Reader Jesse Rutherford (Bent-Tronics) let us know about this video, which captures him unboxing, assembling and testing the new Soulsby Synthesizers miniAtmegatron synthesizer shield for Arduino.
The first 18 minutes of the video look at unboxing and assembly of the miniAtmegatron, which is sold as a DIY kit. The remainder of the video offers a preview of the audio capabilities of the new synth.
The miniAtmegatron goes on sale on the 24th August, for $39 / €39 / £29. See the Soulsby site for details. Note that is designed to work with an Arduino processor, which is available separately.
Nice idea, but adding a midi jack to an arduino is incredibly simple. Not sure why this version does USB midi only and forces users to faff about with various hacks to accomplish it.
How easy is it to add MIDI DIN functionality to this synth/UNO?
It’d be easy enough, I reckon; even if the code’s not up to it, it’d be a simple tweak. You just need a couple of resistors, a diode, a din socket, and an optocoupler, although you can get away without that, if you don’t mind risking damage to your controller. The circuit’s here; http://www.tigoe.net/pcomp/img/midi-schem.jpg
No idea why they didn’t inlude it on the PCB to be honest; there’s easy enough room
So what is the hack? Just the jumper setting or there is more to it?
The hack involves re-flashing the firmware on the chip used to do the USB-serial conversion on the UNO. The ATmega328P uC used as the main processor does not have the capability to communicate over USB, so an additional chip is required to convert the USB data to serial. On older arduinos this was handled by a dedicated FTDI chip, however the more modern ones use a second AVR uC to do the conversion; An ATmega8u2. This chip has a built-in USB controller, and is programmed as a USB to serial converter by default, but can be re-programmed to do anything, including identify as a class-compliant midi device. If you look up HIDuino, you’ll find more.