[sdiy] New Module pseudo DIY

[Eric Brombaugh]

Thanks David,

I've been watching the Z-DSP discussions elsewhere and it looks like a 
great module.

The Spin Semiconductor FV-1 chip is a cool part. It's been out for a few 
years and there hasn't been a whole lot of activity focused on it until 
recently. The Z-DSP module wraps it up in a nice user-friendly package 
and provides the interfaces that are needed to get it talking to the 
Euro-format modular world.

If you're not a Euro user, or if your budget is tight you might also 
consider buying the FV-1 development board directly from Spin's 
distributor. It doesn't provide all the CV options, I/O buffering and 
display features, but if you're just interested in learning DSP it 
provides everything you need to get started with line level I/O and 
knobs. Spin also has a fantastic online knowledge base on how basic 
effects are implemented - this would be useful to those programming for 
any processor / language.

For those who haven't worked with typical DSPs already, beware that the 
FV-1 is a strange beast. It's specifically designed to efficiently 
implement delay and filter effects, so its instruction set is rather 
narrowly focused on this task. You won't find a lot of the more common 
control structures, and many of the instructions combine a lot of simple 
operations into one step. It's great for what it does though - I 
translated an algorithm from FV-1 code to dsPIC and saw a 5x increase in 
code size!

These are great times for those interested in mangling noises. Lots of 
diverse options out there at all skill levels.

Eric

On 12/16/2009 10:47 AM, David Ingebretsen wrote:
> While I know this is a pretty "hardcore" DIY group here who loves the smell
> of an etching PCB, and if they could, would build their own IC's...
>
> I thought I'd throw out a recommendation. TipTopAudio's Z-DSP module based
> on a Spin Semiconductor FV-1 DSP chip is a very cool idea. Spinsemi.com has
> more info on the DSP, but in a nutshell, it is designed for audio effects
> and has built in DAC/ADC, so it is wired as an analog device, no special
> requirements regarding digital v. analog paths on the PCB. Three pot inputs,
> built in LFO's, etc.
>
> It looks like a great place to begin if you want to play around with DSP
> programming and filters, shifters, flangers, choruses, delays, etc.
>
> The coolest thing is Gur built in the ability to plug in a "ROM" with
> different programs in it. This module can be anything from an oscillator to
> filter, to delay... I bought the module and Gur's development board, not
> cheap but very flexible. The assembler is free from SpinSemi and there are
> many example programs there. The instruction set look very straight forward
> and optimized for audio effect code.
>
> If not Gur's module (in a beautiful Euro panel with voltage control added to
> everything) there is a more bare bones development board available from Spin
> Semiconductor's distributors.
>
> Anyway, if anyone is looking at playing with DSP code, this is a great way
> to start without having to design the electronics first, so perfect for me.
>
> Happy Holidays everyone!
>
> David
>
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