Remotely Analysing a Keyboard Matrix

I've been having a conversation on discord helping someone to try to work out the keyboard matrix of a keyboard in order to eventually use it with a microcontroller. But discord being discord, its fine for chat, but we're both starting to lose track of where we're at in the analysis, so I thought I'd … Continue reading Remotely Analysing a Keyboard Matrix →

Tactile Button Keyboard PCB – Part 2

Here are the build notes for my Tactile Button Keyboard PCB. Warning! I strongly recommend using old or second hand equipment for your experiments. I am not responsible for any damage to expensive instruments! These are the key tutorials for the main concepts used in this project: Open Music Labs: Input Matrix Scanning Arduino Nano MIDI … Continue reading Tactile Button Keyboard PCB – Part 2 →

Tactile Button Keyboard PCB

I've used tactile buttons as musical keyboards in a number of my projects now and either build them on solderless breadboard, which is quite unreliable, or on stripboard, which is a little messy. This PCB design is for a one-octave tactile button keyboard PCB that has various modes of operation and is extendable to two … Continue reading Tactile Button Keyboard PCB →

Pico, Nano, Micro Keyboard Matrix PCB – Part 2

Here are the build notes for my Pico, Nano, Micro Keyboard Matrix PCB. https://youtu.be/AwFH8FZMkNE Warning! I strongly recommend using old or second hand equipment for your experiments. I am not responsible for any damage to expensive instruments! These are the key Arduino tutorials for the main concepts used in this project: Keyboard Matrix Decode Toy Keyboard … Continue reading Pico, Nano, Micro Keyboard Matrix PCB – Part 2 →

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 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 →