PS/2 Synth Will Knock You Off Your Broom

9 Comments

Here’s a hack centered around something a lot of people have sitting around: a PS/2 keyboard. [serdef] turned a Harry Potter-edition PS/2 into a combination synth keyboard and drum machine and has a nice write-up about it on Hackaday.io.

For communication, he tore up a PS/2 to USB cable to get a female mini DIN connector and wired it to the Nano. He’s using a Dreamblaster S1 synth module to generate sounds, and that sits on a synth shield along with the Nano. The synth can be powered from either the USB or a 9-volt.

Keymapping is done with the Teensy PS/2 keyboard library. [serdef] reused a bunch of code from his bicycle drummer project which also employed the Dreamblaster S1. [serdef] is continually adding features to this project, like a pot for resonance control which lets him shape the waveform like an analog synth. He has posted some handy PS/2 integration code, his synth code, and a KiCad schematic. Demo videos are waiting for you across the link. 

As a drum machine:

As a sweet synth:

 

9 thoughts on “PS/2 Synth Will Knock You Off Your Broom”

    1. It appears to be a cheap crappy PS/2 keyboard that somebody has silkscreened Harry Potter on the case and changed the F10 key to be “F9 3/4” instead.

      Reply

    1. Excellent idea.
      I have a ps/2 Harry Potter mouse here, that I plan to use.
      I guess a touchpad would work the same way, I’ll try to get hold of one.

      Reply

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