Hi
I'm helping with an installation which will have 12-16 buttons (on/off) to set off events in Pd and need to find a simple midi controller to just send note on and note off messages on 12-16 notes to do that. I could hack a midi keyboard but that would be a complicated and bulky solution given the size of the installation. Any suggestions?
Thanks
Stuart
Hi Stuart - A hacked USB keyboard makes a nice button-bank, and you can typically strip away most of its size, leaving just a little circuit board with wires coming out to your buttons. You can read the button-presses with Hans's [hid] object.
here's one that we did some time ago... http://www.instructables.com/id/EDH81H8H62EQZJIDV8/ -David M.
On 8/28/07, Stuart Jones s.jones@csm.arts.ac.uk wrote:
Hi
I'm helping with an installation which will have 12-16 buttons (on/off) to set off events in Pd and need to find a simple midi controller to just send note on and note off messages on 12-16 notes to do that. I could hack a midi keyboard but that would be a complicated and bulky solution given the size of the installation. Any suggestions?
Thanks
Stuart
PD-list@iem.at mailing list UNSUBSCRIBE and account-management -> http://lists.puredata.info/listinfo/pd-list
just a small hint to prevent problems I experienced in the past. when you hack a keyboard for installations, I recommend not to use keys which interrupt the start process (c, s, return or the system runtime). if people have buttons in installation they will not stop pressing them during a restart of the machine... marius.
David Merrill wrote:
Hi Stuart - A hacked USB keyboard makes a nice button-bank, and you can typically strip away most of its size, leaving just a little circuit board with wires coming out to your buttons. You can read the button-presses with Hans's [hid] object.
here's one that we did some time ago... http://www.instructables.com/id/EDH81H8H62EQZJIDV8/ -David M.
On 8/28/07, *Stuart Jones* <s.jones@csm.arts.ac.uk mailto:s.jones@csm.arts.ac.uk> wrote:
Hi I'm helping with an installation which will have 12-16 buttons (on/off) to set off events in Pd and need to find a simple midi controller to just send note on and note off messages on 12-16 notes to do that. I could hack a midi keyboard but that would be a complicated and bulky solution given the size of the installation. Any suggestions? Thanks Stuart _______________________________________________ PD-list@iem.at <mailto:PD-list@iem.at> mailing list UNSUBSCRIBE and account-management -> http://lists.puredata.info/listinfo/pd-list
-- MIT Media Lab dmerrill@media.mit.edu mailto:dmerrill@media.mit.edu http://web.media.mit.edu/~dmerrill/
PD-list@iem.at mailing list UNSUBSCRIBE and account-management -> http://lists.puredata.info/listinfo/pd-list
.. that sounds like advice-from-experience!
Marius has a good point there. I would add to it that you should also make sure that you don't leave a window foregrounded that will make a "status beep" or any other unwanted sound when the particular keys that you've chosen are pressed. At our recent SIGGRAPH installation we had a few minutes where we heard the apple "bonk" noise every time someone would press one of the buttons, and realized that the system control panel was the foregrounded application, so it was receiving the button-presses also.
modifier keys work well for this (control, shift, etc) - but if you need 12-16 buttons, you'll probably want to just use letters. -D
On 8/28/07, marius schebella marius.schebella@gmail.com wrote:
just a small hint to prevent problems I experienced in the past. when you hack a keyboard for installations, I recommend not to use keys which interrupt the start process (c, s, return or the system runtime). if people have buttons in installation they will not stop pressing them during a restart of the machine... marius.
David Merrill wrote:
Hi Stuart - A hacked USB keyboard makes a nice button-bank, and you can typically strip away most of its size, leaving just a little circuit board with wires coming out to your buttons. You can read the button-presses with Hans's [hid] object.
here's one that we did some time ago... http://www.instructables.com/id/EDH81H8H62EQZJIDV8/ -David M.
On 8/28/07, *Stuart Jones* <s.jones@csm.arts.ac.uk mailto:s.jones@csm.arts.ac.uk> wrote:
Hi I'm helping with an installation which will have 12-16 buttons (on/off) to set off events in Pd and need to find a simple midi controller to just send note on and note off messages on 12-16 notes to do that. I could hack a midi keyboard but that would be a complicated and bulky solution given the size of the installation. Any suggestions? Thanks Stuart _______________________________________________ PD-list@iem.at <mailto:PD-list@iem.at> mailing list UNSUBSCRIBE and account-management -> http://lists.puredata.info/listinfo/pd-list
-- MIT Media Lab dmerrill@media.mit.edu mailto:dmerrill@media.mit.edu http://web.media.mit.edu/~dmerrill/
PD-list@iem.at mailing list UNSUBSCRIBE and account-management ->
Thanks David and Marius
In fact I was thinking about hacking a midi control keyboard but I¹ll have a look at what you suggest.
Stuart
From: David Merrill dmerrill@media.mit.edu Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2007 08:49:49 -0400 To: marius schebella marius.schebella@gmail.com Cc: PD-list@iem.at Subject: Re: [PD] Simple midi controller for installation
.. that sounds like advice-from-experience!
Marius has a good point there. I would add to it that you should also make sure that you don't leave a window foregrounded that will make a "status beep" or any other unwanted sound when the particular keys that you've chosen are pressed. At our recent SIGGRAPH installation we had a few minutes where we heard the apple "bonk" noise every time someone would press one of the buttons, and realized that the system control panel was the foregrounded application, so it was receiving the button-presses also.
modifier keys work well for this (control, shift, etc) - but if you need 12-16 buttons, you'll probably want to just use letters. -D
On 8/28/07, marius schebella marius.schebella@gmail.com wrote:
just a small hint to prevent problems I experienced in the past. when you hack a keyboard for installations, I recommend not to use keys which interrupt the start process (c, s, return or the system runtime). if people have buttons in installation they will not stop pressing them during a restart of the machine... marius.
David Merrill wrote:
Hi Stuart - A hacked USB keyboard makes a nice button-bank, and you can typically strip away most of its size, leaving just a little circuit board with wires coming out to your buttons. You can read the button-presses with Hans's [hid] object.
here's one that we did some time ago... http://www.instructables.com/id/EDH81H8H62EQZJIDV8/ -David M.
On 8/28/07, *Stuart Jones* < s.jones@csm.arts.ac.uk mailto:s.jones@csm.arts.ac.uk mailto:s.jones@csm.arts.ac.uk> wrote:
Hi I'm helping with an installation which will have 12-16 buttons (on/off) to set off events in Pd and need to find a simple midi controller to just send note on and note off messages on 12-16 notes to do that. I could hack a midi keyboard but that would be a complicated and bulky solution given the size of the installation. Any suggestions? Thanks Stuart _______________________________________________ PD-list@iem.at <mailto:PD-list@iem.at> mailing list UNSUBSCRIBE and account-management -> http://lists.puredata.info/listinfo/pd-list
-- MIT Media Lab dmerrill@media.mit.edu mailto:dmerrill@media.mit.edu http://web.media.mit.edu/~dmerrill/
PD-list@iem.at mailing list UNSUBSCRIBE and account-management -> http://lists.puredata.info/listinfo/pd-list
You may also get in touch ww/ the mamalala I/O project
++ O.
Le mardi 28 août 2007 à 08:41 -0400, marius schebella a écrit :
just a small hint to prevent problems I experienced in the past. when you hack a keyboard for installations, I recommend not to use keys which interrupt the start process (c, s, return or the system runtime). if people have buttons in installation they will not stop pressing them during a restart of the machine... marius.
David Merrill wrote:
Hi Stuart - A hacked USB keyboard makes a nice button-bank, and you can typically strip away most of its size, leaving just a little circuit board with wires coming out to your buttons. You can read the button-presses with Hans's [hid] object.
here's one that we did some time ago... http://www.instructables.com/id/EDH81H8H62EQZJIDV8/ -David M.
On 8/28/07, *Stuart Jones* <s.jones@csm.arts.ac.uk mailto:s.jones@csm.arts.ac.uk> wrote:
Hi I'm helping with an installation which will have 12-16 buttons (on/off) to set off events in Pd and need to find a simple midi controller to just send note on and note off messages on 12-16 notes to do that. I could hack a midi keyboard but that would be a complicated and bulky solution given the size of the installation. Any suggestions? Thanks Stuart _______________________________________________ PD-list@iem.at <mailto:PD-list@iem.at> mailing list UNSUBSCRIBE and account-management -> http://lists.puredata.info/listinfo/pd-list
-- MIT Media Lab dmerrill@media.mit.edu mailto:dmerrill@media.mit.edu http://web.media.mit.edu/~dmerrill/
PD-list@iem.at mailing list UNSUBSCRIBE and account-management -> http://lists.puredata.info/listinfo/pd-list
PD-list@iem.at mailing list UNSUBSCRIBE and account-management -> http://lists.puredata.info/listinfo/pd-list
You may also get in touch ww/ the mamalala I/O project
++ O.
Le mardi 28 août 2007 à 08:41 -0400, marius schebella a écrit :
just a small hint to prevent problems I experienced in the past. when you hack a keyboard for installations, I recommend not to use keys which interrupt the start process (c, s, return or the system runtime). if people have buttons in installation they will not stop pressing them during a restart of the machine... marius.
David Merrill wrote:
Hi Stuart - A hacked USB keyboard makes a nice button-bank, and you can typically strip away most of its size, leaving just a little circuit board with wires coming out to your buttons. You can read the button-presses with Hans's [hid] object.
here's one that we did some time ago... http://www.instructables.com/id/EDH81H8H62EQZJIDV8/ -David M.
On 8/28/07, *Stuart Jones* <s.jones@csm.arts.ac.uk mailto:s.jones@csm.arts.ac.uk> wrote:
Hi I'm helping with an installation which will have 12-16 buttons (on/off) to set off events in Pd and need to find a simple midi controller to just send note on and note off messages on 12-16 notes to do that. I could hack a midi keyboard but that would be a complicated and bulky solution given the size of the installation. Any suggestions? Thanks Stuart _______________________________________________ PD-list@iem.at <mailto:PD-list@iem.at> mailing list UNSUBSCRIBE and account-management -> http://lists.puredata.info/listinfo/pd-list
-- MIT Media Lab dmerrill@media.mit.edu mailto:dmerrill@media.mit.edu http://web.media.mit.edu/~dmerrill/
PD-list@iem.at mailing list UNSUBSCRIBE and account-management -> http://lists.puredata.info/listinfo/pd-list
PD-list@iem.at mailing list UNSUBSCRIBE and account-management -> http://lists.puredata.info/listinfo/pd-list
On Tue, 28 Aug 2007, David Merrill wrote:
A hacked USB keyboard makes a nice button-bank, and you can typically strip away most of its size, leaving just a little circuit board with wires coming out to your buttons. You can read the button-presses with Hans's [hid] object. here's one that we did some time ago... http://www.instructables.com/id/EDH81H8H62EQZJIDV8/
Maybe it's just me, but I'd rather try to hack the driver or the cable (e.g. using PS2-to-serial converters) rather than open the keyboard's case. With those solutions, it doesn't take more effort to support more buttons.
_ _ __ ___ _____ ________ _____________ _____________________ ... | Mathieu Bouchard - tél:+1.514.383.3801, Montréal QC Canada
On Tue, 28 Aug 2007, Mathieu Bouchard wrote:
On Tue, 28 Aug 2007, David Merrill wrote:
A hacked USB keyboard makes a nice button-bank, and you can typically strip away most of its size, leaving just a little circuit board with wires coming out to your buttons. You can read the button-presses with Hans's [hid] object. here's one that we did some time ago... http://www.instructables.com/id/EDH81H8H62EQZJIDV8/
Maybe it's just me, but I'd rather try to hack the driver or the cable (e.g. using PS2-to-serial converters) rather than open the keyboard's case. With those solutions, it doesn't take more effort to support more buttons.
Uh, I wrote that assuming that you meant you were making something designed not to interfere with USB keyboard drivers and so you were bypassing the controller and stuff. But I was confused.
_ _ __ ___ _____ ________ _____________ _____________________ ... | Mathieu Bouchard - tél:+1.514.383.3801, Montréal QC Canada
Becuase you want 16 or less buttons its easy. You don't need a key scanner so just a 6402 (aka AY-5-101-5) is basically all you want. You can get em for pennies.
From memory you want a 500kHz clock, but 1MHz crystals are more
common so a flip flop will divide it in half.
You pull a few pins up or down to set it in transmit mode. Put a cap and resistor on pin 21 to send a reset/init pulse. A 74922 will scan 16 keys into 4 bits. Hard wire the note-on and velocity byte and it should work.
data sheet and last item here is basically it..
http://faculty.cs.tamu.edu/rabi/ppcproj/lcdkeypad/lcdkeypad.html
also intersting, link via Bobby Whelans site
http://www.borg.com/%7Ejglatt/hardware/key.htm
but uses a PIC which is annoying because it needs programming.
Or, find Robert Penfolds book "Midi Projects" from which I built one of these in 1984 when I was a teenager. Good Lord! People still use MIDI :D
On Tue, 28 Aug 2007 10:45:02 +0100 Stuart Jones s.jones@csm.arts.ac.uk wrote:
Hi
I'm helping with an installation which will have 12-16 buttons (on/off) to set off events in Pd and need to find a simple midi controller to just send note on and note off messages on 12-16 notes to do that. I could hack a midi keyboard but that would be a complicated and bulky solution given the size of the installation. Any suggestions?
Thanks
Stuart
PD-list@iem.at mailing list UNSUBSCRIBE and account-management -> http://lists.puredata.info/listinfo/pd-list