Tindie

As the world moves towards being more and more data-driven, being able to verify the numbers you’re being charged for can offer peace of mind. And in Europe, where energy prices are climbing, an easy solution to checking your own energy consumption and using that data for your own decision-making has a lot of appeal to the clever maker. The Micro Teleinfo V3.0 is a timely update to a long-standing project that offers a USB adapter for the Teleinfo energy meters in France.

The Micro Teleinfo board has gone through a number of updates over the years, and its simplicity and small form factor are the clear results of those iterations. Setup requires running just two cables to I1 and I2 on the meter, and the blue LED should light up, indicating the Teleinfo signal is being received! All the code and required serial commands are available here on the project’s Github, along with plenty of detailed walkthroughs for integrating this into python-based projects.

There are a few different options for this board available in the listing as well, with choices between the type of connector, and different PCB styles. Charles is a maker from Montamisé, France, and has a number of other Teleinfo-related boards available. Be sure to check where they ship to before hitting that purchase, so you don’t have any unpleasant surprises!

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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.

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The original Sony Playstation changed gaming forever, bringing it out of the darkened, slightly sweaty bedrooms of gamers and into mainstream consciousness – ushering in new 3D worlds with big-beat soundtracks capable of being housed on super-cool black CDs. The PlayBaby DSUB (RGB|240p|480p) Adapter For PlayStation is a neat device to help rekindle your affection for the console, and its sequel – the Playstation 2, with a D-Subminiature output for 480p gaming, with no other gear required.

This A/V multi output adapter will output video from the console as well as sound from a 3.5mm socket. While it doesn’t do any upscaling or transcoding, it does ensure that your VGA signal brings a sharp quality to your gaming experience, surpassing any unshielded SCART cables you may have. It requires no power, has no buttons and works for both the PS1 (aka the PSX) and the PS2 – but do read the product page for specifics. As always, if you are unsure of anything before purchasing, send the seller a message and they’ll take care of you.

The PlayBaby is sold by Chipnetics Computing who are based in Canada, and seem to be pretty hot on making converters for a host of purposes. Can we also take a moment to admire these gorgeous images, too? Perhaps the best I’ve ever seen on Tindie!

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When building MIDI instruments, you need to be sure they interact with each other correctly –  mixed voltage systems can be a nightmare. The ‘MIDI In-and-Out Module for 3.3v‘ hopes to turn that nightmare into a dream, allowing you to attach MIDI components directly to your 3.3v projects with no hassle!

For instruments to communicate correctly over MIDI they must be speaking the same language, and the language of MIDI is spoken using high or low levels of voltage. When using 3.3v microcontrollers such as the Teensy, attaching standard 5v MIDI inputs or outputs can be complicated.

Most 3.3v systems can only accept voltages of up to 3.3v before malfunctioning, meaning that 5v MIDI inputs can cause serious issues – thankfully these can be overcome by using a level shifter within your circuit. This module acts in a very similar way to a level shifter without the need for any external components – creating a hardwearing and adaptable MIDI interface for your project!

This handy breakout board contains everything you need to quickly add MIDI control. Featuring a 3.3v supply voltage, a MIDI input jack, a MIDI output jack, and an optocoupler to ensure that any 5v signals get stepped down to the correct voltage – this device does just about everything you could need from a 3.3v MIDI breakout board. Arriving fully assembled and tested, you can plug this straight into your project using its 2.0mm spaced pin headers and get making music!

Midimonster is an independent company based out of Hilden, Germany and willing to ship almost worldwide. With 25 years of experience in electronic music and 20 years in electronics development, the maker provides others with the products he couldn’t find when he needed them.

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Making music on all kinds of equipment seems like flavour of the month – with all kinds of chip music sequencer, trackers, and adapters available for modern music setups. This SGI Octane/O2 Midi Adapter is ideal for making music using MIDI with an SGI Octane or O2 machine, capable of sending and receiving MIDI messages for all sorts of musical uses.

Using MIDI opens up a world of music making possibilities, with the ability to sequence and store all kinds of electronic instruments, drum sounds, and effects. This MIDI adapter will add MIDI capability to your SGI machine, and comes fully assembled and tested. It comes complete with a DB9 cable to connect to your SGI Octane/O2 as well as a 12V power adapter. It’s completely plug and play requiring no drivers to work straight out of the box – just plug into serial port 1 or 2 to get started. You’ll need some MIDI software installed on your machine to start making music.

If you’re in need of some MIDI melodies from your IRIX workstation, then the SGI Octane/O2 MIDI Adapter is the one for you! It’s sold by EpromFoundary  who are based in Austin Texas, offering a near selection of musical devices we recommend you check out.

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As someone who has seen Fatboy Slims backup disk collection in real life, I can testify that a career of sampling can and will span many many boxes; but does it need to be that way in the modern world? Yes, if you want to get the original experience, use floppies – but with access to products like the SCSI2SD – Solid State SCSI Drive For Samplers it’s now so much easier to back up in one place, using an included SD Card which holds up to 16GB of sounds.

It’ll allow you to back up your existing sample collections into one secure place – in solid state media which are far less likely to corrupt that 30 year old floppy disks! It’ll display up to 4 virtual devices and has a built in SD card which will allow a huge 16GB of space – bearing in mind some of the early devices in the range had as little as 1 or 2MB on board as standard!

This device is not only suitable for samplers like the Akai S3000, S3000XL, S1000, S2000 and beyond – it’ll also work with Commodore Amigas, Atari STs, Apple Macs, SGI Indigos and Sharp X68000 workstations. It’s sold by EpromFoundry Inc who are based in Austin, Texas – look out for more form them soon!

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MIDI devices and connections come in all shapes and sizes, with many hardware units shipping with smaller 3.5mm MIDI sockets over the larger 5-Pin method which has been the standard for nearly 4 decades. The Sharp X68000 Midi Cable Converter Adapter Mini is a product which fulfills a slightly different purpose; to connect your MIDI devices to a vintage Sharp X68000 computer!

The Sharp X68000 was a Japanese computer released in 1987, and contained a Yamaha YM2151 FM chip, which you’ll find housed in lots of Tindie products! The computer itself came with a mini MIDI port as standard, so requires conversion to connect it to conventional MIDI sockets. Each cable will come brand new, with possible colour variations and the assurance it’s been tested before posting.

Using this adapter, you can send MIDI notes and messages from a software sequencer on the X68000 and play sounds on an external MIDI module! Surely one of the rarest forms of music making in 2021, and a rare find for anyone in need of this exact cable!

The Sharp X68000 MIDI Cable Converter Adapter Mini is sold by La Cueva Retro, who are based in Mexico – and stock a couple of neat cable adapters we’re sure you’ll love.

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MIDI has been around since the early 80s and although there has been a new 2.0 standard set, not much has changed over the years! In recent times manufacturers have begun to use smaller 3.5mm sockets to replace the 5-Pin Din traditional socket – and the Eurorack MIDI TRS-DIN5 3×3 Adapter is here to help bridge the gap between them!

If you have hardware which takes 5-Pin Din or TRS-A/B then it’s likely you’ll have to convert it to interface the devices. This beautifully designed PCB and panel is the ideal solution without needing specialist cabling, and will take MIDI inputs and output in both forms – sharing them between the three styles of output. This 3×3 passive adapter comes as a complete kit to make yourself or as a PCB only – and it’s aimed at beginners with a small amount of soldering experience.

The Eurorack MIDI TRS-DIN5 3×3 Adapter jumpers to switch between the two TRS versions, which have been taken up by various manufacturers. Their Github page has a number of resources, as well as a BOM and schematic.

The unit is sold by DeftAudio who have a number of audio devices on sale, and are based in the USA. See the makers overview video here:

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Unless you have been hiding under a rock you will have noticed that Raspberry Pi released their first microcontroller board “Pico” recently. This clever Pico 2 Pi Adapter Board makes the Pico adhere to the Raspberry Pi Zero footprint allowing it to be used with all manner of HATS and pHATS.

The Pico can be mounted either flush to the adapter board using the castellated solder points on the Pico, or you can add optional pin headers to allow the Pico to be removed. The adapter has an onboard LED as a power indicator and it also features a side mounted reset button which remains accessible even when the adapter is plugged into a Pi Zero Hat. Likewise the Pico’s Boot Select button has been broken out so you could attach a switch or right angle headers to allow you to go into boot mode without disassembling a stack of boards in a project.

We imagine this will be the first of many Raspberry Pi Pico accessories we’ll see on Tindie, we look forward to writing about more!

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Playing retro video games on modern devices and TVs can sometimes be tricky, however we now have access to all kinds of adapters, converters and emulations to bring Mario back in the game! The USB Joystick Adapter is one such example, allowing for a plethora of classic joysticks, dance mats, gamepads, trackballs, and paddles to interface through USB to your computer. Get ready to super smash your siblings once again with the help of this adapter!

The USB Joystick Adapter plugs into a USB socket and opens up the door to using a range of Amiga, Atari, Sega and 3DO controllers – see the product page for the full list! It’s a completely open source design and was built with compatibility in mind, so each pin has the ability to be programmed with new firmware meaning even more devices can be supported. Top tip: relive the magic of your favourite games through RetroPie or RetroArch !

See the full specs on the sellers website where you’ll see it caters for a huge selection of DB9 controllers. It doesn’t need any drivers so will function immediately and has been approved for use on Windows (7, XP and 10), Mac OSX, Linux, Amiga OS4, and Morph OS.

The USB Joystick Adapter is sold by Retronic Design who sell a multitude of devices to bring retro gaming to the modern day! Bleep!

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