Pneumatic Antenna Launcher

antenna launcher

I’ve always wondered if HAM radio would be an interesting hobby. Well if I got to design as many antenna launching devices as these guys it would be worth it. The pneumatic gun fires a tennis ball that trails a fishing line. Once the line is in the tree it can be used hoist the actual antenna. The site has plans for a large number of devices with different triggering mechanisms and sizes. Some are even small enough to fit in a ten gallon tub.

[thanks wasted_druid]

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How-To Control Csound With A Custom Midi Controller: Hardware (2 Of 2)

In last week’s installment, we showed how to get started with Csound.  This week we take it to the next step by constructing a homemade MIDI controller circuit and use the new device to control Csound in real time.

What you will need:
a computer on which you have Csound up and running
a MIDI adapter for your computer (usb to midi adapters are the norm here)
a microcontroller / breadboard / microcontroller programmer (in this example we will show some BX24 sample code)
a MIDI female connector (either a cable or circuit board mount type, also known as 5 pin din)
a 2N2222 NPN transistor
some resistors (10Kohm and 220ohm)
some sort of sensor or button or potentiometer or any combination of the above

Continue reading “How-To Control Csound With A Custom Midi Controller: Hardware (2 Of 2)”