gdsports has made a joystick splitter that solves the problem of the Microsoft Xbox Adaptive Controller (XAC) ignoring the hat switch on the Logitech Extreme 3D Pro Flight Stick.

The splitter uses 2 Teensy-LC boards and an Adafruit ItstyBitsy to remap the joystick controls and maps the Logictech Flight Stick to the XAC in the following ways:

• Joystick X,Y maps to the left thumbstick
• Hat 8-way switch maps to the right thumbstick
• 4 top buttons map to A, B, X, Y
• Front trigger maps to right bumper
• Side trigger maps to left bumper

Code for the project can be found in this Github repository.

Brian Taylor of Bolder Flight has put together a great tutorial on Pulse Width Modulation (PWM).

PWM is commonly used to control servos and electronic speed controllers (ESC) and is useful for many projects.  This tutorial explains PWM and introduces how to wire up and command a servo  Part 2 of the tutorial go over reading PWM commands.

The tutorial features the PWM Backback by Bolder Flight.  This handy backbpack makes it easy to hookup RC Servo Motors to your Teensy.  It features 8 channels of 16 bit PWM output; bused ground, power, and standard servo connectors; and option SBUS communication input.

Darryl McGee and Steve Barile of Conductive Labs have developed the NDLR (pronounced Noodler), a 4-part poly sequenced arpeggiator, chord and drone player based on the Teensy 3.2.

The guys at Conductive Labs came with a unique solution to break down music theory into knobs and controls. The NDLR has four parts that can play up to 8 synths.  The PAD part is a chord player.  Press one of the 7 chord buttons and all the other parts change notes to match.  There are also 2 “Motifs” which are sequenced arpeggiators.  The Drone part can play a single continuous note like a traditional drone does… or choose from various retrigging options, such as having the note retrigger on a chord change, the down beat, every beat, up beat, etc.

Among the many advanced features packed into the NDLR is a pattern and rhythm editor that lets you create custom arpeggios.  You can also save your patches and settings for later recall with the 8 global slave slots, 20 user patter slots, and 20 user rhythm slots.

You can get a NDLR through their IndiGoGo campaign

This video is of a performance by Graig Anthony Perkins using the NDLR.

John Grant built MyComm,  a very clever solar global messaging device.

MyComm is a portable messaging device that allows users to send messages from anywhere on Earth.  It uses the Iridium satellite system to offer coverage beyond traditional cellular and WiFi networks.  Because it’s solar powered you don’t need to worry about battery life.

Code for the project can be found on BitBucket

Details on how to set up a MyComm Server is documented on this page and the code is available on GitHub.

https://github.com/johngrantuk/myCommServer

Brian Taylor and the team at Bolder Flight Systems have developed a low -latency, deterministic, scalable flight control system.

Bolder Flight Systems is an spinoff from the University of Minnesota UAS Research labs.  They found that at the time the they were working on research, they weren’t really happy with the low-cost options out there so they developed their own primarily to better handle latency and determinism.  Their development has evolved from using a MPC-Tiny processor and adding a Teensy 3.2 to using a Teensy 3.6 and BeagleBone Black.

They wanted a system that could scale from simple drones to extremely complex aircraft with a large amounts for sensor and actuator I/O.  Their efforts have lead to a scalable system to a virtually unlimited number of sensor and actuators while maintaining determinism and a constant, well defined latency.

Technical details (as well as purchasing details) can be found over at Bolder Flight Systems. They have also developed a series of Teensy shields, or Backpacks to allow you to easily add different modules to your Teensy. Low level drivers for for all their sensors are available on GitHub.

Andrew Ashe, Jerry Sandys, and Peter Gibbs sent a balloon to near space.

The balloon is filled with helium and is equipped with cameras, and iridium satellite modem, a Teensy using Mikal Hart’s GPS code, and a.  The balloon achieved and altitude of about 35 km and captured video showing the beginning of the black of space.  The payload was recovered using the iridium tracker.

 

Sebastian Tomczak continues to create great MIDI devices, this time a USB MIDI to Eight Gates and Sixteen Control Voltage outputs.

The control voltage (CV) outputs are 12-bit and 0V to 4.096V in range, with a four octave range for pitch.

The device has 3 mapping modes – 0, 1, and 2.

In mapping mode 0, gates 1 to 8 respond to note on and note off messages on MIDI channels 1 to 8. CV outputs 1 to 8 are determined by the pitch of note on messages on MIDI channels 1 to 8. CV outputs 9 to 16 are determined by the velocity of note on messages on MIDI channels 1 to 8.

In mapping mode 1, gates 1 to 8 respond to note on and note off messages on MIDI channels 1 to 8. CV outputs 1 to 8 are determined by the pitch of note on messages on MIDI channels 1 to 8. CV outputs 9 to 16 are determined by the control change message for controller 1 on MIDI channels 1 to 8.

In mapping mode 2, gates 1 to 8 respond to note on and note off messages on MIDI channels 1 to 8. CV outputs 1 to 16 are determined by the pitch bend value of pitch bend messages on MIDI channels 1 to 16.

You can find downloads of the code, schematic, and PCB layout for the project on the Little-Scale blog post/project page.

Smart Interior Systems built a pretty amazing LED Music visualization wall.

The 16′ x 8 ‘ wall is made up of 10 4′ x 4’ panels.  It has a Teensy 3.2 driving 2560 WS2811 LEDs and uses the FastLED library, ARTNET/DMX protocol, and Jinkx 2.4 software.  For power they used 5V 30 Amp switched-mode power supplies (SMPS) for every 512 LEDs.

Loyal J made a cool USB pinball controller, Pinbox Jr,  to use on your PC.

The Pinbox JR is a USB controller that gives PC games the feel of playing on a real pinball table.  It interfaces with a PC as a USB keyboard and maps the pinball buttons to various keys on the keyboard.  The latest version of the Pinbox Jr includes an accelerometer to simulate the tilt feature if you shake the controller.

Code for the project can be found on Github

Anthony DiGirolamo has made a great Teensy Thumb Keyboard.

This small tactile keyboard is super to use with handheld projects.  It has 60 keys arranged in a QWERTY layout and number keys arranged in a number pad layout.   The board has beginner friendly through hole soldering with a Teensy, 60 pushbuttons, and 10 zener diodes.

Anthony used this thumb board to make a handheld Raspberry Pi.  Using the Teensy he was able to add backlight control and low batter monitoring in addition to controlling the keyboard.

Code for the project can be found in the Teensy Thumb Keyboard Github repository.  KiCad files are available or you can also order the PCB from Tindie.  Finally, you can find the files to 3D print the case used for the handheld Pi project on Thingverse.