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The Secret Life of Components, a series of guides for designers and makers by Tim Hunkin

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The Secret Life of Components, a series of guides for designers and makers by Tim Hunkin

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The Secret Life of Components, a series of guides for designers and makers

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How to trun the BBC micro:bit into a MIDI CC controller by Frazer Merrick

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Introduction: Microbit Midi CC Wireless Controller

In this guide we'll create a wireless midi CC controller, allowing you to use your Microbit as a midi controller and connect it to your favourite music production software.

What is Midi CC?

Often abbreviated CC, while the correct term is "Control Change") A category of MIDI messages which are used to convey performance or patch data for parameters other than those which have their own dedicated message types (note on, note off, aftertouch, polyphonic aftertouch, pitch bend, and program change).
Please note this tutorial is designed for Mac, however it should also work for PC. Please leave a comment if you spot any issues regarding PC compatibility and I'll happily update the guide.

Supplies

Step 1: Sending the Accelerometer Data

Since ultimately we'll want to be able to move wirelessly, we'll need two microbits. One to capture our accelerometer data and send it over the microbit's radio, and another to receive the data and output it as MIDI CC whilst connected to our computer.

First, lets code the capture device. We'll be capturing the pitch and roll values from the microbit's accelerometer, and then transmitting these over radio. However there's no reason why you couldn't use the variety of other inputs on the microbit, such as its buttons or even the compass!

For a full list of the MIDI capabilities of the Microbit, please view the official documentation here.

Step 2: Receiving Data and Converting to Midi

With our second Microbit connected to the computer via USB, this will receive our accelerometer data over radio and convert into our MIDI CC values.

The important block here is Use Midi Serial, which allows us to use a bridge application and route the midi cc internally within the computer.

Midi CC has 120 Channels available (0 to 119), however for this demo we'll only be using two - Channel 0 and Channel 1, with these assigned to Pitch and Roll respectively.

Both pitch and roll measure from -180 to 180 and whilst Midi CC values can be 0 to 127, so I'm using the 'map' block to convert the data ranges. I recommend playing with this number conversation process once you know which parameter you'll want to control as you might only want values within a certain range (depending on the effect you're controlling).

For more information about remote data collection with the microbit, see here.

Step 3: Setting Up Your Computer

Hairless MidiSerial

To route the Midi signal from your microbit to your DAW of choice, you'll need a bridge application such as Hairless MidiSerial - download this for free from the GitHub page here.

Audio Midi Setup

Note: If you're using a Mac, ensure you select your MIDI Out as "IAC Bus 1". If this doesn't appear in the list, you'll need to open you Audio MIDI Setup, navigate to the MIDI Studio (from the window menu at the top), click on IAC Driver ensure the 'Device is Online' box is ticked.

Step 4: Assigning Parameters in Your DAW

As a Logic Pro X user, I'll be focusing on this software - however from my understanding it should work similarly on your DAW of choice.
Make sure Logic is set to receive the MIDI In from the IAC Bus, this can be checked in the preferences > Midi > inputs. Pick which parameter you want to control, for example a synthesiser filter cut off, auxiliary channel send amount or EQ frequency. Then, give this parameter a wiggle and then press CMD+L. Now, when you move your Microbit, it will automatically assigned the respective MIDI CC Channel to that parameter.

PLEASE NOTE with my code, since we're using two values its constantly sending a value for both CC channels (0 and 1) and as such Logic gets very confused when you try to assign a parameter. I plan to improve the code so its not sending a value if the number is the same (or within a small range), however until then I recommend removing one of the "ifs" in the receiver code so that Logic is only receiving one MIDI CC value at a time during this assigning stage.

In Logic you can also fine tune the MIDI Controller further, adjusting the input with a multiply value, setting min and max values. The values I used for the EQ High Cut can be seen on the image above.

Step 5: What Next?

Congratulations! Now you should be controlling logic with your microbit...wirelessly!

Theres SO much possible with MIDI and the Microbit. You could setup different "scenes" on the microbit, allowing you to change which CC Channel each accelerometer value is controlling based on a button press on the sender microbit. Giving a performer full control over a variety of instruments. MIDI can also do far more than music too, with some lighting desks also MIDI enabled.

Shout out to other musical microbit makers

Here are some of my favourite makers pushing the boundaries of what's possible with the fantastic piece of hardware.

Mini.Mu Microbit Musical Glove by Helen Leigh for Pimoroni

How to connect your microbit to Pure Data by Vulpestruments

Microbit Orchestra by Captain Credible

Microbit Guitar by David Whale

Show me what you make!

Followed this guide? Send me a picture of video to my twitter/ instagram @frazermerrick

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Microbit Midi CC Wireless Controller : In this guide we'll create a wireless midi CC controller, allowing you to use your Microbit as a midi controller and connect it to your favourite music production software. What is Midi CC? Often abbreviated CC, while the correct term is "Contr...

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Tinkercad is a free web app for 3D design, electronics, and coding.

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Tinkercad | From mind to design in minutes

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Tinkercad is a free, easy-to-use app for 3D design, electronics, and coding.

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Article : Microprocessor vs Microcontroller

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Article : Microprocessor vs Microcontroller

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Jaycon Systems | Product Design, PCB & Injection Molding

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With the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11's moon landing just recently, let's take a moment to reminisce how mankind first took a foothold on the moon on board a spaceship with less computational power than your smartwatch. You heard right, half a century ago the Eagle Lander and Saturn V relied on a module called the Apollo Guidance Computer. Weighing in at 70 lbs, it had 2 Kbits of memory and ran at roughly 2MHz (roughly 1/8th of an Arduino at a fraction of the size and weight). And forget anything you thought you knew about electronics, this module did not rely on transistors, it relied on what was called Rope Core Memory which was essentially wires weaved in specific patterns. Five decades later, we find ourselves with the entirety of NASA's Lunar program processing power in our pockets thanks to the invention of microscopic switches known as transistors. These are in fact so tiny that you can fit several millions of them on a tiny chip, hence the birth of the word: microelectronics.

Did you know? The micro symbol μ, Mu, is the 12th letter of the Greek alphabet and was derived from ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs meaning "water". In Greek numerals it has a value of 40, however, today it is a unit prefix in the metric system defining one-millionth (10−6). Its name comes from the Greek word μικρός (pronounced "mikros") meaning "small".

Microelectronics - as the name implies - deals with all things electronic and all things micro - such as a microprocessor. You may have heard other such words, like microcontroller, or microcomputer. But what is the difference between a microprocessor and a microcontroller and a microcomputer? Let's briefly dig into what these are and what they mean.

Microprocessor
Also known as CPU (Core or Central Processing Unit)

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Microprocessors, Microcontrollers & Microcomputers: A Guide | Jaycon Systems

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With the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11's moon landing just recently, let's take a moment to reminisce how mankind first took a foothold on the moon on board a spaceship with less computational power than your smartwatch. You heard right, half a century ago the Eagle Lander and Saturn V relied on a module called the Apollo Guidance Computer.

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A potentiometer is a three-terminal resistor with a sliding or rotating contact that forms an adjustable voltage divider

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Type
Passive

(IEC Standard)
(ANSI Standard)

A potentiometer is a three- terminal resistor with a sliding or rotating contact that forms an adjustable voltage divider. If only two terminals are used, one end and the wiper, it acts as a variable resistor or rheostat.

The measuring instrument called a potentiometer is essentially a voltage divider used for measuring electric potential (voltage); the component is an implementation of the same principle, hence its name.

Potentiometers are commonly used to control electrical devices such as volume controls on audio equipment. Potentiometers operated by a mechanism can be used as position transducers, for example, in a joystick. Potentiometers are rarely used to directly control significant power (more than a watt), since the power dissipated in the potentiometer would be comparable to the power in the controlled load.

There are a number of terms in the electronics industry used to describe certain types of potentiometers:

slide pot or slider pot: a potentiometer that is adjusted by sliding the wiper left or right (or up and down, depending on the installation), usually with a finger or thumb

thumb pot or thumbwheel pot: a small rotating potentiometer meant to be adjusted infrequently by means of a small thumbwheel

trimpot or trimmer pot: a trimmer potentiometer typically meant to be adjusted once or infrequently for "fine-tuning" an electrical signal

Potentiometers consist of a resistive element, a sliding contact (wiper) that moves along the element, making good electrical contact with one part of it, electrical terminals at each end of the element, a mechanism that moves the wiper from one end to the other, and a housing containing the element and wiper.

Many inexpensive potentiometers are constructed with a resistive element (B in cutaway drawing) formed into an arc of a circle usually a little less than a full turn and a wiper (C) sliding on this element when rotated, making electrical contact. The resistive element can be flat or angled. Each end of the resistive element is connected to a terminal (E, G) on the case. The wiper is connected to a third terminal (F), usually between the other two. On panel potentiometers, the wiper is usually the center terminal of three. For single-turn potentiometers, this wiper typically travels just under one revolution around the contact. The only point of ingress for contamination is the narrow space between the shaft and the housing it rotates in.

Another type is the linear slider potentiometer, which has a wiper which slides along a linear element instead of rotating. Contamination can potentially enter anywhere along the slot the slider moves in, making effective sealing more difficult and compromising long-term reliability. An advantage of the slider potentiometer is that the slider position gives a visual indication of its setting. While the setting of a rotary potentiometer can be seen by the position of a marking on the knob, an array of sliders can give a visual impression of settings as in a graphic equalizer or faders on a mixing console.

The resistive element of inexpensive potentiometers is often made of graphite. Other materials used include resistance wire, carbon particles in plastic, and a ceramic/metal mixture called cermet. Conductive track potentiometers use conductive polymer resistor pastes that contain hard-wearing resins and polymers, solvents, and lubricant, in addition to the carbon that provides the conductive properties.

Multiturn potentiometers are also operated by rotating a shaft, but by several turns rather than less than a full turn. Some multiturn potentiometers have a linear resistive element with a sliding contact moved by a lead screw; others have a helical resistive element and a wiper that turns through 10, 20, or more complete revolutions, moving along the helix as it rotates. Multiturn potentiometers, both user-accessible and preset, allow finer adjustments; rotation through the same angle changes the setting by typically a tenth as much as for a simple rotary potentiometer.

A string potentiometer is a multi-turn potentiometer operated by an attached reel of wire turning against a spring, enabling it to convert linear position to a variable resistance.

User-accessible rotary potentiometers can be fitted with a switch which operates usually at the anti-clockwise extreme of rotation. Before digital electronics became the norm such a component was used to allow radio and television receivers and other equipment to be switched on at minimum volume with an audible click, then the volume increased, by turning a knob. Multiple resistance elements can be ganged together with their sliding contacts on the same shaft, for example, in stereo audio amplifiers for volume control. In other applications, such as domestic light dimmers, the normal usage pattern is best satisfied if the potentiometer remains set at its current position, so the switch is operated by a push action, alternately on and off, by axial presses of the knob.

Others are enclosed within the equipment and are intended to be adjusted to calibrate equipment during manufacture or repair, and not otherwise touched. They are usually physically much smaller than user-accessible potentiometers, and may need to be operated by a screwdriver rather than having a knob. They are usually called "preset potentiometers" or "trim[ming] pots". Some presets are accessible by a small screwdriver poked through a hole in the case to allow servicing without dismantling.

Resistance-position relationship: "taper"

The relationship between slider position and resistance, known as the "taper" or "law", is controlled by the manufacturer. In principle any relationship is possible, but for most purposes linear or logarithmic (aka "audio taper") potentiometers are sufficient.

A letter code may be used to identify which taper is used, but the letter code definitions are not standardized. Potentiometers made in Asia and the USA are usually marked with an "A" for logarithmic taper or a "B" for linear taper; "C" for the rarely seen reverse logarithmic taper. Others, particularly those from Europe, may be marked with an "A" for linear taper, a "C" or "B" for logarithmic taper, or an "F" for reverse logarithmic taper. The code used also varies between different manufacturers. When a percentage is referenced with a non-linear taper, it relates to the resistance value at the midpoint of the shaft rotation. A 10% log taper would therefore measure 10% of the total resistance at the midpoint of the rotation; i.e. 10% log taper on a 10 kOhm potentiometer would yield 1 kOhm at the midpoint. The higher the percentage, the steeper the log curve.

Linear taper potentiometer

A linear taper potentiometer ( linear describes the electrical characteristic of the device, not the geometry of the resistive element) has a resistive element of constant cross-section, resulting in a device where the resistance between the contact (wiper) and one end terminal is proportional to the distance between them. Linear taper potentiometers are used when the division ratio of the potentiometer must be proportional to the angle of shaft rotation (or slider position), for example, controls used for adjusting the centering of the display on an analog cathode-ray oscilloscope. Precision potentiometers have an accurate relationship between resistance and slider position.

Logarithmic potentiometer

A logarithmic taper potentiometer is a potentiometer that has a bias built into the resistive element. Basically this means the center position of the potentiometer is not one half of the total value of the potentiometer. The resistive element is designed to follow a logarithmic taper, aka a mathematical exponent or "squared" profile. A logarithmic taper potentiometer is constructed with a resistive element that either "tapers" in from one end to the other, or is made from a material whose resistivity varies from one end to the other. This results in a device where output voltage is a logarithmic function of the slider position.

Most (cheaper) "log" potentiometers are not accurately logarithmic, but use two regions of different resistance (but constant resistivity) to approximate a logarithmic law. The two resistive tracks overlap at approximately 50% of the potentiometer rotation; this gives a stepwise logarithmic taper. A logarithmic potentiometer can also be simulated (not very accurately) with a linear one and an external resistor. True logarithmic potentiometers are significantly more expensive.

Logarithmic taper potentiometers are often used for volume or signal level in audio systems, as human perception of audio volume is logarithmic, according to the Weber-Fechner law.

Contactless potentiometer

Unlike mechanical potentiometers, non-contact potentiometers use an optical disk to trigger an infrared sensor, or a magnet to trigger a magnetic sensor (as long as there are other types of sensors, such as capacitive, other types of non-contact potentiometers can probably be built), and then an electronic circuit does the signal processing to provide an output signal that can be analog or digital.

An example of a non-contact potentiometer can be found with the AS5600 integrated circuit. However, absolute encoders must also use similar principles, although being for industrial use, certainly the cost must be unfeasible for use in domestic appliances.

The most common way to vary the resistance in a circuit continuously is to use a rheostat. It is basically used to adjust magnitude of current in a circuit by changing length. The word rheostat was coined about 1845 by Sir Charles Wheatstone, from the Greek rheos meaning "stream", and - - states (from histanai, " to set, to cause to stand") meaning "setter, regulating device", which is a two-terminal variable resistor. For low-power applications (less than about 1 watt) a three-terminal potentiometer is often used, with one terminal unconnected or connected to the wiper.

Where the rheostat must be rated for higher power (more than about 1 watt), it may be built with a resistance wire wound around a semicircular insulator, with the wiper sliding from one turn of the wire to the next. Sometimes a rheostat is made from resistance wire wound on a heat-resisting cylinder, with the slider made from a number of metal fingers that grip lightly onto a small portion of the turns of resistance wire. The "fingers" can be moved along the coil of resistance wire by a sliding knob thus changing the "tapping" point. Wire-wound rheostats made with ratings up to several thousand watts are used in applications such as DC motor drives, electric welding controls, or in the controls for generators. The rating of the rheostat is given with the full resistance value and the allowable power dissipation is proportional to the fraction of the total device resistance in circuit. Carbon-pile rheostats are used as load banks for testing automobile batteries and power supplies.

A digital potentiometer (often called digipot) is an electronic component that mimics the functions of analog potentiometers. Through digital input signals, the resistance between two terminals can be adjusted, just as in an analog potentiometer. There are two main functional types: volatile, which lose their set position if power is removed, and are usually designed to initialise at the minimum position, and non-volatile, which retain their set position using a storage mechanism similar to flash memory or EEPROM.

Usage of a digipot is far more complex than that of a simple mechanical potentiometer, and there are many limitations to observe; nevertheless they are widely used, often for factory adjustment and calibration of equipment, especially where the limitations of mechanical potentiometers are problematic. A digipot is generally immune to the effects of moderate long-term mechanical vibration or environmental contamination, to the same extent as other semiconductor devices, and can be secured electronically against unauthorised tampering by protecting the access to its programming inputs by various means.

In equipment which has a microprocessor, FPGA or other functional logic which can store settings and reload them to the "potentiometer" every time the equipment is powered up, a multiplying DAC can be used in place of a digipot, and this can offer higher setting resolution, less drift with temperature, and more operational flexibility.

A membrane potentiometer uses a conductive membrane that is deformed by a sliding element to contact a resistor voltage divider. Linearity can range from 0.50% to 5% depending on the material, design and manufacturing process. The repeat accuracy is typically between 0.1 mm and 1.0 mm with a theoretically infinite resolution. The service life of these types of potentiometers is typically 1 million to 20 million cycles depending on the materials used during manufacturing and the actuation method; contact and contactless (magnetic) methods are available (to sense position). Many different material variations are available such as PET, FR4, and Kapton. Membrane potentiometer manufacturers offer linear, rotary, and application-specific variations. The linear versions can range from 9 mm to 1000 mm in length and the rotary versions range from 20 to 450 mm in diameter, with each having a height of 0.5 mm. Membrane potentiometers can be used for position sensing.

For touch-screen devices using resistive technology, a two-dimensional membrane potentiometer provides x and y coordinates. The top layer is thin glass spaced close to a neighboring inner layer. The underside of the top layer has a transparent conductive coating; the surface of the layer beneath it has a transparent resistive coating. A finger or stylus deforms the glass to contact the underlying layer. Edges of the resistive layer have conductive contacts. Locating the contact point is done by applying a voltage to opposite edges, leaving the other two edges temporarily unconnected. The voltage of the top layer provides one coordinate. Disconnecting those two edges, and applying voltage to the other two, formerly unconnected, provides the other coordinate. Alternating rapidly between pairs of edges provides frequent position updates. An analog-to-digital converter provides output data.

Advantages of such sensors are that only five connections to the sensor are needed, and the associated electronics is comparatively simple. Another is that any material that depresses the top layer over a small area works well. A disadvantage is that sufficient force must be applied to make contact. Another is that the sensor requires occasional calibration to match touch location to the underlying display. (Capacitive sensors require no calibration or contact force, only proximity of a finger or other conductive object. However, they are significantly more complex.)

Potentiometers are rarely used to directly control significant amounts of power (more than a watt or so). Instead they are used to adjust the level of analog signals (for example volume controls audio equipment), and as control inputs for electronic circuits. For example, a light dimmer uses a potentiometer to control the switching of a TRIAC and so indirectly to control the brightness of lamps.

Preset potentiometers are widely used throughout electronics wherever adjustments must be made during manufacturing or servicing.

User-actuated potentiometers are widely used as user controls, and may control a very wide variety of equipment functions. The widespread use of potentiometers in consumer electronics declined in the 1990s, with rotary incremental encoders, up/down push-buttons, and other digital controls now more common. However they remain in many applications, such as volume controls and as position sensors.

Low-power potentiometers, both slide and rotary, are used to control audio equipment, changing loudness, frequency attenuation, and other characteristics of audio signals.

The 'log pot', that is, a potentiometer has a resistance, taper, or, "curve" (or law) of a logarithmic (log) form, is used as the volume control in audio power amplifiers, where it is also called an "audio taper pot", because the amplitude response of the human ear is approximately logarithmic. It ensures that on a volume control marked 0 to 10, for example, a setting of 5 sounds subjectively half as loud as a setting of 10. There is also an anti-log pot or reverse audio taper which is simply the reverse of a logarithmic potentiometer. It is almost always used in a ganged configuration with a logarithmic potentiometer, for instance, in an audio balance control.

Potentiometers used in combination with filter networks act as tone controls or equalizers.

In audio systems, the word linear, is sometimes applied in a confusing way to describe slide potentiometers because of the straight line nature of the physical sliding motion. The word linear when applied to a potentiometer regardless of being a slide or rotary type, describes a linear relationship of the pot's position versus the measured value of the pot's tap (wiper or electrical output) pin.

Potentiometers were formerly used to control picture brightness, contrast, and color response. A potentiometer was often used to adjust "vertical hold", which affected the synchronization between the receiver's internal sweep circuit (sometimes a multivibrator) and the received picture signal, along with other things such as audio-video carrier offset, tuning frequency (for push-button sets) and so on. It also helps in frequency modulation of waves.

Potentiometers can be used as position feedback devices in order to create closed-loop control, such as in a servomechanism. This method of motion control is the simplest method of measuring the angle or displacement.

Potentiometers are also very widely used as a part of displacement transducers because of the simplicity of construction and because they can give a large output signal.

In analog computers, high precision potentiometers are used to scale intermediate results by desired constant factors, or to set initial conditions for a calculation. A motor-driven potentiometer may be used as a function generator, using a non-linear resistance card to supply approximations to trigonometric functions. For example, the shaft rotation might represent an angle, and the voltage division ratio can be made proportional to the cosine of the angle.

The potentiometer can be used as a voltage divider to obtain a manually adjustable output voltage at the slider (wiper) from a fixed input voltage applied across the two ends of the potentiometer. This is their most common use.

The voltage across can be calculated by:

If is large compared to the other resistances (like the input to an operational amplifier), the output voltage can be approximated by the simpler equation:

As an example, assume , , , and

Since the load resistance is large compared to the other resistances, the output voltage will be approximately:

Because of the load resistance, however, it will actually be slightly lower: ≈ 6.623 V.

One of the advantages of the potential divider compared to a variable resistor in series with the source is that, while variable resistors have a maximum resistance where some current will always flow, dividers are able to vary the output voltage from maximum () to ground (zero volts) as the wiper moves from one end of the potentiometer to the other. There is, however, always a small amount of contact resistance.

In addition, the load resistance is often not known and therefore simply placing a variable resistor in series with the load could have a negligible effect or an excessive effect, depending on the load.

Potentiometer caution (Problems); Alpsalpine talks about some care with pots.

Contactless potentiometer; The AS5600 is an easy to program magnetic rotary position sensor with a high-resolution 12-bit analog or PWM output. This contactless system measures the absolute angle of a diametric magnetized on-axis magnet. This AS5600 is designed for contactless potentiometer applications; (AS5600)

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Type Passive (IEC Standard) (ANSI Standard) A potentiometer is a three- terminal resistor with a sliding or rotating contact that forms an adjustable voltage divider. If only two terminals are used, one end and the wiper, it acts as a variable resistor or rheostat.

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MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface)

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MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface)

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MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a protocol developed in the 1980's which allows electronic instruments and other digital musical tools to communicate with each other.

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Introduction: What Is MIDI?

MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a protocol developed in the 1980's which allows electronic instruments and other digital musical tools to communicate with each other. MIDI itself does not make sound, it is just a series of messages like "note on," "note off," "note/pitch," "pitchbend," and many more. These messages are interpreted by a MIDI instrument to produce sound. A MIDI instrument can be a piece of hardware (electronic keyboard, synthesizer) or part of a software environment (ableton, garageband, digital performer, logic...).

The advantages of MIDI include:
compact -an entire song can be stored within a few hundred MIDI messages (compared to audio data which is sampled thousands of times a second)
easy to modify/manipulate notes -change pitch, duration, and other parameters without having to rerecord
change instruments -remember, MIDI only describes which notes to play, you can send these notes to any instrument to change the overall sound of the composition.

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Step 1: Note On, Note Off, and Velocity

The most common tool used to generate MIDI messages is an electronic keyboard. These messages may be routed to a digital synthesizer inside the keyboard, or they may be patched to some other MIDI instrument, like your computer.

When a key is pressed the keyboard creates a " note on" message. This message consists of two pieces of information: which key was pressed (called "note") and how fast it was pressed (called "velocity").

" Note" describes the pitch of the pressed key with a value between 0 and 127. I've copied the table in fig 2 from NYU's website, it lists all the MIDI notes and their standard musical notation equivalents. You can see that MIDI note 60 is middle C (C4).

" Velocity" is a number between 0 and 127 that is usually used to describe the volume (gain) of a MIDI note (higher velocity = louder). Sometimes different velocities also create different timbres in an instrument; for example, a MIDI flute may sound more frictional at a higher velocity (as if someone was blowing into it strongly), and more sinusoidal/cleaner sounding at lower velocities. Higher velocity may also shorten the attack of a MIDI instrument. Attack is a measurement of how long it takes for a sound to go from zero to maximum loudness. For example, a violin playing quick, staccato notes has a must faster attack than longer, sustained notes.
something to remember- not all keyboards are velocity sensitive, if you hear no difference in the sound produced by a keyboard no matter how hard you hit the keys, then you are not sending variable velocity information from that instrument. Computer keyboards are not velocity sensitive, if you are using your computer's keys to play notes into a software sequencer, all the notes will have the same velocity.

When a key is released the keyboard creates another MIDI message, a " note off" message. These messages also contain "note" information to ensure that it is signalling the end of the right MIDI note. This way if you are pressing two keys at once and release once of them, the note off message will not signal the end of both notes, only the one you've released. Sometimes note off messages will also contain velocity information based on how quickly you've released the key. This may tell a MIDI instrument something about how quickly it should dampen the note.

Figure 1 shows how these MIDI messages are typically represented in MIDI sequencing software environments (in this case GarageBand). Each of the notes in the sequence are started by a note on message and ended with a note off message. In GarageBand the velocity attached to the note on message is represented by the color of the note. In this image above the high velocity notes are white and the lower velocity notes are grey.

Figs 3 and 4 show MIDI notes recorded in Ableton. Again you can see that the velocity associated with the note on message is represented by the color of the MIDI note- more saturated = higher velocity. Also notice that the velocity is indicated by a line with a circle on top on the bottom of the screen. By selecting one of your MIDI notes you can see the velocity associated with it; in fig 4 the D4 note has a velocity of 57.

Step 2: Aftertouch, Pitchbend, Channel, and Other Extra MIDI Messages

Your MIDI keyboard/controller may also generate these MIDI messages:

" Aftertouch" is the force used to press down a key after it has been initially struck, think of it as pressure sensitivity. Like velocity, aftertouch ranges from 0 to 127. Aftertouch may be interpreted by a MIDI instrument in a variety of ways; it may affect the volume, timbre, vibrato... you will have to experiment with your own setup to get a feel for what expression you can achieve with aftertouch. Keep in mind that not all electronic keyboards are capable of producing aftertouch messages and not all MIDI instruments support them. The MIDI instruments inside GarageBand do not support aftertouch, but many of the MIDI instruments in more sophisticated software like Ableton, Reason, etc, do. Like velocity, aftertouch messages always have a note associated with them, this means you can send an individual aftertouch message for each of your keys.
Here's a good article on Wikipedia about various types of keyboard expression, including aftertouch and velocity.

You may also have a pitchbend wheel/slider attached to your MIDI keyboard, this will shift the pitch of whatever notes you are currently playing up or down by less than a semitone. Your pitchbend wheel/slider probably generates pitchbend values from 0-127 (where 64 = no pitchbend), but some high res devices will generate values from 0-16,383 (where 8192 = no pitchbend). Pitchbend does not have a note associated with it, this means that pitchbend is applied equally to every note you're playing.

MIDI messages can be sent on 16 different channels as well. Channels are useful for sending certain notes and messages to one MIDI instrument and other notes/messages to another MIDI instrument. Usually, separate MIDI channels are used for different sounding instruments to create a multitracked song, channel 0 might be a piano-sounding instruments, and channel 1 could be a guitar sound.

Here are a few other (less common) types of MIDI messages:
patch change- allows you to change the MIDI instrument from your MIDI controller (ie change from a violin sound to a piano sound in the middle of your performance)
continuous controller- allows you to assign a continuous controller (like a slider) to some kind of MIDI effect (reverb, vibrato, filter, volume... anything)
channel pressure- like aftertouch, but applied to every note in a channel. This is usually used as a cheaper alternative to aftertouch, as it requires only one pressure sensor instead of one for each individual key.

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Step 3: Editing Recorded MIDI

As I said in the intro, the great thing about recording in MIDI is that it is incredibly easy to edit your recordings after the fact. The images above show how I edited a MIDI sequence in Ableton, most other software environments are set up similarly.

Select a MIDI note (fig 1). Drag its associated velocity to change it (figs 2 and 3 change the velocity of a MIDI note from 127 to 41). Drag a MIDI note up or down to change its pitch (fig 4 shifts a note from A to A#). You can drag on the beginning and end of a MIDI note to lengthen or shorten its duration (figs 5 and 6). You can really change the feel of the MIDI recording by changing the MIDI instrument you're using to play it back. In figs 7 and 8 I changed the MIDI instrument from a xylophone to synth pad called "retro rave."

You can also change aftertouch, pitchbend, channel, and all the other MIDI data in post, but the interface for these varies from program to program so I won't get into the specifics of it here.

Step 4: MIDI Protocol and Microcontrollers

This instructable is an introduction to the concepts behind MIDI, for more info on the specifics of MIDI protocol and how to program an Arduino to send and receive MIDI, check out my MIDI and Arduino instructable.

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What Are Sewable Electronics?

Sewable electronics combine traditional craft processes (sewing, fashion design, and textile design) with electrical engineering, computer science, and hardware skills.

With sewable electronics, you can create e-textiles (electronic textiles), which are often wearable, flexible projects that look less like traditional electronics and more like craft and art projects. Many e-textile projects replace wiring with flexible conductive materials such as conductive thread and fabric. For the projects in this guide, we will be sewing circuits together with conductive thread.

Suggested Reading

If you are new to circuits as a concept, you may want to have a look at some of the tutorials below before continuing.

What Is LilyPad?

The LilyPad system is a set of sewable electronic pieces designed to help you build soft, sewable, interactive e-textile projects. Using LilyPad pieces is a great way to experiment with electronics through the lens of crafting. Each LilyPad piece has large conductive sew tabs for easy sewing and a rounded shape so as not to snag fabric or cut thread.

The LilyPad system was designed by Leah Buechley while pursuing her Ph.D. in computer science at the University of Colorado Boulder. The commercial version of the kit, which launched in 2007, was collaboratively designed by Leah and SparkFun Electronics. You can learn more about LilyPad at SparkFun.com/LilyPad.

LilyPad Creator Leah Buechley

For more LilyPad tutorials check out our E-Textiles category

To browse LilyPad products visit the LilyPad section of the SparkFun catalog

Some LilyPad pieces come in a ProtoSnap configuration, which means all of the individual components - such as LEDs, battery holder, switches, buttons, etc. - are attached to one another in a single functioning circuit board. This allows you to easily program your circuit to do what you want before embedding it in your project. ProtoSnap boards are designed to be easily snapped apart into individual pieces when you're ready to begin creating LilyPad projects.

This is slightly different than LilyPad products that come in a panel configuration. The LilyPad LEDs are attached together, but not in a functional circuit. You will need to snap them apart before sewing into a circuit.

What Is Conductive Thread?

Conductive Thread is a specialty thread made with stainless steel fibers. It can be used instead of copper wiring to connect LilyPad (or other e-textile) pieces together to create circuits.

If you are using a LilyPad kit such as the LilyPad Sewable Electronics Kit, you will have a conductive thread bobbin available to use.

SparkFun carries a few conductive thread options:

This tutorial will focus on hand sewing techniques, but conductive thread can also be used in a sewing machine and embroidery machines. Here are some specific resources on using conductive thread in machines:

Sewing with Conductive Thread

The examples in this tutorial will walk through creating a hand sewn conductive thread circuit connecting a LilyPad Coin Cell Battery Holder to LilyPad LEDs. These techniques will be useful for connecting any LilyPad pieces together.

Most LilyPad projects use conductive thread to complete electrical circuits. The following sections will introduce you to some basic sewing techniques as well as a few special pointers for using conductive thread to build working circuits. Even if you're already familiar with using a needle and thread, this section may still be useful to you, specifically where it pertains to sewing with LilyPad parts.

Each LilyPad piece has large holes with conductive silver pads called sew tabs. These tabs are designed to give you plenty of room to pass a needle and thread through the hole several times. Before you begin stitching your circuit, identify the sew tabs you would like to connect, and orient them so they are easily accessible in your design. If following along with SparkFun templates, the pieces will have a specific location on the design for both ease of sewing and visual appeal.

We recommend using a small dot of hot glue (preferred) or fabric glue to attach each LilyPad piece to the fabric to keep it from moving while you sew. Make sure not to accidentally seal up the holes in the sew tabs.

To help plan where the stitches will go, you can use a marker to draw lines between the components.

Cut a piece of conductive thread approximately 2 feet long. Push one end of the thread through the eye (opening) of the needle and pull through, leaving a tail of about 5 inches.

Before you begin sewing your project, you will need to tie a knot at the long end of the thread to prevent you from completely pulling it through the fabric. You can tie a simple overhand or square knot. The next sections will explain a few other knot methods.

Starter Knot

A starter knot is a method of starting your stitch with a knot directly on your fabric.

Quilter's Knot

The slightly more advanced quilter's knot is a way to tie a quick, secure knot on the thread. After some practice, this knot can be tied very quickly.

Always remove your battery when working on your project to avoid damaging your components.

We'll stitch conductive thread around LilyPad sew tabs in our circuits to connect the pieces together. It's important that you make three to four loops each time you connect your thread around an empty sew tab and pull the thread snug with each pass. This ensures you have made a strong electrical and physical connection between the thread and the sew tab. Pull loops tight before continuing your stitch.

After sewing loops around a sew tab, a running stitch will enable you to connect LilyPad pieces together with a continuous length of conductive thread. Follow these steps:

Push the needle through the fabric about 1/4" in the direction of your stitch path.

Pull the slack of the thread through so it sits flush with the fabric.

Push the needle back up through the fabric another 1/4" along the stitch path.

Pull the slack of the thread through so it sits flush with the fabric.

Repeat this process to travel along the path to the next LilyPad piece you want to connect to, keeping stitches evenly spaced.

Running vs. Hidden Stitch

In a basic running stitch, the stitching will be even on both sides of the fabric.

To hide the stitches so that they are not seen on the outside of the project, make a longer stitch on the back of the project and a very small stitch on the front of the project. This method is called a "hidden stitch."

As you sew, flip your fabric over every so often to make sure the conductive thread isn't getting knotted or tangled. If you are just starting out with sewing, your stitching may take some practice before it feels comfortable or easy. Remember to be patient with yourself and take your time while stitching. If your thread breaks, you can stitch onto existing conductive thread to continue the electrical connection.

Both running and hidden stitches will enable you to connect LilyPad components together with a single length of conductive thread. To connect two LilyPad pieces, continue stitching after completing three to four loops around the sew tab.

Connecting Multiple LilyPad Pieces

To connect more than two LilyPad pieces, instead of trimming your thread and starting over, continue stitching to the next piece, make three to four loops, and repeat as necessary. There is no need to use a new length of thread if the pieces will share a connection.

When you have completed connecting components, use a finishing knot. Thread tails can cause electrical shorts, so be sure to trim your thread afterward.

Checking for Conductive Thread Short Circuits

Watch out for any loose threads or knot tails in your project. If any piece of the conductive thread from the positive (+) side of your circuit accidentally touches the negative (-) side, it can cause a short circuit. A short circuit connects the battery to itself and bypasses the rest of your project causing an unwanted amount of current draw from the battery. Stitching directly over stitches in another part of the circuit can also cause a short.

One of the most common short circuits in e-sewing happens when a loose thread tail near the negative tab on the battery holder touches the battery. Always check your stitching before powering your project.

It's important that your stitches do not cross over each other or touch other parts of the circuit. The batteries used in these projects shouldn't burn or shock you if they short circuit (although they may heat up), but higher voltage projects or power sources could be dangerous.

Installing Your Battery and Testing Your Finished Circuit

Once all your pieces are connected with conductive thread, your finished circuit needs a power source. Install your coin cell battery, positive (+) side up, into the battery holder. The image below shows how to place a battery in a LilyPad Coin Cell Battery Holder.

Always remove your battery if you need to continue working on your project to avoid damaging your components.

After completing the conductive thread connections, switch your circuit on, and see what it can do! If the circuit fails to work, you may have a short, a loose connection, a reversed component, or even something as simple as a dead battery.

When you turn on the battery holder switch, current flows through the conductive thread to the other parts of your circuit.

Read more about current flow and electricity here:
Or continue on to Project 1: Glowing Pin of the LilyPad Sewable Electronics Kit to build your own circuit.

Troubleshooting

As you work on e-sewing projects, you may encounter problems such as loose connections that keep LEDs from lighting or cause your circuit to malfunction. Most LilyPad tutorials have a troubleshooting section to help you identify and solve problems with your circuit.

Circuit only working sometimes? Check for loose connections.

If the conductive thread is not making a tight connection to the LilyPad piece's sew tabs, current will not be able to flow through consistently. If the project moves, the conductive thread may pull away from the sew tab and disconnect the circuit. To fix, pull stitching tight with tweezers or a needle if possible. You may also sew over the top of existing thread to create more tension and hold the thread securely to a sew tab.

Circuit not working? Double check your polarity.

Some LilyPad components are polarized, meaning electric current can only flow through them in one direction. If sewn into the circuit incorrectly, they will not function. Double check the labeled sew tabs before you stitch to make sure they are oriented correctly.

Other issues to check for:

Make sure the switch on your battery holder is in the ON position.

Check to see if your battery is dead. You can do so with a multimeter. Try installing a spare battery.

If following a project template, double check that the components are connected together in the right configuration

If you are still having trouble, you can use a multimeter to check for continuity or issues with your circuit. Our How To Use a Multimeter tutorial will help you get started.

Click here to view a pdf of Troubleshooting pages from the LilyPad Sewable Electronics Kit.

Caring For Your Project

Unlike copper wire, which has a coating, conductive thread is uninsulated. This means the thread behaves like bare wire and can accidentally short circuit if stray strands come in contact with each other.

To avoid any accidental short circuits after the project is stitched and tested, we recommend covering the thread with a thin layer of fabric glue, fabric paint, or an additional layer of fabric. This is especially important for projects that are wearable or three-dimensional. Never work on a metal surface when using conductive thread. For more detailed insulation instructions, take a look at this tutorial:

Cleaning Your Project

If your project gets dirty, remove the battery and carefully hand wash with mild detergent. Let your project air dry; a dryer can damage the LilyPad pieces or stitching.

Resources and Going Further

Ready to start stitching some circuits? Check out these projects from the LilyPad Sewable Electronics Kit:

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Sewable electronics combine traditional craft processes (sewing, fashion design, and textile design) with electrical engineering, computer science, and hardware skills. With sewable electronics, you can create e-textiles (electronic textiles), which are often wearable, flexible projects that look less like traditional electronics and more like craft and art projects.

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Makespace is a community workshop in the heart of Cambridge

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Makespace is a community workshop in the heart of Cambridge.

Equipment ranges from sewing machines and crafting tools to 3D printers, laser cutters to CNC routers, microscopes to woodworking. The space and equipment are available 24/7 to paying members, and runs based on all the amazing volunteer effort these members put in!

Our response to COVID-19
Makespace members did some amazing work to help respond to the pandemic. Read more about Makespace Covid-19 Status and Response Activities, including the Makespace Visor and Makespace Mask Kit projects, on our Covid-19 page. A big thanks to all the volunteers undertaking the activities, and Arm, TTP and Amazon for sponsoring to help us cover the costs. Read more here.
A little bit more about us...

Each year we host hundreds of events, training sessions, talks, and subject specific meet-ups, all with a collaborative spirit. The broad scope of people at Makespace sees great friendships and successful business ventures grow.

The foundation of our community is peer to peer exchange of skills and experience and a hub of business, technology and design expertise. Members pay to get access to and support the upkeep of the space, but then learn from each other. No matter the reason you come to Makespace, there will be like-minded people; try something new, create something different and become part of our extensive network.

Here is a short Makespace Introduction video made at one of our birthday parties:

Who is it for?

Our members join for personal and business reasons and include engineers, designers, artists, scientists, educators, hobbyists, DIYers, market traders, entrepreneurs and more. The Makespace equipment and community is invaluable in taking ideas forward.

You can see some videos of members projects, talks and events on our YouTube page, along with some of our training videos:

How does it work?

Members pay a monthly fee of £40 to get 24/7 access to the space and equipment. Members can then use any of the equipment for free. We do also hold certain open events that anyone can attend.

For further details on how to get a guided tour of Makespace, and to consider whether you may want to become a member, see how-to-join.

About Makespace Cambridge Ltd

Makespace is a volunteer run organisation. All operating expenses are met from our membership subscriptions, and the space is run by members volunteering their time and skills.

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Makespace is a community workshop in the heart of Cambridge. Equipment ranges from sewing machines and crafting tools to 3D printers, laser cutters to CNC routers, microscopes to woodworking. The space and equipment are available 24/7 to paying members, and runs based on all the amazing volunteer effort these members put in!

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Join Norwich Hackspace - membership signup form

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Unreal Engine is a 3D computer graphics game engine developed by Epic Games

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Unreal Engine | The most powerful real-time 3D creation tool

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Unreal Engine is the world's most open and advanced real-time 3D creation tool for photoreal visuals and immersive experiences.

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Unity is a cross-platform game engine

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Put our ecosystem of game creation tools, support, and community in your team's hands.

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Get specialized tools including Unity Mars for more efficient AR/MR app development, and Havok Physics for Unity* which provides deterministic physics simulations for DOTS projects.

*Available fall 2022 alongside the release of Unity 2022.2

Some of the highest-quality and best-performing games out there were created with Unity.

platforms run Unity creations

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Put our ecosystem of game creation tools, support, and community in your team's hands. Unity Pro is more than a game engine. Unlock your team's potential with professional tools to create across game devices and platforms. With access to closed platforms and priority support paired with enhanced physics and AR tools, your team can more efficiently prototype, design, and launch with the leading royalty-free engine.

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A centre for creative digital learning

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We support creativity and learning at all levels, including working with schools, community groups, the cultural and third sector and new talent. We do this through the provision of courses, project work, production and training.

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We support creativity and learning at all levels, including working with schools, community groups, the cultural and third sector and new talent. We do this through the provision of courses, project work, production and training.

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Offers a range of short courses on music production, sound design, visual arts, creative coding, game audio and immersive technologies

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London based community for innovators and hobbyists passionate about music technology and sound art. Organises regular DIY workshops and events.

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Introduction video to Bare Conductive touch Board

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Introduction video to Bare Conductive touch Board

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Introduction video to MaKey MaKey classic

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Introduction video to MaKey MaKey classic

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MaKey MaKey - An Invention Kit for Everyone

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Electric Paint is electrically conductive paint. It can be used to create sensors, fast prototyping with printed electronics, fixing small repairs in circuits, or painting large interactive murals.

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Electric Paint is electrically conductive, water-based, and non-toxic paint, and air-dries at room temperature. It is great for fast prototyping with printed electronics, fixing small repairs in circuits, or painting large interactive murals.

Buy now

A paint to paint small circuits or large sensors

Our Electric Paint is a black paint that conducts electricity. Compared to other conductive paints, it is non-toxic and dries at air and room temperature. Electric Paint is a water-based paint, so you can apply it on any surface that is non-hydrophobic, like paper, card or wood.

With Electric Paint you can either paint small electrical circuits or, combined with our hardware, create touch and proximity sensors.

Electric Paint and our hardware

We make hardware that have touch sensors and each sensor can be extended with Electric Paint. This means that when when combine Electric Paint and our hardware, you can touch the paint to trigger a sound, light, projection animation and more! Use Electric Paint to create interactive posters and interactive walls.

If you want to find out more about our hardware, have a look at our best-selling product, the Touch Board.
Find out more

1 Electric Paint, 3 quantities

Electric Paint 10ml

Apply by squeezing the tube

Great for cold soldering and painting circuits

One tube can cover up to 0.5m

Use with Bare Conductive hardware

Buy now

Electric Paint 50ml

Apply with a brush or screen print

Great for screen printing or painting sensors

One jar can cover up to 0.8m²

Use with Bare Conductive hardware

Buy now

Electric Paint 1L

Apply with a brush or screen print

Great for screen printing or painting large sensors

One 1L bucket can cover up to 16m²

Use with Interactive Wall Kit

Buy now

Technical Information

Electric Paint is a non-toxic, water-based, water soluble, electrically conductive paint. It can be used in circuits as a painted resistor element, a capacitive electrode or can function as a conductor in designs that can tolerate high resistivity. It is intended for applications with circuits using low DC voltages at low currents.

Electric Paint adheres to a wide variety of substrates and can be applied using screen printing equipment. Its major benefits include low cost, solubility in water and good screen life. It is black in colour and can be over-painted with any material compatible with a water-based paint.

For full technical specifications, please refer to the Technical Data Sheet.
Download Technical Data Sheet

Color: Black

Density: 1.16 g/ml

Sheet resistance: 55Ω/sq at 50 micron film thickness

Screen printing: 43T - 90T polyester or stainless steel screen

Vehicle: Water-based

Drying temperature: Room temp for 5-15 minutes

Clean up: Warm water and soap

Shelf life: six months after opening

Touchless/proximity sensing

If you want to create touchless/proximity sensors with our hardware, we recommend our Printed Sensors!

They are screen printed with Electric Paint, sealed to prevent smudging, and their pattern is optimal to sense an approaching hand or finger. In order to connect the hardware to the sensor, simply use a pair of crocodile clips. The sensors can be hidden behind materials, and by touching the material, you can trigger the sensor.

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See some of the projects our community have created

WERC

When the Groninger Museum asked WERC (a multidisciplinary art collective based in Groningen) to participate as artists in the Children's Biennale, they quickly rose to the challenge, creating AR Graffiti.
Continue reading

TWO SIDES

Fashion designer, Louise Binder created an interactive experience combining technology and fashion for her participation at the graduate show using Electric Paint.
Continue reading

Plinkt

Artist Mark McClure used the Touch Board to transform a room in a hotel into an art installation, where the walls and ceilings became light switches.
Continue reading

Get started with one of our Electric Paint kits

Electric Paint Circuit Kit

Build a paper city and paint a circuit with Electric Paint.

If Electric Paint is new to you, this is the perfect kit to get you started. Drawing your circuit is as easy as squeezing a tube, tracing a line, and connecting LEDs. This simple kit is the perfect introduction, with easy instructions and a clearly marked template. Add a battery to power the LED lights and bring your circuit city to life!
Find out more

Electric Paint Lamp Kit

Turn a piece of paper into a touch-sensitive lamp with Electric Paint.

Combine Electric Paint and the capacitive sensing of the Light Up Board, to create a beautiful paper lamp in three easy steps: paint, fold, and power on! No tools, no programming, no special skills required.

Select from three templates, each with a unique interface to create either a touch, dimmer or proximity lamp. The Electric Paint Lamp Kit is the perfect gift to bring a little more light to your life, or someone else's.
Find out more

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Electric Paint is electrically conductive, water-based, and non-toxic paint, and air-dries at room temperature. It is great for fast prototyping with printed electronics, fixing small repairs in circuits, or painting large interactive murals. Buy now Our Electric Paint is a black paint that conducts electricity.

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The Raspberry Pi Pico is a type of microcontroller from Raspberry Pi. Small, cheap and flexible - it’s great for learning to code with MicroPython!

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The Raspberry Pi Pico is an entirely new type of microcontroller from Raspberry Pi. Small, cheap and flexible - it’s great for learning to code with MicroPython! Whether you’re looking to learn about the MicroPython programming language, take your first steps in physical computing or want to build a…

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Resolume Arena is VJ software that allows the combining of music and video to produce real-time visuals.

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Resolume puts you in charge. You can play your videos when you want, how you want. Forwards, backwards, scratch and adjust tempo to the beat. Mix and match your visuals quickly and easily and play Resolume like an instrument.

Intuitive Interface

Whatever your style is, Resolume offers you an easy interface to rock it. Use as little or as many videos and effects as you like. The only limit is your computer's raw power and your imagination.

From Your Local Club to Main Stage

You can play on any amount of screens. From a simple screen behind the DJ in your local club to main stage at Ultra. As long as your computer can recognise it as an output, Resolume will let you use it.

Resolume plays both audio and video files. Animate pixels and drop beats, combine any video file with any audio file.

Audio Visual Effects

Resolume has both audio effects and video effects. Use them separately or combine them to create exciting new audio visual effects.

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Make clips and effects dance to the beat. Resolume can analyse audio to make any parameter bounce to the music.

Project video on any type of surface. Complex geometrical structures or whole buildings. Resolume does all the hard work, so you can concentrate on the important part: being creative.

Blend Projectors with Arena

With edge blending you can seamlessly project one beautiful widescreen image with two or more projectors. It can even wrap around for a full 360 degree experience.

Project on Cars, Buildings or Pumpkins

With Arena you can take on any size mapping project. From projecting on DJ booths to cars, buildings and LED mappings on giant stages like Ultra.

Think outside the screen and colour the lights too! With Arena you can send out colours to DMX fixtures and the lights will be in sync with your visuals.

Adjust the scale and position of your clips to suit your needs. Apply effects to drastically change the look of your video. Everything runs on the video card so you get the fastest performance and best image quality possible.

Real Time Rendering

Apply effects, blend, mix, cut and edit, everything happens on the spot.

Audio & Visual Plugins

All visual effects in Resolume are plugins and you can easily add more effects by download 3rd party plugins. You can even program your own using OpenGL. On the audio side you can use VST plugins to play your favourite effects.

Integrate With Other Apps

With Syphon on the Mac and Spout on Windows you can share visuals in real-time between Resolume and other apps running on the same computer. You can even program your own apps that integrate with Resolume.

Liberate yourself from the mouse. Use your favourite MIDI controller or get physical with your iPhone via OSC.

Control from a Lighting Desk

You can control Arena from a lighting desk using DMX. So you can operate the lights and video with the touch of a fader.

With native support for Blackmagic, AJA and Datapath capture cards you can input and output almost any video source.

With NewTek NDI ® you can send and receive video between computers on the same network. Use any resolution you like, with an alpha channel, in high quality and low latency.

Windows

Windows 8

AMD or NVIDIA graphics card

8GB RAM

macOS

OS X 10.11 El Capitan

AMD or Iris Pro graphics card

8GB RAM

Windows

Windows 10

i7 Processor, 6 core, 3.7 GHz

Nvidia RTX 2070

M2 SSD

16 GB Ram

macOS

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AMD or Iris Pro graphics card

Radeon Pro 560X

SSD

16GB RAM

Resolume Avenue for 1 computer € 299 Euro
Resolume Arena for 1 computer € 799 Euro
Licenses are available in the shop.

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Resolume puts you in charge. You can play your videos when you want, how you want. Forwards, backwards, scratch and adjust tempo to the beat. Mix and match your visuals quickly and easily and play Resolume like an instrument. Whatever your style is, Resolume offers you an easy interface to rock it.

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TouchDesigner is a visual programming environment aimed at the creation of multimedia applications

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Derivative is a software company that offers TouchDesigner, a visual development platform.

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MadMapper is a projection mapping software for MAC & WINDOWS. Create 3D projection mapping and LED Light Mapping

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MadMapper - The projection Mapping software

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THE VIDEO MAPPING SOFTWARE
MadMapper is an advanced tool for video and light mapping
Adapted for various fields, such as architectural video projection, art installation, stage design and live show, MadMapper software made possible hundreds of projects around the globe by an incredibly active user community of Artists looking for a fast, powerful and user-friendly mapping software
Now available on MAC & WINDOWS

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MadMapper — The projection Mapping software

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MadMapper - The Projection Mapping software for MAC & WINDOWS

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MadMapper is an advanced tool for video and light mapping Adapted for various fields, such as architectural video projection, art installation, stage design and live show, MadMapper software made possible hundreds of projects around the globe by an incredibly active user community of Artists looking for a fast, powerful and user-friendly mapping software Now available on MAC & WINDOWS

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Processing is an open source flexible software sketchbook and a language. It is built for the electronic and new media art and visual design communities with the purpose of teaching computer programming visually.

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Getting started

Download and open the 'Processing' application. Select something from the Examples. Hit the Run button. Lather, rinse, repeat as necessary. More information on using Processing itself is can be found in the environment section of the reference. To learn the Processing language, we recommend you try a few of the built-in examples, and check out the reference. A group of diverse books have been written to help people with different goals and skill levels.

Getting Started Tutorial

Don't know where to get started? Read this tutorial, which will guide you through the basics of Processing
Read tutorial

Check out the Reference

Find further documentation of the Processing language
Go to Reference

Get the software

The Processing Development Environment makes it easy to write Processing programs. It's free and open source!
Download Processing

Have more questions?

Join the conversations on the Forum to share and learn.
Visit Forum

Processing 4 is out!

Processing 4 introduces major improvements behind the scenes, with the primary goal to keep your code running smoothly on the latest hardware and operating systems.

If you are still using Processing 3 or a Processing 4 beta, we strongly encourage you to switch to Processing 4 to get the best performance, compatibility, and support in the future.

Contribute

The core Processing software is augmented by libraries and tools contributed through the community. These inventive extensions are a bright future for the project. We have a list of Contributed Libraries and Contributed Tools posted online. These contributions can't be underestimated.

To contribute to Processing development, please visit Processing on GitHub to read instructions for downloading the code, building from the source, reporting and tracking bugs, creating libraries and tools.

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Processing is a flexible software sketchbook and a language for learning how to code. Since 2001, Processing has promoted software literacy within the visual arts and visual literacy within technology...

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Natalie Whitney -
An interactive audio installation, using Bare Conductive Touch Boards, that explores cultural landscapes of the East through the voices of people who live there.

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(4:38) - Intergalatic Synthesizer
(9:36) - Message in a Shuttle game

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Collusion Presents // THE INTERGALACTIC HANSEATIC LEAGUE - documentary

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Official Raspberry Pi reseller. The ultimate Raspberry Pi & maker superstore with all of the biggest brands under one roof. Raspberry Pi Zero stockist. Next Day delivery available.

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Scratch is a high-level block-based visual programming language and website, often used as an educational tool for programming,

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Scratch is a free programming language and online community where you can create your own interactive stories, games, and animations.

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MakeCode is a free, open source platform for creating engaging computer science learning experiences that support a progression path into real-world programming.

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A Blocks / JavaScript code editor for the micro:bit powered by Microsoft MakeCode.

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01 - 31 OCTOBER 2021 // The Intergalactic Hanseatic League is a sci-fi, time-travel adventure that took place across King's Lynn town centre and online at the-ihl.com. It's part of Collusion's GAME ON series of climate change themed projects exploring King's Lynn as a centre for town-scale projection based artworks.

For full details about the project visit the project website.

The IHL are a crew of three time travelers from 2225 - the Captain (played by Game of Thrones & Tinsel Town actress Kate Dickie), the Navigator, and the Computer who are urgently attempting to contact the people of King's Lynn in 2021. In the 23rd century, 'Earthport Lynn', as it's known, is a thriving, bustling spaceport as well as a culturally important holiday destination for intergalactic tourists. A pivotal historical event in late 2021 called the MINDSHIFT changed the course of history - averting the climate crisis and leading to a thriving, happy planet and remarkable advances in time and space travel. But, there's been a glitch in spacetime. The IHL must fix it - if they don't, the MINDSHIFT won't happen, plunging Earth into an alternative future of climate chaos. That's why they're here: to find out what went right in Lynn 2021, so that they can save their future - and ours.
WATCH THE TEASER TRAILER
Mysterious TRANSMISSIONS from the crew of the IHL Discovery appeared in King's Lynn's cinemas, shops and on social media, where they were seen by nearly 33,000 times. After dark, there were at least 10,000 engagements with the IHL PORTALS where more of the IHL's story was projected onto five historic buildings. At Greyfriars Tower, there were more than 1,000 plays of the MESSAGE IN A SHUTTLE game, resulting in nearly 400 successful launches of messages into 'space' written by the town's primary school children. Also in Greyfriars, there were many engagements with the INTERGALACTIC SYNTHESIZER on the pergolas, where visitors were able interact hands-free with an audio visual installation.

WATCH THE TRANSMISSIONS - ONE - TWO - THREE

Throughout the project, the AGENTS OF CHANGE exhibition in the Old Argos windows shared the artwork of the 570 primary school aged children who became Agents of Change for the project, with their designs addressing sustainable future living. You too can become an AGENT OF CHANGE - create your own designs for the future using our Resource kit and share you ideas with us on social media.
WATCH THE IHL'S AGENTS OF CHANGE CALLOUT TRANSMISSION
The IHL project has been in development for about 18 months, produced by Collusion with a team of 24 artists and creatives led by Director Gavin Toomey, plus creative support 570 primary aged children and over 250 College of West Anglia students. We also had help from 22 local partners including the town's museums, cinemas, arts organisations and even a shopping centre! Funding for the project came from the Borough Council of King's Lynn & West Norfolk, Arts Council England, the New Anglia LEP, Discover King's Lynn, Norfolk County Council, the Audrey Muriel Stratford Trust and PEACH West Norfolk. See the full list of people and partners involved by viewing the Artists, Associates and Partners sections below.

Artists

Producers

Rachel Drury & Rich Hall, Producers

Liam Roberts, Associate Producer

Savannah Andrews & Jacob Barry, Assistant Producers

Core Creative Team

Gavin Toomey, Director, Co-writer and Filmmaker

Karen Eng, Co-writer and Communications Lead

Dan Silverstone, Lead Visual Artist

Michelle Brace, Engagement Coordinator & Datalog creator

Alex Johansson, Gaming & Engagement Artist - Tower game

Katy Marshall, Gaming & Engagement Artist - Tower game foot pedals

Actors

Kate Dickie, The Captain

Kahmal Sealey, The Navigator

Kat Kumar, The Ship's Computer

Music, Film & Photography

CLIP, Composers

Gavin Toomey, Director, Co-writer and Filmmaker

Dan Silverstone, Lead Visual Artist

Reeta Varpama, Film Editor

Matthew Usher Photography, Photography and Eastgate film footage

Up Next Studios, Hampshire Green Screen Studio, Green Screen Studio Facilities

Additional Design & Production

Slade Design, Additional design (Datalogs, Vinyls, Site posters, YLP)

Sunny Luckhoo, Costume Design

Smelly Cat Creations, Greyfriars Production Artist

Agents of Change content creators

The Children of: Eastgate Academy, Greenpark Academy, Whitefriars Academy and Gayton Brownies

Students at The Workshop

Students at the College of West Anglia, Co-creators and User Experience Testing

Projection Sites

The Customs House, Alive Corn Exchange, St Nicholas' Chapel, King's Lynn Minster, Greyfriars Tower & Gardens

Hosts of High Street TV Screens

Hughes, Prontaprint, Jark Recruitment, Nice & Tasty Patisserie, Walkers News

Associates

Partners

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David Russell - The Fusion Works (https://www.thefusionworks.com)

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The Intergalactic Hanseatic League // 2021 - Collusion

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01 - 31 OCTOBER 2021 // The Intergalactic Hanseatic League is a sci-fi, time-travel adventure that took place across King's Lynn town centre and online at the-ihl.com. It's part of Collusion's GAME ON series of climate change themed projects exploring King's Lynn as a centre for town-scale projection based artworks.

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Collusion's 2019 Summer Labs programme gave children and young people the chance to take part in a whole range of creative technology workshop, creating amazing things.

Collusion worked with our creative associates to design and deliver an amazing line up of workshops ranging from two hours to a full day in length. The full schedule is below.

Day 1: Artist and maker Katy Marshall delivered two 2-hour workshops exploring maker projects. The first saw the group creating small houses from cardboard, putting together components to add neo-pixel lighting and then coding the lights using Micro:bits to pulse at a particular speed and colour. The second workshop, focused on creating custom games controllers, encouraging the participants to be super creative in thinking up unusual ways to control the games using electronic circuits.

Day 2: The Centre for Computing History's Anjali Das delivered two 2-hour workshops, starting with Sounds of the City where they experimented with different ways to create circuits that produced sounds -including with Play Doh and people! The second workshop tested participants sewing skills and they used conductive thread to create designs that would light up leds.

Day 3: VR artist and graphic designer Lee Mason delivered two 3-hour workshops that saw participants delving into the world of VR. In the first, the groups created sculptures in VR using Tiltbrush which they then were able to view in 'real life' as augmented reality. The second workshop saw participants designing 3D vehicles in VR which were then transferred in Roblox and driven around.

Day 4: The final session was delivered by artists and VJ's Janice Oliver and Michelle Brace. This all day session helped young people to understand how to mix visuals to music using a range of software tools and techniques, creating some amazing videos. Click on the film in the Media section of this page to see the final outcome!

Artists

Katy Marshall, Anjali Das, Lee Mason, Janice Oliver, Michelle Brace

Partners

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David Russell - The Fusion Works (https://www.thefusionworks.com)

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Electric Citizens // August 2019 - Collusion

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Collusion worked with our creative associates to design and deliver an amazing line up of workshops ranging from two hours to a full day in length. The full schedule is below. Day 1: Artist and maker Katy Marshall delivered two 2-hour workshops exploring maker projects.

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The Digital Sandpit is a tourable interactive installation of vibrant projected imagery onto sand that encourages exploration of colourful imagery through physical play for all ages.

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The Magic Sandpit is a tourable interactive installation of vibrant projected imagery onto sand that encourages exploration of colourful imagery through physical play for all ages.

This installation designed to provide multi-sensory experiences for pre-school and early years children. Commissioned by The Library Presents to tour Cambridgeshire's libraries, it projects images onto sand in layers and as the sand is played with, a depth sensor detects the changes made to the surface of the sand, allowing the children to create amazing colourful, tactile creations as well as dig around to find hidden designs. The sandpit has been constructed to look like a wishing well and is safe for children to use.

The Sandpit was contructed and developed as an R&D project in Autumn/Winter 2022, working closely with local craftspeople in King's Lynn to ensure the structure was safe and engaging. The content was developed by Collusion's Savannah Andrews using Tagtool software, creating colour mixes and animated characters that could be projected in layers at different depths onto the sand. The Sandpit was tested as part of a two week residency at Wisbech Library from 17 January to 01 February 2023. As part of the development of the Sandpit, a group of students from the College of West Anglia took part in user testing, providing feedback as part of a work experience activity.
The Magic Sandpit is an adaption of an original concept, the Augmented Reality Sandbox by Oliver Kreylos, UC Davis. This was extended and adapted by TellArt Terraform table for a 2018 installation in the V&A museum . Both these applications focus on terrain modelling and environment science.

Artists

Producers

Rachel Drury & Rich Hall, Producers

Liam Roberts Associate Producer

Savannah Andrews, Assistant Producer

Natalie Whitney, Assistant Producer

Creative Team

Smelly Cat Creations, Engineering & metalwork

Pia Plum Designs, Upholstery

Rich Hall, Design

Savannah Andrews, Design

Work experience team

Kory Morgan

Kamil Matejevski

Kay Tibbs

Partners

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David Russell - The Fusion Works (https://www.thefusionworks.com)

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Collusion is a playful, experimental agency in Cambridge operating at the intersection of arts, technology, and human interaction. We create ambitious, disruptive, immersive works that consider the impact of emerging technology on society, inviting public engagement & interaction.

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Akeelah Bertram - Light Organ is an interactive, visual and sound experience transformed the Bradford Cathedrals organ into 44 responsive light-organ ‘pipes’, visualising sound in the Cathedral as a vibrant array of colour.

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1.5 Degrees of Concern - An Interactive Artwork About Living Through Global Climate Crises 

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1.5 Degrees of Concern - An Interactive Artwork About Living Through Global Climate Crises 

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Liz Waugh McManus - The artwork invites listeners to interact with the objects. Touching, hovering over and exploring provides a multi-sensory experience that brings the listener into the complex narrative world of sounds, provides a mode of reflection and ultimately connects them to the urgency of climate crisis.

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1.5 Degrees of Concern - An Interactive Artwork About Living Through Global Climate Crises

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The artwork invites listeners to interact with the objects. Touching, hovering over and exploring provides a multi-sensory experience that brings the listener into the complex narrative world of sounds, provides a mode of reflection and ultimately connects them to the urgency of climate crisis.

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Student Yuta Ikeya wanted to draw the attention to the exploitation silkworms with an interactive installation for their design course. This project was done as part of the "more-than-human centred design" design research course at Eindhoven University of Technology. Yuta has always been interested in...

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Tools to transform your world. Paint an interactive mural, create a smart prototype, lead a creative workshop. Bring your project to life with our electrically conductive paint, hardware, and kits.

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The Raspberry Pi is a low cost, credit-card sized computer that plugs into a computer monitor or TV, and uses a standard keyboard and mouse.

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Raspberry Pi 400 Personal Computer Kit

Raspberry Pi 400 is your complete personal computer, built into a compact keyboard. Featuring a quad-core 64-bit processor, 4GB of RAM, wireless networking, dual-display output, and 4K video playback, as well as a 40-pin GPIO header, it's the most powerful and easy-to-use Raspberry Pi computer yet.

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Raspberry Pi 400 is your complete personal computer, built into a compact keyboard. Featuring a quad-core 64-bit processor, 4GB of RAM, wireless networking, dual-display output, and 4K video playback, as well as a 40-pin GPIO header, it's the most powerful and easy-to-use Raspberry Pi computer yet.

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The BBC micro:bit is a pocket-sized computer that introduces you to how software and hardware work together. It has an LED light display, buttons, sensors and many input/output features that, when programmed, let it interact with you and your world

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Program

You tell computers like the micro:bit what to do by giving them instructions. Sets of instructions for computers are called programs. Programs are written in code, a language that both you and the computer can understand.

You can program your micro:bit in the online MakeCode block or Python text editors. Our Let's code page helps you choose the one that's right for you.

You'll need either:

a computer with a web browser and internet access
or

a phone or tablet and our free micro:bit app for MakeCode coding on Android or iOS (iPhone and iPad) mobile devices

When you've written your code, you'll want to connect and transfer it onto the micro:bit.

Connect

Connect your micro:bit to your computer or mobile device.

If you're using a computer, you need a micro USB cable to connect to your micro:bit to your computer's USB socket

If you're using a phone or tablet, use Bluetooth to connect your micro:bit wirelessly

Transfer from a computer

Transferring your program to your micro:bit is called flashing because it copies your program into the micro:bit's flash memory.

Your micro:bit will pause and the yellow LED on the back will blink while your program is being transferred. Once it's copied across, your program starts running on your micro:bit.

There are two ways to transfer your program from a computer:

Drag and drop is like copying a downloaded file from your computer to a USB memory stick. It works on any computer.

Direct flashing sends your program from the code editor direct to your micro:bit. It works on any computer in two popular web browsers.

Drag and drop

When you plug the micro:bit into your computer's USB socket, it will appear on your computer like a USB memory stick called MICROBIT.

Download your program as a .hex file from the code editor to your computer, usually to your downloads folder. Then drag and drop the .hex file on to the MICROBIT drive.

After you transfer your .hex file, the MICROBIT drive will disconnect and reconnect as the micro:bit resets. The .hex file will not be listed on the MICROBIT drive after this. This is expected. Your micro:bit is not a flash storage device, but your computer shows it as one to make it easy to transfer .hex files.

The videos below show you how it works. Choose your computer type (Windows, Mac, Chromebook or Linux/Raspberry Pi) to see how it will work for you:

Choose your computer type:

Direct flashing

You can send programs direct from the online code editors to your micro:bit without the need to download and copy a .hex file. This is quick and easy.

To use direct flashing, you'll need to use a recent Chrome or Edge web browser that supports webUSB.

You may also need to update your micro:bit firmware if you got the device a long time ago. Find out more on our firmware page.

Note: direct flashing is quick and easy, and is great for debugging, but it does not save a copy of your program on your computer. If keeping a copy of your code on your computer or local network drives is important to you, for example for assessing students' work, you may want to use drag and drop instead, or remind students to download and save a .hex file when they have completed their project.

Transfer from mobile app

To get started on mobile, you need to download the free micro:bit app to your phone or tablet and follow the on-screen instructions. The apps use Bluetooth to transfer your code to your micro:bit, so you need to enable Bluetooth on your phone or tablet.

These videos help you understand how the mobile apps work with your micro:bit.

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You tell computers like the micro:bit what to do by giving them instructions. Sets of instructions for computers are called programs. Programs are written in code, a language that both you and the computer can understand. You can program your micro:bit in the online MakeCode block or Python text editors.

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The Arduino integrated development environment (IDE) is an open source software, which is used to programme Arduino boards. It Allows you to write and upload code to boards. and it consists of many example libraries.

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Arduino Web Editor

Start coding online and save your sketches in the cloud. The most up-to-date version of the IDE includes all libraries and also supports new Arduino boards.
CODE ONLINE GETTING STARTED
Arduino IDE 2.2.1

The new major release of the Arduino IDE is faster and even more powerful! In addition to a more modern editor and a more responsive interface it features autocompletion, code navigation, and even a live debugger.

For more details, please refer to the Arduino IDE 2.0 documentation.

Nightly builds with the latest bugfixes are available through the section below.

SOURCE CODE

The Arduino IDE 2.0 is open source and its source code is hosted on GitHub.

Arduino with Chromebook

To program Arduino from a Chromebook, you can use the Arduino Web Editor on Arduino Cloud. The desktop version of the IDE is not available on Chrome OS.

MicroPython With Arduino Boards

To program your boards using MicroPython, visit the MicroPython with Arduino page. There you find download links and additional resources for getting started with MicroPython on your Arduino boards.

Arduino PLC IDE 1.0.3

Program using IEC 61131-3 languages and mix Arduino sketches through Arduino PLC IDE! Configure easily your pre-mapped resources and get quick no code fieldbus support, dive into your code analysis thanks to the wide set of debugging tools.

For more details, please refer to Arduino PLC IDE documentation.
Both files are required
DOWNLOAD OPTIONS

Version 1.0.4 coming soon

Arduino IDE 1.8.19

The open-source Arduino Software (IDE) makes it easy to write code and upload it to the board. This software can be used with any Arduino board.

Refer to the Getting Started page for Installation instructions.

SOURCE CODE

Active development of the Arduino software is hosted by GitHub. See the instructions for building the code. Latest release source code archives are available here. The archives are PGP-signed so they can be verified using this gpg key.

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Open-source electronic prototyping platform enabling users to create interactive electronic objects.

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The Makey Makey is an invention kit designed to connect everyday objects to computer keys. Using a circuit board, alligator clips, and a USB cable.

It uses closed loop electrical signals to send the computer either a keyboard stroke or mouse click signal.

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Makes STEM Education fun!

The original Makey Makey Classic - Named one of Consumer Reports' "Best Tech Toys of 2014," "Best of Toy Fair 2014" by Popular Science, and a finalist for Toy of the Year 2016.

Makes STEM Education fun! Start out easy with a banana piano. First setup takes seconds. Then make game controllers, musical instruments, and countless inventions. Advance to additional inputs and multi-key remapping up to 18 keys. Ages 8 to infinity.

Turn everyday objects like bananas into touchpads!

Connect the world around you to your computer! Setup takes just seconds.

Just plug, clip, and play! No programing knowledge needed. No software to install. Works with Mac, Windows, Chromebook, Linux. If the device supports a USB keyboard or mouse, it should work with Makey Makey!

1000s of possibilities! Draw your own game controller, sneak a cat selfie, and dance like never before.

Ages 8 to infinity.

SKU: MMCE UPC: 713757965125

Makey Makey Board

USB Cable

7 Alligator Clips

6 Connector Wires

Instructions with Visual Project Start Guide

Online Documentation

Makey Makey Sticker

For international orders, import fees may apply and are the responsibility of the customer. For additional shipping information, please see our FAQ: www.makeymakey.com/faq

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The original Makey Makey Classic - Named one of Consumer Reports' "Best Tech Toys of 2014," "Best of Toy Fair 2014" by Popular Science, and a finalist for Toy of the Year 2016. Makes STEM Education fun! Start out easy with a banana piano. First setup takes seconds.

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The Bare Conductive Touch Board is a unique microcontroller that gives you the ability to turn almost any material or surface into a sensor.

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For more stock, check availability at our partner OKdo here. For EU customers: EU customers will be responsible for paying VAT and customs charges, at your local rate on receipt of the order, on import. Content:1 x Touch Board1 x microSD cardNot included: micro USB cable