I started midiboxing years ago, and it’s a well kept secret that I never never finished even one box because I’m a feature creep; always looking to add features even if I might never use them , just because they’re available. This time however I’m going to at least finish something.
To prove it I’ll start posting pics. Here are some of the current state:
The housing with the exposed sides in a couple of layers of primer. Much sanding in between layers of paint.
The hacked keys in the housing, which is rattle can spraypainted matte black by the way, and the unfinished wooden sides and top. The wood used is eucalyptus, and it will receive an oiled finish. I need to visit my friend who owns a table saw to cut the top piece to exact measure though.
The box part on the left side will house the pitch and mod wheels and some joysticks, the panels will be mounted Minimoog Voyager style in a folding piece of the enclosure, that’s not yet visible on the pictures though.
On the left is the Mean Well PSU. I will make a power distribution board to supply all modules with their specific power needs.
On the right are 4 SSM2044 filter boards, and an old style AOUT board.
In the middle is my MB6582. This will be the center piece of the build, though I will create a new frontpanel for it, so essentially only the baseboard will be used.
Not visible in this picture are the guts of my MBFM, who will also be integrated in the build. It will get a “modular” look. The MBFM will be pimped with some external FX as well, but I’m still in the design phase for those; they will be a simple pot-controlled fuzz and low-pass filter. The FX will be a separate “module” as well, enabling and disabling it will be as simple at patching cables to it.
Essentially the build will be 3 midiboxes in one; MBSID, MBFM, and MBKB.
I agree that a VFD would look very cool with this LED color. Unfortunately I only found a compatible display for $80, and this would be for a frontpanel that I would no longer use eventually. If I would have had spare LEDs in the same color it would have been a no brainer to aquire VFDs for this build, but alas I do not have spare LEDs left.
If I find LEDs in this color I will buy enough for the complete build, and go with the VFD displays. If I can’t find the LEDs I will not buy a VFD just to pass it on to the next Midiboxer later. But thanks for the tip, I will keep it in mind
The cyan coloured LEDs of the MB6582 were never bought as “cyan”, instead they were bought as “bright green” iirc. I just bought a lot of bright green 3mm LEDs off Ebay, with a 520nm wavelength. This should produce the same colour.
Now, for the VFD displays, I found some on Ebay but am unsure if they are compatible. Digikey sells some as well and these are compatible as far as I can judge. I’m talking about this unit (datasheet).
It is a graphical LCD but it should be 100% compatible with the HD44780 standard according to the manufacturer.
I also found this 2x40 display, which should be suitable for the FM part.
That looks very sweet indeed! And since you have already done the driver hacking it’s no more than a recompile of the code for me, right? :w00t:
If I may be so blunt; where did you buy yours? I have had too many setbacks in the past years, I’d like to go for the threaded paths as much as possible this time.
Regarding the driver - Yes, a recompilation should be sufficient… it runs very stable for me, have been using it for over a year… but the modified mb6582 hex file is to be uploaded only on the first core (with the display connected) - the other cores will hang, when you put it on (so you cannot “push-redistribute” firmwares from the first core to the other cores, but this is not so important, as there are not soo many MBSID v2 releases in the moment :)).
Yesterday we got around to use the tablesaw for the piece that goes above the keys. It needed a miter and that’s simply impossible to do nicely by hand. After some sanding the unpainted wood got a hardwax oil finish, I had some of that left over from our hardwood floor from years ago. That stuff just does not get old
Anyway, a picture says more than words and who doesn’t love pictures?
Next step will be finishing the piece where the electronics go, this only has one coat of primer on it yet. Hopefully it will only need one coat of primer, but I’ll know in a few days.
The cyan coloured LEDs of the MB6582 were never bought as “cyan”, instead they were bought as “bright green” iirc. I just bought a lot of bright green 3mm LEDs off Ebay, with a 520nm wavelength. This should produce the same colour.
Just look for “Bright Green” LEDs on Ebay, and look at the wavelength they should output, I believe it’s 520Nm. I have received an additional batch of LEDs last week but have not opened the bag, I will check if they have the same color soon.
Beautiful! What are the feedback 1..4 knobs? SID feedback or some kind of filter feedback?
Yes, the SID filter feedback. The buttons will activate EXT IN for each SID pair, the LEDs indicate if EXT IN is on or not, and the bigger holes are for the stereo potmeters. I wanted to have these on the frontpanel instead of the back of the synth. I only need to check if the LED holes won’t interfere with the potentiometers, but I need to check interference for most other holes as well anyway.
Yeap, I wanted to tell you, I think the LEDs are too close to the pots, the skirts of the knobs may be partially covering them.
Also, wouldn’t you like the labeling a little more symmetrical? Maybe LFO,FILTER,ENVELOPE and OSCILLATOR should be a little smaller and rotated 90 degrees CCW, then placed next to each section?
I’m more worried about the body of the pots interfering with the LEDs below the panel. The LED holes are further away from the pot holes than the labeling, and those are about as close as on the standard MB6582 frontpanel, so I doubt it’ll be too tight there. Anyway, I just printed part of the panel and am going to take measurements tonight.
Concerning the section labeling: no, I like it the way it is now. A little haphazard, that goes well with the “badly spraypainted” font. I am considering drawing some sort of borders around them as well, and maybe paste some additional art (paint splatters and such) in the vacant areas.
