@Partholimew

This is the last post before I submit for funding, so here is an additional description of what V-ARC actually is. I’m also including the pictures again.

Progress update:

I finished all of the details for costs, fixed an issue with the footprint for the 1/4” jacks on the PCB, and made an overview on the GitHub page

What is V-ARC?

V-ARC is a multi-effects pedal, preamp, ble page turner, and looper designed for electric violin. It can also be used for other electric instruments such as guitar. It runs on 2 separate controllers and includes a Lipo battery. It will be capable of being wirelessly reprogrammed for convienience, and should have an app later in development so that settings can be tweaked or effects swapped without interacting with it. It is also going to feature MIDI conversion and wireless playback in the future.

I made the firmware for both controllers. They should be able to communicate over UART. Here’s a code snippet since I’m required to have an image here. All I have left before submitting my funding request is to add details to the GitHub repo and get a cost breakdown/BOM.

I finished the PCB. It has a nice ground zone setup so the analog and digital grounds get mixed near the power where the noise shouldn’t cause issues. Here’s some pictures of the PCB finished.

I finished laying out the PCB and added some ground zones for both analog and digital grounds. These will make up the majority of layer two, except where I need to make vias for crossing other traces and where I have THT components. I started wiring, but I have only just begun that part.

I made a few small changes, including making the input jack have a switch to prevent noise if not plugged in. I also remembered to send the final image this time. Anyway, I did footprint assignment and have now started to lay out the PCB, but I’ll be routing once that’s done. I have to be careful since this is a 2-layer PCB and I have to make one layer almost entirely 2 ground planes. But progress shall be made.

So I finished the schematic by adding the Xiao ESP32-S3 side of the design, which will control the wireless capabilities such as the built in page-turner and should later allow for reflashing or editing the Daisy Seed 3 board wirelessly. I also took awhile to organize all the sheets in the schematic to make it easier to reference and debug if I find errors (and for anyone else that may make one of these or design software for it. Once I do a few more checks it’ll be onto PCB design.
Edit: I missed the picture of the new section, but Stardance doesn’t allow adding more files, so I’ll add it in the next devlog I guess.

I made the audio front end sheet which will allow it to take in the audio from the violin and amplify it before processing the other effects and such. I also updated the name. Then, I made the sheet for the audio core, which uses a daisy seed 3 board and a whole lot of switches. Here’s some pictures of the progress

Ok, so I’ve been playing violin for around 8 years now, and I finally decided to get a 5-string electric one. However, I find that preamps and effect pedals, especially ones actually intended for violin, are rather expensive. The same is true of page turner pedals. So my goal here is to design one that is far cheaper, has more features, and can be customized. I also wanted to implement a wireless page turner and power it with a rechargeable battery. So to start, I made a power management sheet. It takes in USB-C power, charges a 3000 mAh battery, and converts it to a +5V, +9V, and -9V.

Here’s an update since it’s been awhile. I have received all my parts. It took awhile since I accidentally ordered the wrong solder paste and had to wait to get the new one though. Anyway, I have assembled the board, accidentally put the LEDs on backwards, had to remove and reorient them, and now I’m debugging it to see what could be wrong with it. The power LED does turn on, but the board is not recognized, so I’m still looking into why. Here’s how it turned out though! (SMD soldering is fun!)

I made the BOM and setup my github page. I wanted to make sure that I got the correct parts, since the Kicad BOM was not correct at first.

I did a few things. First, I made a basic form of the firmware for one of the dice as well as the charging hub. It definitely isn’t final, but there’s only so much that can be done without having the actual device yet. I then designed a case for the charging hub. Here’s what it looks like. There are magnet slots next to the rectangles, but they aren’t visible from above.

I made the PCB for the charging hub. I also turned it into a panel, so that the entire thing will fit in a 100x100 mm order rather than several orders. This will be a flex PCB, which is not ideal for the hub, but needed for the dice themselves. There are 7 dice here, but I will only be making 6. (I’m skipping the 2nd d10, since it’s just different values on the same die) Also, The PCB for the charger can be pretty small since I just have to run a ground and power wire to each charging slot. Next up is 3d modeling for the dice and the charger.

I finished the PCB for the die. There will be one of these in each die, but it should function with the same design for each die. The firmware will just have to be slightly different for each so the 3-axis accelerometer knows what each side is supposed to read. I did finally get my custom footprint for the supercapacitor working as well. Here’s some pictures of the design and PCB render. It’s going to be a flex PCB so it can fit in a 10x10x10mm space

It’s about time to ship! I finished the firmware, assembled it the rest of the way, and updated my GitHub page, as well as make a short demo video of using it in-game.

I have begun the layout of the pcb that will go inside the die. i will be using a flex pcb, so that I can fold it around the inside of the die, since I’m working everything in a 10x10 mm space. I’m hoping I can keep it that small, since some dice are smaller than others and I want to mostly keep the same internals for the different dice. I do still have to make a footprint for the supercapacitor I’m using (currently C3, but it’s not correct), which will go in the center.

Almost done fixing firmware. I got the keys working as well as rgb cycling. Once I get the OLED display working, I’ll just have to make some case adjustments and it will be ready to ship!

Now that I have the PCB, I soldered everything together. I apparently managed to flip the display’s connector in my PCB design, so mine has some wires instead of the headers, but I’m going to update the design to fix that. next up is testing the basic firmware and then making it better.

So, I’ve decided to make some wireless dice. I realize they already exist, but they always seem to be over $20 a die not including the charging dock. So I’m going to do it for less (I hope). Anyway, here’s my initial schematic of the dice and the dock. The hardest part of this design is going to be fitting it inside the dice without making them much bigger, though some dice will have to be bigger. (I’m looking at you d4)

I made my GitHub repo for the project! I also added the mic holes to the case, selected my final components, and made a cost breakdown. Time to submit my funding request!