We have control!

While I wait for all my parts to come in, I've built a prototype controller based on an arduino to test out controlling the sound-chip of the gameboy:

In the video above, there are 3 inputs:

• Push button - for playing a note

• Potentiometer - for changing the pitch of a note

• Ultrasonic sensor - for changing the duty cycle of the square wave

This project is all based around MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) - I'm planning to build four instruments that use MIDI to control the sound-chip of the gameboy - a lead, chord, bass and drum instrument hence '8-bit band'.  I have to say many thanks to Sprites mods for the link cable to midi design without this, the project wouldn't be possible: http://spritesmods.com/?art=gbamidi&page=2

The first of these instruments I'm working on is a bass instrument. You play the note on a pressure sensitive softpot touch strip and alter the sound with a joystick and by tilting the instrument.

my rough sketch for bass instrument inputs

I'm using the parts from a wii nunchuk for the accelerometer and joystick (keeping the instrument styling game themed!) As the nunchuck has arrived, that's what I'm working on next.

Laser Harp

I'm starting a summer project for the Bristol University Blake Bursary. The plan is to build multiple musical instruments that can be played together using the sound-chip of just one gameboy - hence the title '8-bit band'. More on that in a later post!

The test run for this project was a 24 hour ARM Campus Engineering Challenge on 29th March, here's a time-lapse of the day:

The rules were as follows:

You have 

• 24 hours
• A team of 3 - 5 people
• 1 Microcontroller 

Make something cool!

'What's cooler than lasers?' said our team, so we attempted to build a laser harp! What is a laser harp, you're probably asking. Here's a demo of a proper $1000ish laser harp in action:

So with a team of 3 electronic engineers and 2 mechanical engineers we set out to build our very own. After 24 hours of no sleep, fuelled on caffeine and pizza we had a functioning harp which wasn't quite as flashy as the one in the above video, but was still really fun to play.

Here's a little promo video of the event:

Here's a video where I explain how it works, with a little demo of a judge playing it at the end:

Feedback from the judges:

'A special mention to team “destroy them with lasers” whose laser harp was really well presented and engineered creation. It’s rendition of ‘a space odyssey’ was particularly entertaining.' - Sam Walder

'Lots of fun, would be great for open days. Can I have one?' - Mike Barton

This is just what we were looking for as this is the main purpose for the Blake Bursary project this summer - building something fun and interactive to be used for open days and other similar events.

With this, I've now began working on my '8-bit band' project. More on that soon!