Chipstomp assembly – Analogue side

Fully assembled and working Chipstomp

Fully assembled and working Chipstomp

It’s done.  I’ve assembled the analogue side of the Chipstomp and finally have a fully working device.  There were no errors to fix this time which was a nice surprise.  Just lots of fiddly 0805 surface mount components to place.

I’ve made a quick video of the project to demonstrate what it can do.

Drum machine progress : From prototype to version 2

I’ve not posted in a long time so here’s a quick update on the progress of my drum machine. It’s come a fair way from the initial prototype documented in this post back in July 2012.

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A sneak look at version 2 with a new 32bit PIC and a new larger LCD

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Breakout board for Nokia 1202 LCD

I’ve been using Nokia 5110 LCD screens for a while now they’re 84x48px have a built-in back-light and are really easy to use and quite cheap.  Recently though whilst working on my drum machine I found myself wishing for a few more pixels.  I want to show a “pattern view” of 16 tracks with 16 steps plus some additional information and 84×48 was getting too tight.

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This isn’t a Nokia1202, this is a Sparkfun Nokia 5110 breakout

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PIC24 drum machine prototype

This is a project I’ve been working on for over a year but haven’t had the time to complete yet. Electronics takes second place to children… 🙂

It’s a mini drum machine modelled on classic machines like the Roland TR808. My version is digital, playing samples rather than analogue and uses a single pic24 to do the work.

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Simple PWM control for LED strip

I have been playing around with building a lamp for my desk using a LED strip and constant current driver that I bought from Deal Extreme a while ago combined with a PIC12f683 to provide variable brightness via Pulse Width Modulation (PWM).

The demo using a plain old green LED as the output.

[UPDATE OCT 20 2010] I’ve updated the firmware for this project to include new features. More info and firmware download here.

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Lighthouse schematics and files

Update: I’ve revised the schematic for this project and had a proper PCB made, see the new version here.

For anyone who is interested (Hi Richard) here are my project files for the lighthouse project.

The project is written for the PIC12f683 using SourceBoost Technologies BoostC that I use as a tool suite in  Microchip’s MPLAB.  BoostC is fairly ANSI so if you’re using another C then it wouldn’t be hard to convert.  There’s a free version of BoostC too and I think my program will fit within it’s limits.

C source code here (7kb). : Compiled hex binary here (1kb zip).

The schematic and circuit are drawn up using the free version of Cadsoft Eagle. They were created using version 4, but the latest version of Eagle is v5 which I’ve not used yet, however the circuit is fairly simple so I doubt there would be any problems.

Hig resolution combined print for top and bottom of circuit.

High resolution combined print for top and bottom of circuit for toner transfer. (4800x2222px, 163Kb)

Schematic layout of circuit. Note that in the real thing I added a couple of DIP switches in the GP0 & GP1 lines just before the resistors R4 & R5 to isolate the ICSP lines when programming.

Schematic layout of circuit. Note that in the real thing I added a couple of DIP switches in the GP0 & GP1 lines just before the resistors R4 & R5 to isolate the ICSP data and clock lines when programming. (25kb)

I’ve not included the Eagle files themselves as they make use of some random parts that I’ve made in my own library.  But the circuit is not so complex that you couldn’t copy it.  If you really want them then let me know.

If you have any problems drop me a line.