OTOH Firmware

OTOH Firmware sketch is derived from the StandardFirmata sketch. The firmware sketch augments it with an interface to control the timeline and the waveform.

Resources

The OTOH project uses different open source components, hardware and software.

This is a list of resources about them:

• Arduino version 0022 (http://arduino.cc/)
• Firmata version 2.2 (http://firmata.org/)
• Maxuino version 08 (http://www.maxuino.org/)

The Firmata protocol and StandardFirmata

Firmata is a generic protocol for communicating with microcontrollers from software on a host computer. It is intended to work with any host computer software package. Right now there is a matching object in a number of languages. It is easy to add objects for other software to use this protocol. Basically, this firmware establishes a protocol for talking to the Arduino from the host software. The aim is to allow people to completely control the Arduino from software on the host computer.

More informations about the Firmata protocol and the StandardFirmata skatch could be found at http://firmata.org.

OTOH specific interface

The firmware uses MIDI SysEx messages to send and receive custom messages.

These messages are composed by

• START_SYSEX (0xF0)
• one byte representing the specific SysEx command (0x00-0x7F)
• between 0 and MAX_DATA_BYTES 7-bit bytes of arbitrary data used as arguments for the command
• END_SYSEX (0xF7)

Blink led

Blink led commands are used for debugging purpose.

Blink led

Makes the 13th led blink.

SysEx command: 0x02

Arguments:

• delay (2 bytes)
  delay time in msecs between on and off

Turn on

Turns the 13th led on.

SysEx command: 0x03

Arguments: none

Turn off

Turns the 13th led off.

SysEx command: 0x04

Arguments: none

Timeline

Timeline commands rules the timeline behavior. The timeline is composed by 54 leds of one Maxim matrix distributed between 7 registers and 8 columns.

Leds in the timeline matrix are automatically turned on sequentially with a delay between one and the next set by the speed argument. At any moment there could be a maximum of 2 leds turned on, this means that there are two timelines. Each timeline follows a direction (clockwise or anti-clockwise) and could start and and at any point of the timeline.

Note: timeline speed argument sets an upper limit to loadable samples length.

Timeline start

Starts a timeline.

SysEx command: 0x05

Arguments:

• id (1 byte)
  the timeline id
• speed (2 bytes)
  timeline speed in msecs
• orientation (1 byte)
  1 for clockwise, 2 for anti-clockwise orientation
• offset (1 byte)
  timeline starting led, values between 0 and 55
• limit (1 byte)
  timeline ending led, values between 1 and 56

Timeline stop

Stops a timeline.

SysEx command: 0x06

Arguments:

• id (1 byte)
  the timeline id

Timeline speed

Change timeline speed.

SysEx command: 0x09

Arguments:

• id (1 byte)
  the timeline id
• speed (2 bytes)
  timeline speed in msecs

Waveform

Waveform commands rules the waveform led matrix behavior. The waveform matrix is composed by 128 leds distributed between 2 Maxim matrixes.

Waveform leds are divided into 32 registers each composed by 4 columns. By calling the waveform command you can change the value of every register.

Columns leds are turned on by a value corresponding to their power of 2, for example:

• 1 turns first led on
• 2 turns second led on
• 3 turns first and second led on
• etc.

following this principle each register could assume a value between 0 and 15 respectively meaning all register leds off and on.

Waveform

Changes a waveform register value.

SysEx command: 0x07

Arguments:

• register (1 byte)
  select register, a value between 1 and 32
• column (1 byte)
  register value, a value between 1 and 16 (TODO: fix to match the definition - values between 0 and 15)

Waveform clear

Turns all the waveform leds off.

SysEx command: 0x08

Arguments: none