Arduino

Just looking at these products wondering if anyone has experience positive or negative. The one module I find could be useful is the (simple) bread board. This to experiment with a complex c/a setup. The jumper wire connections appear to be "fragile". No sense adding a known possible problem to an experimental system.

One fellow experimenter said he "finalized" the connections (after proving them) by dunking the bread board with the jumpers installed in an epoxy substance making the connections "permanent". He claims this method (putting the epoxied bread board in a box) has been completely reliable. Not questioning his words (exactly) but there is room to wonder.

Originally I was looking for a computer controlled matrix I/O board, but so far none have surfaced, at least not in the area of being cost effective.

Soldering many (as in at least 96) point to point connections and making changes is not my M/O either. Any thoughts?

These Arduino modules/shields are certainly let's say cheap.

Rgds,
Ed

I have looked at them quite closely.

My main interest was in the possibility that the USB chip used to transfer code to the main controller in 'normal' use can be reprogrammed to act as a USB-MIDI interface.

Technically this can and has been done, but I have not been able to find any code for a fully functional MIDI interface. Also, the communication between the main controller and USB controller is still via serial interface which, though it can be run at a much greater baud rate than serial MIDI, limits the rate with which MIDI information can be transferred.

Also, I don't much like the programme development environment, preferring to write the code myself in assembly language.

Nevertheless, they are relatively cheap and the Atmel microcontroller they are based on, which I use for all my MIDI projects, work very well for all kinds of MIDI interfacing tasks.

Nick

FWIW, the Arduino base code has been completely re-written to allow the USB port to emulate HID's like a Teensy can do. It seems to have stabilised now (there were a lot of bugs in the november code, apparently!)
I haven't had much of a chance to play with it yet, as I only learnt of the re-write a couple of weeks ago. There would still seem to be a few bugs (in the sys-ex commands!), but nothing major.

It would be very simple to get a micro to do swell shoes and toe pistons with no other components involved and the price is certainly right (about €10 for the headerless board, ex tax).

In theory, a Mega should do a full keyboard with no extra components (hall sensors anyone??)

Someday I'll get the time....

Hi Nick,

Good info. Ever have any intermittent or faulty connections with these products?

Rgds,
Ed

[mdyde]

[Topic moved here.]

Murph - Thanks for this information, I didn't know that progress had been made. It's unfortunate that the SYSEX handling isn't right yet since I use SYSEX messages to change my controllers' parameters (such as MIDI channel). I will keep an eye on developments.

Ed - I've only ever played around with various base units (like the 'Mega2560'), and not had anything to do with the shields or other peripheral add-ons, but I have never found any problems with the basic design or with reliability.

Nick

FWIW, the Arduino base code has been completely re-written to allow the USB port to emulate HID's like a Teensy can do. It seems to have stabilised now (there were a lot of bugs in the november code, apparently!)

Hi Murph,

Do you happen to have a link to this development - I can't seem to find anything about it.

Nick

Hi Nick,
have a look here:

https://blog.arduino.cc/2015/11/03/ardu ... -download/


A lot of the earlier bugs seem to have been fixed, but I know one or 2 sysex commands output the wrong value.

Thanks Murph

Nick

Hi,
Have you looked at the Teensy range? I have made a controller for an LCD display for my HW console using Teensy 3.2. The Arduino IDE 1.6.8 and the add-on Teensyduino 1.28 make it easy to communicate with the Teensy while developing the code. Teensy is a robust little PCB and no problems with connections to it. Arduino has a good MIDI library which works well.

Actually I am just making another add-on for my HW using a Teensy ... it will offer a preset delay between playing keys and the pipe sound commencing. It's to simulate the delay in a large church where I am due to play in a few months time.

Hope this helps.

Geoff

Actually I am just making another add-on for my HW using a Teensy ... it will offer a preset delay between playing keys and the pipe sound commencing. It's to simulate the delay in a large church where I am due to play in a few months time.

As was mentioned in the previous post on this subject http://forum.hauptwerk.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=15198&p=114045&hilit=delay#p114045, generally a delay in pipe speech is not a desirable feature.

As Martin noted, having a controllable delay is a possible future "enhancement?". In that regard, some large cathedrals/churches have various divisions located in various different locations of the "room". It those cases,
it would seem "realistic" to be able to delay those outboard divisions individually, yes? The great organ builders of the past (and some of the present) already knew about the effectiveness of surround sound.

I experimented (slightly) in our church with surround sound, but found it was very unbelievable in a relatively small environment so I scrapped the idea. During those "experiments" is where I used the Protea audio processor to delay various divisions separately, with those divisions sounding thru different speaker locations. Some thought the resultant (surround) sound was "cool', while most found it not so neat, even distracting. As my organ teacher conveyed - 'It's all in the ears of the beholder'.

Rgds,
Ed