multio - how to get a complete box, sensors, etc (was: Re: [PD] teabox...any users drivers)

[Christian Klippel]

hello all interrested,

first off, you _dont_ need to solder a unit yourself, see below...

Am Dienstag 16 August 2005 02:23 schrieb we are:
> hi chris,
> this all sounds really interesting and i have looked into your device
> a bit. i'd be interested in geting something like this but i'm a
> little confused as to its application. lots of i/o's but how does one
> control it. what sort of things are possible to connect to it for

its "controlled" by the usb bus, using the hid protocol, for example, if you 
mean this. for that you can use hans-christoph steiner's hid and linuxevent 
objects, for example.

there will be "native" pd objects for the box as well, wich should wor o 
linux, os-x and windows..... not yet done, but also not that hard to do...

> control use, sensors etc(can i see some and how they work). i saw some
> of the sensors available on the teabox website and they look very
> interesting, would these kinds of thing hook up to your I/O box if so
> how? i am particularly interested in the gravity sensor.

exactly. you can connect those sensors, and those for the icube, if you want 
to spend the money on them. all that is needed is some kind of adapter, since 
i use a slightly different connector type. making such an "adapter" for, lets 
say, 11 ad inputs would be around 2$ in material. no electronics required for 
that, it just converts the connectors, nothing else.

basically, you can connect anything that generates a voltage between 0..+5v to 
the analogue inputs, anything that acts as a switch to the digital inputs, 
led's (and with some driver) relays, etc, and on the analogue output you can 
hook up things like stage dimmers, your old analogue synth, etc.... (with 
some buffers/amplifiers as to bring the signal to a level that the "receiver" 
needs)

a cheaper way is to use self-made sensors, whereas "self-made" in most cases 
mean to just solder a wire to the sensor.... others may require some extra 
circuitry.

actually i have to work on another project, so i still havent uploaded 
schematics for sensors. 

>
> also...
> what sort of things are people doing with it. the mailing list not as
> jammed as the pd-list ;)

since the whole project is quite new, not many people have a unit right now. 
to be exact, there are 4 ready units (including two prototypes) that i gave 
away, one that will be built by the owner himself, and then there are 
solder-parties happening at artengine, where they will build units .....
oh, and of course i have one myself. but im mainly a developer, not that much 
of a user right now ;-)

actually one is using the box to interface to a theremin, and i am about to 
build another one together with some sensory to create some kind of 
surround-sound controller.

maybe someone of the actual users may speak up here about that.

>
> i'm pretty new to the electronics side of things so the simplicity of
> connectivity is kinda important to me.
>

if you have problems building a unit, no problem, i can do that for you. no 
need to solder it yourself. also, if you need sensors and actuators, just say 
what you need, i will do them.

all that is needed is to send me the parts (or the money for them) plus the 
cost for shipping it back to you. some extra for my labour is welcome, that 
would go into the development of the project. after that, you will get a 
ready-to-use unit and dont have to worry about parts, soldering and stuff.

the costs for the parts is around 150,- euro for a box consisting of the 
mainboard plus one userboard (22 ad input, 16 digi input, 16 digi out and 16 
analogue out, two midi out (not yet used by the firmware), serial interface 
and user interface (both also not used right now)). add to that the price of 
the pcb's (around 30 euro) and the cost for shipping back (depends on where 
you are and how you want it delivered, starting from ~10 euro inside germany, 
up to 60 euro for international shipment by air, or anything in between)

if that is what you want, contact me directly and i will give directions on 
how to do so.

of course i could sit down and create sensors "out of the blue", but i would 
prefer to actually work on what people really need. 

so, tell me what you want, i tell you what it will cost in parts, and put a 
circuit (if any) for that on my site. there will be an extra section for 
sensors and actuators soon.

yes, that means anyone here please speak up what you like to have!
if i dont know what is needed, i can only create stuff that i think might be 
usefull. and there is a great chance that it would not be what you actually 
need.....

> regards
>
> t

greetings,

chris