[sdiy] Electronic organs revisted: using organ manuals and pedals for synth DIY projects, etc

[Tom Wiltshire]

On 18 Sep 2011, at 18:20, aankrom wrote:

> A cool thing I've noticed about some microcontrollers, PICs I think, you can get them from programmers who put bootloader code on it to make it easier to program with a PC. At least I think that's what you'd call it. I'm remembering snippets from the MIDIBox site. How cheap is it to get into programming microcontrollers?

I use a box similar to one of these:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MPLAB-ICD2-In-Circuit-Debugger-USB-Microchip-Programmer-/130400068549?pt=UK_BOI_Electrical_Components_Supplies_ET&hash=item1e5c7323c5#ht_2732wt_1051

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Microchip-ICD2-circuit-debugger-programmer-ICD-2-/280738990168?pt=UK_AudioElectronicsVideo_Video_TelevisionSetTopBoxes&hash=item415d590858#ht_500wt_1066

The price of the ICD2 programmer and clones has come down recently since Microchip released the ICD3. There are other cheaper programmers, and even some DIY super-basic serial port ones. To be honest, I'd rather be using it than faffing about trying to get the damn programmer to work. USB programmers are much faster than serial ones too.

> How easy is it to do if you use a MacBook Pro with OSX 10.6?

Dunno. I expect you could run MPLAB (Microchip's free software) on a Mac if you put Windows on it. There might be some other software you could use on a Mac, or you might be able to get some Unix PIC programming thing going. I could try it, but I haven't done. I prefer to keep all my electronics on a PC under the table.

> Would I need to break out my old Sony Vaio running XP with only 384MB of RAM (and a P3).

That would probably do it. The PC I'm using was being thrown away from an office and cost me £1.

> My biggest fear with microcontrollers is having a project become orphaned due to deprecated and obsolete parts. I guess it's not as bad as the old days when you programmed EPROMs. I've been disappointed a few times when I see a cool looking project that I found on the web, but it uses an EPROM and the code is nowhere to be found. BTW, I have TONS of the older microcontrollers, like Motorola 6803's (nice bling) and scads of 80XX's. I even have some Z80's, but that's only a microcontroller by today's standards. OK, rambling mode OFF...
> 
> Is there a nice cheap setup that just needs a USB port? What's a good choice for synth-DIY?

PIC or Atmel - there are plenty of people on the list using either platform. Mostly we don't argue about it.

> I see a lot of projects in Nuts & Volts, but maybe there's something best suited to synth needs. I've been getting annoyed with Nuts & Volts because I want more projects that let me use up the parts I've scrounged - nevermind that a PIC or some Atmel could it smaller. I guess I'm an analog snob - at least when it comes to rolling my own.

Fair enough. I agree it'd be nice to use all that stuff at the back of a drawer, but personally I don't think I'm ever going to manage it.

Regards,
Tom