Looking for connection details for the SKYWRITER

Support
1

Anybody got RPi I B+ connection details to the Skywriter (non-hat)…

2

I’ve added it to the GitHub repository ( https://github.com/pimoroni/skywriter-hat/blob/master/README.md ) for clarity, but for your benefit it’s:

Skywriter -> Raspberry Pi
GND -> GND
TRFR -> GPIO 27 ( http://pi.gadgetoid.com/pinout/pin13_gpio21 )
RESET -> GPIO 17 ( http://pi.gadgetoid.com/pinout/pin11_gpio17 )
SCL -> GPIO 3 / SCL ( http://pi.gadgetoid.com/pinout/pin5_gpio1 )
SDA -> GPIO 2 / SDA ( http://pi.gadgetoid.com/pinout/pin3_gpio0 )
VCC -> 3V

3

Who does the Skywriter work, is it scanning grids or RF? capacitive? IR reflection? Is there any details with it which explains it’s technology?

4

This certainly isn’t the best or most detailed description in the world, but it will give you a summary: http://www.microchip.com/pagehandler/en-us/technology/gestic/technology/home.html

In a nutshell, it’s clever enough to make sense of the distortions that your hand/finger make in the electrical field it projects.

5

I wired the Skywriter up OK, and ran the test, ran the example mouse.py,test.py,synth.py. From the git repository… How do I use the theremin.pd file , I have installed “pd”, I’m looking for the command line to run/make use of it.
Do you have an example of how to get the theremine running?

I’m really happy with the SKYWRITER, going to study the docs now, has anybody done a an x,y,x 3D graphics hookup were you can visualise the point in space your finger is at?

6

Theremin.pd is the file that’s loaded into synth.py, which is the actual theremin. So if you got synth.py up and running, what you were hearing should have been the Theremin.

It uses a very simple python wrapper around pd which fires it up automatically, so as long as you have pd installed it should “just work”.

Beware that your audio might be coming out of the wrong output, so if you’re not hearing anything, read this: http://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/audio-config.md

The software that we use to calibrate and generate the firmware for Skywriter has a 3D X,Y,Z graph, it’s pretty cool but of limited use. Might be interesting to draw in 3D space, but I’m not sure just how granular that would be.

7

The synth works fine, the audio come out of my HDMI monitor.
Thanks for the prompt reply.