Blog Posts

Alessandro Fasan and his team of Ensoniq enthusiasts are bringing this classic synth back to life via Teensy!

The MOS Technology 6581 SID. The Yamaha OPN and OPL chips. General Instruments’ AY-3-8910. These legendary sound chips are perhaps not quite household names, but have obtained a cult following with legions of fans each declaring their allegiance to one as the superior sound generator. When the SID’s designer, Bob Yannes left MOS, he co-founded Ensoniq, and designed the 5503 Digital Oscillator Chip (DOC) at the heart of the groundbreaking Ensoniq Mirage sampler synth.

The ALFASoniQ Mirage II began development a Teensy 3.5 coupled with Erturk Kocalar’s Retroshield 6809 housing the DOC (Digital Oscillator Chip). The system is capable of booting the alternative Mirage operating system MASOS 3.2 from SD, and while not all of the voices and modes are functional, full polyphony is supported. Source code can be found on GitHub, while the video below gives a demonstration of the project’s state.

More recently, the ALFASoniQ has moved to development on Teensy 4.1 with software emulation of the 6809 chip. This quick video demos show the project’s progression to utilizing the more powerful hardware to implement more Ensoniq capability.

Step sequencers have been around since at least the 1960s, and from the 1980s and beyond became a very common sight as the number and variety of digital instruments exploded.

This DIY Drum Machine from Robert Robert on YouTube is a unique blend of the two, with a huge number of switches and knobs up front, but a Teensy 3.6 and Audio Adaptor Board generating the beats behind the scenes.

Most step sequencers have 16 buttons with LEDs to indicate on/off status, which are reused in order to create multiple tracks and thus produce layered sounds. This device has a dedicated row of 16 switches for each of its ten tracks/samples, with 16 LEDs above them to indicate which note in the sequence is currently playing. Momentary switches on each row allow the same samples to be triggered at any time, and 10 potentiometers allow the volume of each sample to be adjusted, also effectively allowing a track to be muted. Four additional buttons and knobs allow a further four samples to be triggered at corresponding volumes. A 16×2 I2C LCD display and further knob allows configuration of parameters such as BPM. See it in action and learn more about its construction in the video below!

The Arcom RC210 Advanced Repeater Controller is a popular solution for managing multiple amateur radio repeaters. It has a built-in real-time clock (RTC) for scheduling and other features, but extended power outages and other factors can cause it to drift.

MatA came up with a great solution to this problem in the form of their GPS Time Source project.

Initially based on an Arduino, MatA switched to the Teensy LC on recommendation from a friend, greatly enhancing the project’s capabilities thanks to increased memory and processing power over the original. A custom PCB holds the Teensy, GPS module, LCD display, and DB9 connectors for interfacing to the repeater controller. Find out more on the project’s web page.

The idea of aeroponics — growing plants in an air or mist environment rather than soil — has been around for over a century, yet somehow it always appears very high-tech and novel in practice.

To make things even higher-tech, boomish designed a custom aeroponic garden monitoring system, based on a Teensy 4.1.

The system uses a custom PCB, which incorporates an LM2596S buck converter and TI P82B715DR I2C extenders to give the humidity sensors further reach. The TI HDC1080 low-power digital relative humidity sensors used have a single hard-coded I2C address, so an Analog Devices LTC4316CDD#TRPBF I2C address translator is used to allow them to coexist on the same bus. After creating a successful aeroponic monitoring system, boomish went on to create a SQL-backed hardwood floor humidity monitoring and logging system, with the exciting additional feature of Power over Ethernet (PoE).

ThinkPad keyboards and TrackPoint pointing devices are somewhat legendary, with many connoisseurs preferring older IBM models to current Lenovo products.

It’s no surprise then to see a late 90s IBM ThinkPad 380ED’s peripherals still in use today, although doing so presents a challenge in that unlike newer models, the resistive strain gauge that measures TrackPoint input does not convert it to PS/2.  Frank Adams (thedalles77) has once again solved this challenge as part of the larger USB Laptop Keyboard Controller project.

The project consists of a custom PCB, in order to provide the required connectors, an Analog Devices AD8236 Instrumentation Amplifier reading each channel of the strain gauge, and TI LM358 op-amps providing a reference voltage. Code and documentation can be found on GitHub, with additional detail on Hackaday, and a detailed overview in the video below.

We love to see ham and software-defined radio (SDR) projects. K7MDL discovered the Teensy-based KeithSDR project and effectively forked it with a plethora of enhancements including a color touchscreen and illuminated rotary encoders for a beautiful finished build.

Various implementations allow the device to be used as a receiver, panadapter, or control head over Ethernet. Particular attention was paid to performance with the Bit Transfer Engine (BTE) functionality of the RA8875/RA8876 controller being leveraged to provide smooth scrolling of the spectrum and waterfall without taking CPU cycles away from the Teensy 4.1.

A custom UI framework and gesture engine provide a highly-optimized user experience. Example builds and an extensive wiki can be found on GitHub, with even more pictures and detail on Mike’s blog.

1bit shares the TELEZ BioReactor Controller project.  Teensy runs a collection of pumps, HX711-based load cells, and associated I/O in a 3U rack.

This homebrew solution replaces about $1200 of Siemens hardware, with the added bonus that users will be able to monitor the bioreactor remotely using a custom Android app, thanks to the addition Particle Electron providing cellular data.

TELEZ is used in a variety of equipment (PDF).

Everybody* loves rhythm games, and everybody* loves roller coasters, which is why the two were combined so gloriously in the unique arcade game Groove Coaster.

Originally a touchscreen game, the arcade version added two giant “BOOSTERs” as inputs, which is what GitHub user vikbez recreates with their Groove Coaster Controller project.

Consisting of a Teensy 3.2, two Seimitsu LS32-SE joysticks, two giant 60mm buttons, some 3d-printed parts, a plywood box, and some simple hardware to hold it all together, the result is an incredible likeness of the unique arcade interface. CAD files, code, BOM, and assembly instructions can all be found in the GitHub repo!

*OK, maybe not everybody, but it sounds better that way!

With over ten thousand unique Eurorack modules out in the wild, the level of innovation and expanse of creativity is immense. This VEGA module from FASELUNARE is a prime example.

The button layout is designed to mimic the pattern of four stars in the Lyra Constellation: Sulafat (γ Lyrae), Sheliak (β Lyrae), Zeta Lyrae (ζ Lyrae), and Delta Lyrae (δ Lyrae).

The four-voice, 6HP, Teensy 4.1-based unit is designed for creating percussive sounds, with each channel able to operate as a synthesizer or play samples from the onboard SD card, and the unique interface providing 12 parameters per voice.

While the module is currently sold out, you can sign up for their newsletter to get notified when the next batch is available for pre-order, imagine it in your rack right now via ModularGrid, or preview its capabilities on YouTube.

We see a lot of gaming console emulators for Teensy, but Ryzee119’s Nintendo 64 Controller Emulator caught our attention for its mimicry of accessories for use with a real N64.

In addition to emulating up to four controllers at once, this Teensy 4.1-powered marvel can emulate controller accessories, such as memory Paks, Transfer Paks (for Game Boy data exchange), mice, keyboards, and the Rumble Pak haptic device.

The device takes advantage of Teensy’s USB host capabilities (and cable), and only requires SRAM and a microSD card for basic usage, plus N64 Controller Extensions to connect to the console. An optional display, PCB, and case enhance your emulation experience further. Since it is USB-based, most Xbox-compatible wired controllers should work, as well as Bluetooth 8BitDo controllers via their Wireless USB Adapter, and Xbox 360 Wireless via PC USB Receiver. Firmware, schematics, and detailed usage instructions can all be found on GitHub.