Toy Keyboard Tone Piano – Part 5

In this part of my series on adding an Arduino to a toy keyboard, I've taken a second keyboard and actually embedded the Nano inside it to make it a complete DIY Oskitone Scout, powered by USB. This is using the version of the hardware and code described in part 2 - i.e. without the … Continue reading Toy Keyboard Tone Piano – Part 5 →

Toy Keyboard Tone Piano – Part 4

I'm continuing my series of posts seeing what I can do with a toy keyboard. This post looks at some possible uses of the additional IO pins I freed up in part 3. Part 1 provides all the details for adding an Arduino to the original toy keyboard. Part 2 demonstrates the toy keyboard running … Continue reading Toy Keyboard Tone Piano – Part 4 →

Toy Keyboard Tone Piano – Part 3

This post looks in a little more detail at the keyboard matrix decoding for the toy keyboard to see what is possible with less IO pins. Part 1 provides all the details for adding an Arduino to the original toy keyboard. Part 2 demonstrates the toy keyboard running the Oskitone "Scout" firmware. Warning! I strongly … Continue reading Toy Keyboard Tone Piano – Part 3 →

Toy Keyboard Tone Piano – Part 2

Having now plugged an Arduino into my Toy Keyboard, it is time to start experimenting. The first thing I really wanted to do, was build an Oskitone Scout, but not having a 3D printer or the funds to purchase one, I thought I'd have a go at getting the code to run on my toy … Continue reading Toy Keyboard Tone Piano – Part 2 →

Toy Keyboard Tone Piano

I have a few old toy keyboards kicking around that I've wanted to put an Arduino in, so I finally pulled one apart and had a go. I was "live tweeting" it as I went in this Twitter thread, but thought I'd gather everything so far together into a single post. Further posts in this … Continue reading Toy Keyboard Tone Piano →

Raspberry Pi Pico MIDI Pedal Keyboard

Quite a number of years ago, I found an old set of organ pedals and MIDI'd them up by the crude method of wiring the pedal switches onto the connectors for the keys of an old Amstrad MIDI keyboard... It was the technology and expertise I had at the time! I stumbled across them a … Continue reading Raspberry Pi Pico MIDI Pedal Keyboard →

Toy Keyboard USB Matrix Decode with the Pi Pico – Part 2

Having added USB MIDI to my "Toy Keyboard" - I wanted the option to choose either USB or serial MIDI as the output. This returns to the Toy Keyboard USB Matrix Decode with the Pi Pico project to add a serial port option. Warning! I strongly recommend using old or second hand equipment for your experiments. … Continue reading Toy Keyboard USB Matrix Decode with the Pi Pico – Part 2 →

Toy Keyboard USB Matrix Decode with the Pi Pico

I never really got back to looking at my "Toy Keyboard" - I wanted to do the same as the Vintage Phone - create a USB MIDI version with Circuitpython. Well now I have. Here is the result. https://youtu.be/VNmp3-mwysI Warning! I strongly recommend using old or second hand equipment for your experiments. I am not … Continue reading Toy Keyboard USB Matrix Decode with the Pi Pico →

Toy Keyboard Matrix Decode with the Pi Pico

I'm always on the look out for discarded music keyboards that I might be able to do something with, so when I came across this thrown out in the street I claimed it to take a look. This shows how I used a Raspberry Pi Pico to decode the keyboard part and turn it into … Continue reading Toy Keyboard Matrix Decode with the Pi Pico →

Arduino Tone Polyphony – Part 5

Ok, I thought I’d done with Arduino Polyphony for the time being, but something else came up today that I wanted to try. My post got a mention on the Hackaday blog and one of the comments has led me to a tweak that helps the tuning a little. https://youtu.be/lEaZhnjikfs Warning! I strongly recommend using old or … Continue reading Arduino Tone Polyphony – Part 5 →