SD MiDi Controller
Hope you don’t mind me posting this video here but for all MiDi organ buffs out there this may be of some interest. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZlMnukh5zc

Looks like a pretty cool device for automating your organ at a rally !! However I don't see it being easy to obtain in the USA for a while. The website mentions that they are going to be sold on EBay though - do you know when this might happen ? Stephen

If anyone purchase's any of the units has a result of this postings please let us know http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140155299454 Item number: 140155299454

Thanks for the info Phil - at the current exchange rate, I won't be buying one of these any time soon :-) I look forward to seeing the UK organ builders making good use of them however !! Stephen

SD MIDI controller
Isn't it this: http://www.mikrocontroller.net/articles/Midi_Rekorder_mit_MMC/SD-Karte I know its in German but translation says its open source and it looks the same.

Sorry for the delay just getting the low down and doing some research before replying. Thanks. Anyway this just in from Robert one of the partner of the SD Midi Controller project. The SD Midi Controller and information contained on the German website do share the same backbone technology, as Simon, who started the original project, is my business partner. Together we have both worked on improving the original designs and now manufacture a fully supported unit. To produce a reliable product the original schematics and code were made Open Source for people with all the specialized equipment (Coding boards and software) to build and -*test*-('"). All this information still remains available today, but without any warrantees or support given for the accuracy or the contents of the original project. With our roots still firmly supportive to advanced Open Source electronic projects we have now made this unit easier for people to build who do not wish to spend hundreds of pounds buying all the required and necessary additional equipment required to build this unit. Today we can offer the main heart of this unit as a Do it Yourself PCB kit with the micro controller already programmed. The wiring off the board to the LCD and Switches via the two 16 pin solder pads, you will still have to design yourself. A typical build time from the original project schematics without our PCB! (Hard Wiring) will take around two days to complete. This does not include the time taken to work out the best positioning of all the components. I have included a few pictures of the rat’s nest from our very first prototype that was hand wired. I’m sure you will see from just these underside pictures, that a self-build may not be as easy as some may be thinking? This is the link to Simons web page: http://www.lehmayr.de/e_mrmidi.htm Best Regards, Robert. I will be posting more photos of the insides of the commercially available SD Midi Controller. Please remember that the first 3 photos or only the development and not the finished product.

File Player prototypes
Just for fun I thought I would post photographs of the Compact flash File player I designed back in 2003. In the background can be seen a "Spencer Chase" evalve with my driver board, this is being controlled by my Octet UM0 clone on the center left side of the photograph. Here is a photograph of the inside of the box. I also have a MMC/SD version In the works, Here is an image of the lash up on one of my rollscanner driver boards Here is an evalve system installed in my Caliola And to be complete a photograph of the front of the organ I should note, that I am just an engineer on these projects. Due to something called RoHS/WEEE, I can not sell these designs into the EU. I am available in the U.S. for custom work, as I can build, and install such systems to order. -julie

I’m just looking in the Sd Midi Controller RoHS Compliance and associated build costs. Will be back with full parts list and cost.

I understand that some people may be under the impression that this unit can be made very cheaply if a person has the full knowledge, skills and specialist equipment required, i.e. for programming the IC, 8-BIT 16K FLASH MCU. It is with this in mind that I would like everyone to be fully aware of the costs involved before attempting to build one of these units and for it to meet with all the European RoHS standards. If anyone is interested I can post a complete parts listing showing accurate self build prices based up on the Farnells current UK prices. In addition I have also double checked the RoHS certificates against every single item used in manufacturing the SD Midi Controller, and I can now confirm 100% Full Compliance. Please excuse me for not publishing the manufacturers and exact part numbers in the posting as it has taken a long time to research. I’m sure self build people who do not wish to purchase the parts from the suppliers of the SD Midi Controller, will soon realise how difficult and time consuming it can be just finding the right parts, let alone how long it will actually take to build one! Fully finished in the same case. (Between 2 – 3 days.)

Hi Phill and others interested in portable player units; Most of the cost is in the PC board. I would recommend PCB-Pool/Beta Layout. They are in Ireland and can take Eagle files. In the US there is a company called Express PC, that I think is now offering a RoHS option. For a mega88/mega168 the "specialist" programmer is about $30USD. The programmer with debug is $50USD. There is also a popular programmer used in the eastern block ( the Balkan countries) called "Ponyprog" which connects to the board via the parallel port and a few resistors. All the programming software is free and part of the GCC project. I personally have not had any experiences with the lead free solders. Here in the Silicon Valley there are regular "free" lectures on the subject, I was at one last week. These lectures deal with things like copper absorption and tin whiskers. Not to mention the paper trail needed to cover ones self from the lawyers. RoHS also covers Bromides in the case plastics, and certain chrome contents in the case screws. Sometimes I think the whole point of this is to exclude the hobbyists from the hobby. Here in the Silicon Valley, we have a 100 year old tradition of amateur radio clubs that date back to the 1890s. These clubs lead to the invention of Television (Farnsworth) and the personal computer(Jobs and Woz) Not to mention RADAR and the microwave oven (Varian.) Yes others took these inventions, packaged them and put their name on them. Nothing wrong with that. In this age, one no longer has to live local to learn this stuff, As my grand parents and their brothers and sisters (My Great aunts and uncles) communicated to the world by short wave radio. My cousins and I communicate via the internet, That got the start here in the phone BBS systems that used the ARPA backbone that linked the colleges and the local labs. One of my favorite websites is the one sponsored by "ATMEL" http://www.avrfreaks.net/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=index&minmax=1 Here one can learn how someone in the Ukraine, converted a scrap hard drive into a steam engine model. A Greek student who is programing a MIDI USB system. Not to mention a lot of other interesting things, Even if they want to repair the player piano with sandwich bag plastic. -julie

Complete parts listing for the SD Midi Controller project. All prices based up on the Farnells current UK prices. And some items in the list are the min quantity that can be ordered.

I did some checking on farnell I see digikey also has a UK site and the prices seem a bit better. for those who want to make a SD controller on the ultra cheap http://uk.farnell.com/jsp/Semiconductors/Development+Tools+&+Programming/ATMEL/ATAVRBFLY/displayProduct.jsp?sku=4745061&_requestid=334623 Links to a 20 pound (cost) demo board which contains an LCD Display and a joystick. This uses the mega169 chip rather than the 168 chip the 169 having more pins to support the LCD. Needed to add to this board are the actual SD socket, an IR remote detector and a pretty plastic case and the MIDI connectors. What is interesting is that the bufferfly demo board costs between 19 and 25 dollars USD. This about 75 percent of the parts listed in Phill's BOM. I guess that comes from building many units vs building a single unit. It would be cheapest to remove the SD socket from one of the cheap SD readers that cost about here about 5 dollars. There is also 512K of flash on the butterfly card which is enough for a single floppy disks worth of MIDI files (about 40 minutes to an hour) So the Butterfly could be used without an SD card, to capture and play back MIDI songs. It would take some effort to modify the "Free" open source code from the mega168 to run on the mega169. Most of this would be changing the LCD drivers. Some of the other changes would be that the pin functions are not in the same place between the two chips, that might affect the SD card driver, which is shared with the internal 512K flash already on the butterfly board. I have all the hardware on hand to -*test*-('") this option and was planning to do so a few months back as I already have my own sequencer program for these chips. It is interesting, almost ironic, in a way to see that the UK BOM prices are comparable at almost a 1:1 level to the US prices, Like only the pound sign is changed for the dollar sign. I guess since the dollar is trading so low these days it makes the stuff seem cheaper here in the states. Do they still have "Dick Smith" stores in the UK? Here we have "Radio Shack" which will sell most of the parts (Other than the ATMEL processor) needed. -julie

Sorry but I only use companies that have all the parts in stock so you may find that prices may differ from suppliers. You will find that most people in the UK don’t bother running round different suppliers just 2 save a penny or 2. And for me I am an account holder for most of the big electronics companies around the world. Small back street retailers are not my thing, most only carry particular lines for a very short time. (Not consistent) and that is not in anyway derogatizing any companies in the above posting. Now again most people in the UK don’t know even were to start on programming, never mind all the equipment that is required to do the job. Now I can say that with some confidence being in the trade for all my life 85% of the public in the UK can’t even program a video timer most don’t even want to know. In fact all they want is something that will do the job and is very easy to use and is very cheep and updateable. I cannot see anyone in the UK going out finding all the parts spending days-building one of the units to save 30 odd pounds when there is one out there ready to go with a guarantee and great backup service. Most have better things to do. Thanks for all your input Julie it is appreciated and helpful. I look forward to reviewing your version of the SD Midi Controller when it’s on the market in the UK. Anyway all this is getting away from my original posting. There is a new unit on the market (SD Midi Controller) that can be used to play your midi pipe organ. So again. Hope you don’t mind me posting this video here but for all MiDi organ buffs out there this may be of some interest. http://www.sdmidicontroller.com/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZlMnukh5zc

Sent to me by email with permission to do what I like with it so here it is. Hi Phil, Julie is really putting a lot of confusion into peoples minds and I wish Julie would explain things in a way that most people can understand, as well as including the hidden costs! The US supplier Digi-Key may look and sound cheaper than Farnell, but she has forgot to mention a person has to spend over £100 or they will have to pay £20 inc of Vat for shipping! The other problem with Digi-Key comes later when UPS deliver your parcel. Before they hand it over the receiver has to pay their service charge, any duty and VAT. For Example, I had to buy some LCD’s from them just over a week ago and made my order up to £119.36. On delivery I then had to pay UPS another £26.15. Farnell’s shipping is next day and free when a person spends over £20! I’m sure everyone reading will now easily understand the parts cost to build a single unit would actually be more expensive from Digi-Key. With regards to programming the chip, Julie only mentions the software side and briefly a bit of hardware. I wonder how many people out their can actually wire of the programming pins from the chip and then make their own cable up? Again the minimum cost here would be a parallel cable, the resistors and a couple of 8 pin connectors. Also needed to add to this board are the actual SD socket, an IR remote detector and a pretty plastic case and the MIDI connectors. What about the buttons and more importantly code required to make these bits work? The 512K of flash memory as one of the designers mentioned has to be shared with the code! In simple terms, it’s like saying an 8"x 6" empty room is a bathroom! Look how much space there is, but you will have to add the bath, toilet, wash basin and other items if you want it to work like real bathroom. LOL This just reminds me of one of my good friends who comes up with simple sounding ideas, but forgets that it is not as easy to do in reality. My son came up with the idea of using an old mobile phone, as it should have all the parts? LCD, buttons, MP3 and lots of other goodies. I left the idea with him. Best *******,

Hello Everybody ! Do you know that with a simple Palm Pilot you can drive any midi item? You can find a Palm on eBay for sometime less than £10....Or even a old labtop can be convenient. I just bought one for 80 euros (£50) I saw in a forum than a French as made a SD card midi reader. I'll tell you when I know more. Chris