piStudio

Watching @ladyada #DeskOfLadyAda #PiZero #PiHackAda @hackadayio @hackaday PiZero contest 2/20/2016 USB Gadget Stream and what have we here! piZero can "behave" as a MIDI device...this has brought some new ideas!....Thinking of adding feature to make piStudio behave as a "DAW". There were some midi workstations like the motif and GEM ws2, maybe goona see what features we can integrate.

All day i have been messing with the "look" of how I want this Porta-Studio" to look like. here are some of what i Did today.

Here we can see all "pots" Pre-Amp, 3 way EQ, Pan L/R, Channel fader and master Fader L/R. After seein the #DeskOfLadyAda #pihackada Videos on Adafruit Youtube Channel I decided to go with on-board TFT w Touchscreen for minimal editing and if needed use the pizero HDMI out with bigger monitor. We can see there are 4 USB port wich will be provided with USB hub. There is a headphone jacjk and volume and my favorite Vu Meters.

4 Xlr Inputs and 1/4 TRS (Balanced) inputs, Midi In/Out, Monitor Out ,AC power External HDD which will also be hooked up to the Usb Hub and lastly the HDMI port.

Here we get a Glimpse of the HDD Drive bay.

Here i can see more clearly where the components might live. Still need to Add headphones Jack , pre-amp , EQ and panning pots....

I have kept designing the "box" take a look maybe some features that might need to be added?

I wanted to "better" the design I had initially thought of and here i have added 100mm Faders, 3 way Eq, Panning pots and pre-amp pots. Also have added master L/R Faders. some pictures of new design.

After some research i found a chip ,TI PCM4204, that might be better suited for this project. with 4 inputs and 2 outputs i think it might work a bit better? So I started implementing it in the design.

In this picture we can see how the signal goes to pins 5-9 on JP1B then they all go into the faders in next figure.

and the outputs again go thru pins 1-4 JP1A and into the PCM4204 chip which will replace the the other chip.

I have been moving things around. First I am removing SD card . with the internal SATA/IDE HDD I really don't think it is needed. Instead i will add the third USB port so and SD Card could be added with a Card reader and a thumbdrive or anything can be added. i have made the Midi Circuit which will be using UART.The usb Hub circuit is borrowed from HERE. I needed a placeholder to get an idea of size , so this gives me a rough estimate where my usb hub will live. I also have used a PCM1780 to provide Audio but most likely switch over to something like a PhatDac, i really want to use OSH only so I am still looking. I also have added a "HDD enclosure" to get rough estimate where the sata?drive might live.

I thought I would try and get ahead by designing some layouts for what might be the piZero "MotherBoard". just trying out some ideas.

Was able to find a provider that could ship a batch of xlr , midi , ac in connectors, pots and a couple more goodies. Hoping they arrive tomorrow. will start laying out parts and measurements to create proper sketchup models. will share when they arrive. made some progress on the PCB "Hat" board.

After some research in order to add the external sata drive, a sata to usb chasis will serve as the bay to allow connection between pi and sata Hdd.