You may have noticed that we’re redoing the SIDBox now and I’d like to shed some light on the whole situation, fill in the missing blanks and spaces, especially since its a lovely warm day today and I can sit here and enjoy the sunshine and the breeze along with my fluffy little son <3
We were working on the SIDBox 4.3 (The reason why its up to SIDBox 4.3 already is because Wayne (Electronscape) has already created the first three as personal
projects. I’ve got the SIDBox one and even though its basic compared to the SIDBox I’m used to, its very special and I’m so glad Wayne decided to keep it safe, it will be a relic.
The SIDBox 4.3 we were going to put it onto kickstarter a few times and things went wrong each time.. So I thought it’s time to stop, reflect and listen.
I noticed Wayne frustrated with Microchip and being so dependent on them, sometimes there would be an update which would change something, breaking everything, resulting in him having to spend a day or two fixing something or finding a work around. When times got a bit tough last year and a few unfortunate things happened, Wayne had to move cities and start over from scratch, he couldn’t afford the monthly payments to Microchip to use their compiler, which I think is ridiculous to begin with that he should have to pay. The only one off payment option is a USB stick with their full software which you can buy for £1000 around about.. literally £1k for a usb stick of software?? The SIDBox progress was halted and It was really getting us both down.
In retrospect, the kickstarters not happening for the SIDBox 4.3 were a blessing in disguise. We attempted to set up the kickstarter three times now, once so everyone gets a SIDBox for Christmas 2019 and another the previous year and one time before this, but all three times something came up and stopped everything. I’m now glad they didn’t work out, because each time the kickstarter was hindered, there was a great improvement afterwards, every single time.
So with regards to this Microchip dilemma, and on top of that, Wayne had lost his job just before this pandemic hit and then there was lockdown, I couldn’t sit there and let the SIDbox and both our efforts on it just wither away. There seemed to be no light at the end of the tunnel, no sign of an opportunity to improve the SIDBox
situation at this moment in time.
So I pushed us both as a team to search for a new CPU, to break the shackles of Microchip, go out in the wild and be independent. Wayne understandably protested at first because it would mean we’d have to start from the ground up. It was a situation where one of us was willing to take a chance, take a risk and the other wasn’t. We ended up searching, It felt pointless at first as we couldn’t find anything suitable but the thought of going back to Microchip was depressing, until we found the STM32 chip. We then searched high and low for a dev board, once found, I snapped it up and ordered it, again taking such a risk as it wasn’t particularly cheap, but f**k it, i’m invested in this team and in the SIDBox, there are times we need to take stupid risks, even in hard times such as lock downs where everyone else is going overboard panic buying 15 sacks of rice and store rooms full of toilet paper.
It Finally arrived!! At first getting that going was a pain as Wayne was unfamiliar with it and there wasn’t much documentation.
..Well I mean… it’s the same colour as toilet paper? So money well spent….ahem anyway. Wayne was getting frustrated and kept talking about going back to the SIDBox 4.3.. Despite understanding this very well, I still pushed on ahead, Wayne’s not the best at handling change and even when it’s needed and he’ll resist change even if it’s causing suffering and things are progressively getting worse. Life is not static, it’s dynamic. If a boat is sinking you need to get the f*ck off it!
We ended up having a massive fight over Discord video call which resulted in me slamming my laptop lid shut and throwing it to one side…I know I can also be a stubborn b!tch sometimes but He REALLY p!ssed me off that day.
After a couple of hours, opening up my laptop and replacing the couple of keys that popped out of the keyboard after I had slammed it shut, we agreed to give it another go. He had been researching and I had started to also. Wayne himself discovered a lot from tinkering and is documenting his findings down for anyone else who struggles. We’ve never come across a chip so badly documented! So I could understand his hesitation and panic. All the years i’ve known Wayne, I know when he needs that kick right up his a$$. I know full well when he’s got the ability to do something but is being blinded by panic or uncertainty. 9 times out of 10 he’s succeeded once everything cools down and he gets his head straight.
I knew all this would set progress back quite a bit but I decided to take that risk and push for the STM32 CPU. Now Wayne can progress with the coding and doesn’t have to pay for the compiler and progress is being made!! Sure there were a few adjustments, but also so many advantages, not to mention better chip, we have even got RGB out on this thing now.
…Not to mention more memory for longer Amiga samples, games too now and of course formats like XM have more of a chance to work. XM is weighty and even an Vampire Amiga can just about handle some. S3m was possible with the SIDBox 4.3 but it didn’t like 16bit samples and struggled with more than 8 channels. Now on the SIDBox 5 there is a chance it will be flawless. The SID engine sounds much better. The DAC on the STM is much better.
My room became very busy and still is to this day, MsMadLemon’s humble lair became also the SIDBox headquarters 😉 This new chip has opened new doors and even though the developing for it will take some doing and maybe delay the SIDBox 5 getting out there, but firstly it’s better than standing still and stagnant. This time around we’re working properly as team Wayne can concentrate on the coding while I concentrate on the GUI designs and functionality. I’ve found I had to redesign how certain things worked like the playlist system and the menu system. So I’ve decided to redesign the interface and make it more efficient than the SIDBox 4.3. I will also be designing the case itself using CAD software once the time comes.
With the SIDBox 4.3, I started off as a tester, but eventually I did some basic amendments for the menu system and playlist systems, thought up of the idea of a tracker window as I’ve always wanted one. I did some research on file formats and in-putted some ideas in general. (Kicked him up the a$$ when needed lol)
This time around with SIDBox 5 I’m much more involved, the entire GUI I’ll be designing, as well as menu functionality from the ground up and the outer case which I’ve already got designs sketched up for, but that’s secret for now as I wish to keep that a surprise until its done… I will also be designing and building an add-on for the SIDBox 5 too which will expand it further. I REALLY cannot wait for that.
Oh did I mention that this new SIDBox 5 will be having a bigger and higher resolution screen? Oh yeah, 4 inch instead of 3inch 🙂
So with both of us working on and focusing on different aspects of it, I’m finding we’re going to be getting the SIDBox 5 done more efficiently, quicker than how we were working before and have a nicer SIDBox released.
What about the SIDBox 4.3? Well we still love it dearly, I designed an entire Boombox with it I love it that much, the SIDBoomBox was the most intense project I’ve ever done and it took half a year to do and it all really was based on the SIDBox 4.3 as its really special to me, It will be honoured as a stepping stone to this new one.
However, had I not pushed for the new chip and to redo this thing from ground up again, we would have still been stuck in that rut no doubt and still would have made very little progress with it having to rely on external situations improving.
So the progress continues 🙂
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