Arduino MIDI thumb pistons and swell shoe

[Santibacanomc]

Hello!
I've been searching the web for several hours on how to make a midi controller using Arduino (in my case, the UNO), but I always seem to find more problems as I continue searching other projects.
My idea is to have 11 thumb pistons (10 combinations + general cancel) and a swell shoe, using a linear potentiometer. Has anyone ever made one of these? Is it possible to get some help with the wiring and the coding, as well as any other software needed? (especially the software!) Thanks a lot in advance.

[jkinkennon]

Arduino 1.8.5 includes an example sketch under Teensy->USB-MIDI named Many_Button_Knobs. It appears to do everything you need with a small modification to go from 8 to 11 buttons (pistons).

[Santibacanomc]

Arduino 1.8.5 includes an example sketch under Teensy->USB-MIDI named Many_Button_Knobs.

Thank you for helping, but I just can't find the example! I have Arduino 1.8.5. Can you locate it for me? Thanks a lot.

[jkinkennon]

Sorry, I should have suggested using one of the Teensy boards. Then download the Teensyduino add-on at https://www.pjrc.com/teensy/td_download.html. After that you will find the Teensy examples added under File->Examples->Teensy. I forgot that the ordinary Arduino app won't display the Teensy examples without having the Teensyduino add-on.

[Santibacanomc]

Does the program work with the UNO? Thank you for your advice!

[jbittner]

Does the program work with the UNO? Thank you for your advice!

A big difference between the Uno and Teensy is the Teensy's native ability to configure, in software, its USB port to appear as a MIDI device. This also is possible to do with the Uno, but it has to be done by reflashing the serial chip. See http://www.instructables.com/id/Turn-yo ... ididevice/ Keep in mind if you go that route that all Uno's are not created equal. Some use a different non-flashable USB chip.

Make it easy on yourself, and just buy a Teensy if you plan to use that code.

[Santibacanomc]

Thank you very much!

[RickC]

I'm currently working on a similar project, using the Teensy 3.6. I'm planning on 4 swell shoes (3 expression, 1 crescendo) and the 35 or so pistons in my current setup. For future use, I'm setting up the wiring to allow for 128 buttons, and possibly the keying for the pedalboard. It should also be able to handle a 16x2 display for the stepper frames. Parts are actually working, but not yet installed in the console. I'd be glad to share the code (once I know it's reliable) and the wiring. Naturally, none of the examples (MANY are included at the teensy site) do exactly what I want, so the programming is proving VERY interesting!.
The buttons were originally wired to the Behringer UMX610 keyboards, but it was not reliable. After the existing pistons are working with the teensy, I'll be adding toe studs, and then a new name-board with the stepper control buttons on it. No project is ever really finished, is it.
This is a photo of the console from a few years ago, from an old thread.

Rick

[wiznap]

Hi,

I just completed a project to midify a pedalboard (I posted the result a month ago in this forum).

I wanted to stay with the Arduino family, so I chose the Arduino Leonardo instead of the Arduino UNO. The rationale is that the Leonardo has an ATmega32u4 which supports USB, whereas the UNO has an ATmega328 which doesn't have USB support onboard (BTW as said in a previous reply, it is possible to use the UNO, but the setup is more tricky). Other than that the two boards are basically the same. I used the MIDIUSB library.

Everything works perfectly.

Regards,

-Carlo