Vacoloco Ramblings

I’m having a small problem with receiving SPI. this is the comms between two AVRs, identical settings for the SPI bus with the exception that one is set as a slave and one as a master. I send four bytes, 90% of the time it works perfectly and the timing looks like this, the “LED1″ pin I bring high when the SPI Receive interrupt is triggered and I clear it at the end of the interrupt. -

10% of the time it ‘misses’ receiving all four bytes, looks like somehow the SPI receive interupt isn’t always being triggered.

Anyone got any idea where to start looking? I’m perplexed.

Quick update about Zira, we’ve had a slight delay due to a problem with the cases, this is being rectified and we hope to have stock in the next 10 to 14 days.

VacoLoco will be at Synth DIY UK 2013 on Saturday the 27th of July. This’ll give you a chance to have some hands on time with Zira, GorF and maybe a sneak preview of things in the making.

The event is free so why not come along and meet some of the UK Synth makers!

More details on the facebook events page https://www.facebook.com/events/160198740805131/ and the diy.synth.net page – http://diy.synth.net/uk/

I have one GorF-XL beta unit left, if you’re interested contact me, you’ll need a Doepfer power bus with +12v, +5v and -12v power rails. You’ll also be expected to help write the user guide and contribute to finding bugs. There is a cost, but it’s basically the cost of the parts and postage.

GorF and Zira, a perfect match!

It’s been a superb month, only two GorFs remain in stock. This means I have enough money to invest in some more tools which will open up a whole new set of options for the future.

I want to say a very heart-felt thank you to everyone who’s purchased a GorF with their hard earned money, I really do appreciate each and every sale, especially in the current economic climate.

There’s also a quick update with regards Zira, currently 20 are in the process of being assembled and having cases made for them, all things being well they should be ready to go on sale for mid May !

In case you don’t already know, synth.net (http://synth.net) is a social networking site I’ve created for synth geeks. You can upload music, videos, schematics, pictures, there’s a forum, a blog and all sorts of interactive tools! So why not head over and sign up, it’s free!

GorF is selling very well, and we’re down to our last three assembled units in stock. Once they’re gone it’ll be a few months before we have stock again as we’re going to be releasing some assembled Zira‘s shortly. For now, here’s a picture of the new assembled/cased Zira.

I’m please to say that JuJu now has adjustable Volume, Pan and pitch control for each sound.

https://soundcloud.com/vacoloco/juju-pitch-demo

This is me adjusting the handclap and cowbell pitch.

It’s been a while since I posted an update about GorF-XL. GorF-XL is currently in beta test and we’re looking at a second run of prototype PCBs to address the mods needed to the first one and also to ensure when they go for emission testing they’re as good as can be.

Software wise, A couple of minor bugs have been found and corrected but I’m pleased to say nothing major. The testers have requested a new feature which I’ve been able to include. This means you can now use GorF-XL as a MIDI to CV converter, Thus saving you cost and space if you don’t often use a MIDI to CV converter.

Things are moving along with JuJu, each voice can now be panned and you can change the pitch of each sound. I’ll be doing some demos once I’ve got the extra MIDI processing in to handle this.

There’s still a lot of work to do yet, including adding the open/closed hihat (triggering an closed hihat whilst an open hihat is play cuts it off). If what I have in mind works then JuJu will have 9 sounds, 8 playable at the same time, the 9th sound being the open hihat.