Softpot Ribbon Controller

Franky · Joined: Dec 09, 2007 Posts: 57 Location: Grenoble - France

Yep, which one?

Theorically, putting the ribbon over a grounded plan should neutralize the capacitive EMI created by the fingers...

About the library, I'd like to release it only when it is totally finished, I still have some imprevements to do.. But it will be available soon!

State Machine · Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2009 2:10 pm Post subject:

Franky · Joined: Dec 09, 2007 Posts: 57 Location: Grenoble - France

What do you mean by "no worries"?

My ribbon is taped onto my desk, which is made of wood..

The positive point about testing several surfaces is that it does not need to be in direct contact, because of the plastic and glue layers under the resistive strip in the ribbon. I will try to lay it on a sheet of shielding aluminium tape..

State Machine · Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2009 6:41 pm Post subject:

frijitz · Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2009 6:45 pm Post subject:

State Machine · Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2009 8:11 pm Post subject:

State Machine · Posted: Sat Mar 07, 2009 8:29 pm Post subject:

Here is a picture of the finished panel for the Appendage.

Bill

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Franky · Joined: Dec 09, 2007 Posts: 57 Location: Grenoble - France

Wow, nice board! How did you do the printings? Laser engraving, milling?

Are you using the Arduino as the MIDI processor?

State Machine · Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2009 7:44 am Post subject:

Franky · Joined: Dec 09, 2007 Posts: 57 Location: Grenoble - France

I don't really have feedback on the library, nope.. But that would be great, as I test it on a Sanguino, I don't use my little boarduino anymore..

Anyway, I will release an update in a while, with a big improvement of the Thru function. It will mirror every incoming message on the MIDI Out, this way you don't need a MIDI Thru anymore. And there can't be any collision, because you call thru and send as 2 separate methods, so they speak one at a time.
It's done, but I've got to write a few methods to enable/disable this option..

Edit: the update is online.. Wink

re-Edit: if you want to expand the number of I/O pins, take a look at I2C expanders..

State Machine · Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2009 11:37 am Post subject:

State Machine · Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2009 11:43 am Post subject:

Franky · Joined: Dec 09, 2007 Posts: 57 Location: Grenoble - France

To anwser your MIDI problem: if you look at my MIDI.read() method, you will see that it scans the serial input buffer for some valid MIDI messages. There can be 0,1,2 or more stacked into the buffer, but only one message is "extracted" at the time. It means that everything sent should be read, with some latency if your scanning loop is slower than the MIDI stream (but only with a gate/noteOn/off that should be OK). If I had a thread system, that could be almost real-time, a guy did it but the code of the OS is very heavy...

johans121 · Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2009 9:02 am Post subject:

What is the status of the beta builds? how is everything proceeding? I'm anxious to get a couple of these, however I am about to leave the country for a month (or three - depending on how things go) and I will have limited access to email during that time. I really don't want to miss out while I'm gone...

State Machine · Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2009 11:06 am Post subject:

johans121 · Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2009 1:35 pm Post subject:

Sound · Joined: Jun 06, 2006 Posts: 842 Audio files: 1

Photon · Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2009 5:51 pm Post subject:

Here's my first crack at an Appendage panel. It's still a little rough. I post with hope that someone from Team Appendage® will offer some critique. Let me know if the control groupings don't make sense or if I've forgotten or mislabeled anything. This will be the largest panel that I've ever tried to etch, so I'd like to get it right the first time.

The panel will be mounted almost horizontally (15˚ slope) as part of the controller that I'm building. On the left most side I've incorporated a joystick that isn't part of the ribbon controller. More details soon. Thanks for looking.

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Scott Stites · Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2009 7:02 pm Post subject:

Dang, looks like you nailed it to me! Nice panel, indeed, very well laid out IMO. The controls are right there so's you can tweak things very immediately - it's a good performance setup, especially with that joystick right there. Looks made for mayhem!

Cheerios,
Scott

State Machine · Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2009 7:09 pm Post subject:

bugfight · Joined: Aug 02, 2007 Posts: 188 Location: Arlington, TX USA

Photon · Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2009 7:20 am Post subject:

Thanks guys
Bill that's just the kind of feedback I was looking for. I totally forgot that yr. panels were posted here when I started mine. I'll take a look at your layouts and move some stuff around and add some mults. I'll repost rev2 soon.

BTW: Is the stepped/universal input mode an add-on or stock?

re:AHNE, Its prob. 80% likely that I'll get out there.

peter

bugfight · Joined: Aug 02, 2007 Posts: 188 Location: Arlington, TX USA

i dig the joystick idea too.

one thing i will probably add on mine is some way of triggering an envelope over on the left side, maybe just a momentary button or maybe something like a key to get velocity as well. might also add a short vertical ribbon like some have suggested...

the queue is lovely, dark and deep...

Scott Stites · Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2009 9:47 am Post subject:

Stepped/Universal is stock, though you wouldn't have to install it (you would have to wire it in one position on a connector internally). You may want it though - it goes good with the Klee, for example. "Stepped" is designed specifically for stepped voltages that a CV keyboard or a sequencer would put out, while universal treats any input signal as a standard S&H/T&H.

In stepped mode, the Appendage synchronizes with the input to provide autoglide, gate and trigger signals at the right time. Autoglide will kick in after a gate input is received; initial will hold the first note and slide will output a continuous voltage tracking any change from initial that comes in while the gate is high. Bend will put out the difference between the initial note and any changes that occur while the gate it high. The upshot is, if you are using a keyboard, if you hold down a key and play legato, the AutoGlide will affect the notes in between, but will not glide if you release all keys, then play another - so it acts as a legato portamento. A sort of half-duplex duophony is possible too - a VCO controlled by the initial voltage will hold that first note, and a VCO controlled by the slide voltage will play the first note and any other note in the legato passage. This mode allows the discriminator in the Appendage to detect changes in notes, prompting a re-trigger (if desired).

IOW, if the trigger mode control is set for "Hyper" in that mode, it will actually re-trigger on the legato notes while the gate output stays high as long as the gate input stays high. All this applies, again, to sequencers - it's very handy for generating sub-sequences out of a main sequence.

In either S&H mode (stepped or universal), the ribbon is active for TFS only, the rest of the circuitry is processing the external input.

Cheerios,
Scott

Photon · Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2009 4:40 pm Post subject:

very cool. Thanks for the info Scott. I'm going to keep on refining my panel, but I think I'll wait for the release of the build docs. before I commit it to metal.