Prodical’s Blog

I’ve been working away on a couple of projects recently – the Auduino synthesiser and DMX control of a Colour Kinetics iColor Flex SLX 50 node light string - and though I’m not quite ready to post about these yet I thought some of my interim research and workings worth noting…

Arduino to DMX

I found a recent Frizing project – ARDUINO TO DMX CONVERTER – which uses the same RS485 chip as Daniel Hirschmann’s Super DMX Shield – which I bought all the components for from Farnell bar the 8 Pin DIP IC Socket (doh!) – so although this was all PC based I thought it might worth looking at in the interim.

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My SparkFun components arrived… taking 9 days from order in the US… but since I thought I’d build Dave Mee an Auduino as a thank you for lending me his Arduino kit I bought some additional 4.7k linear rotary pots, knobs and an audio jack socket from Maplin for an equitable £9.95 in the interim. They’re chunkier – but chassis fitting.

So I had a good day at Fablab Manchester on Friday…
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With my SparkFun components in the post I’ve been preparing for building my Auduino – researching the Google Group a bit more thoroughly and following up on some of the links… and it really does seem like an ideal ‘my first proper’ arduino project…

I think the demo video on Jesse’s Studio Blog post illustrates how much fun this could be…

So I’ve now collected a series of Auduino sketches that variously:

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I’ve been googling how to transmit DMX via an Arduino… and following up on links in the DMX512 section at the Arduino: Playground…

Daniel Hirschmann’s Super DMX Shield

Ideally I’d like to buy a ready-made shield:

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It’s been a while since my last blog post – so this is an overdue round-up of what’s been keeping me busy.

It feels like I’ve been focusing on Processing to the exclusion of anything else for sometime… and not just my own creative development… but also all the time and energy I’ve been investing into InProcess:ing – the open forum for sharing creative coding and practice at Madlab.

Don’t get me wrong… I lurve Processing… but I think it’s time to take a bit of a breather and outline ideas and strategies to move forward with new opportunities and other creative ideas that have been bubbling on my back-burner for a while…

Themes include:

1. KiNoSeq – a kinetic nodal sequencer for the iPad
2. Fun with Arduino
3. PEAL ‘Hand Bells’
4. The Augmented Tonoscope
5. shado – monome widgets
6. Dirty Electronics – Skull Etching
7. ‘Analogue is the new Digital’ exhibition

Some of these are relatively brief and included within this post – others are more substantial so I’ve opened up a separate post in their own right.

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It’s 10 weeks since I took part in the Arduino and Physical Computing Workshop at Madlab and I’ve been meaning to post about it… and actually do something with it too.

Of course I’ve known of Arduino for quite some time…. Monomatic’s PEAL control system is built using one… but I’ve never actually played with one myself. Thanks to Dave Mee who ‘lent’ me his Arduino Duemilanove kit.

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With my monome 64 due to arrive imminently I’ve been browsing the monome website for sparkly things I particularly like the look of…

Starting with Ableton Live…

1. drumwreck by anton hornquist – website & youtube demo

monome step sequencer in maxmsp/live

Early days for this app… which seems both intuitive and ergonomic… and even works using the ‘monome40_fake’ patch. Latest developments on its monome discussion thread.

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Scanning Turnkey’s official magazine I noticed a few interesting things…

Most of all I really liked…
Novation ReMOTE 25SL
www.novationmusic.com

I’d always thought that my KORG microKONTROL MIDI controller was the best implemented compact unit on the market… and at current price of £155 new from Turnkey I still think nothing comes close for the money… but the Novation ReMOTE SL series look great… and with their Automap Universal standard feature – instant communication with most sequencers… and now with VST plug-ins too… I think this is a must. I can envisage it having a big impact on productivity working with Nuendo and that’s got to be a good thing… the ReMOTE 25 SL is £289 new from Turnkey… looking on ebay now… new US $299.99 + $80 shipping… drool…

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