Bananaphone: A Touch Capacitance Synth

Bananaphone: A Touch Capacitance Synth:

Aw hell yeah, Bananaphone!

I was recently inspired by a Kickstart project which used Bananas as sensors to control a video game on a PC.  I’ve done some video game controls using the Propeller in the past, but I thought this would make an interesting synthesizer project.

Parallax Propeller Quickstart USB Development Board. The QuickStart is an evaluation board for the 8-Core Parallax Propeller. As an open-source reference design the QuickStart board provides basic Propeller circuitry. Developers may use our PCB layout files as their own to speed their project towards completion. As a project board the QuickStart is fully expandable and provides unimpeded access to all I/O pins through an expansion header but includes some button inputs and LEDs to demonstrate programming. With USB power and a selection of QuickStart Project examples it’s also the fastest way to get up and running.
Examples at Parallax Semiconductor:

• QuickStart 1: Comparison of Programming Tools
• QuickStart 2: Propeller Programming First Steps
• QuickStart 3: Introduction to Spin Objects
• QuickStart 4: Common Methods Found in Objects
• QuickStart 5: Multiple Cogs
• QuickStart 6: Using the Parallax Serial Terminal

Features:

• Open hardware reference design through our Altium and DipTrace PCB layout files (more export options may be possible)
• Bus-powered USB coupled with 3.3V regulator for 500 mA
• 5 mHz cyrstal on board may be disabled by removing SMT jumper, allowing replacement with external through-hole crystal
• 64KB EEPROM (32K for P8X32A program, 32K for general-purpose use)
• External brownout reset may be installed by removing SMT jumper
• (8) blue LEDs on P16-P23
• (8) resistive touch-buttons on P0-P7
• Pads for sigma-delta A/D circuitry (two resistors and two capacitors, both 0603) for using the Sigma-Delta A/D AppNote
• Expansion header provides access to Vss, Vdd, 32 I/O pins (28 for any use, 2 are I²C bus, and two are optional Tx/Rx if connected to USB power)
• Measures 2″ x 3″ (5.1 cm x 7.6 cm)

This board doesn’t come with a mini-B USB cable or bumpers, but we stock them in the shop so you may want to pick those up.
In stock and Propelling now!