’d rather not go through the whole process of reporting the person to eBay and PayPal and whatever else is involved in handling this. < sigh >

I’ve sent the person the following message, so we’ll see what becomes of it all:

Tyler,
I received the C64 and spare motherboard today. Thanks for getting those out so quickly. Everything was also very nicely packed. However, there is a bit of a problem with the items I received. The items I received don't match the photo nor description in the auction. First, the 'spare motherboard' doesn't match the photos, and is missing parts which are clearly shown in the photos. Second, the 'whole' C64 is missing keys which are shown in the photo, and parts have been removed from the inside of it. Most notably the CPU and SID. While I understand that the auction was for untested parts, the parts I received are clearly different from those described and pictured in the auction. I have photos of the items I received today available for you as proof if you wish to review them. Please contact me as soon as possible about this, as I'd like to get everything sorted out as easily as we can manage. Thank you,
-Steve

Sure, it was only $18 or so, but I could really use the parts there. Reading into what I’ve found on him thus far on Google, he seems to be a bit of a musician. I’m wondering if he bought some C64s for SIDs, parted them out, and is trying to dump them on eBay with false photos and misleading descriptions. I’m hoping that he just was running multiple auctions and send me the wrong parts. But hopefully he can correct the problem.

We’ll see.

acquired things computers moved from livejournal

PICs, SIDbox, and Mistakes

April 27, 2006

Microchip PICkit2 to DIP40 Adapter

Okay, so this post is going to contain lots of babbeling as I try to get my thoughts together…

First off, it seems that I made a bit of a mistake with this SIDbox I’m working on. The mistake stems from my thinking that the PIC18F452 is part of the PIC18F4520 and can thereby be programmed with the PICkit2 which I have. I was wrong.

Based on this faulty thinking, I both built the PICkit2 to DIP40 adapter (photo gallery retired) which you can see above and included support for using this programmer in the SIDbox (photo gallery retired) I hope to build.

So now I’ve got some hardware / connectors on the SIDbox PCB which are pretty much useless as the device would normally work.

At this point I have two choices…

The first is to build a new PIC programmer (probably connected to a serial port) which will properly flash the PIC18F452 using the 1×6 pin header found on the DIP40 adapter (photo gallery retired) and the SIDbox (photo gallery retired) and use the existing hardware layout and order the PCBs.

The second option is to use a newer PIC, the PIC18F4620, on the SIDbox instead. This has the advantage of being completely compatible with my programmer and thusly the adapter and the programming hardware on the SIDbox board. However, there appears to be a bug in the hardware of the PIC18F4620. The end result of this bug is that one can’t use a MIDI output directly from the chip. So, I’ll have to add some additional hardware to provide MIDI output. On the upside, this extra hardware (the MIDIbox IIC MIDI module) provides for MIDI LEDs, making part of my existing design redundant. That means some board space is freed up for the new hardware.

So, at this point I’m not completely certain what to do, but based on the responses I am getting to this post at the MIDIbox forums, I think the second option is going to be the best one. In fact, I’m going to change the schematic and start laying out the board for this now. Just in case I decide that’s the best way to go.

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SIDbox Update… Again…

April 25, 2006

SIDbox PCB Layout
(Click for more of the SIDbox album…)

Nope, there’s not much in the SIDbox (photo gallery retired) album yet, but I do have what I believe to be the final schematics and PCB layouts. I’m just waiting on some parts from Mouser and Digi-Key to arrive so I can confirm the desired layout, then I’ll place the order for everything.

Also, here is a post I made to the MIDIBOX.ORG Forum about the project:
Cut to save page space…

electronics making things moved from livejournal