rwillett

Welcome to the wonderful world of embedded code with all it's limitations We're so used to just using high level libraries and seeing the output immediatly. I did look to see if there was a Pico simulator and saw this https://wokwi.com/projects/new/pi-pico. It has the ability to add hardware such as buttons and displays. Looks simple but I didn't actually try and use it. It looks like you can upload libraries so I wonder if you could get the FreeRTOS libraries up? This might help, thought it might be a waste of time. Rob

Fired the Spark Go amp, connected it to my iPhone and played some music. Sounds nice and loud. Connected it to a Fender Jazz, selected a bass amp and speaker and not so good. Really struggling to get any volume out of it and it sounds tinny with the bottom 'E'. It did sound very loud earlier so not sure what is happening. Sounds better on headphones. I'll keep experimenting but at this moment in time, the NUX Mighty Plug sounds better but is limited as its really headphones only.

It looks nice, it's compact and nicely designed. I'll give it a few more hours and plug a bass in. I'm doing my rugby level 2 coaching award tomorrow, so for once I'm knuckling down and revising.

Just got my Positive Grid Spark Go turn up. I ordered it 29/3/23 so six weeks isn't bad. First impressions about the box are positive (no pun intended), you get the amp suspended in a pretty secure cardboard box with simple instructions, spare straps, a USB cable (It's USB-C based) and a spare grill in a slightly different colour. It comes with a bit of battery in, so I downloaded the Spark app from Apple. It looks very simlar to Bias FX 2 which I have and I like. It has four presets that can be selected in the app or on the top of the amp itself. None are bass orientated which is no surprise and no hardship as the four presets can be overwritten with whatever you like. Easy to connect via bluetooth. On the app itself there are a range of styles to choose from, Pop, Blues, Rock, Metal, Alternate, Bass and Acoustic. In each of the styles there are a few setups, so Bass has "Bass Driver" and "Comped Cleaner" I'm afraid I have no idea what these are based on, so feel free to enlighten me. Along the top of the app are the effect pedals, selecting them makes them show up in a large size on the bottom of the screen and you can change the values of the dials by dragging up and down. Much the same as most apps to be honest, so easy to use and consistent. I've left the amp charging up, not sure how long that will take, once charged I'll plug a bass in and see if it actually works. Rob

I like the look of them. This would match my Westone Thunder six string. However, I agree that £99 is far far too much.

Looks a nice guitar. Never seen one one but do recall the brand now.

Thanks. Appreciate the response rob

But what was it? I can’t work it out and would love to know. However I don’t claim a vast knowledge of bass guitars. I did think an old Westone but couldn’t find any that had the knobs like this. Also the headstock and truss rod cover are different somebody must recognise it surely? rob

Nice thing about HTTP API calls are that they are very standard and there will be a library to save you the pain of doing your own library and, $DEITY forbid, error handling. Rob

Hi Just found this topic and was interested in how it's doing. I had a couple of questions: 1. The Mod Dwarf has three buttons already, so is this four button pedal board in addition to three or to replace the three? 2. Wouldn't it be easier to simply buy something like a Line 6 pedalboard with USB. I have a 2nd hand one that I spent £60 on. Admittedly it doesn't have the little OLEDS for displaying whats going on which is really, really nice, but it does have an expression pedal. I say this as someone who has gone down that rabbit hole far, far too many times. Sometimes I have to slap myself and say is this sensible. To demonstrate how stupid I can be, I was interested in making some hand carved house signs, I ended up building a whole sodding CNC machine, starting with a 3d printer and some plywoood, and even started writing my own design program (in JavaScript) to get the output I wanted. Eventually I came to my senses and donated the CNC machine to the local school who were very grateful and brought some wooden ones for £100. 3. Have you validated that the output of the Mod Dwarf contains enough information for you to keep your pedals in sync? When I first read this, my immediate thoughts were keeping the state of the Mod Dwarf and your pedal board in sync. If you changed the Mod Dwarf, e.g pressed a button to change an effect, then does your pedal board need to have it's state changed to reflect that? 4. Logging on low level hardware is tricky, you don't have all the nice output devices to write to, you can have all the sprintf stuff but you've got to get it out to somewhere you can actualy read it. One thing I thought of (and haven't done anything to validate if this would work), would be embed the debug data in a Midi SysEx mesage and read it on your midi monitor on your laptop. That means you don't need two channels. I looked at SysEx when I was debugging the Line 6 pedalboard to work with Amplitube on a Mac. (Basically the Midi CC message value need to be inverted to keep the lights on pedal board synced with Amplitube, so a 1 becomes a 127 and vice versa, oddly enough Amplitube on an iPad works fine). I was a C/Unix/network developer for too many years (note the lack of C++ in that statement) and have written a lot of low level stuff for Microchip PIC16/18 and Arduino's for astrophotograpy. I have played with FreeRTOS as well, but not for a looong time. You might have inspired me to go back and pull the manuals out and have a play. This is a great thread, please keep it going. Thanks Rob

Brought it and am playing with it now on an iPad. It looks interesting and if I get 3-4 patterns I like, well worth it. Thamnks Rob

I'll have a look. Looks very good. I would never have found that by myself. Thanks

Hi, I'm looking for a simple iOS based app that plays simple drum beats that I can to practise along to. I looked on the Aplle App Stire and found dozens of apps that claim to be easy to use, fantasic value, etc etc. However being a simple and cynical git, I'd much rather talk to people who know more than me and ask them (thats basicaly the whole world minus my dog then). I'm not looking for a drum machine or for anything that requires me programming patterns or anything complex. All I want is a simple range of beats (probably around blues, rock or similar), that I can run from my iPad and works alomg side Bias Fx 2. Drum Beats+ looks very good, but I can't work out if it will work alongside other stuff running. Any recommendations or advice greatfully received. Thanks for reading Rob

I brought a ProSonus box so I could attach my bass to my MacBook. I use a projector stand to hold the Macbook but I was unhappy with how the AudioBox didn't really have a steady position. I do a lot of 3d printing for astrophotography so thought there must be a decent way to hold the AudioBox to the stand and came up with this design Here's the stand with a simulated AudioBox in it. and here's the holder and two dedicated clamps to fix it to the projector stand. Not too shabby for an evening of design and 11 hours of printing. next job might be a 3d printed guitar for daughter (not a bass as the tension would probably be too much for 3d printed parts). https://blog.prusa3d.com/the-prusacaster-how-to-design-and-3d-print-an-electric-guitar_71962/ Thanks Rob

As a second opinion would involve a minimum of a three hour round trip or more likely two x three hour round trips, it's not a feasible option.

So the El Cheapo Precision Bass Clone came back from Promenade Music in Morecombe. Big thumbs up to Gary who was exceptionally nice and helpful and didn't make me feel like a complete prat when I asked him stupid questions. Basically the neck/body will not take the tension that the flatwounds put on it. he tried shimming and other stuff and at the end of the day he said it wasn't worth the effort to fix it. He didn't try to flog me another guitar or upsell me anything at all, which was nice. He charged me £25 and that included new non flatwound strings and the neck adjusted for the new strings. Absolutely nothing to argue about at that price and almost seemed embarrased wiith that as he said he didn;t do a great deal. Simply talking to him was worth that TBH. I did have a look at a few other bass guitars in the basement, but thankfully the Chief Financial Controller rang and told me to it was my turn to walk the dog along the promenade, so walked away and didn't spend any money. I know who's in charge and its not me. Also GAS is under control if you exclude a Fender Jazz, new laptop stand, ProSonus input box, some cables, Apple Mainstage, Guitar Pro 8 and bass lessons with a nice bloke in Sedbergh. It plays very nice still, but nowhere near as nice as the Fender Jazz to which I am becoming rather attached. Rob

One Fender Jazz, MIJ, Lake Placid. Really nice to play. My 16yr old daughter said that is a "sick guitar" when she saw it. I am led to believe that means she likes it, but what do I know.... Took the El Cheapo Precision Bass Clone to Promenade Music to look at the neck. Spent last 72 hours gently tweaking the truss rod, they reckon it needs a shim, but no damage done so far. <phew> Rob

Printing specific sized gauges is pretty easy to be honest. Its easy enough to accomodate the curve of the neck, so a gauge can be specific to a neck shape. I assume that it is a regular arc of a curve. Once you have that, making a dozen at 0.1mm height intervals is a quick change in the design program. The image below is for an neck curve at 12" and is 20 degrees of the arc and is far too big TBH. Thats 31min on my printer, at very high accuracy. Easy to slip that under the string and see if it fits.

Thanks for this. I've had a quick look at the fender guide, really interesting. One thing that I did think about is once I get the cheapo clone sorted is to 3D print height gauges that are just right. We can print to 0.05mm high, though I suspect thats a bit of marketing flannel, and its more likely 0.07 to 0.08mm tolerance. I know that 0.1mm is certainly doable as I've measured that on a regular basis. 0.1-0.2mm might be all thats needed anyway. Food for thought, but not for this weekend. Rob

Paulo, We're now into advanced stuff I'm slowly reducing tension, tightening the truss rod and then after an hour (as I'm flat out at work, around a day later TBH) or so, I'll retune and see what its like. Slowly, slowly, catchee monkey. I also have to confess that I brought a second hand Fender Jazz bass yesterday. Circa 2000 MIJ model, I went in for a few plectrums and stayed for around two hours trying things out. It was such a good setup and so much fun, that it seemed a shame not to. The neck was beautful to use, it just worked for me. The tones were great as well. I tried every bass they had and just kept coming back to the Fender. In the end it was a choice between a cheap bass (which was very, very good) and the Jazz which was brilliant. The Jazz has some scuffs on it, but it wssn't too expensive. So I now have a Westfield El Cheapo Precision Bass Clone (WECPBC) (which is going to have the pickups replaced, once I get the neck sorted out) and the Fender Jazz. Somewhat surprisingly the Chief Financial Officer wasn't too bothered when I told her, suspect this means she's secretly spent even more than I did I'll keep this thread updated with my slow progress on the WECPBC as well. Thanks Rob

Thanks for this. The flatwounds are significantly thicker than the originals. I'll check the nut, the bridge looks OK. I'll also check the neck bolts. No issues with going back to basics, thats how I'll learn.

If you think GAS is bad here, check out the astronomers and what they get into Some of them are well into $200,000 mounts (thats the bit the telescope sits on), $50,000 scopes (and that's not that high end) and cameras that are only $10,000. Some of the photography sessions might take 30-40 days at 2-3 hours per night. Now thats obsessive. I'm lucky that I live in a part of the world where 100% cloud cover can go on for weeks, so absolutely no point in me spending a lot as it will sit in the garage. So long as I keep telling myself that, I'll be fine. Just to be clear, I do not spend that sort of money on astronomy, you need to be a US lawyer or US dentist, or have shares in a UK oil company to spend that money. Rob