WOMinator MIDI bass pedals by Lee O'Donnell

[@jmemusic]

This is the first project I have found that uses note velocity. Congratulations

[@robertstapleton3598]

This is brilliant and very creative. It's rare when someone with an idea like this also has the skills to make it happen. I wish you much success. Also, I'm secretly hoping someone like yourself will create pedals that will trigger bass samples.

[@davidm3569]

Brilliant. I'd love to be able to build this 😁 Actually just bought a Ketron K8 Bass pedal unit ( as new in its case too ) for £40 even came with 3 other mixed pedals. Happy days 😀

[@dwaynecarroll6098]

Nice build brother!

[@helanofonteles7012]

Congrats mate! Well done!👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@LUCIODIEZ]

BRILLANT CONGRATULATIONS MAN!!!

[@100roberthenry]

brilliant....i like the idea of a box of sounds too. very cool.

[@Keyboardhugo]

Really good Project. Just looking for something like this, because my old Elka Midi Bass Pedal goes broken😥

[@violatoad]

Nice work

[@AWPPoductions]

Thats Wicked would love to have one to jam threw

[@gordonmitchell729]

Great! I want one!

[@leecarnall7108]

Very interesting!

[@picopanpipe9]

I love the design!!!!

[@dibugraficum5749]

Good job! ¿Cuales son sus dimensiones?

[@janvandenhurk1119]

Hello Lee, I made a modification to your code and possibly this could help others too, which got problems te let work all keys reliable. In words after the scankeys start right after the digitalwrite(12+i),LOW ; I programmed a deleay of 25 microseconds. delaymicroSeconds(25) ; I figured out that if i dont do this the next statement is executed while the state of the key scanning output pin might not be low. I have got 7 of these output which gives a total delay of 7 * 25 microseconds. Probably possible to cancel the other delay. May be you or someone can benefit from my experience.

[@rodolforibas]

AWESOME JOB

[@nicklovell1982]

I need one of these in my life! How much to build me one?

[@timothydukeman7619]

Awesome, man!

[@scottgann2688]

I would like to build this but the code seems to be out of date with the libraries. Could you do an update? Thank you for your hard work.

[@martinmcarvajal]

Are you brother of Roger O'Donnell of The Cure? You looks like him.

[@oxmountainstudios7869]

Hi lee i aquired a set of 13 note bass pedals from a Hammond B250 organ. can you for a fee convert it to a simple midi pedals. Mono and low octave is all id need. i can get voices from my Boss dr5. Regards Chris.

[@shannonbailey3509]

Is it possible to use this type of setup for ai disabled person who has lost the use of their left hand, to play that part with their feet instead? My son lost use of his left hand/arm after having the right side of his brain removed 3 years ago due to a rare neurological disease called Rasmussen’s Encephalitis. He still enjoys playing piano, but I think he would love to be able to play more like he used to.

[@leeselectronicwidgets]

Yes though it’s only typical to play one note at a time on a pedalboard (not due to the electronics, just how feet work) vs left hand chords on a piano

[@shannonbailey3509]

@@leeselectronicwidgets - seems like I read somewhere, for a manufactured pedalboard, that you could program some pedals to play up to 3 notes at once. Not sure if that’s something organists do or not... seems strange that some older pianos “piano-pedalier” had a full set of foot pedals like the large organs of the time. Although I know their intended use wasn’t the same as what I’m looking for. What do you think the cost of building one of these would be today? I know the prebuilt ones are expensive!

[@adesyndicate]

Is there a chance that you would build these things (or something similar) for a price and then send them by mail?

[@tinbasher5951]

This is excellent, Lee. I built one a few years ago & you helped me via email. I'm trying to build another one, but can't find the library's needed. Can you please help? I'm using ide 0023 for the sketch like you did in the original.

[@leeselectronicwidgets]

Thanks Tim! If I get any time I’ll see about refactoring the code to work on the latest IDE

[@leeselectronicwidgets]

Hi Tim, I’ve updated the sketch for the recent IDE (used 1.8.11). If you have a look on my bassmaker site I’ve linked the new file on the wominator page. Let me know how you get on

[@leeselectronicwidgets]

You’ll just need to use the library manager to install the LiquidCrystal library

[@InTheMusicBox]

Lee I would love to watch your video, but I have tried to watch it on two subsequent days and it always stops at "Hi, I 'm Lee". Have no idea why.... :(

[@onsesejoo2605]

Dismantling a vintage tonewheel Hammond organ for this ?

[@leeselectronicwidgets]

At what point were the words 'dismantling' or 'tonewheel' used? Neither occurred or existed

[@onsesejoo2605]

Oh, I sound more agressive than I meant. My apologies. I picked up the 70's vintage Hammond that had been idle for 10 years and you took the pedals from. So I assumed that it was one of the tonewheel models that were built up to 1975.

[@MrStoneybroke]

Could you build one of these for me

[@janvandenhurk1119]

Hello i have asked questions a couple of month ago. I want to connect a 17 keys bass pedal and i running short of pins/ports? I thought if a have an already working sketch then to not use softserial and use serial writes for midi by pin 0 and 1. Then i get the D8 pin free. I can use that as key scanning output but that will break the numbering order of key scanning outputs. I have to use an array to renumber the sc input numbers, but I wonder what effect will that have on performance. Do you think it will work without any problems? I am not afraid of programming and trial and error but you may have an idea about that? Thanks already for all your work.

[@leeselectronicwidgets]

Hi Jan, from a speed point of view I wouldn’t expect it to cause any issues. Remember that mechanical switches are many times slower than CPU cycles. Using an array for your output pins is how I’d do it too. You might need to mess around with my horribly coded input port bit shifting if statements that follow, but they might be ok as-is if you’re just adding another output port and not any more input pins. Good luck!

[@janvandenhurk1119]

@@leeselectronicwidgets The port that controls just one key (2 contacts) will be fully used 3 keys of course. Yeah I see what you mean, programming is gracefull work and I enjoy. Thanks. Also in your existing code the arduino has to do its calculations befor it can use the address of the digitalwrites. If you want to know in detail, I have to look at how the code compiles to assembler statements.

[@leeselectronicwidgets]

@@janvandenhurk1119 Yes, I’m used to the low level implications of the arduino code too, I use inline assembler where needed or just use the direct chipset registers. However, in this application the time for arduino pin/port translations doesn’t matter. After all, the main loop has a 1ms delay!

[@sanderbroxterman]

ive been searching for something exactally Like this! beacuse im lacking the technical capability i must ask you, how can i Order one! ;)

[@janvandenhurk1119]

Hello Lee, I have made my bass clavier with 17 keys and I am testing it now. Of course the program I have is modified for 17 keys but apart from that it is just like your program. I have a problem with the results. The arduino is generating note off's of key 0 ( c lowest one) while I am not touching any key. I deducted that has to be in the software. If I insert a lcd display of lastKeyActive[0] to the program in the main loop after the scankeys call, the error is not happening. I first did this to experience the cause of my problem, but then the error is gone. Do you have any clue what is happening. Searching the internet for global variable changing without reason. Good Luck and thanks so far.

[@janvandenhurk1119]

Answering own question. It was all my own errors, nothing in the program. This direct port manipulations and bitwise instructions are error prone. Now all 17 keys working great. I can continue with my bass clavier.

[@janvandenhurk1119]

BlueBike Hello I want to make this device but in a wooden box. Arduino sketch does not compile without errors. I see 2 lines stating : lcd.init() ; 1 line wil be enough Line should be: lcd.begin() ; Hope yoy can agree and I wil go on.

[@leeselectronicwidgets]

Hi, my LCD unit sometimes failed to initialise with only one call to lcd.init, as it needed more time internal to the LCD controller. If yours only needs one, feel free to change it. I doubt that’s the source of your compile error. What version of the sketch are you using and what error do you get?

[@janvandenhurk1119]

@@leeselectronicwidgets I use the source for arduino 1.8.11. I use arduino 1.8.12 as IDE. The msg i get is: 'class LiquidCrystal_I2C' has no member named 'init'

[@janvandenhurk1119]

@@leeselectronicwidgets I found out that the sources uses just another class library. Now I can compile the source. Thanks for all your work.

[@leeselectronicwidgets]

@@janvandenhurk1119 Ah, that must be due to using a different version of the liquidcrystal_i2c libraries. Some versions have different syntax (no init, uses begin and other things). Can you try installing a different package from the Arduino library manager?

[@janvandenhurk1119]

@@leeselectronicwidgets I solved it, see previous posting. Thanks.

[@janvandenhurk1119]

Hello i am building this with a 17 key pedal but I am running short of inputs. Just need 1 extra key scan output and cannot use a6 or a7 for that. Probably i scip one of the pwm outputs but what would be the less needed? Thanks.

[@janvandenhurk1119]

Why lighting the buttons anyway, you can read in the display?

[@leeselectronicwidgets]

@@janvandenhurk1119 because it looks cool, and if you use it on stage you can’t read the LCD without bending down whereas you can easily see the status of the lights on the switches

[@leeselectronicwidgets]

It shouldn’t matter which pin you use as another scan output, as long as you unpick the code that uses that pin

[@xenotron1138]

Hello, I am aiming to build one of these. Not understanding how you got 13 notes and 6 program change buttons out of one Arduino Nano? I was looking at the UNO and thought that was not enough inputs??? Is there something I am missing here in understanding? Your build link is not longer available.

[@leeselectronicwidgets]

Troy Michael Yes it’s a diode key matrix - so for Eg 32 switches (13 up, 13 down on the pedals and 6 push buttons) you need a set of column outputs - here I use 6 - and a set of row inputs (I use 6 here also). This gives 6 x 6 positions = 36, but some of the combinations aren’t used. I’m not sure what link you’re following but the build info is still up via www.bassmaker.co.uk

[@xenotron1138]

@@leeselectronicwidgets Just figured out my adblocker was stopping me from seeing the link... thanks for the info!

[@jmemusic]

@@leeselectronicwidgets Thanks for the keyword: "diode key matrix". I was looking at your website and it looks too technical for me. I guess I will have to use some paper to understand this better. Do you have some links about the theory of a diode key matrix? I'm looking now in Google, but if you have some suggestions, they are welcome. I'm planning to build this by myself too.

[@jmemusic]

@@leeselectronicwidgets Ok, I'm understanding now the idea of the diode matrix; you have 26 switches for the keyboard (13 pedals, but each pedal has two states), but you don't have that amount of inputs and outputs on the Arduino, so, you need a way of reducing them. You did then a matrix of 6x6, which allows to know which output and input has power and so which pedal was pushed. Clever idea. I still have to understand the practical representation with the diodes. For the interested, I'm reading a small article about this subject: * How a key matrix works by Giorgos Lazaridis It has nice animations

[@brianwalker9585]

Looks like a robot wars champion rather than a set of bass pedals...

[@RasManuel]

Keep an sugierest low bang hands qu num ligh wen not touch aslo wee compress and give us the title your musicean