MIDIbox

sammichSID was designed to be the “no excuses” MIDIbox SID synthesizer kit - i.e. for all those people who want a MIDIbox SID but consider building it with modules too time-consuming, too newbie-unfriendly and/or too hard to design and construct a control surface, and where MB-6582 is too expensive, too daunting and/or too hard to source all the parts.

sammichSID therefore has the following design constraints/features, which support each other:

• cheap
• small
• DIY newbie friendly
• minimal control surface
• single “walwart”/AC adapter supply, no C64 PSU brick!
• stereo SID, optimized for 8580/6582A, 6581 optionally supported
• “sandwich-style” stacked PCB design, no wires!
• laser-cut 3mm acrylic case by Ponoko, customization possible
• industry standard 2×20 character LCD with low-power LED backlight, customization possible
• common control surface parts used, customization possible
• To be available as a complete kit, including PCBs, components, case, hardware and (optionally) two 6582A SIDs!

MIDIbox SID Synthesizer V2 features

• One Core module and one stereo SID module, fully integrated on one PCB with power supply.
• Five “BankStick” slots, so you can store 4 banks of 128 patches, plus 128 “Ensembles” (engine and patch configurations)
• Jumpers to configure the power supply, allowing a regulated 12V input to power 6581, or unregulated AC/DC input to power 8580/6582A.
• Minimal control surface with three user-customizable buttons and LED matrix for maximum bling.
• 2×20 character LCD with support for low-power (25mA) or high-power (250mA) LED backlight.
• Potential for future upgrade to MIDIbox SID Synthesizer V3 using add-on board

Buying a kit

sammichSID was planned from the start to be available as a complete kit, so all the hard work of sourcing parts, checking for fit, and refining the design has been done already.

Kits will be packed and sold in batches of 25 or 50.

If you want to order now, just email your details (NOT MONEY!) to: Jason.S.Williams@gmail.com

Include your MIDIbox username so I know who I'm talking to!

“Pre-order” just means I collect your email address, and I reserve a kit for you.

There is no commitment to buy, you can cancel or wait for another batch with no bad karma!

When the batch is ready to be prepared, I'll email people to get confirmation and then send out PayPal invoices. That will happen while I order and collect all the parts and put them into kit boxes.

I do not recommend getting a kit unless you already have SIDs, they are very hard to find now on eBay or anywhere else.

Prices as of 2012-12-07: (actual payment will be in AUD with 3.5% PayPal fee added)

• full kit (no SIDs): 220.00 AUD
• ship to USA/Canada: 34.90 AUD
• ship to EU/UK: 43.00 AUD
• ship to Australia: 13.95 AUD

ALSO Let me know if you're an Aussie, I can help you with a suitable plugpack and give you custom postage cost.

You can find v1.0 of the build guide here (zipped 11MB PDF):

sammichsid_build_guide_v1_0.zip

(I zipped it so you would be forced to download it and not view it in your browser)

Have a read now while you await your kit, you might want to acquire some things before it arrives, like acrylic paint, brush, heatsinking compound, solder…

If your buttons and/or LEDs aren't working properly this app might help you find the problem.

Here are the PCB layouts in PDF format, for troubleshooting purposes. Note the base PCB has ground plane removed, i.e. pins on the ground plane will be shown without any tracks connected to them, but you can tell on the PCB that they are connected to the ground plane.

sammichSID_Base_PCB.pdf

sammichSID_CS_PCB.pdf

Here is a place for people to add links to suitable power supplies.

Jameco: 12VDC 1A Linear Regulated Wall-Wart

(Jameco also offers 500mA if you are not using a high power LCD and know you won't pass that. Since the above is regulated, buying the 1A will work just fine - it's just a few bucks more than the 500mA)

USPS 600 or 1000 Power Supply from Conrad.

Conrad:VOLTCRAFT USPS-600 Power Supply

Buy a T-shirt! Available in three lots of printing colours and many fabric colours!

Mine is white on charcoal, only because I have too many black and red T-shirts already.

Click on the picture!

sfred created a firmware for OLED displays: setup_sammich_sid_8bit-oled.zip