[Tom] pointed out this nintendo DS midi wifi hack demo. [0xtob] and [therain] put on a demo of using a ds as a midi device. Check out the video. The two most interesting applications demo’ed: [to me] The kaos pad app and using the DS as a midi playback device. [I wonder how long until we see a DS orchestra. Seems like the DS still has plenty of potential for development. [via musicthing]
Nintendo Game Boy Hacks239 Articles
nintendo gameboy hacks
Nintendo DS MIDI Port
[therain] has added a MIDI port to his Nintendo DS. It’s just a two wire connection so it’s pretty easy if you’ve got an extra cart laying around. As a demo, he wrote a program that uses the touchpad to act as two Control Change devices. One is the X value and the other the Y so it behaves similar to the Korg Kaoss pad. He’s working on a sequencer as well.
Game Boy Advance MIDI Interface
[Avelino Herrera Morales] wrote in to tell us about his Game Boy Advance MIDI project. It’s pretty neat since it only takes two resistors and a link cable to use. The link cable has a slotted connector so you can use a chunk of protoboard to connect to the pins. He has software the does all of the MIDI packet generation. As an example, he uses the GBA to control a Chameleon synthesizer.
E-Reader For Nintendo DS
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The e-Reader is an add-on product for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance. It has a simple optical card swipe for loading programs off of specially encoded cards. The location of the link port adapter keeps the device from being used with the Nintendo DS. Reader [Caitsith2] has posted instructions for modifying the reader for use with the DS. If you don’t plan on using it with your GBA you can pull the entire board. Once you’ve got the e-Reader switched you can do fun stuff like printing out your own homebrew e-Reader cards.
Gameboy Linked Hardware Sequencer
Thanks to Create Digital Music for pointing me to the awesome work of Gijs Geikes. This is his latest sequencer creation. It is designed to get its clock signal from Little Sound Dj running on a Gameboy. The sequencer controls plugin modules that are attached to a parallel port. Here’s a great sample of the output. He’s got schematics on his site, which are easy to comprehend when compared to his bizarro board etching. One of the plugins is an earlier project: The Tape Sequencer. Have a listen to that too.
GBA Variometer
Variometers are used by para/hang gliders to measure their vertical climb/sink rate. This data helps pilots find and catch thermals. The software runs on a flash ROM cartridge and captures flight data. The data from up to 50 stored flights can be recalled later. The altimeter is a simple pressure transducer that plugs into the link port on the Gameboy Advance.
[thanks Sean2e]
DS Serial Interface
natrium42, the original PassMe designer, has released a guide for building a serial interface on the Nintendo DS. It does require you to flash a new firmware on the Passme, but other than that it is just a matter of soldering wires to the RX and TX. He’s tested it with a keyboard, a bluetooth module, and a USB adapter. If you want to hook it to a computer you’ll need the level converter he suggests. There is a lot of potential here.
In other news: StoneCypher has offered a bounty for an open source TCP/IP implementation on the DS; it’s already broken $1100.
[thanks pete]
