Sunday, 24 October 2010
Solenoid Drum Machine
Based on PIC16F688 and building on the MIDI input code used on my earlier POKEY project
include <system.h>
#include <memory.h>
#pragma DATA _CONFIG, _MCLRE_OFF & _WDT_OFF & _INTRC_OSC_NOCLKOUT
#pragma CLOCK_FREQ 8000000
typedef unsigned char byte;
// define the pins
//#define P_LED portc.0
// MIDI defs
#define MIDIMSG(b) ((b)>>4)
#define MIDICHAN(b) ((b)&0xf)
#define MIDIMSG_NOTEON 0x09
#define MIDIMSG_NOTEOFF 0x08
// MIDI message registers
byte runningStatus = 0;
int numParams = 0;
byte midiParams[2] = {0};
#define SZ_RXBUFFER 20
byte rxBuffer[SZ_RXBUFFER];
byte rxHead = 0;
byte rxTail = 0;
int tmr[4] = {0};
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// INTERRUPT HANDLER CALLED WHEN CHARACTER RECEIVED AT
// SERIAL PORT
void interrupt( void )
{
// check if this is serial rx interrupt
if(pir1.5)
{
// get the byte
byte b = rcreg;
// calculate next buffer head
byte nextHead = (rxHead + 1);
if(nextHead >= SZ_RXBUFFER)
{
nextHead -= SZ_RXBUFFER;
}
// if buffer is not full
if(nextHead != rxTail)
{
// store the byte
rxBuffer[rxHead] = b;
rxHead = nextHead;
}
}
}
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// INITIALISE SERIAL PORT FOR MIDI
void init_usart()
{
pir1.1 = 1; //TXIF
pir1.5 = 0; //RCIF
pie1.1 = 0; //TXIE no interrupts
pie1.5 = 1; //RCIE interrupt on receive
baudctl.4 = 0; // SCKP synchronous bit polarity
baudctl.3 = 1; // BRG16 enable 16 bit brg
baudctl.1 = 0; // WUE wake up enable off
baudctl.0 = 0; // ABDEN auto baud detect
txsta.6 = 0; // TX9 8 bit transmission
txsta.5 = 1; // TXEN transmit enable
txsta.4 = 0; // SYNC async mode
txsta.3 = 0; // SEDNB break character
txsta.2 = 0; // BRGH high baudrate
txsta.0 = 0; // TX9D bit 9
rcsta.7 = 1; // SPEN serial port enable
rcsta.6 = 0; // RX9 8 bit operation
rcsta.5 = 1; // SREN enable receiver
rcsta.4 = 1; // CREN continuous receive enable
spbrgh = 0; // brg high byte
spbrg = 15; // brg low byte (31250)
}
byte rxInc(byte *pbIndex)
{
// any data in the buffer?
if((*pbIndex) == rxHead)
return 0;
// move to next char
if(++(*pbIndex) >= SZ_RXBUFFER)
(*pbIndex) -= SZ_RXBUFFER;
return 1;
}
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// RECEIVE MIDI MESSAGE
// Return the status byte or 0 if nothing complete received
// caller must check midiParams array for byte 1 and 2
byte receiveMessage()
{
// buffer overrun error?
if(rcsta.1)
{
rcsta.4 = 0;
rcsta.4 = 1;
}
// any data in the buffer?
if(rxHead == rxTail)
return 0;
// peek at next char in buffer
byte rxPos = rxTail;
byte q = rxBuffer[rxPos];
// is it a channel msg
if((q&0x80)>0)
{
runningStatus = 0;
switch(q&0xf0)
{
case 0x80: // Note-off 2 key velocity
case 0x90: // Note-on 2 key veolcity
case 0xA0: // Aftertouch 2 key touch
case 0xB0: // Continuous controller 2 controller # controller value
case 0xC0: // Patch change 2 instrument #
case 0xE0: // Pitch bend 2 lsb (7 bits) msb (7 bits)
runningStatus = q;
numParams = 2;
break;
case 0xD0: // Channel Pressure 1 pressure
runningStatus = q;
numParams = 1;
break;
case 0xF0: // (non-musical commands) - ignore all data for now
return q;
}
// step over the message
if(!rxInc(&rxPos))
return 0;
}
// do we have an active channel message
if(runningStatus)
{
// read params
for(int thisParam = 0; thisParam < numParams; ++thisParam)
{
midiParams[thisParam] = rxBuffer[rxPos];
if(!rxInc(&rxPos))
return 0;
}
// commit removal of message
rxTail = rxPos;
return runningStatus;
}
else
{
// remove char from the buffer
rxInc(&rxTail);
return q;
}
return 0;
}
void main()
{
// osc control / 8MHz / internal
osccon = 0b01110001;
// timer0... configure source and prescaler
cmcon0 = 7;
// enable serial receive interrupt
intcon = 0b11000000;
pie1.5 = 1;
// configure io
trisa = 0b00010000;
trisc = 0b00110000;
ansel = 0b00000000;
porta=0;
portc=0;
memset(tmr,0,sizeof(tmr));
// initialise MIDI comms
init_usart();
// loop forever
for(;;)
{
// get next MIDI note
byte msg = receiveMessage();
if(msg)
{
byte note = midiParams[0];
if(note >= 48 && note < 52)
{
int which = note-48;
// 0x90 note on
// 0x80 note ff
if((msg & 0xf0) == 0x90)
{
tmr[which] = 200;
}
}
}
for(int i=0;i<4;++i)
{
if(tmr[i] > 0)
tmr[i]--;
}
porta.2 = (tmr[0]>0)?1:0;
portc.0 = (tmr[1]>0)?1:0;
portc.1 = (tmr[2]>0)?1:0;
portc.2 = (tmr[3]>0)?1:0;
}
}
Saturday, 18 September 2010
Tesla Coil Diary - Part 1
I got all the information and many great tips of websites of other coilers and have borrowed many ideas. I will try to remember and credit as much as I can.
I started off by getting this neon transformer
its a 10kV 50mA F.A.R.T. (oh the fun!) Resinblock. Here is my first try out of it, making a Jacobs ladder from coat hanger wire....
So far so good...
After a bit of online reading I eventually decided to wind my secondary coil on 125mm PVC ducting pipe (After deciding the 68mm drainpipe I first bought was just too wimpy). I got a nice 2Kg reel of 0.71mm magnet wire from ebay and got winding. I initially rigged up a motor driven jig to wind the wire but ended up winding by hand so I could keep a good tension on the wire (The motor came in very useful later while varnishing). I wound 800 turns in a couple of hours then put on about 5 coats of polyurethane gloss varnish. I used kapton tape to secure the outer windings (I owe http://deepfriedneon.com/ for many tips I used ... given my DIY prowess, without this information I would have ended in disaster I am sure)
Here is my winding rig...
Wednesday, 30 June 2010
DIY Boss PC-2 / Amdek PCK100 Analog Percussion Synth
Apart from a bit of novelty value I gotta be honest they didn't get a lot of use... I think the HC-2 got chucked during a house cleanout and the PC-2 was sold on ebay a few years back (and was amazed to get £100 for it). Well now I am kicking myself and wished I'd held on to these two collectables.
So when I saw the schematic of the Amdek PCK100 online (actually a kit form of the PC-2 sold by a Roland affiliate) I decided to try to make one and once again re-live boingy noise heaven.
On the page http://www.effectsdatabase.com/model/amdek/pck100 where I found the schematic I also found a photo of the PCB and decided to try to use it directly. With some manipulation in Paint Shop Pro and the use of Press'n'Peel PCB etching film I was able to make a copy of the board and after working out some workarounds (e.g. using BA6110 instead of ultra-rare BA662A VCA chip) I actually got it to work.. So in case you're interested ..here is how I did it
1) I started off with this photo of the track side of the original PCB
2) Turned to mono, upped the contrast, then very carefully use the "eraser" tool to ensure there are good clean gaps between all the tracks
3) Marked drill holes with circles
4) Drop colour depth to 2 colours
5) Negative image and a few embellishments and its ready to press'n'peel
6) Laser printed etch-resist transferred to copper clad board using a hot iron
7) Etched, drilled and trimmed ready for components
I mounted the board inside a project box from Maplin. By the way I have a thing for Dymo embossed label tape :)
The Amdek user guide gives info on some mods to the board (VCO wave form change, mod waveform change) which I added toggle switches for. Usually the Sweep control is a center tap pot.. I didn't have one so I instead rigged up a DPDT toggle and a resistor to a normal pot so that the same effect could be acheived (although I am not sure it works so well)
The original board calls for a Roland BA662A VCA chip... you won't find one! you can use a similar BA6110 chip but the pinout is different. I found the following worked
- socket 1 connect to BA6110 pin# 4
- socket 2 connect to BA6110 pin# 2
- socket 3 connect to BA6110 pin# 1
- socket 4 no connection. BA6110 pin#3 connected to GND (pin 5)
- socket 5 connect to BA6110 pin#5
- socket 6 connect to BA6110 pin#6
- socket 7 connect to BA6110 pin#7
- socket 8 connect to BA6110 pin#8
- socket 9 connect to BA6110 pin#9
Tuesday, 11 May 2010
Battlezone with lasers
A few months back I got a 20kps laser scanner galvo set off ebay with the intention of making my own laser projector and a vision of using it to play some old vector arcade games... particularly my old fave Atari Battlezone. The arcade game bit seemed pretty easy, since you can play BZ on the open source MAME emulator so I thought I could hook into the vector terminal emulation.
I found the asynchronous UART on an Arduino board was not quite fast enough to cope with the data... dropping bits all over the place, so I started looking at a USB conneciton to a PIC2455. As a SourceBoost C user I was not able to find any easy to understand USB CDC (Communication Device Class, a.k.a serial port) implementations for the PIC - so I decided to make my own, leaning heavily on sample code I found online.
Well I finally got to the point where my PIC would connect via USB show up as a COM port and be easy to access from a Windows program. Then I hooked up an 12-bit SPI dual DAC and connected it to the galvo setup and tried the first random hacking into MAMEs vector module.
I didn't expect it to work first time, and didn't! but my impatient hacking did produce some interesting squiggles at about 2 fps. I needed to use a long exposure photograph to actually make sense of it, but eventually I recognised a couple of parts of the display and got quite excited that the concept was proved!
The coordinate handling is obviously messed up and the image is wrapping on itself multiple times, also there is no attempt at blanking yet - so there are stray lines all over. The big job will be to find some way to optimise the render list to stop throwing the galvos all over the place and improve on the 2 fps refresh!
As you can see I have a long way to go!
Here is the plot showing the bits I recognised
Monday, 3 May 2010
Motion detection to midi with puredata
I put the pd patch at http://sites.google.com/site/skriyl/Home/pd-projects (motion noise.pd)

The patch outputs on midi channels 1 and 2. I used midi yoke and PD's midi output, then piped this into propellerheads reason, where you can use the "advanced midi" to set up midi bus A then lock down channels 1 and 2 to specific instruments in the rack. I used an NNXT with glockenspiel patch and nn19 with strings patch
Sunday, 2 May 2010
First play with PureData
Here is the PD sketch, which I got to by hacking about with one of the GEM tutorial sketches
Thursday, 22 April 2010
Matrix feedback in Reason
How to do something like this...
A great thing about Reason is that it allows you to wire a continuous input (like a CV, MIDI CC#, Mod wheel etc) to pattern changes on something like the Matrix sequencer or Redrum. You can't do this directly (there is no pattern change CV input) but you can do it via the "programmer" in the combinator. This is a great thing to experiment with...especially if the patterns are different beat lengths/step values and you layer a few of them . In one of my other clips I used MIDI CC# signals generated by a Lavalamp to randomly switch patterns on a set of Redrum modules.
In the above above clip I have 3 matrix sequences driving each other, which can result in some random sounding patterns which repeat over long periods and can descend into chaos with one small tweak.. eventually arriving at a new repeating cycle (of course you need to drive one or more sound modules like NNXT etc with the matrix outputs to be able to hear anything...)
Start by making a Combinator...
Inside the combinator, create 3 matrix sequencers.
Wire Curve CV output from each Matrix Rotary inputs 1,2,3 on the combinator. Ensure these are only connections between matrixes (-ices?) and combinator
Click the "show programmer" button. Click on Matrix 1 and next to "Rotary 2" source select "Pattern Select" target. For Matrix 2 map Rotary 3 to pattern select, For Matrix 3 map Rotary 1 to pattern select
Flip to Curve view on each matrix and draw a few random curves (Randomize pattern option can be good). Start the Matrixes and click randomly on their pattern screens. Soon they should be flicking between patterns almost at random
Wire the Gate and Note CV outputs of one or more matrix to a sound module such as NNXT.
Flip the matrixes to note mode and click at random on the screens. Change pattern lengths and note resolutions, try the "randomize pattern" option. After a while things should be getting pretty freaked out




















