Threshold Toggle
I needed this functionality for one of my arduino midi projects that’s on my to do list, this was a quick 15 minute blast through. I’m sure the max isn’t awesome and probably very ugly, but it works.
Made By Robot – iPhone App
This weekend I will start some initial trials into building my Made By Robot iPhone app.
I’m not going to go into much detail about what I want to do with the first app, but I’m excited by the idea and will hopefully either give it away for free with the next album, or give the next album away for free with the app. Not worked out which is easier.
I actually have a couple of ideas for Made By Robot iPhone apps, so I’m hoping that I can maybe do one for each release.
Having zero Objective-C experience I’m aware that this might be a painful transition from the day job of coding for the web, but maybe the challenge is what I need.
On a side point, I’m also planning a couple of hardware projects reaching finale this weekend, it all depends on the weather and how much time I spend at the beach with the family.
Arduino to Servo
Spent a couple of minutes this afternoon playing around with my new SG90 servos I picked up on ebay for a steal. Initially I just wanted to get them talking with an arduino – which although initially looked easy, was a bit of a time vampire. Anyway, trick seems to be code like that attached, and ensuring you have the 5v unplugged until everything has updated and started (no idea why, but seems the loading voltage changes seems to freak the servo out.
int signalPin = 8; //servo signal pin
void setup()
{
pinMode(signalPin, OUTPUT);
}
void loop()
{
for (int i=0; i <= 100; i++) // turn to CCW end, hold 2 seconds
{
digitalWrite(signalPin, HIGH); // control signal high
delayMicroseconds(900); // for 900 uS
digitalWrite(signalPin, LOW); // control signal low
delay(10); // wait 20mS
}
for (int i=0; i <= 50; i++) // turn to CW end, hold 2 seconds
{
digitalWrite(signalPin, HIGH); // control signal high
delayMicroseconds(1100); // for 1500 uS
digitalWrite(signalPin, LOW); // control signal low
delay(1); // wait 20mS
}
}
Some useful reference sites, but be aware that neither of these I could get the code to work, but probably more my issue than the code:
http://principialabs.com/arduino-serial-servo-control/
http://itp.nyu.edu/physcomp/Labs/AnalogIn
Next step, aiming low, I want to get a button in max that will trigger the servo movement:
http://www.cycling74.com/forums/index.php?t=msg&goto=165203
Once I have that, I just need to replicate the action with the 6 other servos, work out how to attach hammers to them all, and then add some sort of step sequencer in max so I can have a 6 note analog drum kit.... that is until my xylophone arrives.
3 new projects in the works
RPM Challenge
10 songs in the month of February, I’m 2 songs in with 3 days down, so I’m ahead of schedule. The album will be called Binary, and is a mish mash of stuff (so far at least).
Ableton to Max to Arduino to SX-150
I’m working on finding a way to make my sx-150 a black box synth. The aim is to end up with a box with only a phono out and usb in, no knobs, buttons, or input. First step will be trying out Mrbooks arduino control setup for the sx-150, the second step will be using a few digital potemtiometers to allow the arduino to control, what used to be controlled by the rotary knobs. Then all I’ll need is a little max patch with those controls and I’ll have a digitally controllable analog sythn, for less than $50.
Ableton Midi clock to Max to Arduino to Music Box
This ones a little more adventurous. The aim is to get a punch card music box, with a motor controlling the turning of the handle, this motor would be variable speeds to match a midi clock from abelton. The music box will use something like guitar pickups to get the sound back into the computer for tweaking. This project is largely influenced by Mapmaps awesome music box setup – just with an additional twist.
Terza Rima
Very quick tune I put together last night, whilst playing with SevenUp Live and Ableton. It’s the OOTB drum samples, 3 or 4 melodizer loops that have been processed greatly in ableton and a couple of my own loops and one from State Shirt in the MLR part of 7up (oh and an old bird sample I had in some library I downloaded). Great deal of it was improvised at the time of recording, hence it seems a bit disjointed. Consider this my very first piece of Monome music (hell you could say this is the first piece of Music I’ve ever recorded).
Those who are curious a Terza Rima is:
“a rhyming verse stanza form that consists of an interlocking three line rhyme scheme. It was first used by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri.”
Living together
Arduinome and Monome Together Two Applications from JP Sykes on Vimeo.
I threw together a quick video showing my arduinome and my monome both plugged into Arduinome Serial, but pointing at two seperate applications, in this case flin and 64_slide. The audio is non existent and the camera shaky, but hopefully it answers some questions. It makes me wonder why there is an Arduinome Serial and why not just Monome Serial that can also talk to Arduinome’s?
Monome Games
I’ve considered the monome to be a potential gold mine for Children and learning games. The main reason it the simplicity. Buttons you press, lights that light up. Doesn’t get much better than that.
Things like monogression with it’s simple progression and pattern learning games:
Monogressions (Pattern Progressions on a Monome) from Mike Cohen on Vimeo.
More traditional games like lights out or (blackout):
lights out on the monome 40h from joseph melnyk on Vimeo.
Throw in an accelerometer and you’ve got a whole new range of possibilities:
Tilty Snake from squidie on Vimeo.
Flashing your Arduino
As with much of my documentation, this is based on the great write up at Bricktable. I just added a few pictures and some more verbiage.
Plug your arduino in, make sure it is recognized by Windows (this can be done on a windows machine, or as in my case in a Parallels VM). Once you know the hardware is being seen, fire up the Mprog you downloaded.
Click the Magnify Glass icon, to search for the arduino:
A sucessfull find will give you the feedback like the this (see bottom left text area):
Now click menu “Tools”, option “Read and Parse”, it will look like this:
Check the “Use Fixed Serial Number” check box:
Put in a serial with format of “a40h-xxx” where xxx is a number, most start with a40h-001, then do a40h-002, etc. But in theory you could put any 3 digit number in here:
Save it:
Once you’ve saved, click the lightning bolt, that flashes your arduino, close down this app, open up arduinomeserial and you’re arduino driven monome should appear in the drop down with the number you just gave it.
Bloom
Bloom iPhone Application from Lawrence Brown on Vimeo
I have a fair share on iphone music making apps. This one has a certain Eno twist. Check it out.
More Testing Videos
Nerdscroll is mirrored, which is pretty weird.
Simplest musical test available, also demo’s some of the shorts I was having, they are now fixed. The 2nd from left column is the one that the LED’s don’t work, but as you can see from the video the buttons do.
Spectrum Analyser
