New Expressions
It has been an interesting month, mostly confined to my home due to the coronavirus pandemic. I'm lucky in that my job still exists, and I can do it from home, so I've been working full time. That does take away time from organ building and playing, but not as much as when I was commuting. Also, there is lunchtime organ practice, which vastly improves my mood for afternoon meetings.
I have been reluctant to mess with my organ, and take a risk of leaving it nonfunctional since the pipe organ I play is currently inaccessible. I've been testing and experimenting on the workbench. I'm having some challenges with the darlingtons for the SAM units, and the LED strip for the pedal lights. I'm probably doing something stupid and when I look at them again, it will mysteriously work. That is what happened with my slide pot.
My Klann console has 3 shoes - two for controlling shades and one crescendo, which had a sforzando button which engaged and disengaged it. I had a ridiculous amount of fun playing with that thing - pushing the solenoid and watching the mechanism work. - but sadly, I had no real use for it as the computer will do that job, so I ripped it all out.
First of all, I took all the shoes off and gave them a good cleaning. First with oil soap to get off grease and surface dirt, then metal polish and finally magic eraser. I'm pleased with the result. Here is a before and after shot.
I removed the wooden roller there, and used the metal crank to move a slide potentiometer. I ordered some from Mouser, luckily still operating, and they arrived promptly. These are Bourne model PTB0143-2010BPB103 which are the linear taper type, not audio.
I wrote up a quick arduiono sketch to read the analog signal and verify it worked as expected. Then I wrote the code to convert input to the range 0-127 and send midi control messages. Tested with Organteq and was again absurdly happy to watch the little animated expression shoe move up and down as I slid the lever back and forth.
Here is one of the shoes on my table, with the wooden roller and electrical wiring removed. I need a way to connect that crank to the potentiometer lever. I considered drilling holes in the metal levers, but was feeling a bit timid about that. I started to build a wooden handle for the lever with a hole drilled in, but had some difficulty getting it on solidly. Then I remembered I had an extra packet of Sugru lying around, That stuff is amazing. I molded three knobs right onto the levers and used the end of the crank to poke an appropriately sized hole, then let it set for a few hours.
While I was waiting for the knobs to harden, and had the pedals off and everything open, I installed a nice mount for the mac mini onto that convenient oak rail. Now I'll be able to start organizing and tacking down all the loose wires, since I have a permanent place for them to go to.
I have been reluctant to mess with my organ, and take a risk of leaving it nonfunctional since the pipe organ I play is currently inaccessible. I've been testing and experimenting on the workbench. I'm having some challenges with the darlingtons for the SAM units, and the LED strip for the pedal lights. I'm probably doing something stupid and when I look at them again, it will mysteriously work. That is what happened with my slide pot.
My Klann console has 3 shoes - two for controlling shades and one crescendo, which had a sforzando button which engaged and disengaged it. I had a ridiculous amount of fun playing with that thing - pushing the solenoid and watching the mechanism work. - but sadly, I had no real use for it as the computer will do that job, so I ripped it all out.
First of all, I took all the shoes off and gave them a good cleaning. First with oil soap to get off grease and surface dirt, then metal polish and finally magic eraser. I'm pleased with the result. Here is a before and after shot.
I removed the wooden roller there, and used the metal crank to move a slide potentiometer. I ordered some from Mouser, luckily still operating, and they arrived promptly. These are Bourne model PTB0143-2010BPB103 which are the linear taper type, not audio.
I wrote up a quick arduiono sketch to read the analog signal and verify it worked as expected. Then I wrote the code to convert input to the range 0-127 and send midi control messages. Tested with Organteq and was again absurdly happy to watch the little animated expression shoe move up and down as I slid the lever back and forth.
Here is one of the shoes on my table, with the wooden roller and electrical wiring removed. I need a way to connect that crank to the potentiometer lever. I considered drilling holes in the metal levers, but was feeling a bit timid about that. I started to build a wooden handle for the lever with a hole drilled in, but had some difficulty getting it on solidly. Then I remembered I had an extra packet of Sugru lying around, That stuff is amazing. I molded three knobs right onto the levers and used the end of the crank to poke an appropriately sized hole, then let it set for a few hours.
While I was waiting for the knobs to harden, and had the pedals off and everything open, I installed a nice mount for the mac mini onto that convenient oak rail. Now I'll be able to start organizing and tacking down all the loose wires, since I have a permanent place for them to go to.
Here is the first prototype, installed in the organ. This is a jury-rigged setup to let me confirm that it all works, and this is the correct position for the slide pot. I'll play it like this for a few days, while I ponder how to go about making a permanent mount and make sure the knob doesn't immediately fly off. Then I'll make three of them and install them.
Finally I closed everything up, let Hauptwerk auto-configure it, and gave it a try. Mirabile Dictu, it worked! I have a couple of pieces I've been working on lately which both call for dynamic changes in the swell and since the church closed I've not been able to practice that part.
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