Multi-FX Pedal Project Update 12 (5/18/2025)
To wrap up the final week of the semester I worked to finish up my portions of the report. I made sure that my instructions were clear and that I had ample pictures to guide someone through the process of recreating it. In addition to that, I also provided feedback on another team’s report to help improve the quality of OSHE reports. Next week I will mainly be focusing on my final exams but if something is to arise surrounding our report I will work to fix it.
Multi-FX Pedal Project Update 11 (5/13/2025)
This week we met with Dr. Pinar to discuss how to move forward with our project. We also created a draft of our report. I plan to use the feedback from our draft to finalize the report this week.
Goals for Upcoming Week
- Finish Report
Multi-FX Pedal Project Update 10 (5/6/2025)
This past week we completed our project check off and everything worked as expected. We got some feedback as a team that our interfacing was not the most intuitive for a new user and our footswitch was a little bit small and sometimes would result in misclicks with your foot when playing. These upgrades will be something that the future team next semester can work to complete. For the upcoming weeks though I am going to turn my attention to working on are final report and documenting the steps that we took to make the MIDI footswitch.
Goals for Upcoming Week
- Start work on the report
- Document procedure for building footswitch
- Meet with Dr. Pinar to show him our progress
Multi-FX Pedal Project Update 9 (3/30/2025)
This week was spent getting everything finalized and ready for our project check-off this upcoming Monday. Our boards came in on Thursday and after populating them only one small error was found. We had forgotten to put a location to output our signal from. This was easily fixed by soldering an additional wire to the board where we should have put a through hole to get the message from. After this mishap, the rest of the week was mainly spent testing and working out all of the kinks that we found. Our code was finalized and tested with the main effects pedal. After some slight modification the code was working and the main effects pedal was seeing the MIDI stop and start messages. In addition to this, I worked to CAD a case for our footswitch although due to some printer malfunctions, this case was never able to be printed. With this, we had to pivot to a metal case which can be seen in the picture below. It ended up being very nice and stronger than what a printed case would have been. This may end up being a benefit in the long run as it will be able to withstand more rigorous use. Tomorrow I will work to make sure there are no unforeseen errors in our project check-offs and after that, I will start to turn my efforts toward working on are final project report.
Goals for Upcoming Week
- Project check off
- Starting working on the project report
Multi-FX Pedal Project Update 8 (3/23/2025)
This week was spent primarily getting boards ready for order. We shrank down the trace size as they no longer needed to be bigger for milling along with also shrinking tolerances and making the boards smaller due to the new precision from ordering boards. We had a slight issue with ordering as a file was missing when we initially submitted but that was resolved and boards are on the way. In addition to this, we started the conversation of how the messages from the footswitch will be received by the main module of the effects pedal. This is going to be the main focus of the upcoming week so once the boards arrive we can populate and test the final product. In addition to this, we will be working on a case design and are planning on having it printed by the end of the week.
Goals for Upcoming Week
- Work to ensure MIDI messages are properly processed by the effects pedal
- Populate boards once the arrive
- Design and print enclosure
Multi-FX Pedal Project Update 7 (3/16/2025)
Much of this past week was spent trying to get the PCB mill to work properly to get our boards milled out. The bellow is a pitcher of our new board design where we took into account the components being on the opposite side of the board and thus inverted. In addition, the trace width and distance between traces were increased to try and increase the ease of milling. Despite these attempts, the board was still able to be successfully milled. This is due to the mill sometimes not moving the correct distance in the y-axis and milling in the wrong spot. This is most likely due to a bad stepper motor as the motor can be heard skipping when this error occurs. Due to this, we are looking to order or board online this week to ensure that we have boards for the end of the semester. In addition to this, we also were able to finish the code for the buttons allowing for user inputs to send messages. Moving forward we will get the boards ordered and work to make a case for the final design.
Goals for Upcoming Week
- Order boards
- Start designing final case
Multi-FX Pedal Project Update 6 (3/9/2025)
This past week we were able to get the PCB milling running. This allowed for me to make a test board and start the process of fabrication. Along with this we started to work on the code to allow for the button inputs to control when a MIDI message would be sent. For this we were using interrupt statements to control which message would be sent based on which button was pressed. The progress on this was greatly halted due to the Seeed Studio XIOA not being recognized by the computer. This problem was solved by putting chip in bootloader mode and reconnecting. Due to this slow down the code for the inputs was not completed and has to be moved on the todo for the upcoming week. Along with this I will need to sit down and run the PCB to finish fabricating the PCBs.
Goals for Upcoming Week
- Finish Fabricating PCBs
- Milled and populated
- Finish code for the input buttons.
Multi-FX Pedal Project Update 5 (3/3/2025)
Over the past couple of weeks, I was able to make good progress on my goals. I designed a schematic and board layout for our MIDI out setup, while also working to finalize our code to work with the buttons that we have for the footswitch. In addition to this, we were able to test our finalized layout on breadboards. The current design worked as expected with it being able to step up the 3.3V logic to the 5V logic, and then step it back down so that it can be read by the 3.3V logic in of the Raspberry Pi UART. This step was needed because normal MIDI devices run on 5V logic. If a pre-purchased MIDI device would be plugged in it would need to be stepped down to match the expected 3.3V logic. Both the schematic and the board design are shown below. In the following week, I hope to mill out these boards on our PCB mill and test the board design. After that, I will either proceed with the board and work on designing a case or make a second iteration to fix the shortcomings of the current board design.
Goals For Upcoming Week
- Fabricate PCB
- Test PCB
- Make a second iteration if needed
- Start designing a case
Multi-FX Pedal Project Update 4 (2/16/2025)
This past week a lot of my time was devoted to working on my CDR slides along with presenting at CDR. In addition to that, I was also able to finalize the coding for the MIDI footswitch. The next step that I will need to work on is looking at how this message will be received by the Raspberry PI along with connecting the buttons for user inputs. Another thing that I want to look into in this upcoming week is if we want to make PCBs for our MIDI in and out ports.
Goals for Upcoming Week
- Research how MIDI message will be received by the Raspberry PI
- Use button inputs to control when MIDI message is sent
- Design Port Schematics in KiCAD
Multi-FX Pedal Project Update 3 (2/4/2025)
Throughout the past week, I refined and tested our code for sending MIDI communications. I was able to hook it up to an oscilloscope and got it so the proper wave was able to be seen on it. This code was then able to be modified to start working towards sending the proper messages to control our effects. In addition this week I worked to draw out a diagram that outlines what I think the process of our final product might look like. This diagram is shown below.
Goals for Upcoming Week
- Work on receiving the proper MIDI string on a second device
- Research the proper MIDI commands to control the effects
Multi-FX Pedal Project Update 2 (1/26/2025)
Over the course of the past couple of days I worked to create some test code for our MIDI footswitch. This code is supposed to send a string of data through a digital pin on the Seeed Studio XIAO RP2040 that will travel through the MIDI out port and then the received and the MIDI in port. In the upcoming week I am hoping to test this code and by hooking up the MIDI outport to the oscilloscope check that the sent packet is being successfully received.
Goals for Upcoming Week
- Test Code for footswitch
- Research MIDI messages
- Wire up button to microcontroller
- Test that packet is sent when button is pressed
Multi-FX Pedal Project Update 1 (1/23/2025)
This week as a team we worked on finalizing or project specification along with giving our OSHE project update at the weekly meeting. I primarily worked on ordering parts for our MIDI footswitch so that we can start prototyping it in the weeks to come. As of right now the plan is to have it communicate through a MIDI cable so that already owned MIDI footswitches would be compatible. For the one that we are designing our current plan is to use a Seeed Studio XIAO RP2040 as the main microcontroller for our footswitch. From there we will have multiple buttons that will provide inputs to the board. The board will then be able to output the MIDI packet that corresponds to the action inputted sending that the raspberry pie which will intern complete the action. As of right now we are in the process of prototyping what circuitry will look like for inside of the footswitch, attached though is an image of what the possible final product might look like.
Goals for the Upcoming Week
- Prototype the footswitch circuits
- Deploy Code to the Seeed Studio XIAO RP2040 to send a packet of data
- Send data through the MIDI port
KeWee Meter Project Update 3 (9/29/2024)
This week I made a prototype of last weeks schematic made for testing this week. In addition to that I was able to finish making the footprints for all of our components in KiCad. I would have liked to get more of the PCB design done this week but time ran a little bit short due to career fair. For this upcoming week I want to test the prototype that I made to make sure that our design works before investing too much time into designing the PCB. I have attached an image of the prototype that I made this week along with a diagram of device operations.
Goals for the upcoming week
- Test prototype
- If needed troubleshoot prototype
- Finish PCB design in KiCad
- Prepare CDR presentation
KeWee Meter Project Update 2 (9/22/2024)
This week I was able to complete my design for a new schematic for the KeWee Energy meter. Caleb Jahncke and I were then able to compare our schematic designs to come up with a final schematic. I was also able to start working on making footprints for the components of our PCB. During our weekly team meeting this week we spent a large portion of our time working on our slides and preparing for our presentation at the OSHE meeting this past Thursday. In addition to that, we got our components ordered this past week and they will hopefully arrive this upcoming week allowing us to prototype and test our new schematic design. I attached an image of the updated schematic that I made this week.
Goals for the upcoming week
- Protype and test new schematic design
- Finish making component footprints in KiCad
- Research surface mounting resistors for the final PCB
Concerns for the week
- The new design will not work when tested and we will have to spend the week editing last week’s schematic to get it to work
KeWee Meter Project Update 1 (9/13/2024)
Below is a drawing of my vision for a possible final product of the KeWee Energy Meter project. The first two drawings are a front and back view of the design. It is then followed by a simplified description of how the device would work from a component level.
Goals for the upcoming week
- Work on schematic for new PCB
- Research SPI communication
- Research outlet PCB attachments
- Create slide show for project update at OSHE meeting on 9/19/2024
- Finalize purchase order for components to prototype new board design