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The Stribe Project - boards, parts, etc


phineus
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http://www.soundwidgets.com/stribe/ <- the Stribe story

http://www.soundwidgets.com/smf/ <- the Stribe Project Forum

Now available through the Project Forum, parts to build a Stribe Prototype or similar device.  The boards could be useful for a number of projects, not just a Stribe.  The Driver board alone could be quite useful for midiboxers as it allows you to control 1024 LEDs via a 3-wire interface (16 MAX7221's chained together), plus it runs on 5V 0.5A USB power!  The LED board mounts 112 10-segment LED bargraph displays and brings all the wiring out to the edges.  The Stribe is Arduino-based (right now) but could use any logic circuit, really.  Take a look and let me know what you think, and please join the forum!

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I find this project very attractive, it could be used as MBSEQ extension, as MBLC motorfader replacement, MB64E encoder/LEDring replacement etc... I guess that it will be a lot of fun working with it, therefore I would like to purchase two kits (without Arduino hardware) once you are starting the order. :)

Best Regards, Thorsten.

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Well that's 4!  :)  Only 6 more to go and I can make an order (I need a minimum of 10 orders to get good prices). 

I've added a "uC Hacker" kit option without the Arduinos.  I get no break on the Arduino stuff currently so it's actually easier for me if you get them yourself.  Or use your own controller w/ your own firmware.

You can find out how to order over at the Stribe Project Forum:

http://soundwidgets.com/smf/index.php?topic=18.msg19#msg19

I'm currently accepting pre-orders for kits and boards.  As soon as I have enough pre-orders I'll order the parts and make the kits.

Thanks for your interest and encouragement so far!  Should be a fun ride.

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Now available through the Project Forum, parts to build a Stribe Prototype or similar device.

I'd probably go for a full kit of everything except the softpots since I've already bought those.  I've sent you email asking for a price for that.

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i cannot see the price break down for the led bargraphs . ?

I get the bargraphs from Futurlec.com and the price varies from 30 to 40 cents each (times 112) depending on color.  If I make a big enough order (1000+) I can get a slight discount.  These are not high-quality name-brand bar-graphs with ceramic bodies like you are used to seeing in fancy audio gear.  These have skinny wire legs and the cases are made of plastic and vary in quality.  Typical name-brand 10-segment displays go for around $1.25 ea as far as I can tell, though, so the Furulec ones are a great deal, unless you can arrange a quantity discount with a high-end manufacturer.  If you have that kind of relationship with someone who makes LED bargraphs please introduce!

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sorry, Josh; I wasn't prepared to spend 430 / 500 $ (US-$, I guess).

Still find it elegant and useful, but can't afford it currently.

What would seem like a more reasonable price?  (It has a lot of parts - nearly 16 monomes'-worth of parts)

If you prefer you can source the off-the-shelf parts.  You could just buy the boards for instance and hunt down the other stuff yourself.

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Yeah - I'd love to see a Stribe made with parts that actually fit together so you could skip all the IC sockets - it would be 1/4-1/2" thinner, and lighter, though not re-configurable of course.

I'm sure a machine could make something with SM leds that would be super light and thin.  There are also SM versions of the MAX7221s, etc, so the whole stribe could be designed for a single circuit board and made with surface-mount parts by a robot.

Even 2-sided maybe like tenori-on.

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Hi Michael - no worries - and I hope I don't seem defensive.  I wish it was cheaper, too.  Maybe with some more heads working on the design it can be made less expensive.  Or if it catches on and enough people want one then economies of scale will bring the price down.

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Sorry mate, make that 3 left... Like AC I'm afraid my wallet won't permit it  :'(

...at least, not right now... I do have stock of bar graphs and I think I was in the softpot group order (Thx W) so it might work out OK but right now I lack the time to do the books. Argh!

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

Excellent Kit. Built mine over the last couple of nights. A bit of a test of stamina in the soldering department, but all went fairly smoothly. Now for the hard bit - getting Pd up and doing something useful with it. No way I could afford the Stribe and Max/MSP!

Since the Arduino and USB interface both unplug, it shouldn't be too hard to do an alternative MIDIbox I/O too. Has anyone done anything on MIDIbox to softpots?

Thanks Phineus, a great design.

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Thanks for the great feedback, Prof! 

I understand the pain of shelling out for Max/MSP.  One thing to keep in mind is that the Runtime of Max/MSP is free and you can run existing patches on it, they jsut turn off Edit view.  I am working on modifying my main "howto" patch so there's no need to go into Edit view to say, specify the COM port and so on.  Changes should be posted this week.

I'm also very interested to see if the Max patches will port over to Pd, and to what extent.  I've posted .pat versions of the main patch in the Stribe code repository.

*

Any of you other guys who are building Arduino-less versions make any progress?  I'm really excited to see how the Stribe hardware will translate to another uC platform.

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