jeudi 6 décembre 2012

TeensyBoy

What is a TeensyBoy ?

EDIT :Due to some people request, the teensyboy source has been released on googlecode page
if you want to test/edit/enhance this project please download the source and let's rock.

TeensyBoy is just a ArduinoBoy code port for a Teensy uC.
What is ArduinoBoy? ArduinoBoy is a device using a Arduino (developped by Trash80) that enable MIDI capabilities for a old Nintendo GameBoy using special software like LSDJ, nanoloop, mGB.

Why porting ArduinoBoy on a Teensy ?
There is several reason but the most important one is that teensy is capable to emulate a Midi compliant device using midi, so TeensyBoy is using USB Midi instead of classic midi. So plug it in your USB port and it is automaticaly detected as a midi device.
The other reason are the price of a teensy is lower than a Arduino, it is much smaller, TeensyBoy will need less components that a ArduinoBoy (not optocoupler for example), using USBMidi library, code is less complicated, etc...
The code for Teensy is based on the Original ArduinoBoy created by Trash80, most of the code don't have changed.


The code is finished but still need tests and tweaking :

  • LSDJ slave mode : finshed and working
  • LSDJ Master mode : finshed and working
  • LSDJ keyboard mode : finished and working
  • Nanoloop mode : finished but cannot test it (don't own nanoloop)
  • mGB mode : finished and sems working need further tests.
  • LSDJ map mode : not tested yet
  • LSDJ  Midiout : not tested yet
All tests done are just the functionality working or not, i don't ow n a ArduinoBoy so i can't compare both.
I don't know if it less responsive or if some thing is not working as expected, if someone want to do tests or compare with the ArduinoBoy please feel free to contact me.

Note : all sysex stuff has been removed because it need much more time to port it, and not sure if it is a lot used by chipmusicians. (sysex stuff seems to add config via maxmsp patch)

TeensyBoy schematics :





Teensy Cabling diagram :



Blurry Picture of the testing device :




Code will be available on my googlecode page once all mode been tested and working.