DONE: a self-scrolling, BPM adjustable html/notepad/text file gizmo

[pinkjimiphoton]

well, like you said, part of the problem is that most foot pedals are toggle switches, you either toggle them on or off, and they stay that way, they usually aren't like pushbuttons, however some are.
If you can find one that acts like a push button, it'd be easy,

Open up a keyboard, take out the little flap with the chip on (it'd be better if you could find an old keyboard that doesn't have it's pcb printed on floppy plastic) with the keyboard wire attached to it,
follow the lines on the pcb to the spacebar to see how they are hooked up to the chip, reproduce it with some wires and hook it up to the switch, then if you have a hard pcb, saw off the rest of the keyboard pcb, or if you have a floppy pdb you could maybe get away with just hooking up the wires to the switch straight up to the space bar contacts, and rolling up the flap and sticking it in the pedal. However you might have some trouble soldering/connecting wires to a floppy pcb flap like that, which is why i'd just hook em straight up to the chip and examine the pcb to see if it needs adittional connections.

If the switch is the stay on-stay off type, you can make a logical circuit that monitors a change in the state, and outputs a pulse like a normal pushbutton everytime the state changes. I'd have to figure that out in circuitmaker first or something, then when i have my schematic get the needed IC's from radioshack, and build it on a little breadboard, test it, if it works, cool, then solder it to one of those grid pcb things that they have, which you can cut to size. If you're doing that you might as well put the keyboard chip on the little breadboard pcb too.

I'm not sure if I would mess with the poor marshall and hook it up to a transistor box like a PC
The nice sound from the marshall comes from it's tubes, keep it far far away from transistors

-Gothi[c] (March 20, 2007, 08:47 AM)

wow, actually, that's easier than i thought!!
so basically, all you'd need is an old keyboard and a normally open momentary push switch...
got those a-plenty!!
i'm too old-school to grok much modern electronics...i can find my way around thermionics fine ( i sold one of my hot rodded super reverbs to GC a couple years ago for an unbelievable amount of cash....2 10's, 60 watts, reverb/trem and cascaded chanels and an fx loop...yum)...but give me anything more solid state than a diode, and i'm lost, pardner!!!


i love my marshall...tubes rule, but did ya know all modern marshalls use silicone diode clippers in several different stages to help create that distortion???
all ya gotta do is add a half-wave rectifier here and there, and you have instant fuzz.
thanks for the reply!!
how much do ya think it would cost to build something like that??
i bet you could make a bundle with it on ebay....
"Musicians!! want to scroll your charts at whatever tempo you desire, and start stop it with your foot?""
no-brainer bro!!
lol

[Gothi[c]]

you could probably make it for free/no cost if you can find people to give you their old keyboards and/or footswitches. I mean,... you can find that stuff in dumpsters It doesn't have to WORK. all you need it he keyboard chip, and the SWITCH in the pedal. you don't need any of the other electronics.
They probably sell the chips seperatly, but why bother? it probably will cost the same or even more than a $5 old keyboard from ebay

[pinkjimiphoton]

heh heh...there's probably 200 of them in my boneyard at the moment!!
LOL....but then what do  ya do, just exchange kbrds??
excuse my ignorance, i am but an egg....

[Gothi[c]]

Yeah, you could hook it up as a regular keyboard.
Offcourse, you wouldn't have any of the other keys.
Alternatively you can make a whole set of pedals, one for each shortcut in the BPM program so you can do the preset speeds too

[edit]
To pull that off, you'd only need one pedal with a chip and the other pedals would hook into eachother.
Eg:


COMPUTER
  |
  |--->PEDAL--->PEDAL--->PEDAL--->PEDAL...
[/edit]

[another edit]
OR! you could get a female keyboard connector and build it into the pedal, and bridge the wires to the keyboard wire that goes into the computer to it, that way you could do this:

COMPUTER
  |
  |
PEDAL----PEDAL----PEDAL
  |
KEYBOARD

The pedals would override the keys on the keyboard, and you'd still be able to use the keyboard as normal if you wanted to

[/another edit]

[pinkjimiphoton]

Yeah, you could hook it up as a regular keyboard.
Offcourse, you wouldn't have any of the other keys.
Alternatively you can make a whole set of pedals, one for each shortcut in the BPM program so you can do the preset speeds too

[edit]
To pull that off, you'd only need one pedal with a chip and the other pedals would hook into eachother.
Eg:


COMPUTER
  |
  |--->PEDAL--->PEDAL--->PEDAL--->PEDAL...
[/edit]

[another edit]
OR! you could get a female keyboard connector and build it into the pedal, and bridge the wires to the keyboard wire that goes into the computer to it, that way you could do this:

COMPUTER
  |
  |
PEDAL----PEDAL----PEDAL
  |
KEYBOARD

The pedals would override the keys on the keyboard, and you'd still be able to use the keyboard as normal if you wanted to

[/another edit]

-Gothi[c] (March 20, 2007, 09:18 AM)

wow, cool!!!
so all you have to do is hook up the switches in series to the chip?
i could definitely do something like this!!
thanks!
dunno if i can get to it yet, soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much stuff in progress.
but5 i believe i may have a new project to try...and the perfect pedal to use, an old stenographer pedal i modded with a couple extra footswitches.

[Gothi[c]]

so all you have to do is hook up the switches in series to the chip?

Yes, the switches go on the chip, but the female keyboard connector (in case you still want to connect a keyboard) would go in parallel with the pedals.

[pinkjimiphoton]

hmmmmmmmmmmm......but if the switches are in series, won't they all do the same thing??
and if it's an analog signal, would there be an impedance change issue running them in parallell?
or is it a digital signal?
or am i brain dead??
LOL
(most likely ...don;t answer that one!!!)
i gotta go up in the boneyard and have me a look at one of them keyboards!!!

[Gothi[c]]

hmmmmmmmmmmm......but if the switches are in series, won't they all do the same thing??

The switches aren't in series, they'd be hooked up to the microcontroller chip in the same way the keys on the keyboard would be,
but they'd be able to hook into eachother.

and if it's an analog signal, would there be an impedance change issue running them in parallell?

One side of the chip is digital (the part that goes into the computer), the other is analog. We don't really have to worry about impedance since these are switches and not, say resistors, or LED's, etc,... we aren't doing anything, we're just switching a logical state.

here a parallel example with just one 'key' :

[Select]

  input
  |  |
  |  |                             
  |  *_______________
  *__|_______________SWITCH
  |  |
  |  |
  |  |
KEYBOARD

Either the two wires short when you push the switch -or- the two wires short when you push a key on the keyboard,
for the input, there is no difference.  Maybe i'll look up the details on how they hook up to the microcontroller and make a little schematic and put it up on the bpm notepad website once i have it finished. Though chances are that many keyboards use different types of microcontroller, so it may be different and you may have to 'follow' the lines on the keyboard pcb (or membrane) anyway.

[Gothi[c]]

Just finished the website, and released a new version of BPM Notepad. You can go fetch it from it's new home: http://linkerror.com/bpmnotepad.cgi

Changes:
 

• fixed the bug where it would start scrolling when you change the speed value in the toolbar.
• new feature: (menu) Insert -> Image (You no longer have to struggle with pasting and hitting enter)
• Lots of code changes, un-messyfied it,...
• Compiled with better optimization for both the windows and linux binary builds.

[pinkjimiphoton]

hmmmmmmmmmmm......but if the switches are in series, won't they all do the same thing??

The switches aren't in series, they'd be hooked up to the microcontroller chip in the same way the keys on the keyboard would be,
but they'd be able to hook into eachother.

and if it's an analog signal, would there be an impedance change issue running them in parallell?

One side of the chip is digital (the part that goes into the computer), the other is analog. We don't really have to worry about impedance since these are switches and not, say resistors, or LED's, etc,... we aren't doing anything, we're just switching a logical state.

here a parallel example with just one 'key' :

[Select]

  input
  |  |
  |  |                             
  |  *_______________
  *__|_______________SWITCH
  |  |
  |  |
  |  |
KEYBOARD

Either the two wires short when you push the switch -or- the two wires short when you push a key on the keyboard,
for the input, there is no difference.  Maybe i'll look up the details on how they hook up to the microcontroller and make a little schematic and put it up on the bpm notepad website once i have it finished. Though chances are that many keyboards use different types of microcontroller, so it may be different and you may have to 'follow' the lines on the keyboard pcb (or membrane) anyway.

-Gothi[c] (March 21, 2007, 11:13 PM)

ahah!! gotcha!!! forgot i'm not dealing with an analog signal again.
)
so what i'm thinking is then that i need to basically jsut have a wire to the chip from the appropriate switch...as slong as it's a trace to the proper pin, etc, that makes sense.
i'm thinking maybe the way to do it is to sacrifice two keyboards, and ultimately make one with a couple switching jacks...just plug in the foot pedal to the keyboard when necessary!
anyways, this is cool...thanks!

that said, my buddy Moonie wanted to chime in, and asked me to share the following.....he thinks it should be flash based, cuz then it will be cross platform compatible.
he may have an idea! but i need to use the formatting to ensure the proper chords appear in the right places over the lyrics, i dunno if that'd work with flash.....and i don;t like flash stuff, it often spies on you.
i like THIS one, tho....the BPM Notepad works perfect for me!

here's Moonie:

So, about that widget DonationCoder's makin'....

I was about to join that site, but really the only thing I wanted to 
do was share a few ideas, so feel free to pass these on to that 
discussion thread.

First, I wanted to suggest an alternative to hacking a PC keyboard, 
mainly because I don't think many computers are set up to handle 2 
keyboards at once ... so that might be a prob.

Hacking a mouse, on the other hand, is more likely, because PCs and 
Macs do seem to be more prepared for the idea that there are 2 
computer mouse devices hooked up to it.

Speaking of Macs, if you and DC made this in Adobe Flash, it would be 
cross-platform for Mac, Windows and even Linux users [as long as you 
use an old enough Flash version as the Publish setting when you 
export the final Flash versions]. That way Linux or Unix users would 
not have to compile source code, I think ... but DC knows more about 
coding than I probably ever will, so I offer that suggestion with 
sincere humility.

Your TelePrompTer project did inspire me to put that on my "to do" 
list, but my needs are different. I would like a simple TelePrompTer 
that loaded a plain text file, let me control the scroll speed, and 
had a few controls that should be available all the time, while it's 
running:

- toggle scroll direction
- increase speed
- decrease speed
- reverse [as in, mirror-image] the screen

Those are needed, I feel, for actual TelePrompTer use, where a person 
is looking at the camera and trying to read from the prompter at the 
same time. My office has a TelePrompTer, but it's a pretty cheap, 
shabby one, it only works in Windows, and it's old enough that we are 
never sure it will work again each time there's an upgrade to Windows.

I'd also like to have a control that changes the font size, but I'm 
not sure I can manage that in Flash -- I wouldn't want it to be 
adjustable while it's scrolling, anyway. If I can't make font size 
adjustable, I must at least make it very large, and be sure it 
hyphenates long words.

If I can swing it, I'll make a Flash program that loads an external 
text file, but I wouldn't be loading XML, HTML or images of any kind.

--moonie

PS: did ya know that "TelePrompTer" was a trademark? Just found that 
in the spell check dictionary. Apparently they like the weird capital 
letters, just like that. I guess if I make one, I can't call it a 
teleprompter.

[pinkjimiphoton]

Gothi(c),i'm downloading now...nice site!!
and thanks for the props, i will add a link or three to my website next time i update it.
will post again as soon as i try it.
thanks again!!

[pinkjimiphoton]

works great!
dude, you are a CODING SNACK GOD!!

[Gothi[c]]

he thinks it should be flash based, cuz then it will be cross platform compatible.
he may have an idea!

It's already cross platform compatible
I have a binary download for linux and windows, if you want it on a mac, or on a portable device, or something else, all you have to do is recompile it.

First, I wanted to suggest an alternative to hacking a PC keyboard,
mainly because I don't think many computers are set up to handle 2
keyboards at once ... so that might be a prob.

No, the way we've been describing it here, there is only ONE chip, not one for each pedal. they all hook up to the same chip, so as far as the computer knows, it sees only one keyboard.

That way Linux or Unix users would
not have to compile source code,

They don't there is a linux binary included, besides, most unix users should be used to compiling things from source

Speaking of Macs, if you and DC made this in Adobe Flash, it would be
cross-platform for Mac

If i had a mac i could compile you a binary for mac, but you can easily have it running on your mac if you download the source code and wxwidgets 2.8, it will be compiled in no time. I'm very much against the idea of using flash, simply because 1) it's not the right tool for the job, you wouldn't be able to make a nice text editor like we have now. 2) it would have to run inside a browser or a flash player 3) it would run slower, c++ runs the code natively. 4) it wouldn't be as easy to expand upon. 5) it would simply be a lot less elegant

I would like a simple TelePrompTer
that loaded a plain text file, let me control the scroll speed, and
had a few controls that should be available all the time, while it's
running:

- toggle scroll direction
- increase speed
- decrease speed
- reverse [as in, mirror-image] the screen

Those are needed, I feel, for actual TelePrompTer use, where a person
is looking at the camera and trying to read from the prompter at the
same time.

It's not a teleprompter. The intention was to have Jimi to be able to read his text while playing an instrument, there is no camera involved. And I'm sure he can make use of the functionality of being able to insert images, plain text would be a step backwards imo. The increase/decrease speed functionality is already there, i can easily add a shortcut to reverse the direction.

[pinkjimiphoton]

It's not a teleprompter. The intention was to have Jimi to be able to read his text while playing an instrument, there is no camera involved. And I'm sure he can make use of the functionality of being able to insert images, plain text would be a step backwards imo. The increase/decrease speed functionality is already there, i can easily add a shortcut to reverse the direction.

-Gothi[c] (March 22, 2007, 07:24 AM)

yep....plain text isn;t what i need, i need to be able to use html tags/formatting so i can position chords for instance over the proper lyrics...plain text, even if word wrap is turned off, is too iffy...stuff doesn;t line up right unless you treat it almost as ASCII instead of a page.
basically, i needed something that would scroll words/music etc at a rate so i could watch it while playing or singing to keep me on cue...and this thing , now that the couple bugs are worked out works PERFECT!
for a teleprompter, yah, flash may be good...but i want something small, not bloatware like an internet browser when i'm recording.
the less crap running, the better the DAW runs, anyways.
good idea on moonie's part, i can see where he's going, but his need is subtly different from mine...if it were just words, his idea may be great...but i need the versatility that this snack offers.
it is COOL!!
i LOVE IT!!
it is IMneverHO damn near perfect for my uses!!
i applaud anyone for thinking along the lines , but special props gotta go to Gothi(c)...this thing freekin RAWWWWWWWWWWWWWKS!

[Gothi[c]]

I'll try and think of a way to implement the mirror image thing and the smooth scrolling. It will probably involve overriding the OnPaint event,... I don't think this is something that will be implemented soon though, I can't spend too much time on it either. But we'll see

[pinkjimiphoton]

if it happens, it happens...this thing is GREATR JUST THE WAY IT IS!!

smooth scrolling, now that i think about it, may NOT be a better idea...this way, it actually lands on every line for a split second, and "snaps" there, so it's easier to pick out the line you need to read...
don;t change a thing!!!
it's poifect!!
=)))))

[Gothi[c]]

I guess it could be an option. Either you enable it or you disable it.

[pinkjimiphoton]

only if ya want to , bro, i really don't think it's necessary!

[pinkjimiphoton]

hey Gothi(c)
we gotta page on the freeware wikki!
http://freewarewiki....bwiki.com/BpmNotepad
 

[Gothi[c]]

Coool!!

[Cavalcader]

ps.all this talk makes me realize that this might actually make for a good firefox extension task..

-mouser (March 20, 2007, 07:51 AM)

That's a great idea -- I wonder if there's a way to get at IE's scrolling by hosting the IE control? IE has the smooth scrolling built-in, and when you middle-click a textfile in IE and move the mouse up/down you can get it to scroll by pixel instead of by line. Maybe that'd be a way to avoid reinventing the steel-belted radial? 

This app would also be good on big screens as a karaoke display if there were a way to use it fullscreen (like IE/Firefox with the F11 key).

[Gothi[c]]

This app would also be good on big screens as a karaoke display if there were a way to use it fullscreen (like IE/Firefox with the F11 key).

That's a good idea! It shouldn't be too hard to implement either. Yet another thing for the next version

[mooncaine]

DC, I joined up just to thank you for addressing the suggestion about Flash I made to pinkjimiphoton. All your points make sense. Like I said, I expected you'd know more about this than I.

I didn't mean to suggest that you make an actual teleprompter, though, with a reversing screen. Don't go to any trouble for me on that account. At that point in my email I was just trying to explain why I wanted to try to make my own -- it's because I could actually use a simple teleprompter, as I described it, in case our old and cheap teleprompter stops working with the next version of Windows we're forced to use it with. I think I can probably make one in Flash without probs, though. I'll enjoy the challenge, as a break from the usual things.

[Gothi[c]]

I might be able to have it show a mirror image by making use of wxMirrorDC,... i'll look into it but i can't promise anything since i have other projects to work on too and i shouldn't get too preoccupied or mouser will come kill me Thanks for the trouble of  signing up to respond btw!

[Cavalcader]

Thanks for the trouble of  signing up to respond btw!

-Gothi[c] (March 24, 2007, 02:35 AM)

Yes, definitely -- thanks for the trouble.