The goal is to combine the Electosmith Daisy Seed with a 16x2 LCD Keypad to make a simple, inexpensive and portable audio tool running open source software. The OPD can also be controlled with CV and GATE signals and MIDI but this is optional. Last but not least – the OPD has a lot of modulation capabilities, including a simple sequencer.
All software is running on the Daisy MCU/microcontroller, including sound generation.
The OPD can handle up to 4 CV inputs and two potentiometers. The CV inputs are limited to 0-3V3, but can be scaled and offset in hardware and software.
The OPD can control up to 4 CV/GATE outputs, also limited to 3V3.
Currently the OPD has several different applications (firmwares):
OscPocketD/Base - A multi-fx tool with a two voice synth
OscPocketD/Synth - A portable beat/song-making tool (no CV/GATE support yet)
OscPocketD/Sampler- A sampler and sampleplayer
OPD is free software/open source. Download, build, learn, modify, improve and share.
man you just don’t quit, I’ve got some parts en route to try this one out, I loved your earlier unit that used the daisy seed.
Do you have somewhere to donate to? I feel guilty not compensating your time for this. Sorry if you mentioned it and I didnt see it, I’m reading this on my phone at work at the moment.
That is very generous of you! No one has ever donated to me before. If PayPal is ok, you can find my full name and email address in the doc’s for the project. Else, we can find another way.
Thank you once again for your interest and support! If you build an OPD, please send a photo (and/or sounds or music that you make with it)!
ok cool! thanks for the info, I will get your info from the docs and use paypal, that would be easiest for me as well.
and I will take some pictures for sure once I finish it!
yes, it was my own stupidity, I wired the daisy to the pins on the board and not to the pinout. Now it works. But I had some problems with the midi in. In your manual you wrote pin 13 but for me it only worked on pin 15 (14).
I played a bit with the synth an noticed it always crashes when I change the level of oscillator. Did you have such problems, too?
Also I connected a 5V source directly to the display for a better contrast, works perfect but seems to kill the input values for the buttons. When I got back to the 3,3v from the daisy it works normal.
Got any experience with that?
Glad you got it working, @Keen! This project has very much been a way of exploring the Daisy Seed and learning stuff, so not all is perfect! But it makes me very happy that someone else is building/using it! Thank you!
Oh, you are absolutely right! That is a typo in the manual! Thanks for finding it. Corrected now.
I will check this out and get back to you. Thanks for testing!
I think I tried something similar, and got the same results as you. The LCD definitely works better on 5V.
What you can do, if you have the skills, is making your own buttons, the ones on the LCD are not very good/responsive. So a separation of LCD and buttons would be a good thing. You can see what I did in this Arduino CV sequencer project: Arduino – OSCILLATOR
Hey,
no problem. I think it’s really cool, and has a lot of potential. There are not many synths for the daisy, sadly.
Shouldn’t be a problem but because of my case I’m stuck with the LCD buttons It think I’ll try your lcd test programm, to set the buttons. Should work after the calibriation, wouldn’t you think?
Worst part are the crashes with oscillators, if those would work reliably I think it could be an awesome midi synth. Would love to create some patches
Yes calibration is always a good idea, because the LCD parts never seems to give the same values. Just make sure the test.cpp has the same pins assigned for the LCD communication as you are using.
Hmmm…what do you mean by “Oscillator level”? Is the “VO” value where you tell the software how many oscillators to use? As stated in the manual any value above 5 is a bit “funky” because the Daisy Seed simply cannot handle the pressure and then the UI becomes unresponsive because the audio callback simply takes too much time…
It’s on the Oscillator screen. It crashed on the WAV2 and the LVL2 parameter. I just loaded the preset and didn’t change anything else. I restartet about three times but always get the crash on the same parameters. On the WAV2 it was are hard crash, the screen frooze. On the LVL2 the LCD keeps blinking, but I can’t move the cursor under the letters anymore.
You not only found one bug, but three!!! Congratulations and many thanks! It should be fixed now. Try the new version at Open source – OSCILLATOR
And if you create some cool patches, maybe you can send them to me so I can add them to the project? Just take some notes (or photos) of the settings!
Yeah, and if you can post a pic of your build and what country you are from (if ok), it would mean a lot to me! People using my stuff to make music is what motivates me to share.
Happy to help
Will test it tomorrow. If I manage to build some nice patches I’m sure to share it with you. Beside the pictures, is there a way to export the settings form the daisy?
Another little problem when I want to download your files I get a security warnig. This happens with Opera and Microsoft Edge, there seems to be a bug or issue on your homepage. Maybe you can check that.
Sorry, no. In my OscPocketD/Synth you can export MIDI data using the Logger class/serial comm, but that is not working that well due to changes in libdaisy…
Hmmm, thanks, I will check that out. Are you accessing the page using https?
Thanks. I can’t provoke this error on either Firefox or Chromium on my linux machine, nor on my Android phone… I will ask a friend to test it. Is your clock and browsers updated? Running on Windows?
Yeah, I’m running on Windows using the opera browser. On my android phone it works, only on windows I have problems to download it without security warning.
Is there an easy way to map the buttons on the LCD directly in you code?
I added a 9V to 5V converter on the circuit to power the lcd for higher contrast, but now I can’t map the select button anymore. Doesn’t register values under 99.
It think I’ll try your lcd test programm, to set the buttons. Should work after the calibriation, wouldn’t you think?
On the WAV2 it was are hard crash, the screen frooze. On the LVL2 the LCD keeps blinking, but I can’t move the cursor under the letters anymore.
