Conclusions
This process was arduous, yet highly rewarding. We are proud of what we achieved. We also recognize that there is much more work to do. The most important thing about this project was being able to practice all of the soft skills associated with working in a team with a deadline. More specifically, we found it difficult to collaborate effectively between hardware and software designers. We learned how vital it is to be able to speak to both the software and hardware sides of a project. Issues arise when there is minimal communication between those two sides of a project. For example, as discussed earlier in this report, many of our problems with the PCB could have been minimized if there had been more effective communication about wants/needs during the PCB design phase. We also learned a lot about troubleshooting and debugging systems with both hardware and software. When we ran into issues, we first had to do testing to figure out if the hardware or software was causing the issue, and then we could begin to work on a solution. While we were unable to deliver the full prototype of our idea, our project was still successful in many ways. We gained experience in planning, design, and execution throughout the entire life cycle of our product.
Future Work
Through the process of creating the algorithms, we discovered some possible hardware interactions that we would like to implement in further iterations of this project. As it stands, all three algorithms are running at all times. In order to switch between them, we simply mute the output of two of the algorithms and raise the volume of the third. With more knobs, we could alter the design so that multiple algorithms could be used at the same time – resulting in greater possible tonal variation. We imagine a setup where we utilize 3 on/off switches and 9 knobs to control each algorithm while maintaining 3 controllable parameters for each algorithm.
The final thing we want to include in the next iteration is user presets. There is a vast set of sounds available in our device and users may want to have quick access to a variety of sounds, especially in a live performance context. We propose functionality so that the device can save the current values of all of its parameters. Then, the user could switch between the saved parameter values and the values that are currently being registered at the analog inputs of the Teensy.
In the future, we will implement these design changes. We plan on focusing on the control of the DSP algorithms. These control options will also allow us to integrate our device with other units. Control voltage is an industry-standard for allowing signals from one device to control another device. We had planned to have this feature on our original iteration but did not have enough time for it this semester. We are excited to take our ideas forward and improve upon this design and outcome.