eXaDrums

As you may have noticed, last year I announced that I was working on a new input board for eXaDrums.

A few things have happened since then, and I've release more info about that board.

If you want to know more about it, there's a post here: https://news.exadrums.com/article/new-arduino-nano-every-board-part5 that gives all the details you need, as well as links to all the posts related to the board.

https://news.exadrums.com/article/new-arduino-nano-every-board-part1

https://news.exadrums.com/article/raspberry-pi-os-bullseye

https://news.exadrums.com/article/libexadrums-js

https://news.exadrums.com/article/TD-4KP-configuration

The official website exadrums.com is now live!

I also did my best to make a nice video to describe exadrums visually:

There's also a new website, dedicated to the project news: news.exadrums.com.

From now on, I'll post all the news on the web page, and I'll just reference them here on hackaday, in the project logs.

The future of exadrums is probably different than what you may think.

So far, exadrums is a two-part software, there's a library, libexadrums, and another component, the user interface. The whole drum module is, in fact, in the library, and exposes a C++ API. That means libexadrums can be used with other languages, such as Python, Javascript, etc.

A C++ user interface has its advantages, but exadrums could benefit from other languages. For instance,  a more "connected" experience would be easier to implement in Python or Javascript.

And that's how I see the future of exadrums: a Connected Open Source Drum Module. Some things are already in the works, but others will take some time, however, I'll do my best to publish news more frequently, to keep you informed about the project.

About that, the project website exadrums.com will be online pretty soon! Hope you'll like it.

It's been a week now, that Debian Bullseye has been released, and exadrums packages are part of it!

If you use Debian, and have upgraded to Bullseye, you can now install exadrums via apt:

sudo apt install exadrums

What about Raspberry Pi OS?

It's only been a few days since Debian 11 has been released, so there's no news about the next Raspberry Pi OS (formerly Raspbian). Let's give them some time to publish a proper release. I can already tell you that you'll get the same version of exadrums as Debian in Raspberry Pi OS, it'll be exadrums 0.6.0.

Anyhow, when the new Raspberry Pi OS will be released, you'll be able to install exadrums via apt on your Raspberry Pi.

Using Debian Bullseye on a Raspberry Pi

If you don't want to wait until the version of Raspberry Pi OS comes out, you can install Debian Bullseye on your Raspberry Pi using one of the images available at: Tested images. I haven't tried any of them, but they've been tested, so they should work.

First of all, happy new year everyone!

And to celebrate this new year, I'm proud to announce that I'm working on a brand new website for exadrums: exadrums.com. I plan on releasing the finished website mid 2021, so here's what you get for now:

Links to the project pages on Hackaday, Github, OSH Park, etc, are listed on that page.

The main goal of this website is to provide a comprehensive user guide, so that you can build your own drum module or e-drums flawlessly.

Some of the content will be based on the current documentation (which is a work in progress) available here: https://github.com/SpintroniK/exadrums-docs.

I attempted, to years ago, to make an enclosure for eXaDrums (eXaDrums: A Drum Module You Can Make (2)). Unfortunately, I wasn't satisfied with the result, so I decided to take my time and learn how to model an enclosure properly. Good news is, the enclosure is now finished and is fully 3D printable. Here it is:

I think it looks good! (Yes, the screws are also 3D printed, and yes, you can use a standard screwdriver.)

I shall post the STL files on my Thingiverse page pretty soon.
To print this enclosure, you'll need some PLA and a 3D printer with a minimum bed size of 150x150mm. It takes about 9 hours to print the whole thing with my printer.

So now eXaDrums is a complete drum kit, and even the enclosure is open source!
Here are more pics: