chipKIT Sketch: Mini Polyphonic Sampling Synth

chipkit-synth-title

In our hands-on review of the Digilent chipKIT Uno32, we posed the question of what the lasting appeal might be for a 32-bit Arduino work-alike. We felt it needed some novel applications exploiting its special features…not just the same old Arduino sketches with MOAR BITS. After the fractal demo, we’ve hit upon something unique and fun… … [Read more...]

Extending the usability of touchscreens

extending-touchscreen-capabilities

Fanboys may be in shock from seeing duct tape applied to the screen of an iPad, but we can assure you it's in the name of science. [Michael Knuepfel] is working on his thesis for the ITP graduate program at the Tisch School for the Arts. He managed to augment the usability of touchscreen devices by adding hardware to them. What he's come up with are devices for both input and output. The output … [Read more...]

Experimenting with a permeability tuned oscillator

permeability-tuned-oscillator

[Scott Harden] has been working through a design for a variable inductor to use as a PTO, or permeability tuned oscillator. What you see above is the most recent fruit of these efforts. The variable inductor is made up of the green coil of wire with a threaded bolt in the core. Turning that bolt moves the tip in or out of the coil, affecting its inductance. Traditionally, tuning RF oscillator … [Read more...]

Vintage peripheral hacks roundup

atari_stm1_usb

A few days ago, we featured an Apple ][ USB keyboard mod, and several readers chimed in sharing their own retro conversions in the comments section. We had no idea that many of you had made similar modifications of your own, so here’s a quick roundup of what your fellow Hackaday readers have put together. Optical Atari STM1 Mouse [JJ] had a 25-year old Atari STM1 mouse sitting around … [Read more...]

Wifon is back and better than ever

wifon_v2

Hackaday forum member [Emeryth] recently posted his newest creation, the Wifon 2.0, which is an update to a project we featured last year. The second iteration of the device looks to make several improvements on the already solid concept. Ditching the simple 16x4 LCD, version 2 sports a full color 320x240 touch panel LCD. A faster STM32 micro controller replaces the Atmega88 he used the first … [Read more...]