Apeshit
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I started to make a small PCB for an internal arduinoboy, and I'm looking for suggestions on how to improve the board. This isn't going to be an ASM product, and I'll release the board files when they're finished.

My current plan is to have a separate LED board, and mount it under the power LED and make a custom screen cover for the LEDs. I may make a few of these if anyone else is up for building their own.

I don't really like how many wire pads are on the board, and I can think of a few way to reduce the amount. One idea I also had was to mount the board directly onto one of the MIDI jacks. This would reduce wires and also would keep the board in place. Space is my only concern with this idea.

The main PCB has pads for a header which will work with an FTDI breakout board to maintain programming capabilities. I plan to have the header accessible through the battery compartment. Not sure if this is very useful.

A (very) sloppy mockup of the unrouted PCB idea:

herr_prof
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the header is extremely useful, if you are using lsdjmidi out, please stick with having it. Cant really help with the pcb design but it looks great. I think the taco midi idea is still the best, with 1/8 jacks connecting to specially made cables.

Bit wish
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New Albany Indiana

Wait>>>>>? they have those for gameboys? i only use them to program my heating and my fans... HA!

Alley Beach
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clovis CA
Bit wish wrote:

Wait>>>>>? they have those for gameboys? i only use them to program my heating and my fans... HA!

thats funny, i've been doing the same thing wink

@Ape, are you planning on using an atmega168 or the 328? are you planning to have all the 23 I/O's in the final design? i think something like 13 is required. i've been pondering this idea for a while too wink

ashimoke
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Czech republic

I'd suggest hacking the a-boy code and replace all the leds with one rgb led. It'd save few wires and a lot of space. Someone might want to replace his power led with this.
I was never really interested in what the leds do in midi-out mode so I don't know if it is usefull but you'd probably lose that.
Agree with the 1/8 midi jacks.

Also if possible you might want to break out few (like 3) pins for hacking. The i2c might be usefull.

Alley Beach
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clovis CA

alrighty heres what i got

EDIT: the demensions are just shy by a a few mm to be just as small as an arduino pro mini

Last edited by Alley Beach (Oct 13, 2012 10:04 am)

ashimoke
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Czech republic

ok, is this going to be a race? big_smile

I'va got somewhere eagle files for arduino pro mini shield with arduinoboy + low pass filter (driven by midiout mode). Never got to finish it though hmm

Alley Beach
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clovis CA
ashimoke wrote:

ok, is this going to be a race? big_smile

I'va got somewhere eagle files for arduino pro mini shield with arduinoboy + low pass filter (driven by midiout mode). Never got to finish it though hmm


hahaha, no, im not much for competition, but this was a good way to procrastinate against my homework tongue
was that low pass filter featured on kickstarter? if so i think i saw it smile id love to see your work man =]


also, if anybody wants my .brd feel free to ask and ill send it in an email L:

herr_prof
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ashimoke wrote:

.
I was never really interested in what the leds do in midi-out mode so I don't know if it is usefull but you'd probably lose that.

Its useful when troubleshooting midi routing to tell if you are actually sending midi out at the time you think you are on each specific channel. If you have access to a midi monitor though you can probably ditch it. Basically if you just have an led flicker on midi transmit it should be enough minimally.

I kinda feel like the only person in the world who is using midi out sometimes.

ashimoke
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Czech republic
herr_prof wrote:

...I kinda feel like the only person in the world who is using midi out sometimes.

You don't have to, midi out is the only mode I use (right now). That's why I don't know anything about the leds - I don't have any because midi out is my fixed mode in software smile

kitsch
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matt's mind

haha.  this is funny.  i've done work towards a similar internal thing too.  maybe i'll post a screenshot just because.

wasn't someone porting this project to teensy a little while ago?

kitsch
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matt's mind

just found that teensy reference in this thread, about the femtoduino

http://chipmusic.org/forums/topic/7389/ … rduinoboy/

Apeshit
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Thanks for the suggestions.

herr_prof wrote:

I think the taco midi idea is still the best, with 1/8 jacks connecting to specially made cables.

This would definitely be a cleaner install than cramming MIDI jacks in there. I thought about using mini DIN 5 jacks and just converting up. Those kind of cables are easy to come by.

Alley Beach wrote:

are you planning to have all the 23 I/O's in the final design? i think something like 13 is required. i've been pondering this idea for a while too wink

Depends where I intend to put the PCB, I suppose.

(Looks like you should rotate your IC 90 degrees counter clockwise. Some traces look unnecessarily long.)

ashimoke wrote:

I'd suggest hacking the a-boy code and replace all the leds with one rgb led. It'd save few wires and a lot of space. Someone might want to replace his power led with this.
Agree with the 1/8 midi jacks.

I considered using an RGB LED. It can be done all in hardware actually. Though I quite like the idea of an LED board...

Last edited by Apeshit (Oct 13, 2012 4:39 pm)

Theta_Frost
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Milwaukee, WI

Very nice.  I'd be interested in putting a few of these together for myself.  +1 for taco MIDI.  I would be using the MIDI out too.

ashimoke
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Czech republic
Apeshit wrote:

I considered using an RGB LED. It can be done all in hardware actually. Though I quite like the idea of an LED board...

True, but you'd need more diodes wink
I actually like loads of leds myself, Like everyone else. And that's it I suppose big_smile

herr_prof
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maybe the key is smaller leds big_smile