User:Muzzlbock/enes100/Synthcontrol

Link to team page.

Write problem statement
Figure out the MIDI to Arduino connection to the Synthesizer to the computer and figure out all the functions of the synthesizer and figure out if I can extend the capabilities of the synthesizer

Assign Task1
Get the Sytheseizer hooked up to the amplifier and the amp hooked up to the speakers on the wall in the room in order to see if the synth works and the amp works. Also begin to figure out the inputs to put into the arduino to the put into the synth and figure out what does what.

Compare actual work done to Task1
Worked on hooking the synth up to the wall speakers. Initially had problems because none of the inputs of the amp matched any of the outputs of the synth. Then talked to teacher to see if he had a solution. He ended up finding connector s that were RCA on one side and "Banana" on the other side. The RCA was hooked up to then hooked up to the amp and the banana connector plugged into the synth. I the had the obstical of getting the amp hooked up to the speakers already mounted on the wall in the room. Again I failed to have the correct connector at the time. Then to just test the amp and the synth I tried to connect a cheap speaker up to the back of the amp. this ended up not working because the speaker I suspect was broken. The next day I brought in an adapter that allowed me to connect a headphone like jack into the large head phone jack on the amp. on the other side of this connector were two rca connectors that plugged into the wall. this then allowed the synth to play through the speakers on the wall which actually ended up being pretty loud.

Week1 Peer Review
Currently do not have any peers to comment on but am currently reading Mareno's older documentation on the last music project. especially learning a lot from th tutorial he has pasted on the arduino syntax that he learned and am currently learning as much from his documentation as possible

Assign Task2
Next i will be hooking up the arduino to the up to the synthasiezer and learning how to control it with the arduino. will follow what Mareno did with the normal keyboard and see if the same thing works with the synth. see if weather or not they are controled the same or differently. probably will be a lot more commands possilble due to the many possibilities of the syth

Compare actual work done to Task2
Worked on connecting the Arduino to my computer at home. And writing some code

Week2 Narrative
This week the first was getting the arduino to work on my home computer.

As far as the arduino is concerned, I noticed I had a problem last week when it would not upload code correctly from my home computer, but when I came to class the first day of the week, it uploaded just fine. After a fairly long process of trying several things, including among the actual solutions, checking to make sure I had the correct arduino drivers and that I had at least the minimum number of libraries to run the "Hello World" code. As it turns out, it was a combination of two things:

The arduino environment (what you write code for the arduino in) has to in essence "find" the arduino once it's hooked up to your computer. You have to make sure you have the right model of arduino selected (such as arduino Uno, arduino Mini, arduino Fio - in my case, arduino Duemilanove), and that it's "looking" in the correct COM port. The default, I was lead to believe, is that it will always look for the arduino Uno in COM 1. To find this setting and change it, go to tools -> board and select the correct arduino board. The correct COM port is a bit trickier if you don't already know how to find it. First one must find that the arduino is properly recognized in the device manager. On a Windows 7 64 bit operating system, go to the control panel -> system and security -> system -> device manager -> Open the drop-down menu labeled "Ports (COM & LPT)". The arduino Duemilanove was recognized as the "USB Serial Port(COM3)", but other boards are recognized under different names. To change the COM port the arduino environment looks for, go to tools -> Serial Port and select the corresponding COM point. Instructions for making sure you have the correct drivers, and information about how your computer recognizes your respective arduino board can be found on the arduino website here.

Week2 Peer Review
Go to each team mates weekly summary wiki page. Read their activities and narrative. Then go the associated discussion page. Say something positive on this page. Try some constructive criticism. Add your name and a signature ~ by entering four tildes in a row to create a time and date stamp. Create a new category if another team mate has already commented here.

Assign Task3
This coming week I plan to take home some device that I'm more confident I can get talking to the arduino - either the keyboard in the engineering design classroom, or the toy guitar, and seeing if I can get that instead to talk to the arduino. Additionally, I will start looking into how to produce sound with an arduino.

Compare actual work done to Task3
Rationalize differences

Week3 Narrative
Upload photos to wikimedia. Upload video to youtube. Convert all spreadsheets, documents, and presentations to wiki format and create wiki subpage of your page for each of them. Link to them here in a narrative that tells a story. High light the problems (engineering problems) you had and how you solved them.

Week3 Peer Review
Go to each team mates weekly summary wiki page. Read their activities and narrative. Then go the associated discussion page. Say something positive on this page. Try some constructive criticism. Add your name and a signature ~ by entering four tildes in a row to create a time and date stamp. Create a new category if another team mate has already commented here.

Assign Task4
Record what you are planning on doing for the team during the weekend between week3 and week4 of the project here.

Compare actual work done to Task4
Rationalize differences

Week4 Narrative
Upload photos to wikimedia. Upload video to youtube. Convert all spreadsheets, documents, and presentations to wiki format and create wiki subpage of your page for each of them. Link to them here in a narrative that tells a story. High light the problems (engineering problems) you had and how you solved them.

Week4 Peer Review
Go to each team mates weekly summary wiki page. Read their activities and narrative. Then go the associated discussion page. Say something positive on this page. Try some constructive criticism. Add your name and a signature ~ by entering four tildes in a row to create a time and date stamp. Create a new category if another team mate has already commented here.

Complete Project Page
Follow the "project done" format.

Start Next Project Week0 activities
During this week you will perform the week0 activities of the next project.