nuxx.net
Making, baking, and (un-)breaking things in Southeast Michigan.

Casio SK-1 MIDI Modification v1.1

September 11, 2006


Casio SK-1 MIDI Modification PCB v1.1 (Paneled)

Thanks to everyone who took a look at the schematic for v1.1, the hopefully not screwed up version of my version of the Casio SK-1 MIDI Mod.

Besides not feeding +5VDC into Vcc on all the ICs (doh) and shorting out the LM7805, I also replaced the resistors with 1/4W parts because they are easier to find. Things were cleaned up overall, too.

So, hopefully in a couple of weeks I’ll have these available. For now, I’m just adding rubber feet and using the defective PCBs as coasters.

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Dinner

September 10, 2006


Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier, Roasted Michigan Sweet Corn, and Baked Macaroni and Cheese

Here’s what I made for Danielle and I for dinner. Except she had a glass of Yates cider (from the same batch as what I’m currently fermenting) instead of the beer. That’s some sweet corn from Boyka’s on 23 Mile somewhere around Romeo Plank, baked mac and cheese from the Alton Brown / Good Eats recipe (except made with a vidalia onion and Clancy’s Fancy), and an amazingly smoky beer which only becomes available around this time of the year.

Mmm.

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Waveform vs. DreamHost == Limited Access

September 9, 2006

With the move back to Waveform from DreamHost, there are a few domains which I’ll no longer be hosting. If I have opted not to host your domain, you will receive some manner of communication from me. I’m sending out some of these tonight via LJ replies, as DreamHost is once again being ridiculously unreliable and I’m not certain that email is working very well at all. Other people I’ll likely contact directly, possibly via an instant messenger.

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Casio SK-1 MIDI Modification v1.1 Peer Review Request

September 8, 2006

Hey everyone… As I mentioned last night that I would have to do, I’ve redesigned a bunch of the Casio SK-1 MIDI Modification PCB. This was to fix some { big | fat | stupid | huge | absurd | inexcusable } mistakes made in the original design.

I think the design is now good, but I’m curious if anyone would be able to look it over for me. The schematic I made can be found here in PDF format, and the original which it was designed after (and should be checked against) is here as a PNG.

If you are curious about the board layout, a 300dpi representation of it (without ground plane) can be found here as a PNG.

As notes, the MIDI input section is different, mostly because the original PC900 optocoupler is becoming harder to find. The standard 6N138 is used instead. I also tossed a couple bypass caps near the CPU and ROM, just to help ensure that they are stable.

Thanks very much. :) I’m hoping to order these this weekend or Monday, if possible.

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Yay. I suck.

September 7, 2006

Yep. I fucked up another first run of PCBs. At least I know how.

Too bad it’s substantial enough that I need to order another run.

< sigh >

(I mis-read the original schematic and hooked all the ground pins on all the ICs to 5V. I wasn’t used to the style used in the schematic and I guess I read it how I wanted to, not how it actually was. I’ll fix it, then this project is on hold for a while. Probably until after the PCBs come in and I’ve finished stuffing the 9090 boards.)

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Fuck DreamHost

September 7, 2006

I just ordered a 3Ware 8006-2LP (warning, PDF) hardware RAID controller to be put in the server formerly known as bornslippy.nuxx.net.

Why?

It’s going back to Waveform. I’m fed up with DreamHost’s bullshit. Specifically, how processes are killed after either a certain amount of time or load. The result is that Google is incapable of downloading a full sitemap, some pages of my Gallery don’t load, MediaWiki falls over sometimes, I can’t do a backup using rsync over ssh, etc.

Fortunately I’m still within the DreamHost 97-day money back guarantee thing, so I’m going to try and get the server running at Waveform in that time, then get the year’s payment refunded. If they won’t do it, I’ll initiate a charge back.

Fuck them. Their service doesn’t live up to what the site claims, the downtime was ridiculous, and everything is just slow. Someone tell me why an ls should take 2.45 seconds, and why checksumming a few hundred meg file should take an hour?

Fortunately I just purchased two 320GB disks for my G5, and I can use the 160GBs from it in a mirror in the new server.

< sigh >

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MIDIbox SID-NUXX — Done

September 6, 2006


Three MIDIbox SID-NUXX’s. Done.

They are done. Done done done done done.

More info will be posted later, especially once I finish updating the website entry. I’m just so excited that I wanted to post that now and say that they are finally, finally done. Yay!

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Stuff!

September 6, 2006

The Casio SK-1 MIDI Mod PCBs are in, and they look good.

The cider is fermenting.

I’ve got a MIDIbox SID-NUXX to fix and two PCBs to check over.

The new hard drives for my G5 just came in.

I need to clean my office and kitchen.

Yes, lots to do. I guess I know what I’m doing tonight / this weekend. At least there’s some good thai food waiting for me in the fridge. It’s this stuff, Pad Namprik Pow. Mmm.

Now, to work!

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