My Progress

[kb9jlo]

Well, I've etched the boards (used Dmitri's design - 2 boards), collected the parts, had Dmitri program the bootstrapper into a chip, and put it all together.
After some issues (I mistakenly used a male DB9 for my ICSP) I got my PIC chip programmed. I used a parallel port programmer and another software programmer to get it done. I got the errors but I saw that this is not unusual.
I was able to program my Atmel 644 chip.
No smoke anywhere - so the smoke test passed!
I can see the copyright screen and I can scroll through all the menus.
My PC sees the MD and correctly recognizes it! MCT seems to talk to it just fine as well.

[A] After 10 seconds I see the VU meter screen. It looks like some of the 'triggers' are "on" so I'm assuming that's problems with my analog board... Also the LED is 'ON' all the time. I tried wiring up a piezo to a plug and I got sporadic readings on the VU meter, not what I thought so I'll have to do some investigating of the board and cable...
Any hints or suggestions on this area? Any 'obvious' things to look for?

[B] Moved to software area...

[C] I have some issues with contrast, I'm going to review the help forum topic on that but I suspect my backlight might just be too bright. The contrast 'buttons' do work, just not enough range in the contrast.

I have to tell you this is pretty neat. And starting from scratch to get to this point is very satisfying.

Dan

[dmitri]

[A] After 10 seconds I see the VU meter screen. It looks like some of the 'triggers' are "on" so I'm assuming that's problems with my analog board... Also the LED is 'ON' all the time. I tried wiring up a piezo to a plug and I got sporadic readings on the VU meter, not what I thought so I'll have to do some investigating of the board and cable...
Any hints or suggestions on this area? Any 'obvious' things to look for?

Try it without connecting the Analogue board. If the problem goes away than you guessed it right - there is a problem on the Analogue board.

[B] Moving on from here - I need some help figuring out how to get this thing to make some "noise" at some point. I have Toontrack Solo & EZ Drummer. I can see the MegaDrum and make it my MIDI device but I have no idea how to go from there. I have not chosen any software in particular. I'm mainly only interested in using the PC as a sound box.
Does anybody have a "dummy's guide" to getting beyond, the Yes it works stage now let's make some noise??
I haven't played drums in years and this was how I decided I would get back into it. I'm very computer savvy but I have no experience with MIDI or sequencers...
How about a really dumb app that just lets you know, yes, you can trigger a sound??

This really should go into "Related Software" subforum.

[C] I have some issues with contrast, I'm going to review the help forum topic on that but I suspect my backlight might just be too bright. The contrast 'buttons' do work, just not enough range in the contrast.

Make sure C9 is really 100n. Make sure R21 is 1k. Make sure R19 is 10k. If all is right try 5k-15k resistors in place of R19.

[kb9jlo]

Thanks Dmitri. I knew you'd have an answer!

I will post [B] over in the other forum.

But hey, I'm happy I got this far by golly! I really feel like I accomplished something. This was the first project where I etched my own boards. That was really neat getting that to work. I will admit though I cheated and used the Press'n'peel blue film instead of regular paper. It works well -- expensive but I had several sheets.

Thanks again!

Dan

[kb9jlo]

[A] After 10 seconds I see the VU meter screen. It looks like some of the 'triggers' are "on" so I'm assuming that's problems with my analog board... Also the LED is 'ON' all the time. I tried wiring up a piezo to a plug and I got sporadic readings on the VU meter, not what I thought so I'll have to do some investigating of the board and cable...
Any hints or suggestions on this area? Any 'obvious' things to look for?

Try it without connecting the Analogue board. If the problem goes away than you guessed it right - there is a problem on the Analogue board.

Unplugging the analog board gets rid of all the VU 'bars' except the first one on the top row (LH side - HH controller?). And the MIDI LED goes out now!

Dan

[dmitri]

Unplugging the analog board gets rid of all the VU 'bars' except the first one on the top row (LH side - HH controller?). And the MIDI LED goes out now!

So you need to carefully review the Analogue board and its connection to the Digital board.

[kb9jlo]

Okay, here's my latest report. I found two spots on the PCB where the traces had gaps. I soldered a small piece of wire across those and it seems to work just fine now.
I hooked it up and can see MIDI values now.
I've put it in the box and I need to hook up some more jacks and test the other inputs.

I have my first drum nearly done. It is dual zone of the Hellfire Drums cake pan design.
http://sites.google.com/site/on30ng/edrums

I'm sure I'll have more questions. Now begins the process of learning how to hook all this up, tweak everything and make it work!

[jman 31]

Great job! I remember when I got mine working properly for the first time I was pretty happy too. Have fun!

[kb9jlo]

Great job! I remember when I got mine working properly for the first time I was pretty happy too. Have fun!

Thanks Jman. Hope to get it into a case this week. Then I have to get some more drums going.