Practical Usage

Author: rt

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

    —

    by

    rt
    in

    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

    —

    by

    rt
    in , ,

    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

    —

    by

    rt
    in ,

    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

    —

    by

    rt
    in ,

    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?

    —

    by

    rt
    in , , ,

    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…

  • PU-2: adding a display

    —

    by

    rt
    in , ,

    The fcb1010 has a numerical display made of 3 digits. It also utilizes a series of LEDs to give more info about its current state. At best, this is an arcane way of doing things, like trying to program a computer using a old rotary telephone. At its worst, it does make you hate the…

  • PU-2: PIN assigments and some testing

    —

    by

    rt
    in , , ,

    It’s good to have a Mega! Plenty of pins for the prototype. Some of the digital pins are hidden by the shield I made for the connectors. As far as coding goes, programming the PU-2 is easier than programming the PU-1. The switches are all assigned to an independent digital pin. Each can effectively be…

  • PU-2: emulating the FCB1010!

    —

    by

    rt
    in , , ,

    The PU-2 is now able to emulate pretty much everything a stock FCB1010 can do. I was actually able to send and receive sysex data to/from iFCB, a programming software available on the Mac. One thing that the PU-2 doesn’t do is let the user program it using it’s own foot switches. It was decided…

  • PU-2: New brain – Arduino Mega

    —

    by

    rt
    in , , ,

    The FCB1010/PU-2 has a new brain. The Arduino Mega (clone) has been connected in place of the main board. I have removed: the power transformer, the mains/120 volts plug and the on/off switch, because the PU-2 will be bus-powered. It was a straightforward affair: no new connections were made, no new switches installed. But the connections…

  • FCB1010 – PU-2: Requirements and Wish List

    —

    by

    rt
    in , , ,

    I’ve identified some requirements for my second pedal board based on the Behringer FCB1010. Here’s a list for now: USB connection. This is a must, for fast and efficient programming and reprogramming. USB also makes it a lot easier to have bi-derectional communication with a computer, be it a Mac, PC, Linux, iPad, iPhone, etc.…