DSP Robotics Support

Hi everyone,
I'm absolute new to flowstone. I downloaded flowstone free and synthmaker free and find it very interesting.

I'm not sure if my plans are possible with flowstone + flowbard etc. So I want to ask some questions before i purchase the enterprise version.

My idea is to build a little dsp based "va synthesizer". Planned is to run the synthie on a fitpc1 + flowboard.

Now my questions:

- Is it possible to connect potentiometers to the flowboard, which controll the parameters of the synthesizer?
- Is it possible to controll an analouge filterchip from potis, connectet to the flowboard?

I hope that i'm not dreaming to much

Thanks alot
André

I'm not sure of how the flowboard works, I'll get in to that next i think. I would imagine that connecting pots to an Arduino board and having the Arduino communicate values via a com port would be pretty trivial! It took me all of an hour to get a similar thing working after being on the software for just 1 day.

stahlblau wrote:Hi everyone,
I'm absolute new to flowstone. I downloaded flowstone free and synthmaker free and find it very interesting.

I'm not sure if my plans are possible with flowstone + flowbard etc. So I want to ask some questions before i purchase the enterprise version.

My idea is to build a little dsp based "va synthesizer". Planned is to run the synthie on a fitpc1 + flowboard.

Now my questions:

- Is it possible to connect potentiometers to the flowboard, which controll the parameters of the synthesizer?
- Is it possible to controll an analouge filterchip from potis, connectet to the flowboard?

I hope that i'm not dreaming to much

Thanks alot
André

I would recommend the Flowboard over a COM interface to an Arduino or whatever, simply because of the COM interface. Yes, it will work, and there is nothing wrong with that, but the Flowboard is a direct USB connection, which makes using it a whole lot easier, versus COM ports which can be a real pain in the rear, I'm not saying Flowstone has issues with COM ports but, it can be picky

The board has 8 analog inputs, that are 10 bit, which is fine for pot inputs. If you need more than 8 you can use an analog switch like a DG411 quad analog switch, since I would imagine a synthesizer needing more than 8 inputs.

Not sure about the "analouge filterchip from potis", but this would be where a COM interface could come in handy. There isn't an analog output on the Flowboard, simply 8 analog in, 16 digital in and 16 digital outs, in addition to the expansion port (gsm modem, etc). If the chip requires a SPI, I2C or other similar interface, using a COM port to an Arduino or similar chip (Parallax Propeller perhaps) would be your best bet. Although the Arduino is a good learning chip, and has a huge user base, the Propeller has a ton of audio capability, and would be my recommendation if you have no preferences.

As to the fitpc part, Flowstone would work well with it, but I would recommend the FITPC2 version, simply because it is more up to date. I also recommend the straight Windows XP versus the Embedded, even with the added bootup time, simply due to the added difficulty getting Embedded up and running.

Wow, this was exactly what I wanted to know

Many thanks for your detailed reply!

I think i'll give it a try with the flowboard. Flowstone free should be enough for the first try...

There is one more question i have regarding win embedded:
Isn't it allready well configured on the flowdrive?

You are correct, it is supposed to be fully configured and ready to go. I haven't tried to though so I can't say how well it works.