Practical Usage

Author: rt

  • PU-2: Version 0.093 – ALPHA is ready

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    Phew! The hardware is now ready to be converted for Beta. This means that Beta testers will have a unit within a week or two. The hard part was the programming. I had to freeze the specifications and develop Alpha code. Here are the specs for Alpha: Hardware Based on standard Behringer FCB1010 pedal board…

  • Griffin Stompbox: A review

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    Update 16/1/31: Nothing left of this device on the Griffin site. I guess it has been retired (deprecated) Since I develop pedal boards, I thought I’d give the Griffin Stombox a try. To see what others are up to. The idea makes sense. A pedal board to control effects on the iPad. Sadly, there are…

  • Alesis iO DOCK: A review

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    There will be no un-boxing. Sorry, but there isn’t much in the box. Actually, I won’t do much functionality review today. In this first review, I am more interested in what is INSIDE the Alesis iO DOCK. The Alesis IO Dock The left side is for midi connection.Midi in-out and Midi USB. The iO DOCK…

  • Side Project: Data Stucture – Application

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    If you were patient enough and read through the two previous posts on this subject, you might be wondering how this applies to the PU-2 pedal board in practice. Even if you were not patient enough, here’s how the data structure will be used: The data structure was developed to provide a very simple programming…

  • Side project: Data Stucture – continued

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    In a previous post, I defined a simple date structure to help in the transfer of the commands sent to/from a pedal board. In this post, I will complete the definition of the data structure and define the physical layer supporting the structure. Understanding MIDI “What MIDI Is (from midi.org) MIDI, which stands for “Musical…

  • EM-1: Calculating a burden resistor: an alternate method

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    I was having trouble calculating the burden resistor necessary for my 5 current sensors. I have 2 200-Amps on the mains coming into the house (I live in north-america), 2 100-Amps floating on different individual breakers and 1 30-Amps also floating. Each sensor type has a different number of turns on the secondary coil. These…

  • Side Project: Defining a Data Structure

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    This is a very long, wordy post. It is that way because it starts with a wordy description of terms. But the goal of the post is to present a simple data structure to define timing, effects and switches that can be used by musicians and equipment to program command streams to send to equipment.…

  • EM-1: The microcontroller/programming part

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    This is the actual electronics for this project: Here’s the theory. The idea is  that you first need a reference voltage to compare your sensor readings to. The voltage at the street varies a bit, and the voltage inside a building varies a bit more, depending on demand and other factors. In our case, the…

  • EM-1: New project – Energy Monitor

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    While prototyping the PU-2 and testing a lot of new components to reduce cost and increase performance, I decided to allocate some surplus equipment to a new project: the Energy Monitor. Basically, the project uses an Arduino (of course) linked to sensors placed in the main breaker box in the basement at the office. The…

  • PU-2: how many presets?

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    I’m working on the data structure for the FCB1010/PU-2. I’m wondering if there should be a set number of presets per switch or pedal. One way to implement the presets is to define a number, say 10, and decide that this is the maximum number of “effects” for a particular switch in a “bank”. Another…