My controller (take 27)

[jupiter8]

So i soldered 8 rotary encoders into an old DVD container. Had no drill so i had to carve out 8 holes with my steak knife but it came out pretty decent. As you may notice the encoders are upside down for the moment to ease soldering. Haven't soldered the switches yet,had to take a break.Got so hungry my hands were shaking more than usual. Don't plan on keeping the DVD container,mostly solder and programming practice for now. We did some testing with the encoders yesterday and the results were slightly odd.I figured if i had everything soldered down before trying again the testing would be easier.

[synthgeek]

Nice! Are you following a set of plans for this, or doing it all from scratch?

[jupiter8]

Nice! Are you following a set of plans for this, or doing it all from scratch?

Plans ? Does not compute. What's that ?

[synthgeek]

Plans ? Does not compute. What's that ?

I don't know, a word I heard somebody use once.

[jupiter8]

Nah i just make it up as a go along. I figured we'd be at My Controller (take 458) before i have something usable.

Now it's mostly experimenting with stuff. As i said the rotaries behaved a bit odd yesterday so i need to check that first,what's up with them ?

I haven't even decided if i should make it Midi,OSC or something else,maybe just raw data with my own controller program running on the computer. I have an Arduino Nano and a regular coming,a Maple board and thinking about buying some more micro controllers,mostly PICs and perhaps the Teensy. I have enough stuff to keep me occupied for a while so we'll see about that.

Haven't soldered in 20 years so i need to refresh that skill. So for now it's mostly practice runs.

[synthgeek]

Nah i just make it up as a go along. I figured we'd be at My Controller (take 458) before i have something usable.

Well, most of what I've done so far started as mutations of other people's ideas- so in a way I guess there's a sort of plan, but I still usually need a few tries to get it right.

Now it's mostly experimenting with stuff. As i said the rotaries behaved a bit odd yesterday so i need to check that first,what's up with them ?

I have no ideas there, so far I've only done analog & simple CMOS stuff.

I haven't even decided if i should make it Midi,OSC or something else,maybe just raw data with my own controller program running on the computer. I have an Arduino Nano and a regular coming,a Maple board and thinking about buying some more micro controllers,mostly PICs and perhaps the Teensy. I have enough stuff to keep me occupied for a while so we'll see about that.

Yeah, sounds like you have some fun ahead of you. I'll definitely be watching to see what you come up with. It's probably a long way off, as I have a lot of other projects I'd like to get to/finish first, but I'd like to do some kind of controller eventually too. I have a lot of learning to do first, but that's (at least) half the fun.

[jupiter8]

Something like that is the general idea for now. Had a visit so it took me longer then i expected. Now i realize i used to short cables and not all of my rotaries are alike. They're from 2 different batches and one batch is shorter than the first. If you look at the one furthest away it's clearly shorter than the toher ones.

But it was good practice. I learned lots.

[jupiter8]

This is about take 5 i gather. As you may notice i stick to the DVD boxes,must get me some new ones soon as i'm starting to run low. Had a few duff one before this one. The LCD is fully functional,no problems what so ever. The rotaries are still not doing what i want them to but i think i know why. A friend is coming over tomorrow to help me with the build.Hopefully we'll nail it then.

[synthgeek]

Cool stuff! I'm partial to VHS cases myself (a bit roomier), but they're getting harder to find.

Good luck getting your problems sorted.

[jupiter8]

Cool stuff! I'm partial to VHS cases myself (a bit roomier), but they're getting harder to find.

That is a great tip actually,didn't think of that.Don't have any VHS cases but you can get them dirt cheap,and i am.

[synthgeek]

That is a great tip actually,didn't think of that.Don't have any VHS cases but you can get them dirt cheap,and i am.

Cheers- yep, I've gotten 'em for less than a buck with movies still inside at second-hand shops. The spine is just about perfect for mounting 1/4" jacks.

[GaryG]

So, in brief, how are you using the encoders? I only really understand how they're useful if you have something like Automap software (Novation?), two way communication between the, say, plugin and controller.

When you spin an encoder, where does it start? Or can you tell a vst to just increment a parameter each click rather than jumping to a whole new value? (not how I understand it)

[jupiter8]

So, in brief, how are you using the encoders? I only really understand how they're useful if you have something like Automap software (Novation?), two way communication between the, say, plugin and controller.

When you spin an encoder, where does it start? Or can you tell a vst to just increment a parameter each click rather than jumping to a whole new value? (not how I understand it)

For the moment it's really simple:they don't do anything.

I do plan on programming a Reaper Control surface for it.That way i can get any data i want and do increment/decrement on any parameter i want. My C++ is waay rusty though so we'll see how that goes but that's the plan anyways.

[jupiter8]

Dammit those rotary encoders were a lot trickier to get going than i imagined.
The weirdest thing ever. But anyways like Thomas Edison said:i haven't failed,i have discovered 200 new ways on not how to do a lightbulb.

There's 3 pins A,C and B. C is earth and A and B is the ones you check to determine what way the rotary rotates. But somehow they short on pin A and B which shouldn't be connected AFAIK. We did experiment with a novel solution making it possible to scan 8 encoders with switches using only 2 8 way demultiplexers which saves us one. Maybe try the simplest solution first.

The problem is we never get pin A and B to be on at the same time.

Hmmmm funny when i just thought i solved the problem and was going to phone my friend i got an SMS from him saying we need diodes. Ah well tomorrow's another day. I did work on a serial to midi program for my computer today too. Not much progress but some. There is a solution for outputting midi over USB directly on the Arduino but you need to hack the FTDI chip and i'd rather have the connection to/from the Arduino going as fast as possibly to avoid latency though that's hardly an issue here. But still...

EDIT2: And oh yeah i'm totally going VHS shopping on Saturday. There's an old market (or whatever it's called) here in Gothenburg open weekends that sells all kinds of cheap crap. We went there for the novelty value a while back,little did i realize i'd be back for shopping. It's so unbelievable crap it's amazing.Right up my alley. Hunting for some cool stuff to dismantle and build something out of too.

EDIT: Oh yeah and todays picture.All breadboarded up and sweet.

[synthgeek]

Dammit those rotary encoders were a lot trickier to get going than i imagined.
The weirdest thing ever. But anyways like Thomas Edison said:i haven't failed,i have discovered 200 new ways on not how to do a lightbulb.

That's right, there are no failures, only learning experiences & occasional unplanned pyrotechnic displays.

EDIT2: And oh yeah i'm totally going VHS shopping on Saturday. There's an old market (or whatever it's called) here in Gothenburg open weekends that sells all kinds of cheap crap. We went there for the novelty value a while back,little did i realize i'd be back for shopping. It's so unbelievable crap it's amazing.Right up my alley. Hunting for some cool stuff to dismantle and build something out of too.

Happy hunting!