Liz's VPO Project

I spent Thanksgiving examining and removing bits from my new toy.  It was hugely fun, and I've mostly got it sorted out now.    I removed the combination action box - a pity as it is a really neat bit of mechanical engineering, but that job will be done by the computer and it is massively in the way. I also took out the remnants of the power supply, and all the wires leading to nowhere (formerly the pipe chamber). Things I have learned... the pedals and manuals have the same sliding bar and vertical whisker mechanism. It was easier to figure out from the manuals once I saw them. The sliding bars with the vertical wires you can barely see are the stop controls.  Each vertical whisker has a wire soldered to its bottom that is  routed along, very neatly bundled together with its friends, and soldered to a big connection panel.     There is a thick wire going across for each key, bent into a crankshaft shape. You can ju...

And, here it is. The top panel and another bit are leaning against it. The console is sitting on a pair of small dollies so I can pull it around to work on it without tearing up the floor or myself. The pedals don't slot in because the dollies block them - they would normally push in about a foot closer and the bench also. I've opened it up to have a look around. So much fascinating mechanics, part of me wants to figure it all out and restore it but the rest of me says don't waste time on that, get the organ working electronically :) There is a lot of dirt to clean off and parts to remove and there will be parts to add.  I have the encoder electronics all worked out, but what is needed is a way to detect the keypresses. I prefer at this stage to use the existing mechanism and just read the keypresses off it, but it is rather more complicated than expected. the pedalboard itself is purely mechanical, wood, and non conductive. At the end of it are a set of wooden pus...

Last look at my living room not dominated by organ shaped wooden sculpture Carpet is rolled back, furniture shoved to the side. I will have to figure out where it all goes. There are two small dollies where the console will go, to let me spin it around and get at the back while I perform surgery.  I'm not going to be able to work on it in the garage and then move it inside. The piano movers will put it there, and there it will stay until the heat death of the universe. Next...

My console has been picked up from the dealer, but won't get delivered to me till next week. That gives me time to work on the electronics.  I have a working prototype of the midi scanner for the pedalboard. My plan is to hook up the pedalboard first - partly because I expect it to be easier, the mechanism is bigger, more accessible, and there's a lot less of them.  Mostly though I would really like to have a working pedalboard to play with while I'm working out what to do about the manuals and stops. My design uses an Metro Mini from Adafruit for the controller and a pair of MCP23017 port expander chips available from your favorite supplier. The cable connects to a usb port on my mac, which is running Hairless Midi Bridge I have small array of pushbuttons standing in for pedals and it works - when I push a button, the correct note sounds in Hauptwerk, Grand Orge, Garage Band, or whatever.  Woohooo! I will upload the code to github, but right now it's in...

I've been taking organ lessons for the last six months, and just loving it like crazy.  The organ is an amazing instrument, I've loved the sound from childhood and I'm incredibly lucky to get to learn to play it.  The most common roadblock is, of course, access to an organ. They are large and immovable. You pretty much have to go to them to practice, scheduling around your own life and the life of the organ, which is probably in a church and has other people practicing and rehearsing or using the sanctuary for something else and the organ is too loud sorry. I've been practicing around 6-7am which is wonderful way to start my day - quiet and meditative with stained glass and the scent of candles and old incense.  That was summer. Now it is fall and winter is coming.  It is dark in the early morning, and the nave isn't heated to habitable levels unless something is going on.    I'm getting motivated to have a practice organ at home. Ok, people do instal...