westlicht » Arduinome

Playing with my Arduinome

westlicht — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 16:42:17 +0000

This weekend I took some time to experiment with my Arduinome, primarily using the pages application. This is great stuff! I did a little setup consisting of Ableton Live, pages, my BCR-2000 as well as some external gear, the x0xb0x and the Korg Radius. I routed the MIDI signals from pages through Live to my x0xb0x and the Radius, and routed the audio output of these synths back to Live, spicing them up with some effects controlled by my BCR-2000. Also I added an Impulse patch in Live to get some drums. A rather simple but very effective setup. Fun to jam anyway!

Note to myself: I really need to get myself a camera, so I can video document things like that.

Arduinome is alive

westlicht — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 20:18:08 +0000

My Arduinome is finally alive! With a little tip from Nils, I got the current firmware working. As I suspected, the firmware is broken with the current Arduino release. Using Arduino 11 solved the issue. Unfortunately I connected the columns of the matrix in reversed order, so I had to do some soldering too.

Initial tests with some Max/MSP scripts as well as Seven Up for Live are very promising. Although the keypad feels a bit flimsy, the keypresses seem to be accurate and to the point. I have not had any missed keys yet, fine! I’m very happy with it.

Now it’s time to do some practicing with Seven Up and maybe a first video on youtube.

Thanks to all the people involved in the Arduinome project. You did an awesome job!

Building the Arduinome (Part III)

westlicht — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 19:59:19 +0000

Today, I had some time to work on my Arduinome. I already have prepared the button and led matrix as well as the shield PCB two days ago. Initial tests with the current Arduinome firmware were not that successful, leading to a strange led patterns on power up, as well as random crashes of the software. So I was worried about some mistakes I did with the hardware. Checking all the leds and switches manually revealed that there were no mistakes on the hardware, therefore there had to be something wrong with the firmware. Some initial hacking on the firmware allowed me to test the hardware, and proofed that basically everything is working. My current guess is that the firmware is broken with the newest arduino framework. I will have a better look and try to fix it. Maybe I’ll even rewrite the firmware from scratch, not using the arduino framework. Stay tuned …

Arduinome shield shipped

westlicht — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 07:15:46 +0000

My arduinome shield PCB has finally been shipped. The last missing part of my adruinome is on the way now. Many thanks to unsped for organizing and managing that group buy. I guess I will finish my arduinome just before christmas!

Arduinome shield PCB

westlicht — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 12:30:22 +0000

I just read a note that unsped is going to receive the shield PCBs in the next few days. Great news, as this means that I’ll be able to finish my arduinome shortly. I did not want to spend the effort and build the shield myself on veroboard, when I’m going to exchange it with a proper PCB anyway. But I can’t wait to finish my Arduinome!

Building the Arduinome (Part 2)

westlicht — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 16:36:01 +0000

Today I have been working on the Arduinome. First, I cut and filed the corners from the button PCBs, then I soldered all the diodes and LEDs. After that, I assembled the frontpanel. All that is missing now is the shield board as well as the wiring. As I have to wait for my shield PCB for another 2 weeks, I wonder if I should build the logic on a veroboard, and replace it later. I’ll see …

Sparkfun material

westlicht — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:19:06 +0000

Today my order from Sparkfun arrived, what a nice little package. Except of the Arduinome shield PCB, all the material is ready to get assembled. I’ll continue building on saturday.

Building the Arduinome (Part 1)

westlicht — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 18:14:32 +0000

Today I started building my Arduinome. Didn’t have much time, so all I did was countersinking the holes, as well as putting together the frame. Still waiting for the button pads from Sparkfun …

Arduinome material

westlicht — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 20:12:06 +0000

Today, the enclosure kit and all the stuff ordered from Distrelec (diodes, leds, led driver and multiplexers) arrived. The enclosure kit looks really nice! Can’t wait to assemble. The stuff from Sparkfun should arrive soon.

Building an Arduinome

westlicht — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:44:27 +0000

After having the pleasure to play around with a Monome 256 from a friend of mine, I decided to build myself an Arduinome, a DIY clone of the Monome. I will only build an 8×8 Arduinome, so to speak a Monome 64 clone. But my findings with the 256 were, that it’s rather too large to work with intuitively. I got lost all the time. I have ordered all materials. The Arduino board as well as the pads are coming from Sparkfun, the enclosure is from MachineCollective, and everything else comes from Distrelec. The total price for the material is around 300$. I have chosen blue leds for my Arduinome, hope they look fine.