Befaco Muxlicer

[johannes]

Yes, me too. Thanks for look into that, befaco.
I would like to try it.
Is there a special icsp programmer type needed? I ask because i would like to order here in germany… but the linked programmer on ebay is uk based.

[Befacosynth]

Yes, me too. Thanks for look into that, befaco.
I would like to try it.
Is there a special icsp programmer type needed? I ask because i would like to order here in germany… but the linked programmer on ebay is uk based.

If you hold it some time, once this is tested and made official, we could send you a pre- programmed IC and change it yourself!

[johannes]

i appreciate your support! and sure i can wait… just send me message or contact me via this thread when you are done. thanks.

[hemmer]

Hey everyone! This issue regarding unstabilities between notes has been brought to our attention and we are working on it!
If any of you have a ICSP programmer can try this code to check if it helps!

https://github.com/Befaco/muxlicer/tree ... Has_ripple

I picked up an ICSP programmer (actually that one linked) to try this. On my muxlicer unit, the ISCP-marked 6-pins are just six unsoldered holes, and the programmer adapter is female so I can't see a way to attach it. An I missing something obvious?

[Befacosynth]

Nope, nothing ovbious!
You will need to use dual row pin headers, attach them to the ICSP programmer and then hold it against the port in the module during the programming procedure.
Our tests show that this improves the behaviour, but unfortunately there will be some ripple that might drive crazy a quantizer. Still worth trying as it improves quite a lot

[ihav2p]

Thanks for posting this info; it helped me repair a problem on mine.

I haven't seen the schematic but I can say for sure that if the gate jack for that slider is open it will do this. When I received my kit one of the jacks had a pin broken off and was unusable and I didn't have a switched replacement on hand. Since I was so anxious to get the module in my system I went ahead with the build and left out the gate jack for gate 8 (I figured that one would have the least impact and being on the outside much easier to install once I got a replacement.) With the jack out everything worked fine except the slider for gate 8 had no effect.

[MrV63]

Is it normal behavior for Muxlicer to lose its sequence timing when playing with the gate mode knob? If I carefully only move it to 2 gates per step and maaayyybe 3 gates per step, when I come back to 1 gate per step the timing is still usually on but if I ramp up to 4-8 gates per step, when I come back to one gate ps the timing of the sequence is off from its original starting point. It doesn't make sense to me why this would be the case or how using this knob would even be a thing if the rhythm gets thrown off when using it.

[Lurker]

Is it normal behavior for Muxlicer to lose its sequence timing when playing with the gate mode knob? If I carefully only move it to 2 gates per step and maaayyybe 3 gates per step, when I come back to 1 gate per step the timing is still usually on but if I ramp up to 4-8 gates per step, when I come back to one gate ps the timing of the sequence is off from its original starting point. It doesn't make sense to me why this would be the case or how using this knob would even be a thing if the rhythm gets thrown off when using it.

what do you mean with original starting point? if you mean youre trying to keep it start on the same bar with other gear, then isnt it logical that speeding up the sequencer it will get ahead and not match up? you could use a clock or clock divider at specific intervals to the reset if you want to make sure it starts on the same bar every time regardless of speed

[modwiggler]

Is it normal behavior for Muxlicer to lose its sequence timing when playing with the gate mode knob?

No, that sounds strange. I had a quick test on mine and it seems to keep its timing just fine when fiddling with the gate mode. I compared it to another sequence clocked by the same clock and they stayed in sync even if I turned gate mode all the way up and down.

[MrV63]

Is it normal behavior for Muxlicer to lose its sequence timing when playing with the gate mode knob? If I carefully only move it to 2 gates per step and maaayyybe 3 gates per step, when I come back to 1 gate per step the timing is still usually on but if I ramp up to 4-8 gates per step, when I come back to one gate ps the timing of the sequence is off from its original starting point. It doesn't make sense to me why this would be the case or how using this knob would even be a thing if the rhythm gets thrown off when using it.

what do you mean with original starting point? if you mean youre trying to keep it start on the same bar with other gear, then isnt it logical that speeding up the sequencer it will get ahead and not match up? you could use a clock or clock divider at specific intervals to the reset if you want to make sure it starts on the same bar every time regardless of speed

It's not speeding up the sequence. It's just cramming more gates in each particular step so in theory the sequence should remain the same. Now my question is if it actually remains the same in practice.

Is it normal behavior for Muxlicer to lose its sequence timing when playing with the gate mode knob?

No, that sounds strange. I had a quick test on mine and it seems to keep its timing just fine when fiddling with the gate mode. I compared it to another sequence clocked by the same clock and they stayed in sync even if I turned gate mode all the way up and down.

Thanks for checking! That's good and bad news. Good news because I may just have a defective unit. Bad because I just bought MEX and ABC also (brand new factory built) and they both aren't working properly and I'm in process with Befaco of getting RMAs...might have to add this one to that list...talk about bad luck with Befaco. Will have to run some more tests. I'm clocking all my stuff with Pam's New Workout. Will have to try alternate clock source as an A/B.

[Lurker]

Is it normal behavior for Muxlicer to lose its sequence timing when playing with the gate mode knob? If I carefully only move it to 2 gates per step and maaayyybe 3 gates per step, when I come back to 1 gate per step the timing is still usually on but if I ramp up to 4-8 gates per step, when I come back to one gate ps the timing of the sequence is off from its original starting point. It doesn't make sense to me why this would be the case or how using this knob would even be a thing if the rhythm gets thrown off when using it.

what do you mean with original starting point? if you mean youre trying to keep it start on the same bar with other gear, then isnt it logical that speeding up the sequencer it will get ahead and not match up? you could use a clock or clock divider at specific intervals to the reset if you want to make sure it starts on the same bar every time regardless of speed

It's not speeding up the sequence. It's just cramming more gates in each particular step so in theory the sequence should remain the same. Now my question is if it actually remains the same in practice.

ahhh i misunderstood, yeah, that doesnt sound normal, i no longer have mine but dont recall such behaviour

[modwiggler]

Thanks for checking! That's good and bad news. Good news because I may just have a defective unit. Bad because I just bought MEX and ABC also (brand new factory built) and they both aren't working properly and I'm in process with Befaco of getting RMAs...might have to add this one to that list...talk about bad luck with Befaco. Will have to run some more tests. I'm clocking all my stuff with Pam's New Workout. Will have to try alternate clock source as an A/B.

Yeah, that sucks! My Muxlicer is very reliable, and very convenient. My only want is that it would have been nice if it would work as a step sequencer: accepting a trigger to step one step ahead at the time – like Xaoc' Tirana II. But I can usually get the results I need with careful division and multiplication.

[MrV63]

So just tested the Muxlicer with a 2ppqn clock pulse from Silent Way through the OPTX and now the ratchets work as expected so it's some sort of issue with Pam's and the Mux. Not sure what I'm going to do for live performance though since I was planning on having Pam's be the Master clock. In studio, I have Silent Way clocking Pams from Ableton then one channel of Pams to a mult for clock distribution (i tried direct from Pams...same result) but I'm not gonna have that same setup when out and about. As amazing as modular is, it can be so finicky at times. I feel like I spend so much time troubleshooting. Oh well, life could be far worse!

[MrV63]

It's funny because I had a 2ppqn clock set up on OPTX already for another clock module that needed faster timing so I could divide with it. 2ppqn was the magic number. I changed it to 1ppqn and ratchets were all screwed up. Tried 4ppqn and same messed up results. So then I tried sending 2ppqn from Pams instead of 1 and now it works fine. So apparently Muxlicer is extremely particular about the clock pulses it wants. Hopefully if anyone else has the same issue they find this.

[grm]

Hi everyone,

Just tell me if this is the wrong place for this info :

To upgrade the Muxlicer firmware, you can remove the ATMEGA from the Mux, plug it on an Arduino Uno board, and upload the Befaco sketch. Then just put it back in place when it's done.

Doing this, no need for a programmer or UBASP connector.

Please don't laugh at me , maybe this is obvious to a lot of people here, but I lost so much time, as I had not UBASP at home, trying to use an Arduino as a programmer, without any success. Maybe I did something wrong while burning the bootloader, or something else, I don't know.

But I think this worth being mentionned for anymone that could probably meet some similar difficulties.

Cheers,

Michel

when i tried this, my arduino program was lacking the ClickEncoder.h library, and i could not find that when i tried to update the libraries. do you have a hint where it could be found?

[insectdance]

when i tried this, my arduino program was lacking the ClickEncoder.h library, and i could not find that when i tried to update the libraries. do you have a hint where it could be found?

As a similar ad-hoc Ardunio user (solely for firmware updates as of yet) IIRC I grabbed the library off github.

This looks like the one : https://github.com/0xPIT/encoder

[airfrankenstein]

Have you sent a video showing the behavior you describe to Befaco?

Is it normal behavior for Muxlicer to lose its sequence timing when playing with the gate mode knob? If I carefully only move it to 2 gates per step and maaayyybe 3 gates per step, when I come back to 1 gate per step the timing is still usually on but if I ramp up to 4-8 gates per step, when I come back to one gate ps the timing of the sequence is off from its original starting point. It doesn't make sense to me why this would be the case or how using this knob would even be a thing if the rhythm gets thrown off when using it.

what do you mean with original starting point? if you mean youre trying to keep it start on the same bar with other gear, then isnt it logical that speeding up the sequencer it will get ahead and not match up? you could use a clock or clock divider at specific intervals to the reset if you want to make sure it starts on the same bar every time regardless of speed

It's not speeding up the sequence. It's just cramming more gates in each particular step so in theory the sequence should remain the same. Now my question is if it actually remains the same in practice.

Is it normal behavior for Muxlicer to lose its sequence timing when playing with the gate mode knob?

No, that sounds strange. I had a quick test on mine and it seems to keep its timing just fine when fiddling with the gate mode. I compared it to another sequence clocked by the same clock and they stayed in sync even if I turned gate mode all the way up and down.

Thanks for checking! That's good and bad news. Good news because I may just have a defective unit. Bad because I just bought MEX and ABC also (brand new factory built) and they both aren't working properly and I'm in process with Befaco of getting RMAs...might have to add this one to that list...talk about bad luck with Befaco. Will have to run some more tests. I'm clocking all my stuff with Pam's New Workout. Will have to try alternate clock source as an A/B.

[MrV63]

Have you sent a video showing the behavior you describe to Befaco?

I posted a couple more times after that message you quoted. I figured it out. For some reason Muxlicer wants exactly a 2 ppqn clock. That fixed it. Any other ppqn and timing goes off when you ratchet. Strange but glad I figured it out.

[ShaneCrixus]

Hi folks, I built a Muxlicer from a full kit a couple weeks ago, and it doesn’t seem to cycle through steps at all. I can manually change steps using the Address knob, or via the CV input (with an lfo or something) and everything works as it should when I do that, but it won’t cycle otherwise. Doesn’t seem to matter if it’s internally or externally clocked, it just stays on its current step. Components, orientation & soldering looks ok (& there’s no obviously burnt components), does anyone know what would cause such behaviour? Anything in particular that I should investigate? Has anyone had this problem before?

[airfrankenstein]

Hi folks, I built a Muxlicer from a full kit a couple weeks ago, and it doesn’t seem to cycle through steps at all. I can manually change steps using the Address knob, or via the CV input (with an lfo or something) and everything works as it should when I do that, but it won’t cycle otherwise. Doesn’t seem to matter if it’s internally or externally clocked, it just stays on its current step. Components, orientation & soldering looks ok (& there’s no obviously burnt components), does anyone know what would cause such behaviour? Anything in particular that I should investigate? Has anyone had this problem before?

Have you checked that the gate mode potentiometer is not fully ccw and that the leds light when you cycle through steps manually?
Also that the address pot is fully ccw when you flick the switch up to launch the sequence?
When I built my first I thought it wasn't working because of that.
Next step would be to inspect solder joints and check for continuity.

[airfrankenstein]

Cool! 2 ppqn clock...so many idiosyncracies in eurorack - whence the need for utilities like attenuators/verters and doepfer a-183-3.

Have you sent a video showing the behavior you describe to Befaco?

I posted a couple more times after that message you quoted. I figured it out. For some reason Muxlicer wants exactly a 2 ppqn clock. That fixed it. Any other ppqn and timing goes off when you ratchet. Strange but glad I figured it out.

[MrV63]

Cool! 2 ppqn clock...so many idiosyncracies in eurorack - whence the need for utilities like attenuators/verters and doepfer a-183-3.

Indeed, so many. It can be a little frustrating working out all these little things especially when we're talking about multiple modules, their quirks, and the quirks that arise when using them in combination. But after getting through all that, it's a thing of beauty that we are rewarded with for our efforts!

[ShaneCrixus]

Have you checked that the gate mode potentiometer is not fully ccw and that the leds light when you cycle through steps manually?
Also that the address pot is fully ccw when you flick the switch up to launch the sequence?
When I built my first I thought it wasn't working because of that.
Next step would be to inspect solder joints and check for continuity.

Yep, when the gate mode pot is set to anything other than fully CCW it fires off gates as it should.. It's really just that the unit doesn't cycle from one step to the next without something going in to the Address Input jack.. Address pot is definitely fully CCW before flicking the launch switch up.

I'll triple check the soldering!

[ShaneCrixus]

Soldering looks good, but I'm only measuring about 1.8K across the Address potentiometer, could that be the issue? It's a B10K pot..

[grm]

when i tried this, my arduino program was lacking the ClickEncoder.h library, and i could not find that when i tried to update the libraries. do you have a hint where it could be found?

As a similar ad-hoc Ardunio user (solely for firmware updates as of yet) IIRC I grabbed the library off github.

This looks like the one : https://github.com/0xPIT/encoder

thank you, i had found that as well and added it to the library, but when running the update, it is still marked as missing...that and many endless issues i have with the whole arduino stuff and my comp. nothing ever seems to work as it should and does for others...