Just over 20 years ago, MiniDiscs were the new audio format on the block: stylish, durable, and unfathomably cool, they could store a CDs-worth of audio and have each track named and loaded with marker points – what’s not to like?! Well, naming the tracks took a lot of button pushing, and early devices had no way of being connected to a PC – until now: the gmdrec is here to offer USB functionality to the MiniDisc after all these years!
Early MiniDisc players usually had a stack of buttons on the front panel, or used a cabled remote connected to the headphones to program and operate the device. Later models used NetMD – allowing them to interface with computers, but this product lets you program the titles, regardless of the age of your model! The circuit acts as a pseudo remote, using a Python script available on GitHub meaning you can finally name that acoustic live version of ‘Manic Street Preachers – If you tolerate this your children will be next’ which would ordinarily take you a half hour or so.
The beauty of this hardware/software combo is that it’s a one click operation: just make a playlist in a supported media player (see page for details) and gmdrec will convert the included songs and output the titling as button presses – genius! It’s the first product to be sold by fijam’s DIY corner and we’d love to see more of this kind of ingenuity.
The term ‘Data Sonification’ sounds complicated but it’s simple to explain – it’s the process of turning any data into sounds; taking some input values and interpreting them to output notes or other musical parameters. This Diy symbiotic biodata sonification device will do this for your plants – converting their inherent conductance into MIDI messages for a truly organic performance!
Once you’ve made it up, you can attach the device to any living thing to monitor the fluctuations in galvanic conductance – outputting MIDI notes to send to synths and other instruments! This kit comes with all you need to put the device together, aside from this you’ll need a plant or living organism, a 9V battery and a synth/sound module. Set and adjust the threshold, the scale, the midi channel to customize the output – you can also adjust the brightness of the LEDs. Wouldn’t it be great to hear your plant talk? Well, now you can!
See the demo video below of what to expect from your plant’s performance; it’s a pretty startling amount of data for something which is (on the surface) quite stagnant. This devicc is sold by Spad Electronics who are based in Italy, offering some subversive and creative ways of making music!
Ascending and descending arpeggios are one of the most glorious sounds in music, especially electronic music – used in everything from Kraftwerk to Techno and Trap to Chip Music. Step up then, Kurt’s Five Steps – Arpeggiator for AE Modular – a small-form machine for those glistening melodic rolls, with a collection of controls for tweaking the outputted notes to your taste.
This AE modular arpeggiator outputs a stepped CV for sending to synths and sound sources – adorned with ballet dancers who each represent a step in the sequence. If you’re not familiar with AE Modular, it’s a format created to provide a cost-effective alternative to other modular systems, while being limited to 5V of power – making it smaller and therefore more mobile. This particular model is offered at a cut down price due to there being a mistake in the order of knobs, which (from top-to-bottom) are numbered 1, 5, 4, 3 then 2. However, this won’t stop you having a blast using it!
The unit itself has inputs for root note, steps, triggers and mutes – for varying the note changes and speeds, to sync up with other AE modular gear. This Five Step Arpeggiator is sold by Keurslager Kurt who are based in Belgium, and offer four modules for music making – we can’t wait to see more!
Making music with MIDI is a really fun and accessible way to express your inner electronic synth-self, and if you have a Raspberry Pi lying around, all the better! The SquishBox Kit – 4xUSB MIDI synth/sound module is a portable effects pedal, designed to be used with the world best-selling micro computer to create all kinds of beats and melodies with a wealth of free instruments!
This is the kit version of the Squishbox from the same seller – which you can assemble and solder yourself, with the addition of your own Raspberry Pi, SD card, power supply, and enclosure. Put them together and you’re ready to rock out, MIDI style! The SD card should be loaded with the free FluidSynth and uses soundfonts – a common and and freely available and editable format of all types of synthetic and acoustic sounds. These soundfonts enable you to load and play drums, basses, synths, keyboards and even vocal sounds – by sending MIDI messages to the pedal.
You’ll find 4 USB slots on your Raspberry Pi which can each be used to send MIDI notes to the pedal. The SquishBox kit is sold by Geek Funk Labs who are based in the USA – and offer a nice selection of musical MIDI devices. See the SquishBOx in action here:
Are you really planning to go to that party without wearing a single LED!? Impress your friends with these TO-THE-MOON rocket earrings – the ultimate way to show off your geeky dress sense and set the tone for an intergalactic party to remember.
The four bright-yellow LEDs below the engine live on a brilliantly-designed red solder mask PCB inspired by the popular rocket emoji. The secret behind these flashy LEDs is a beautiful animation engine which cycles between four miniature light shows, performed at the end of your ears! This device is cleverly run using the ATtiny412, one of the smallest microcontrollers, making it convenient for wearables – and powered by 1225 coin cell batteries.
One of the largest components on the earring is actually the push button, which is used to cycle between the four light shows: launch, thrusting, burnout, and coasting. Set your preferred mode depending on how the party is going! You’ll get a battery life of up to 50 hours in launch mode and a stratospheric 150 hours in thrusting mode.
California STEAM are an independent company based in California, USA. They’ve been selling on Tindie for a good while now and are real professionals in the wearable tech sector. To the moon, guys! Why not check out their Tindie storefront for even more awesome electronic earrings and wearables?
Musicians and makers alike often get inspired by turning their sounds into magnificent light shows! The Color Organ Sound Activated Light is a great solution for any household or performance-related illumination needs, and it’s much smarter than many LED strips.
In my experience, the ‘sound mode’ on basic LED strips can appear messy or anticlimactic. However, the Color Organ Sound Activated Light is a stunning piece of hardware that responds to three different frequency bands in your music. Take a look at the below video to see just how responsive these lights are;
This light sequencer comes with a variety of options to control your light show. Ranging from transitions based on the frequency (pitch), to an innovative ‘beat detection’ mode that will sequence the lights according to the tempo of your track by identifying the transients (the loud bits to you and me).
With each bulb responding to different frequency bands, the light shows created are very responsive and strongly represent the music. The red light, focusing on the low frequencies, responds very well to the kick drum. The white light, on the high frequencies, flashes in time with the hi-hats. The yellow light in the middle covers the mid-range frequencies – this includes sounds such as guitars, synths, or vocalists, and will often follow the singer’s vocal pattern.
The color sequencer interprets music using either the built-in microphone or a line-in jack, and can move between its patterns automatically or manually. Please note, that this is a high voltage device, so can control very bright lighting if you need it for a performance!
The seller, mc_kit, is an independent company based out of Haskovo, Bulgaria. They’ve been selling on Tindie for some time, and are well-reviewed by our customers for their wide variety of color organ options.
If you’ve ever edited a video, you’ll understand why this Basic Video Editing Macropad and Jog Wheel might come in handy. With so much scrolling back and forth finding particular places to chop, a hyper-accurate jog wheel set up could save you hours of fiddly finger work!
Powered by the well-loved Seed XIAO controller, this speedy macropad is easy to assemble and use. Designed to be inexpensive and simple to build, this jog-wheel macropad connects directly to your computer and needs no extraneous parts like batteries or LEDs.
This macropad is programmable in CircuitPython and works straight off the bat without the need for specialist software to assign the key bindings – commonly known as ‘keymaps’. Keymaps assign macros to each key, and macros can be programmed to do multiple actions from a single keypress. One good example of this is the ‘paste’ command, usually triggered by hitting ‘Ctrl’ and ‘V’ simultaneously. With a macropad, you could assign this combination to a single key – letting you speed-run your copy and pasting!
This DIY Kit comes with everything you need to get the jog wheel rotary encoder up and running. Including 3 PCB plates, a monster-sized CNC rotary encoder, a 4 pin connector, Dupont wires, 5 brass stand-offs, screws, and bumpers. This macropad is incredibly powerful and hackable to whatever needs you may have. With the addition of the XIAO controller, keycaps, and Gateron mechanical switches (purchasable directly from the maker as add-ons), it fills a lot of gaps in your keyboard and mouse setup.
BlueMicro is an independent DIY electronics company based out of Saskatoon, Canada. They ship almost anywhere in the world, and sell a variety of Macropads for many uses. Why not check out the wireless version of this jog wheel, the Wireless Video Editing Macropad and Jog Wheel?
If you want to start building your own synths and learning about analog audio, the Awesome Analog Audio Kit is the product for you! Featuring 9 audio-oriented projects developed by a former Graduate Student Instructor, this kit provides an exciting and well-explained introduction to analog audio circuits.
There are 9 documented audio experiments in this kit, ranging from learning how to create square and sine waves all the way to creating an instrument out of a pencil drawing! It not only provides you with detailed, hand-drawn circuit diagrams – but actually explains why these circuits work using extensive circuit analysis. All of this information is contained within a full-colour 30-page booklet, which lets you quickly refer to each experiment.
This kit teaches you the fundamentals of working with an Operational Amplifier, often referred to as an ‘Op-Amp’. The Op-Amp is an endlessly valuable component to synth DIYers and is used to amplify electrical signals. Op-Amps use two input pins and one output pin – they read both input signals and then output the amplified difference between them.
The Awesome Analog Audio Kit comes packaged with all the components you’ll need to create these circuits. The kit is well suited to beginners and experts alike, forming real-world examples of exciting electronics concepts such as;
Educational Circuits are an independent electronics company based in Lafayette, USA. A new seller on Tindie, they develop circuit kits and projects designed to teach engineering concepts to beginners and experts alike. Keep an eye out for more of their products in the future!
If you sell PCBs on Tindie, you’ve perhaps designed a board to be hand built, then eventually set it up as a PCBA for assembly elsewhere when the volume and maturity justifies it. I went through this process myself with one of my products. Admittedly, there was a part where I was applying solder paste for assembly which could have been done in a neater and less wasteful manner.
One solution is to use a solder stencil, which in my experience comes with its own set of challenges – including the need to actually design and make. The second solution is to use a dispensing setup that can help you more accurately dispense globs of solder paste than with a manual syringe. Such a device comes with its own set of challenges, often including the need for compressed air. The e.Dispenser from Dan M does things a little differently by precisely displacing solder paste with a servo-driven linear actuator.
I got my hands on one of these units to try out and I’ve been pretty impressed, but read on to see my thoughts on how the device works!
e.Dispenser Initial Impressions
The system sells for a list price of $149.00 USD, including enough accessories (sans actual solder paste) to get you going. There are also a number of additional options available, including a foot-pedal and on-dispenser device trigger.
The device is made in, and ships from, Mexico. As an American buyer, my first hesitation was that there might be some import duties and/or hassle, however, I’m happy to report that in my case getting it was no trouble whatsoever. It simply showed up at my house in Florida via UPS, 11 days after placing the order. The item was very well packaged in custom-cut foam, which could double as storage apparatus if you’re careful when opening it up.
The device itself was well-made, with a laser-cut housing, and an LCD character display that will be familiar to anyone who has browsed an Arduino projects site for even a few minutes. The reversible USB-C power input was a nice feature, and there’s a 3.5mm jack for accessory connection. Finally, the driving stepper motor is keyed in such a way that it can’t be reversed when plugging it into the controller.
Dispensing Solder Paste
The unit is easy enough to plug in and turn on, and features a menu system driven by two encoders. The left encoder selects the menu option, while the right actually modifies it. When you press the trigger button, settings are saved to the profile you’re working with. When either is pushed in (at any time) the left pushes the piston forward, while the right pulls it back.
To insert solder paste, a coupler is included that lets you push it out of your old tube into the new tube quite elegantly. From there, the machine’s piston can push it out blob-by-blob. This is where things got a little hairy, due to:
I had no idea of the scale needed to push out a component’s worth of paste
My roughly year-old paste, stored in a hot garage wasn’t doing me any favors.
Quite a bit of excess initially dripped out after dispensing, and didn’t get the right amount on my pads to begin with. I contacted Dan M. about my predicament.
Long story short: I was dispensing way too much paste, and, according to Dan, depending on the type of paste you’re using, tiny air bubbles can cause a sort of internal spring effect. He gave me a few suggestions on things to try, and after a bit of tinkering, it worked much better. Also, it might seem obvious to many readers, but pressing down on the board before triggering the paste seems to work better than triggering it mid-air and attempting to dip paste onto the pads.
Dan’s support was prompt and excellent, offering me input and settings to try. That being said, I should have perused the documentation on his website more carefully, especially the page about dot dispensing to get a better sense of scale. I eventually made several prototype boards using the dispenser, which turned out much better than my syringe-only attempts.
After a bit of adjustment, oozing improved significantly
In my testing, I still get some paste extrusion after finishing a job using the dot dispensing mode. If/when I continue to tweak things (and/or buy new solder paste) I suspect this will improve. This adjustability is an excellent feature of this device, and up to 5 setups can be saved to allow you to work with different paste setups and/or scenarios.
External Trigger
As mentioned earlier, there’s a 3.5mm jack into which you can plug a foot pedal, or a trigger that slips over the dispenser tube. Both worked as designed, and I primarily tested the pedal. It’s also easy enough to start the device via the button on the main controller, though using the foot pedal felt natural and helpful once I started using it.
Vacuum Pickup
In addition to outputting solder paste, this device is also capable of picking up components and small ICs using vacuum. As there’s no air compressor involved, the way it does this is by pushing the piston into position, then pulling back to create a vacuum when triggered. I tested this with a few addressable LEDs, and even the Ooberlights circuit board seen above, and it works well.
The fact that it doesn’t need an air compressor is probably the #1 feature that will draw people to this device. The tradeoff here is that the driving stepper motor is on top of the dispensing syringe, which means that the center of mass is well offset from its geometric center. This wasn’t a problem for the limited assembly work that I’ve done with it so far, and I am thrilled to have this as a part of my workbench for prototyping. At the same time, this would likely be problematic if put into constant use over a full production shift.
A fascinating possibility for this device is that it seems to be just begging for people to use it in an automated manner per its external trigger capability. Dan has a guide to setting it up on a 3D printer here, but who knows what other people will (and have) come up with? Notably, the device can dispense other types of paste, opening up possibilities further.
The Verdict
This dispenser is well built and well supported, and it fills the niche between “what am I doing with this squeezy syringe thing” and full offshore production. There’s also the exciting possibility of repurposing a 3D-printer or other robotics assembly to work with this device. If you fall in the category of avid SMD prototyper, then in my humble opinion, it’s absolutely worthy of consideration!
Disclosure
Dan M provided the product at a discounted rate to me for this review. I’ve tried to be fair, open and honest in my appraisal of it, but if you’d like a second opinion (or forty-second opinions), you can check out the device’s customer reviews.
Playing a guitar or a synth is a great way to unwind, make some noise and rock out – with effects pedals frequently used to expand the sounds you can get out of them! Well, the pi-Stomp Core – HD Multi-FX for Guitar/Bass/Keys is a device capable of multiple simultaneous effects, with a colour LCD screen, a neat interface, and a completely open source design.
This pi-Stomp Core is the second generation of the design, which comes with a massive 350 possible audio effects to utilise and chain together! It comes as a kit with all you need to build a working system, and detailed CAD designs for drilling a standard aluminum enclosures is provided in the product Wiki.
Once the pedal is complete ,you can use the LCD to see an overview of the effects and navigate using the rotary encoder for fast changes of the pedalboard. Change the preset, bypass the effects, enter deep editing and global settings to cater the pedal to your setup!
To use the software, connect your computer via WIFI and use the intuitive drag-n-drop MOD UI webapp to create and edit the many virtual pedalboards online – which allows for up to a dozen simultaneous plugins at any one time.
The piStomp Core is made by Tree Fall Sound who have shipped the original mk1 design to over 11 countries worldwide. Proof that you can never have too many effects!
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