For the Connect things with code! contest, I want to make an adapter box that translates between MIDI/OSC messages and various sensors and actuators. I plan to demonstrate the device using a robotic musical instrument that makes real sounds mechanically from incoming musical data and also picks up information from sensors and sends it to musical software and instruments.
To route and translate between data types, I am planning a library to handle the various house-keeping tasks to make it easier for musical tinkerers to control actuators from their music software and hardware and to receive data from sensors to change musical parameters. I have yet to decide whether to opt for MicroPython or Arduino. I suspect it will be the latter because of the number of music-related libraries already available. Then again, perhaps MitcroPython needs some more music stuff.
My motivation is a love of music and robotics, coupled with a deep-seated compulsion to connect everything up to everything else. I have some old robotic instruments that need an update and a bunch of grey cells in between my ears that also need an update and to learn some new things - so why not do both?
There is a choice of hardware bundles for this contest and I am aiming for bundle C as it has a bigger variety of sensor and actuators, plus a few items that can use CAN bus. I like the idea of MIDI data being translated to talk to items operating on a CAN bus - perhaps an e-bike, an industrial installation or an automobile?
Bundle A is my 2nd choice as I want to use the CY8CPROTO-062-4343W as the central brain as its PSoC6 is highly versatile and reconfigurable (and I change my mind a lot!). The board is also quite compact and would fit inside my AE Modular synthesizer without any trouble. Bundle B would also be fine as that radar unit looks like a lot of fun.
A number of contemporary instruments serve as inspiration, for example: the Motor Synth (a sound generator that uses spinning disks attached to precisely-controlled motors for accurate pitch); Various musical automata and instruments by the artist, Trimpin.
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