Xoxbox sequencer doing odd things. Digital Chip Question?

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Martinukai
 
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Xoxbox sequencer doing odd things. Digital Chip Question?

Post by Martinukai »

Hi folks.

My xoxbox sequencer plays for 16 notes then stops and begins to emit intermittent bleeps, squeals and random noise thereafter. The leds move from 1-16 then stop... and then all that can be heard is that randomness.

I reckon the sequencer is pretty broken, so my question is, if I simply install a new "ATmega162 micro controller" chip or similar, will that solve all sequencer malfunctiony woes?

That chip seems to be the brains of the xox's digital interface.

Any tips much appreciated.

Thanks!

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mmm
 
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Re: Xoxbox sequencer doing odd things. Digital Chip Question

Post by mmm »

The ATmega contains both the processor and the firmware for it. It might be that the firmware is corrupted and needs to be reflashed. However I could also imagine that the contents of the EEPROM (read: the patterns) somehow got corrupted.
Can you connect to the xoxbox via USB?

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Martinukai
 
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Re: Xoxbox sequencer doing odd things. Digital Chip Question

Post by Martinukai »

Thanks for getting back MMM.

Well, I bought it used and it worked ok for a while and then this just randomly started happening without me connecting it via usb or doing anything to firmware via computer.

I have a mac and I had no success trying to connect it via usb. From what I understand, it is near to impossible to update firmware from mac.... am I wrong?

Thanks!

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mmm
 
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Re: Xoxbox sequencer doing odd things. Digital Chip Question

Post by mmm »

Firmware updates are no problem from a Mac; I just did this today several times. You need to use BANNED for this:

http://antonsavov.net/cms/projects/BANNED.html

I'm not sure if one needed to install the FTDI driver for this; it's been a while.

Maybe antto will also chime in about this.

Anyway; I'd suggest first trying to re-flash the firmware. If that isn't helping we'll look further.

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Martinukai
 
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Re: Xoxbox sequencer doing odd things. Digital Chip Question

Post by Martinukai »

Thanks again for your help MMM.

For the meantime I went and installed conbox. I also installed the drivers that it recommends, but conbox crashes just as soon I open it, every time.

I've got a macbook pro 2011 running OSX Yosemite 10.10.2

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mmm
 
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Re: Xoxbox sequencer doing odd things. Digital Chip Question

Post by mmm »

That's difficult to debug from afar.

I'm using BANNED under 10.6.8 without problems. Perhaps you could try to find someone with an older Mac oder with a Windows machine and try it again?

Where are you located? If everything else fails I could fix your xoxbox myself for a small fee - but that would only make sense if you were in Europe.

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rv0
 
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Re: Xoxbox sequencer doing odd things. Digital Chip Question

Post by rv0 »

send a mail to rv0soft AT gmail DOT com for a version of BANNED that works with latest OSX..

We haven't gotten round to make a proper release, is on my todo

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Martinukai
 
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Re: Xoxbox sequencer doing odd things. Digital Chip Question

Post by Martinukai »

Thanks so much for the tips MMM and darffader. And thanks for the offer to look at it MMM. I eventually got it to load the latest Sokkos via con box. It works fine but it seems to play notes obviously late when being sent the midi clock from an Elektron Octatrack. I tried the send from an Elektron Analog Rytm and the same issue is evident.... Hmmmmm.

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antto
 
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Re: Xoxbox sequencer doing odd things. Digital Chip Question

Post by antto »

when it runs late compared to the master - does the lateness get bigger if you turn the tempo on the master waaay down like 30BPM or does it stay the same?

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Martinukai
 
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Re: Xoxbox sequencer doing odd things. Digital Chip Question

Post by Martinukai »

Hard to tell, as when it's going slower the delay is obviously much more noticeable. I'll play around with it tomorrow and see if I notice this. Thanks:)

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antto
 
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Re: Xoxbox sequencer doing odd things. Digital Chip Question

Post by antto »

that's what i meant.. if the delay between the two machines is smaller at fast tempo, and gets longer on slower tempos - the problem is either a missed midi clock or one of them running in advance
in other words, a midi implementation issue

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