It arrived!

[Aron]

My Gecho just arrived today, very excited to try it! Still need to solder a few wires and finish the box but I already see myself playing with this beauty in the upcoming years! Also, never been the first person to post on a message board, feels awesome! 

[mario]

Hi Aron, that's great - glad to hear it arrived on time. And, welcome to the forum!
By the way, before soldering batteries and the rest, you can try it immediately, by powering via USB from a computer, charger or a power bank.
Hope you like it, I'm eager to hear what you think!

[jat]

Hi everyone's!
Got mine too yesterday, great work Mario! pcb is gorgeous, intuitive setting, good sound...

awaiting for the code realease... hope to change or hack some features, like "no delay" at power on (and setting channel), midi sync in and chords from keyboard...

well, hope the community will become large as possible...

cheer's

Gaël

[mario]

Hi Gaël, welcome on board!

Thank you, I'm delighted to hear you like the PCB, sound, and especially that you find settings intuitive enough. There is still work left on it, but I'll keep it within what the "Quick start" sticker says.

Yes, the code and everything will be published very soon. I am trying to balance work between shipping and catching up with what was promised at the software side (also to get a break from manual work once in a while )

Do you mean "no delay" as if it should start playing immediately, a default channel, without needing to press everything? Or, no delay as having echo completely off? (that can be currently achieved by pressing button #3 during play, more times - till it reaches that setting).

Midi sync and chords from keyboard will be definitely achievable, glad you are interested in expanding the firmware!

[vandb]

Hi guys, mine arrived a few days back as well.  Really looks great, Mario. Have not been able to fiddle around with it very much, but I already had a lot of fun experimenting with channel 342 and input with my Crackle Box. Two nice wooden boxex 

[mario]

Hi Jan, welcome!

Happy to hear you like it and that you immediately taught it to co-operate with your other box instrument

I only learned about Cracklebox now, thanks to you (this is one reason why I love this project a lot)... looks bit like a theremin but it is not wireless, user is closing the circuit and affecting sound with their resistance, right?

It probably does not have wired output, just speakers, but you could hack it. On the "pickups" input, Gecho will take any signal within 0-3V range - maybe use a passive divider if wider range needed. The input is AC coupled and has protective diodes, so no worries about damaging something.

[vandb]

Hi Mario, the crackle box (or Kraakbox, in Dutch) is sound device with touch sensor and indeed works with closing the circuits. Really gives you some unexpected sound eruptures ;-). Just have a look at wikipedia for some interesting links (even one for a DIY crackle box).https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kraakdoos

Because I bought this one from the original inventor's organization (STEIM), I rather not hack it. But your info on the signal of the pickups could come in handy when experimenting with other devices.

[mario]

Ah right, so you have an original - no hacking then of course!

Would be a fun to build new one and connect it directly. Plenty of schematics available, e.g. this - first result on Google:
http://noisybox.net/electronics/cracklebox/images/kraakdoos_schematic.gif
(more info: http://noisybox.net/electronics/cracklebox )

[bronwen]

Hello! Mine arrived this morning (or rather, yesterday, I seem to have stayed up quite late playing with it). I ordered the "no solder" version but neither of my headphone jacks were soldered to the board. Luckily I ordered it that way because I'm lazy (and a little afraid of soldering on such a tiny board), not because I can't solder. So it wasn't too much trouble to fix the jacks to the board and everything else seems okay, and sounds great. I'm not sure that custom song mode is working, nothing plays back after entering notes, but it's still a lot of fun to play with and I love the dreamy echoey sounds so much.

[mario]

Hi Bronwen, apologies - I must have been tired when packing it - it happened once before but I've noticed it last second. At least this one luckily ended up with you!

Yes the direct programming is broken, messed up something while refactoring and adding the DCO synth mode, and only noticed after flashing hundred or two boards.... Anyway, it will be fixed in the update. Meanwhile you can use the App for programming your own songs and melodies - however it might require some guessing, as there is no manual yet (only the demo video).

[bronwen]

Thanks for the link to the video! I hadn't watched that one yet so I will check it out. I'm sure it will help!

[jat]

Do you mean "no delay" as if it should start playing immediately, a default channel, without needing to press everything? Or, no delay as having echo completely off? (that can be currently achieved by pressing button #3 during play, more times - till it reaches that setting).

Yes I saw that, I mean I want to change programs with "no echo" as default setting when program is loaded. For live perfomance using my own delay/reverd effects, I think it's just few lines in the code so it's a good way to enter the source code...

[mario]

@bronwen - it's poor resolution I'm afraid so maybe not easy to see what happens there... The manual will have screenshots and detailed explanation of course.

@jat - exactly, this is an example of a good thing to start with. All you need to do is take an existing channel, copy it under a new number and tweak few things... and, later, maybe invent your own effects

[davidleehoth]

I have mine as well.  It's superb.   

I did have one quick question, and apologies if I missed this somewhere.  Is there a way to set like a master BPM for songs?

[mario]

Great! Happy to hear you like it!

Well, the tempo is not possible to change from 120 bpm at the moment (only the delay loop can be changed) but as an essential feature it's on my to-do list, will get back to the software after shipping is done.

Perhaps a setting from 80 to 180 bpm in 5 bpm increments would do to start with? Should the range be wider / more detailed?

People were also asking about "tap tempo", which should be relatively easy to implement - either listening to tapping via microphones, or scanning one of the IR sensors.