Sending MIDI messages using PING ultrasonic sensor

Question

I am working on a project that uses a potentiometer and an ultrasonic sensor to create MIDI signals. This is my first time working with an arduino. I took a class in C++, but am teaching myself some C in order to program the arduino. So far I have been looking at code that has been written, I've been trying to understand it and mess with it so that my arduino works. The first code creates notes, but I have no control over what notes play or when they play. The first code:

#include <SoftwareSerial.h>

int val;
int AnalogValue = 0;    
byte note = 0;  
SoftwareSerial midiSerial(2, 3);

void setup () 
{

  pinMode(Pingpin, OUTPUT);
  Serial.begin(9600);
  midiSerial.begin(31250);
}


void loop()
{
  val = 0;
  digitalWrite(Pingpin, LOW);
  delayMicroseconds(2);
  digitalWrite(Pingpin, HIGH);
  delayMicroseconds(5);
  digitalWrite(Pingpin, LOW);

  AnalogValue = analogRead(0);
  note = AnalogValue/8;

  pinMode(Pingpin, INPUT); 
  val = digitalRead(Pingpin); 
  while(val == LOW) 
  { 
    noteOn(val, note, 0x40);
  }
  while(val == HIGH) 
  {
     noteOn(val, note, 0x40);       

  }

}
void noteOn(byte cmd, byte data1, byte  data2) 
{
    midiSerial.write(cmd);
   midiSerial.write(data1);
   midiSerial.write(data2);
}

The second code makes more sense to me, but I get no notes to play. I am lost, and can't seem to get the second code to work. Second code:

#include <SoftwareSerial.h>

int val; 
int timecount; 
int AnalogValue;  
int ultrasoundValue; 
const int Pingpin = 8;

byte note = 0;  

SoftwareSerial midiSerial(2, 3); 

void setup ()
{

  pinMode(Pingpin, OUTPUT); 
  Serial.begin(9600);
  midiSerial.begin(31250);
}
void loop()
{
  AnalogValue = analogRead(0); 
  note = AnalogValue/8; 
  Serial.print(note,HEX);
  Serial.print("\t");

  timecount = 0; 
  val = 0;  
  digitalWrite(Pingpin, LOW); 
  delayMicroseconds(2); 
  digitalWrite(Pingpin, HIGH);
  delayMicroseconds(5);  
  digitalWrite(Pingpin, LOW); 

  pinMode(Pingpin, INPUT); 
  val = digitalRead(Pingpin); 
  while(val == LOW) 
  { 
   val = digitalRead(Pingpin);
  }

  while(val == HIGH)
  { 
   val = digitalRead(Pingpin);
   timecount++;       
  }

   ultrasoundValue = timecount; 
   ultrasoundValue = ultrasoundValue - 14; 
   ultrasoundValue = ultrasoundValue / 5;

  Serial.print(ultrasoundValue);

if(ultrasoundValue > 127)   
 {

 }

else 
  {

   noteOn(ultrasoundValue, note, 0x40); 

  }





}
void noteOn(byte cmd, byte data1, byte  data2)   
{
   midiSerial.write(cmd);
   midiSerial.write(data1);
   midiSerial.write(data2);
}

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 08 '14 at 00:39

There is quite a bit that needs to be addressed for these programs to work, and I don't know too much about midi, but i'll use the arduino midi tutorial for info. http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/Midi?from=Tutorial.MIDI

The first code will take one measurement of an analog value, set it to note, make one digital reading of pingPin, set that to val, and then write noteOn() forever afterwards. The second code will continually make analog and Ping readings and then write those to serial if the ping reading is greater than 127.

Infinite loop aside, Your programs don't work largely because they send the sensor data in the wrong ways. The first byte sent to noteOn is a command byte, it should not contain sensor data. the arduino tutorial uses the command 0x90 to control the note being played on channel one. the second byte is the note and the third byte is velocity, which seems to work like volume.

to set the pitch and volume of channel one, you need to repeatedly send

noteOn( 0x90, note, volume);

If you want to play a note based on the analog readings that both of your codes set to "note" only when the ping value is larger than 127, you need something like this

if(ultrasoundValue > 127){
    noteOn(0x90, note, 0x45); //middle volume according to arduino tutorial
} else {
    noteOn(0x90, note, 0x00); //make the note silent by using 0 volume
}

if you instead wanted to control the pitch with the ultrasoundValue, you would need to scale the value to being within 0-255, and then use that as note instead of the analog reading. You can get much more complicated than this, but you will need to find a reference for the MIDI protocol you can use.

Sending MIDI messages using PING ultrasonic sensor

1 Answers1