[chuck-users] Electronic ChucK

[inventor-66 at comcast.net]

Thanks for your posts, folks, you're making this fun!  I have completed the Power board and the ADC microphone board and I will put them on my website for you to download.  The CAD tool of choice is Eagle, which is freeware for making small boards for educational use.  Eagle is cross-platform to Windows and Mac, not sure about Linux but it might be.  As a professional I used these types of CAD programs for 20 years and I can say that Eagle is a good one and I am enjoying the learning process.  

Regarding Spencer's topic of digital communication of analog signals, PICs are great at PWM and I2C.  You can get a PIC chip for a few dollars US that has PWM and I2C modules, oh, and ADC also.  Quite frankly, the main cost problem is the connectors which go for about 50 cents US per node.  The PIC boards would not be expensive.  I'm putting down footprints for the connectors and saying they are optional.  Poor man's solution is to solder the interconnect and cut his cost in half.  Poor woman's solution is the same, lol.  let's be politically correct.  No, poor woman's solution is to get a man to do the soldering for her, they are smart that way, lol.  But I digress.  

I see each PIC processor not only functioning as a UGen, but also as a class.  It's an encapsulated module with a clearly defined I2C digital interface, so treat it like a class.  Different PICs access each other's private variables across the I2C and they share analog signals by PWM.  To convert PWM to analog for interfacing from a PIC audio to an analog audio signal, we just use a passive or active low-pass filter module.  To connect the other way we use the ADC input of the PICs.  

Regarding Kassen's mention of a ChucK interface, we can simply use the line-in jack for stereo input and the headphone jack for stereo output.  If you have a soundcard then you can use that.  Digital I/O can be done along these same interfaces.  So yes, ChucK plugs into your sproingy mass of UGens and PICs.  

Since there appears to be interest, and I presume someday possibly actual board fabrication, I will begin a web page dedicated to EChucK.  As time permits, I will put together some fun and interesting stuff to explore on the page.  Does anyone have any suggestions about how to organize the page?  I figure a title page with links to many topic pages.  

Cheers and as Ge would say, "Rock On!"

Les
(Inventor)