#MIDISID Monday #2 - A physical UI and menu system take shape

This week has been mostly about the user interface; physical knobs, buttons and screen. I've procrastinated with this because, frankly, I've found designing a menu system hard. 

3 modes

So the starting point is that MIDISID will have three modes. I've demonstrated two of these many times already. One is general MIDI input, another is MIDI controller input (eg keyboard) with polyphony (hit as many notes at a time as you like, up to a maximum of the number of SID voices). The third is monophonic, which is the same as polyphonic, but making more of the SID's features and using more of the SID voices together to make complex sounds, at the expense of the polyphony.

I'd like MIDISID to just work when powered up and given input. So the Mode menu will be the first menu at power-on and General MIDI will be selected and operational.

Here's my plan for the menu system. There will be a lot more, but it'll still start with the 3 modes.

Mode >
General MIDI >
Default instrument >
Piano
etc
                Multiple notes >
                        Arp
                        Port
                        Off
Polyphonic >
Instrument >
Piano
etc
Parameters >
Wave
A / D / S / R
PW / PWM
etc
Monophonic >
Instrument >
Synth 1
etc
Parameters >
v1 >
Wave
A / D / S / R
PW / PWM
etc
v2 >
etc

As you can see in the video, one 'clickable' rotary encoder will do most of the work. Twist for options and press for select. The button on one of the other encoders will be 'menu back' and there will be other convenient shortcuts on the other encoders and buttons. 

When you get to a part like A/D/S/R, the four knobs will work at the same time and the screen will make it clear what each does,  with a little bar indicators to show the values.

I've put the encoders and screen into a piece of plastic to keep them a bit more manageable but what a spaghetti of wires! At times I'm having to prod them a bit to get things working. 

So as with the main board I've quickly designed a temporary pcb so that all of these bits - the MCP23017, the encoders, pullup/pulldown resistors and capacitors will all be fixed neatly in place and connected securely. 


After doing this, a few things just dropped into place. If these components are on a separate board (with suitable mounting holes) then it'll be possible to put the project together in a "3-layer sandwich" caseless design. I can see that looking very smart. 

Until now I'd seen MIDISID eventually being cased in something like this

But here's the beauty of the 2-board design. The same boards could be installed in a case like this, with minimal wiring. (just 4 wires between the main board and the one with the knobs). *OR* it could be constructed in a layered arrangement with bolts and spacers. *OR* the main board could be used standalone without the controls. (Maybe a single button to toggle mode, and relying on MIDI signals for patch changes.)


 I have ordered and received some Nano Swinsid boards, I'd like to make some. (A bigger version of MIDISID will have 6 of these SIDs / 18 voices). However, the necessary ATMega is out of stock everywhere. I've ordered some from an Eastern site that claims to have some and we'll see how that goes.

That's about it for now. it's unlikely that there will be a MIDISID Monday next week because I'll be at EMF Camp. I may blog from the event if there's anything relevant to say.

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