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Midi controllable presets on your analogue pedals


GisserD
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4 minutes ago, EBS_freak said:

Before going too far, get some requirements nailed down from the guys that are going to use this.

I think with a 'cutting' edge product it's going to be hard to get folk to engage until they can see what a prototype is capable of.

This will, I suspect, evolve with time into the Mk II and Mk III.

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11 hours ago, Jus Lukin said:

Are we talking a mechanical knob-twiddler, like Neil Young's Whizzer? Obviously a more complex and smaller one!

Yes I suppose it would be like that. Just smaller and universal so it can controll any pot. 

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4 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

I think with a 'cutting' edge product it's going to be hard to get folk to engage until they can see what a prototype is capable of.

This will, I suspect, evolve with time into the Mk II and Mk III.

Obviously - but it's understanding the MVP which is key... the Mk1 is the maker or breaker.

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8 minutes ago, EBS_freak said:

Teensy is a good call.

PS Have you any idea how you are going to be saving settings?

For example, you may want to think of stuff in terms of banks and patches. Maybe each bank having 4 presets. If you then said had a support for 8 pedals with say, 3 variable controllers, thats something like 96 bytes of information per bank. Be wary that some microprocessors have relatively small EEPROM. For example, taking this example, that would give you only 5 banks. A lot of people will use a bank per song... so be mindful to get something that can handle this sort of memory requirement. This is also assuming fixed values... you may want some movement (which would be really cool and certainly something that I'd imagine would be really cool - imagine a tremolo effect for example, by turning a volume pot up and down)

Before going too far, get some requirements nailed down from the guys that are going to use this.

Additionally, been thinking about this, not sure that servo is the best option for this - you may want to look into stepper motors.

Shout me if you want some more info.

Thanks. I will shoot you a pm tomorrow with some qs. 

I'm personally concerned with the mechanical design aspect of it at the moment. How it will be used will be electronic and software development that will come a bit later. I'm thinking it will work a bit like the SA neuro hub. Set the dials then hold a button to save a set of values on the midi chanel that was last selected. 

But first the mechanics have to work. 

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33 minutes ago, GisserD said:

Thanks. I will shoot you a pm tomorrow with some qs. 

I'm personally concerned with the mechanical design aspect of it at the moment. How it will be used will be electronic and software development that will come a bit later. I'm thinking it will work a bit like the SA neuro hub. Set the dials then hold a button to save a set of values on the midi chanel that was last selected. 

But first the mechanics have to work. 

OK - but the difficulty is setting the maximum and minimum positions of the servo/motor - and the position of that in relation to the pot that it is attached to. It's not as easy as putting the servo on the pot and telling the microprocessor to go - here, learn this.. as the microprocessor has no concept of the positions possible on the pots on the fx pedal, particularly if those pots on the fx pedal are moved by hand.

I do have a potential solution for you however...

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5 minutes ago, EBS_freak said:

OK - but the difficulty is setting the maximum and minimum positions of the servo/motor - and the position of that in relation to the pot that it is attached to. It's not as easy as putting the servo on the pot and telling the microprocessor to go - here, learn this.. as the microprocessor has no concept of the positions possible on the pots on the fx pedal, particularly if those pots on the fx pedal are moved by hand.

I do have a potential solution for you however...

I already have thaught about this alot. And Im pretty sure I have a solution too. I'd be interested to hear your ideas tho.... They might be easier than mine :)

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3 hours ago, Quatschmacher said:

@GisserD will your controller be able to turn rotary selector-switch knobs that have detented positions?

Yes. It will be able to control anything that "turns". Eventually may be able to flick switches aswell, but that's not in the scope for the prototype. 

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19 minutes ago, Quatschmacher said:

And strong enough to turn soft-touch stomp buttons on and off?

maybe soft touch. definitely not normal types tho...

this is all future development. first things first :)

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  • 11 months later...

This project took a big leap forward today....

With all this spare time on my hands, I thaught this would be a perfect new skill to learn the programming of the teensy board. 

So I ordered a teensy 4.0, a screen, breadboard, pots and buttons and a stepper motor to get going. Wish me luck!

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I already figured out how to make an led blink at various speeds controlled by a potentiometer. That's way more than I expected on day one! 

 

Tbh the task seems alot less daunting now I have a basic understanding of how arduino works. It's really easier than you might think.

Thisevening I'm planning to hook up the stepper motors.

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another major development Yesterday

I now have a kind of working arduino controlled prototype, housed on a 3d printed enclosure/base. And for the first time the development of the electronics is ahead of the mechanical design!

next step is to get the prototype to controll pot on an actual pedal. this will be the proof of concept.

Edited by GisserD
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10 hours ago, GisserD said:

another major development Yesterday

I now have a kind of working arduino controlled prototype, housed on a 3d printed enclosure/base. And for the first time the development of the electronics is ahead of the mechanical design!

next step is to get the prototype to controll pot on an actual pedal. this will be the proof of concept.

Exciting!!!! 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Jiant leap forward this weekend with the bringing together of all the different aspects of the project. 

The code is now working to save and recall presets on 3 different channels.

The brain assy is working exactly as it should and I currently have it hooked up to my strymon deco controlling the saturation and volume. 

Its a fully working proof of concept. And to say I'm chuffed to bits would be a massive understatement. 

 

 

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