rwillett Posted February 8 Posted February 8 (edited) I wanted a better Midi footpedal than the M-Vave Chocolate so was looking around and stumbled over the PedalinoMini range of DIY pedals. You can see them here https://github.com/alf45tar/PedalinoMini The designer uses a small 32bit System on a Board, so similar to an Arduino, has done some very good software and it looked like it was well supported. If it's GitHub check how many recent releases it has, check the issues and see if the person responds and he does. So I ordered the parts from AliExpress for the 8 foot switch version and they turned up in less than a week. The LilyGo SoC is pretty good, a decent 1.9" display, wifi, bluetooth, what's not to like. I paid for the STL files ($14), downloaded them, printed them out on my 3d printer and immediately thought, I can do better than this. Simple things like he uses screws straight into plastic, this will last five or six fixings and then the plastic will shred and you have a case that has no means of attaching to the base. I also beefed up some of the supports, but to be fair, it was a pretty good design to start with. The instructions are very good, though the wiring diagram requires you to switch your brain around as you wire it from below, but the wiring diagrams are from above and below. Every single step needed to be tripled checked. The only major issues is that the shield you wire into is a point to point, so you then have to bridge the connections to the sockets. It's also very, very fiddly. However apart from one bit of wiring that’s almost impossible to see which joins two LED strips together, its pretty straightforward, but there's a lot of it and it has to fit into a small case. I printed off a mule to wire it into. As I got further and further into the wiring it got tighter and tighter. I then moved the mostly finished wiring into the new case I designed and printed in a rather nice Galaxy Black, basically black with tiny sparkles, who said glam rock was dead The purple tape is simple to hold the LED strips in place whilst I check everything is working. Once I'm happy, the wires and LED strips will be given a good seeing to with a hot glue gun. Somewhat suprising (as I'm a crap solderer), it worked almost first time. Only every second footswitch worked which seemed odd and not a soldering issue. It turns out I'd loaded the wrong firmware in and I think it defaulted to four footswitches rather than eight. Downloading the right firmware sorted that problem out. You need a Windows laptop to really get the initial setup done, but once you have the wifi connected, it works from a Mac and can be configured from there as it's on the wifi. The software seems very good, but I'm still trying to understand what it all does. I still have to put the battery and switch in, otherwise it is powered from the USB-C connector. A 18650 battery will apparently power it for 12 hours. It has wifi, bluetooth, MIDI over USB-C so lets see if I can make it all work with my ToneX and Mod Dwarf. You seem to be able to control a lot of things with it. For the cost of about £40 and one evening and one afternoon of soldering, it seems good value to me. I can't say much more until I've got it properly working. Rob Edited February 8 by rwillett 4 Quote
Chienmortbb Posted February 9 Posted February 9 I am impressed, as it is "just" foot switches, I assume there is no way of adjusting values by MIDI? Quote
rwillett Posted February 9 Author Posted February 9 7 minutes ago, Chienmortbb said: I am impressed, as it is "just" foot switches, I assume there is no way of adjusting values by MIDI? Not sure what you mean. You can do long presses, short presses, double presses and double switch presses and other stuff. The time needed for a double press is use configurable as are a lot of things that I have zero idea about. Everything appears to be adjustable in the web interface. There are so many options I kinda got lost in the interface. I haven't even tried to actually connect it to anything yet as I ran out of time last night. It seems to support Midi over USB, WiFi, apples network midi, Bluetooth BLE and other stuff. It seems to support expression pedals as well. You might have guessed by now I am no expert. I have some more foot switches coming and an expression pedal so will build a second one. Quote
Chienmortbb Posted February 9 Posted February 9 36 minutes ago, rwillett said: I have some more foot switches coming and an expression pedal so will build a second one. Expression pedal, whether analogue or rotary encoder, suggests that rotary controls are possible. Quote
rwillett Posted February 9 Author Posted February 9 Yes, there seems to be comprehensive support, this might mean more to you than me There are two 1/4" sockets for expression pedals but I don't have one yet to check if they work. Quote
Chienmortbb Posted February 9 Posted February 9 You have a rotary encoder U12 that could be interesting. I will investigate more soon. Quote
rwillett Posted February 9 Author Posted February 9 41 minutes ago, Chienmortbb said: You have a rotary encoder U12 that could be interesting. I will investigate more soon. ChatGPT -> can you put this in English for the hard of understanding please? Quote
Chienmortbb Posted February 10 Posted February 10 Rotary encoders are now common as a replacement for pots in the digital world. They work by indicating whether to increase or decrease the level of a given parameter. For example, they are often used on home cinema systems as control but can also be used to select menu items. Any PA speaker with DSP and a display will incorporate one. They often incorporate a push switch so you push to enter a menu, then rotate to select a menu item. If you want to know whether you are using a pot or a rotary encoder, the best way to tell is that pots have up to 300 degrees rotation before you hit the end stop, a rotary encoder will go round and round a round if you turn it. This picture shows one on an active speaker, The one with the purple blob. 1 Quote
rwillett Posted 43 minutes ago Author Posted 43 minutes ago (edited) Luke It's finally working but just as I got it working one of the brand new switches failed so it's now a seven switch. More switches are on order. What I did get working was the ability to switch banks on my Mod Drawf and also have the bank displayed on the PM8. The key part is it being synced for names on the rather nice colour display. Setting up midi keys for turning effects on and off is easy but it was doing the banks that's proven difficult. I had it working for a while but it seems to have gone wrong and I can't work out why. The mod dwarf explicitly stops bank changing midi commands when you are using the UI to debug it. So it's difficult to debug, though it appears to me that the Mod Dwarf is changing the order of pedal boards in its banks which is not supposed to happen. I've made my own case for it. which I say humbly, is far better than the case the guy sells. The next case iteration will have a battery compartment lid. If you come to the bass bash you can have a play. Edited 43 minutes ago by rwillett Quote
rwillett Posted 26 minutes ago Author Posted 26 minutes ago @LukeFRC any suggestions for decent AWG 24 wire? Most of the wire I buy is crap Quote
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