Brain and Button Matrix for Stump Controller Upgrade

Bassmang5

I'm in the process of upgrading this midi controller from being a clunky art piece that required Arduino and popcorn serial midi converter to a much nicer instrument, a Livid Instrument. I have had a brain for awhile and to get the 19 buttons all to work I need to make a button matrix. I'm going to do a 5 (pins1-5)x4(13-16) and not have a 20th button.

I have one simple question before I start on this on Tuesday. There is no voltage introduced into the button matrix if i'm reading the diagram right. Is this correct?

Here is a video of the Stump Controller in its previous incarnation. 

Mark

Super cool looking project! I'm not sure I understand your question. There is some voltage across the button circuit. Can you point me to the diagram you are referring to?

Also if you are making a button diode matrix with a brain v1, the most efficient way is to always have 8 rows. So you may want to do a 3 column 8 row matrix.

Bassmang5

Mark,

thanks for the tip on the rows. That probably saved me some head scratching. I was just looking at this diagram from the wiki. for some reason I was thinking that you need power from JP3 introduced into the system at some point. Seems like most of the stuff I have done on Arduino had power introduced to the circuit from the voltage pin.

Thanks again

Mark

The brain will be sending voltages through the columns. It rapidly pulses each of columns with a voltage then checks the rows to see if the button is pressed or not.

Bassmang5

Mark thanks again. I confirmed my work flow using a bread board and will solder it all up tomorrow. In 2 weeks will be setting up the below sculpture (work in progress) at What The Festival and creating an interactive display that you can read more about here. 

Cheers,

Mark

Super cool,

Can't wait to see some footage from What the Fest. :)

Good luck!