Electro-Smith Daisy Microcontroller Platform

frankchannel · 2022-02-26T23:52:14.098Z

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Just built a patch init today with a daisy submodule. I had the PCBs and panel fabbed at JLCPCB. It’s a very simple build and really cheap too. I haven’t programmed any code yet. But this seems like a super fast and easy way to start prototyping DIY eurorack modules since the submodule takes care of almost all of the electronics (MCU, codec, power distribution, in/output buffering), and the software scaffolding is all in place.

dailybells · 2022-03-14T16:32:50.381Z

The Daisy is worth sticking with, IMHO, especially if you’ve already got the hardware. It’s still pretty new in the scheme of things. The documentation and software for the ecosystem is getting better all the time. I peek in on their slack channel sometimes, poking around there has some good info and folks seem happy to answer questions. The forum is low traffic but I wouldn’t say it’s deserted personally! I refer to it time to time, there are some good old threads with helpful info…

If there are any questions you could relay from your friend or want to ask, I’d be happy to try to point you in the right direction if I can. I haven’t gotten very deep into things, and I’ve only used the C++ approaches so far (I’ve heard the PD approaches are a little rocky at the moment but also getting better all the time – the max/msp approaches seem further along from what I’ve read on the forums etc) so I’m not saying I’ll be able to help haha, but I sure ran into many little things along the way that needed some digging to figure out…

Edit: also @rheslip woah, I just saw your post – this is fantastic! I love the idea of being able to try some of my daisy firmwares out on the teensy, thanks for sharing this and putting the work into the port! I’m looking forward to trying it out.

Cutlasses · 2022-03-14T17:29:16.812Z

I’ve only just started using Daisy Seed (see Login • Instagram for some examples), after a number of audio projects (mainly eurorack based) with Teensy. For me, the biggest advantage (apart from the massive 64GB of RAM) is the development environment. The Arduino IDE is not suited for larger projects in my opinion (and VS Code is really nice), but more importantly, the Daisy Seed supports debugging out of the box (using an ST-Link V3). This was really easy to setup and is so much easier than trying to debug with serial messages.

I had started working directly with the STM32 chips + audio codec, but with the ICs so difficult to get hold of I dug out my Daisy Seed which a friend gifted me and I’d never used. Really impressed so far.

slippage · 2022-04-11T21:53:04.054Z

I haven’t seen a good 1:1 comparison of the daisy.init() vs the Noise Engineering Versio. It looks like the big advantage with the Versio is going to be the existing presets created by NE that you flash with their boot loader web interface.

Strictly looking at the hardware, the form factor is identical. The panel designs have the following but I am not even sure if there are limitations to either platform for how assignable the jacks are or if they are just marked like they are for convention and can handle any kind of io (some of the sample patches would lead me to believe this is the case for at least the Init)

------------Init()--Versio
Knobs     4        7
buttons   1        1
cv in     4        7
gate in   2        1
audio in  2        2
cv out    1        0
gate out  2        0
audio out 2        2
sd card   1        0
led       1        4
---------------------------
Price     199      350

To me it looks like the Daisy wins out for anyone who would want run their own code since it’s not like the Versio patches are open source and open to modifying (unless they are and I am not seeing it). Of course for the extra $150 you are getting access to some fantastic, commercial tier audio effect written by the NE team.

OK that’s my brain dump.

sixolet · 2022-04-11T22:54:35.988Z

Nitpicking: I’m pretty sure the fsu jack on the Versio is a gate in?

Also a question: do the versio’s cv ins have enough resolution for v/8ve?

slippage · 2022-04-12T00:03:55.019Z

Ah I see it looks like the last jack maps to the button in the middle, I’ll update the table. Oh and I also had missed a knob for Versio. I can see the advantage of all the knobs making to the CV so points to Versio for that as long as you are ok with the tight space.

DMR · 2022-04-12T03:09:27.341Z

Does the Versio module have an SD card slot? I don’t have the module but don’t seem to see one on the front panel.

naiveteenidol · 2022-04-12T16:25:40.800Z

It does not. It just has a micro-USB port on the Daisy

whisper3000 · 2023-08-23T14:50:21.539Z

Things look a little quiet over here. I’m interested to know what people are doing with their Daisies these days.

toneburst · 2023-08-23T20:03:02.009Z

Just ordered a Daisy Patch Submodule. No special plans for it right now, but I’m sure I’ll think of some use for it…

Anyone using a colour screen and SD card with theirs?

sanderson · 2023-08-24T12:42:36.236Z

I just got my Patch so I have a couple of things to work on:

Editing and building via Xcode, have this working including upload but feedback to Xcode is limited and no debugging yet.
Building some patches to test, I have a quad vc attenuator as a test harness, just trying a few other things now.
Porting an Arduino based midi version of Jon Simontons Pink Tunes. Have this working on Arduino, just need to port and consider what is UI and what is midi cc controlled. For those who don’t know it’s from early PAIA times and generates notes based on predefined tables. In my case scales, four voices and gate driven. I have it running on an Entrospec IUNGO.

I’ll chuck all this up on GitHub at some point but I literally just got the module yesterday so still messing around.

Cheers
S.

Helen · 2023-08-24T12:46:39.723Z

I didn’t even know about Daisy until I came to upgrade the firmware on my Endless Processor module!

And that upgrade is all I’ve done, but it was worth doing!

hermbot · 2023-08-24T13:33:45.031Z

I’ve been kicking around some spreadsheets to plan out the I/O for a few projects using the Submodule. It would be really nice if there were some more CV inputs, at least for some of the things I have in mind (which makes me wonder if this is the correct platform to be attempting such things - it’s obviously more of an audio-targeted platform). To do some of the things I’d like to I would need to look into some kind of multiplexer and that’s already beyond my feeble mind.

Here’s what I’ve been using to plan pinouts, I just populate the left columns and strike out each pin as it’s used up.

docs.google.com

Daisy Pinouts Template

SM Parameter,Pin,Name,Type Decay,C5,CV_1,Potentiometer,A1,-12V In,C1,CV_OUT_2 A2,ADC_9,C2,CV_4 A3,ADC_10,C3,CV_3 A4,GND,C4,CV_2 A5,12V In,C5,CV_1 A6,5V Out,C6,CV_5 A7,GND,C7,CV_6 A8,USB_DM,C8,CV_7 A9,USB_DP,C9,CV_8 A10,3V3...

robint · 2023-08-24T16:39:25.821Z

I have a patch.init() module and I discovered this video because of it:

There are some great patchers out there, although it is hard to decide which parameters to map to the module controls. I’m not entirely sure that all patchers will work though.

I´m also working through this course to learn Max in parallel and so far I really like it:

kadenze.com

Max MSP Programming Course: Structuring Interactive Software for Digital Arts...

Max programming, like most interesting topics, has deep aspects and shallow aspects. This course will largely focus on the deep aspects: principles, concepts, techniques, and theory. If you understand these underlying aspects, your capacity to create...

whisper3000 · 2023-08-24T20:42:43.054Z

OK. I’m convinced. I just ordered a patch.Init()

schnickerbocker · 2023-08-24T21:07:48.651Z

I made a Mangrove style dual formant oscillator using the Daisy Seed as a starting point.

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cedarcedar · 2023-11-02T18:32:47.074Z

That’s a beautiful panel! Would you be willing to share the Gerbers anything? I have one that’s blank but the crisp simplicity of yours stands out!

m9dfukc · 2023-11-02T18:42:07.042Z

Very cool. Mangrove is my favorite oscillator so this is very interesting to me. Would you mind to share more details about your project?

schnickerbocker · 2023-11-06T16:04:56.966Z

It’s basically a dual Mangrove. The buttons along the top allow for octave up/down. There’s a main pitch knob as well as a ±1 octave control for the second oscillator.

Each channel can be individually set to constant wave, constant formant or square wave. There are controls for the peak duration and angle as well as volume (with clipping) and FM.

I don’t have a Mangrove to compare with, but it was enough to address my GAS for one while learning a couple things in the process.

m9dfukc · 2023-11-06T19:58:51.033Z

Sounds interesting. Do you have any sound examples?