Syntherrupter - A Feature-rich, Polyphonic Interrupter

[Georgios]

Of course you can, in fact I might upload more of this kind of videos and that's thanks to your program. So I will be glad if you include it in your Syntherrupter pages.

[futurist]

Sounds excellent! Could you share your midi files?

[Mads Barnkob]

Shared MIDI files are moved to: https://highvoltageforum.net/index.php?topic=118.0

[Max]

Small update: The piano envelope I shared here a while back is now included in the firmware. New version v4.1.1: https://github.com/MMMZZZZ/Syntherrupter/releases/tag/v4.1.1

Kind regards,
Max

[Max]

My timing is awful, I know. By pure chance I came across a MIDI file that reliably causes the note list issue I encountered during the fuzzing test (symptoms: Syntherrupter stops responding, needs to be reset). This allowed me to find and eliminate the issue. Repeating the fuzzing I found two other issues that are solved now, too. Stupidly this happened only hours after I created the last release. Anyways, here's the fixed one: https://github.com/MMMZZZZ/Syntherrupter/releases/tag/v4.1.2
The good news: the new version can be bombarded with as much serial garbage as you want it doesn't cause any issues. No reset needed to continue with normal MIDI playback afterwards.

Kind regards,
Max

[Max]

Good evening everyone,


During my latest work on the code (more on that below), I found out that the support for MIDI running status had been broken since v4.0.0. And furthermore, the NRP editor doesn't work. Looking at the git history I honestly don't understand why it ever worked because hasn't really been changed since I implemented it. And I do know that it worked at some point, because I used it quite a lot when testing the stereo stuff.
Anyways, both things are fixed now. Since no one has ever used these features so far (or lets say, no one has complained that they're broken), I'll wait a bit before drafting a new release. Who knows what else I'm going to find...

The new stuff I've been working on is the possibility to fully control Syntherrupter over MIDI commands (so called sysex messages). The main idea is that you can embed those commands into your MIDI files which eventually allows you to play any MIDI file without even touching Syntherrupter. No need to change the channel assignments, the stereo positions, ontimes, duties, ... all of this can be directly embedded into the file and thus loaded automatically when you play them. And since this is compliant with the MIDI standard, you don't lose compatibility with any MIDI player or any other MIDI device.
This is a rather big change, hence I plan to introduce it step by step.
1. Ability to receive and process sysex commands, although nothing will be visible in the UI
2. Document the parameters
3. Automatically refresh on-screen data when receiving sysex commands.
4. Sysex export, allowing to send the current settings to the PC (or another MIDI device), removing the need to manually type all the commands.
5. Figure out the easiest way to add such a bunch of commands to an existing midi file.

Step 1 would already allow me (and others) to share prepared MIDI files with more complex stereo configurations, without having to explain all the settings involved. Step 3 only requires a complete redesign of the interface between display and microcontroller. Step 4 will be interesting because i'll need to somehow group the parameters in a meaningful way, and make those groups selectable. You probably don't want to always save ALL parameters into a MIDI file.
For now my main goal is step 1 and 2. The remaining steps will probably be delayed by quite some time.


Kind regards,
Max

[Mads Barnkob]

Great work Max! You crank out software updates faster than I get can my stuck parts from the Suez canal

I am finishing a Academy profession that I have been studying for 4 years, besides full time work, and I am handing in my final assingment in some 9 weeks. So time is really scarce on me, if you have specific things you need tested, I will see if I can find a spot for that.

I just took a quick glance at MIDIEditor and in its manual: http://www.midieditor.org/index.php?category=manual&subcategory=midi-overview it mentions SysEx: "System Exclusive Events: System Exclusive Events are used by manufacturers to provide a way to send device-specific messages." But I can not find a way to edit these events inside the editor... Seeing as these are device specific, I was expecting to find a event that just lets you put in the raw MMC/SysEx lines maybe with a pre-configured F0 in start and F7 at end...

It is a great idea that you will work on putting these settings into the files. Else in a show settings, you need to move fast on changing settings or run a show with "same" settings. Looking forward to see your progress.

[Max]

Thank you! And good luck for your final assignment!

if you have specific things you need tested, I will see if I can find a spot for that.

Very kind offer but no, currently not. The bugfixes are already tested and the SysEx stuff isn‘t ready for a release yet. I do have a first implementation of a few commands and already a pretty complete documentation. However, it is currently not possible to control anything outside of MIDI Live mode - a limitation I want to get rid of before releasing a beta.

Good point about editing those messages. SynthFont, the editor and player I use, seems to have the same limitation. I can see sysex messages but I can‘t create or edit them. Apparently it is common practice to store SysEx data in separate files using the .syx extension. When searching for „sysex editor“ I do find tools for loading and saving sysex data from/to those files. Some are adapted to the format of specific manufacturers others are even simpler and just load/dump the hex data (Send SX). That is fine once Syntherrupter is able to export data. For now however, this is not at all user friendly. I‘ll probably cobble some python script together that specifically supports Syntherrupters messages, allowing you to set „ontime“ of „coil 3“ in „midi live mode“ to 100us instead of writing F0 00 26 05 01 7F 20 00 03 00 64 00 00 00 00 F7.

Oh btw. I recently saw in your Syntherrupter video at 16:30 that the table grid in the coil limit settings disappeared when you selected a value. That‘s not supposed to happen and I guess it‘s another quirk of the intelligent series. If you want, you could send me your modified HMI file and I‘ll have a quick look at it. I‘m curious about where that comes from.


Kind regards,
Max

[Max]

Got a bug report on GitHub: https://github.com/MMMZZZZ/Syntherrupter/issues/11
Fixed and released it together with the running status and NRP Editor fixes as v4.1.3

Kind regards,
Max

[Max]

Sysex implementation is making progress. Most things are now controllable by sysex commands but there're still some things I want to take care of.

Taking a break from the work on Syntherrupter itself, I wrote a tool for generating those sysex commands. Having written a couple of them by hand I am sure that without a tool no one will ever use them. The result is Syfoh - Sysex for humans. You provide your wishes as readable text and Syfoh converts it to the corresponding sysex command:

Code: [Select]

Input:  Set ontime for coil 1 and mode simple to 100
Output: F0 00 26 05 01 7F 21 00 01 00 64 00 00 00 00 F7
Commands can be given one by one using the command line, or by specifying a text file with a whole bunch of them. Syfoh can send the commands directly to a serial port, store them as text, as binary (compatible with .syx files/editors), or just write the hex data to the console. The binary files can be passed to a serial port using pretty much any tool. No additional processing required.

While it is not a nice, good looking GUI I think it is pretty much "best bang per buck" (in the sense of highest ease-of-use per development time). Writing text files instead of clicking around is probably much faster anyways - especially when using an editor like Notepad++.
This tool doesn't allow you to embed the commands into your MIDI file but it gets very close: load sysex commands from (text/binary) file, play MIDI file. Should be more than useful enough for stage performance. Alternatively you might find a .syx tool that allows you to convert the data to a MIDI file which could then be further processed but this doesn't seem like it's worth the effort.


Kind regards,
Max

[SimonNwardUK]

Hi id like to share my Syntherrupter build ;-)
Wow what a piece of kit! good job! and keep up the good work! 

Anyway There's a couple of things happening that I cant get right i'm getting allot of stuck notes, when i play with 2 outputs and 2 note polyphony on each this is static test with a piezo speaker on the 2 outputs. using synth font tried direct output then hairless/loop-midi which improved it slightly i tried using the usb to Midi hub then to midicable/opto coupler but was even worse with that, Ive scoped the opto output and confirmed the signal was getting to syntherrupter perhaps its the midi file.

I only have 2 small identical coils i want to use with this plus a one tesla TS i may try to set up but i will need to scope the TS interrupter to input the limits for syntherrupter.

Any help will be much appreciated.

Anyway a couple of pics of my build:

[Max]

Wow!! Really like that front panel! Mind if I borrow that picture (with credits to you ofc)?

I need a bit more details about how you got those stuck notes. Also, for future problems, note that GitHub Issues are usually more comfortable for issue handling than a long forum thread.

• Firmware version?
• I assume you had not touched any of the MIDI Coil Settings (Channel assignments, stereo mode)?
• Could you provide me the specific MIDI file? Or does it happen with any file?
• What instrument/MIDI Program had you selected and how many channels did you forward to Syntherrupter (Or simply make a screenshot of SynthFonts Plug&Play view tab).
• You could also enable logging in hairless midi serial and provide me a screenshot of that log. Then I can see the exact commands that caused the issue.
• SynthFont used to have a bug where it wouldn't send the correct stop commands when pausing/stopping. I guess that's not what you're experiencing.

Since I'm already here, @Mads I have good news for you! Nextion updated their editor and now the pic1 attribute is available for all devices, meaning that there's no incompatibility anymore with the Intelligent series. As a consequence, I'll from now on release the firmware for all 5 and 7 inch Nextion/TJC screens. No more messing around
That update also fixes a bug which caused flickering in dark mode and sometimes slower page loading times.


Kind regards,
Max

[SimonNwardUK]

Hi Max thank you for Reply ;-)

yes no prob you can use the pictures, IL post more in due time ;-)

my bad il post on github for future problems.
 
I cant play on the coils as i have no space to run them, the place i was using was restricted because of covid but should be able to get back there soon, for now its on piezo speakers, i may remove the secondarys and set up dummy loads and do it that way.

I was running latest firmware id only assigned channel 1 and 2 others were set to none and stereo disabled and forwarded channel 1 and 2 to loop midi in synthfont. Im  going to try some other files to see if i can replicate the problem and i will try to get some screenshots of hairless midi output log when (if) it does it again. oh the latest free synthfont i am using doesn't seem to send the stop commands when stopping or pausing Ive had the last notes just stuck playing i noticed that also lol ;-) ,Im going to move to fruityloops for now to rule out synthfont.

Thanks Max keep up the good work!

Sy

[Max]

Don't worry, I've been limited to piezo for over a year now, too.

I was pretty sure the missing stop commands had been fixed in SynthFont? Kinda surprises me to hear that it would still happen in the current version. If the hairless midi serial log confirms this, I'll certainly ask the dev of SynthFont again because he's been very helpful so far (it was actually his suggestion to integrate direct serial out for me).
Looking forward to the results of your investigations!


Kind regards,
Max

[Max]

I found the issue SimonNwardUK has been experiencing. It exists since v4.1.2 where I tried to fix a rather theoretical issue in the serial buffer. Instead I produced a complete brainfart and made it miss a bunch of data every 300-400 MIDI commands. I guess my tests were shorter than 300 MIDI commands or I simply didn't hear it with the testfiles I used for v4.1.2 and v4.1.3.
Anyways, I THINK it's fixed for good now.

Other news: as promised this update is the first one to support all Nextion devices including the Intelligent series. Actually, at the moment the high end Intelligent screens are the cheapest of all possible models, so by all means, go for them. Of course, all of these changes are already included in the corresponding wiki article.

Link to the new release v4.1.4: https://github.com/MMMZZZZ/Syntherrupter/releases


Kind regards,
Max

[SimonNwardUK]

Hi Max

Wow good to see an update so soon cool , I have a few hours to have a play today so i will update now

keep up the good work ;-)

Sy

[SimonNwardUK]

Hi Max

I Have Been doing some testing on the new version and it has fixed the stuck notes many thanks ;-), I've also tested with the Opto-coupler MIDI interface and this works also now 
I will be doing more testing with this setup as this is my preferred connection and i will be wanting to play a keyboard through the midi DIN port hopefully, I am putting some midi files together now so going to keep it 2 note poly for each channel so i can turn my on-times up i like my ground strikes  anyway a few more pics of my build feel free to use them.

keep up the good work.

Sy

[Max]

v4.2.0-beta.1 - First beta with Sysex support!
Download: https://github.com/MMMZZZZ/Syntherrupter/releases

As announced in previous posts I've been working on this for a while now. Sysex is a part of the MIDI standard that allows manufacturers to embed pretty much whatever they want within the MIDI standard (meaning: without breaking compatibility with any other MIDI device). Most often these are used to configure all the device specific settings and options. Syntherrupter is no exception; with the new beta you can control (almost) everything using these commands.

I recommend using Syfoh - a Python tool that allows you to write your Sysex commands in human-readable text form. It can also load a bunch of settings from a given text file such that you can easily store complex configurations for different MIDI files and load them with one click.

There are still a few limitations though:

• (Almost) nothing that you change with Sysex will be stored in EEPROM. Meaning, after a power cycle the changes are lost (which isn't too dramatic since you usually have them stored somewhere).
• (Almost all) commands will update the on-screen values only if you have no mode and no settings opened (meaning: if you're viewing the main menu. I added a note there). The commands will always be received and applied by the Tiva microcontroller, but since they could cause conflicts with whatever you're currently doing on the screen itself, the screen will only be updated if you're doing nothing for sure (a.k.a. you're in the main menu).
  
• There are a lot of commands with lots of options resulting in an awful lot of things that could go wrong. I haven't test every command in every combination. Actually I didn't test a lot of commands. So don't expect it to work flawlessly. I shared it mostly because I think it's exciting and worth trying even though it's not perfect.
• No export options. Currently Syntherrupter can receive Sysex commands, but not send any.

I'll try to make a little demo video in the next days (or weeks...). It really is a great help and for stage perfomance I'd say invaluable (or in other words: stage performance with Syntherrupter without this is not possible to the same extend).


Kind regards,
Max

[Max]

Sysex is making good progress. As of now all of Syntherrupters options can be fully configured via Sysex. There are even some Sysex options that aren't available in the UI. The most important one probably is the option to set a minimum ontime - a loong requested feature that's finally here.

Together with the Sysex work I rewrote the EEPROM settings stuff from scratch. It really wasn't well-written* and in consequence hard extend by new features. For the devs among you: Back at v2 when I first wrote this, I had no idea a thing called "union" exists and for some reason I preferred arrays and void pointers to structs. Also, in the aim of minimizing the size, a lot of data was not byte aligned. Since there's enough space available, that pain in the ass is gone now, too.
*well, lets say the data structure was garbage. The code that actually reads/writes the EEPROM is okay and mostly unchanged with the new version.
This new code base not only allows changes made via sysex to be stored just like changes made in the UI, it also allows me to easily add new values in future version. They will - just like this version does - import the settings from any old EEPROM layout and update it to the newer version.
Quite some more related things under the hood got better by these changes, too.

Various wiki pages got updates, too. Please check the release notes for details. Release notes? Yes, of course these news come with a new firmware release. Needless to say that they contain more details about what's been added/fixed with this update. https://github.com/MMMZZZZ/Syntherrupter/releases
Note that you need to pull the latest version of Syfoh; both Syfoh and previous Syntherrupter firmware versions had the same bug in the protocol.


Kind regards,
Max

[Max]

Hi everyone!

Since I'm tired of the piezo sound and blinking LEDs I'm currently working on my own little tesla coil orchestra. For that I need of course a 6-outputs version of Syntherrupter and designed a PCB for this purpose. Any feedback or advice would be appreciated (especially whether it seems useful for others, too). PCB size is 160x100mm.

Kind regards,
Max