[sdiy] Microchip DSP kit $60 > AVR32

[Eric Brombaugh]

Adam Schabtach wrote:
>> I like the idea of the PSoC, but the MCU is a bit underpowered,
>> especially when it's running ISRs to handle all the housekeeping for
>> the various peripherals. The ADCs & DACs are built out of Switched Cap
>> blocks and don't have particularly fast conversion times either. It
>> would be great for low-speed CV stuff thought - LFOs, EGs, etc. and
>> I've got some ideas on the back burner for going further with some of
>> those functions.
> 
> I'd be very interested to hear about your ideas, should you decide to move
> them to a front burner. I've been thinking for awhile--partly because of Tom
> Wiltshire's PIC-based modules--that small micros are the way to go for CV
> generator/processor modules. Personally I never seem to have enough LFOs in
> my modular, so I'd like to do a digital LFO module with several simultaneous
> outputs and some features for frequency and shape randomization, somewhat
> like what one can achieve by cross-patching the FM inputs of two analog
> LFOs.

Thanks - I've got to confess that It's been nearly 2 years since I last 
messed around with the PSoC. Back when I announced the project on SDIY 
in late April of 2006 there was a lot of interesting discussion of ideas 
for LFOs, some of which sounded pretty useful. I took some notes back 
then and of course the list archives are helpful as well, but my thought 
was to integrate some of the suggestions into a fairly simple LFO with 
various waveshapes, sync ins & outs and so forth.

Having multiple outputs on one PSoC may be possible if you used one of 
the larger devices with more analog blocks. The 8-pin part I used on the 
digital VCO project only has 2 analog output pins and probably wouldn't 
be suitable for a multi-output function. The larger devices also have 
more digital input pins which would be useful for larger waveform select 
spaces as well as internal routing options such as the cross-patching 
you mentioned. The lower sample rates possible with an LFO allow more 
computation time per sample and would be a great way to stuff more 
features in.

It's been a while since I looked at the Cypress parts lineup - these 
things tend to change quickly in today's tech environment, so I'm not 
currently familiar with what's available. It might be worth another look 
to see if there's anything out there that supports the sort of things 
we're talking about.

Eric