Category: Electronics
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ApOPL3xy Emulator
Last week, I posted about the ApOPL3xy reaching the version 1.0 milestone. This time, I want to discuss the emulator I wrote for it. I think it’s pretty cool. The emulator was initially conceived as a way to run the code on a computer with all the debugging tools that I’m used to having at…
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ApOPL3xy 1.0
It’s been a long journey, but I finally have the ApOPL3xy hardware and software to the point where I can call it version 1.0.
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ApOPL3xy Hardware Design
I’ve been working on designing and building a MIDI synthesizer (called the ApOPL3xy) based on the OPL3 FM synthesis chip and the ATmega1284 microcontroller. I’ve made a couple of posts about it (here and here) and have gotten some good questions from some people about how this or that works under the hood. So, for…
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EC11 Rotary Encoders
EC11 incremental rotary encoders are user-interface controls for electronic devices. They’re particularly useful for quickly adjusting settings through a range of possible values, or for scrolling through lists or menus. They’re also relatively inexpensive, and pretty easy to find. The way these devices work is rather interesting, and somewhat surprising if you’re unfamiliar with it.…
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GPIO Pins, Shift Registers, and SPI
When using microcontrollers, like the ATmega line of chips, or boards based on them, like the Arduino series, General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO) pins are often at a premium. The Arduino Uno R3 (based on the ATmega328P), for example, has a maximum of fourteen GPIO pins […]
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ApOPL3xy Update – Patches, Omni Mode, and Percussion
I’ve added some new features to the ApOPL3xy synthesizer project I talked about in my last post. Some technical details follow, but first, let’s check out what the new version can do. Specifically, MIDI files can now be played from a computer (or other sequencer) into the ApOPL3xy to be synthesized. […]
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ApOPL3xy – A MIDI OPL3-Based FM Synthesizer
It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything about electronics projects. I have not been idle, however. My current project is finally starting to come together enough to be able to show it off a little. It’s a MIDI synthesizer powered by the Yamaha YMF-262 (a.k.a. OPL3) FM synth chip […]
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Tetris Theme
When working on projects, I often let my mind stray toward future goals instead of staying focused on the immediate ones. Case in point: I started thinking about making a Tetris clone for my 6502 computer (once it has a video display). Naturally it would need music as well, since I’ve hooked up an OPL2…
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Homebrew 6502-Based Computer
I’ve been toying with the idea of building a 6502-based (or rather, 65C02-based) computer for a few years now. I was inspired by Ben Eater‘s YouTube series about it. I bought a bunch of chips from Mouser, and every so often I’d think about how to do this or that for the notional computer. Well,…
