The dodepan is a hexagonal lo-fi instrument From TuriSc It is powered by our favorite microcontroller, the Raspberry Pi Pico. This unpretentious instrument uses 12 inputs and 1 sensor to create relaxing, lo-fi beats and becomes a MIDI instrument.
Project Dodepan uses as inputs 12 capacitive touch pads connected to the MPR121 capacitive touch module. Its semitone range is 75 notes. The key can be changed using the knob along with one of 16 scales on another knob. Up to 6 voices (polyphonic) can be used simultaneously at once, with each input assigned a note based on the current scale and key. what do you mean? In short, you can create music from different beeps and tones.
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Music is all about expression. That is why performers sometimes use movement to alter the sound they are playing. Think of a guitarist shaking the neck of a guitar to produce a vibrating sound. Dodepan includes his MPU-6050 Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) that converts the force of hitting the unit into velocity data. This data is used to change the note volume. The IMU also provides accelerometer data used to perform pitch bending. The on-board lithium-ion battery is powered via the TP4056, a linear charger for single-cell lithium-ion.
Raspberry Pi Pico is the core of Dodepan. It takes all the data (inputs, knobs, IMU), displays the data via LEDs and generates sound using Pulse Width Modulation (PWM). This is sent to analog circuitry for further processing before reaching the PAM8403 amplifier and speakers. If you want to jam on your commute, plug in your headphones and let the music flow.
Dodepan is not a one-trick pony. It can also be used as a MIDI input to send data to compatible applications using standard MIDI format. The code that holds this project together is written in C.
TuriSc has documented the build, bill of materials (BoM) and code so you can build your own version of this amazing project. GitHub repository.
