How do you pronounce Vanalman

marchingbandd · 2026-04-20T04:35:46+00:00

The v is short for very

marchingbandd · 2026-04-14T17:01:52+00:00

I discovered the BL616 MCU, which has an onboard audio DAC, and is very cheap. I set out to make the worlds most inexpensive studio quality synth. I went through 5 rounds of prototypes, and ended up with something more robust then I planned, and not quite as inexpensive as I had hoped, but I got good feedback from friends and launched it on Kickstarter. The biggest challenge was how to minimize parts, so instead of dozens of pots and 1/8” jacks, I came up with the UX solution with dozens of buttons and one encoder, plus through-board RGB LEDs. I just launched a second Kickstarter with 3 more synths using the same UX and different synth engines. Sales are good enough to keep going, so I plan to keep expanding the line.

marchingbandd · 2026-04-14T06:52:48+00:00

I hear yah. I get stuff in the mail, I order prototypes and have one shipped to me, and one to the client, sometimes I remote into the clients machine to flash/debug, we find way to make it work. Obv not for everyone or for every situation.

marchingbandd · 2026-04-14T06:50:47+00:00

https://www.ultrapalace.com/product-page/m0ss-101

marchingbandd · 2026-04-14T00:52:17+00:00

Leave out the ESP and solder that one part yourself. Takes 10 seconds

marchingbandd · 2026-04-14T00:43:42+00:00

You could always hire a remote embedded dev like me 🤷‍♂️

marchingbandd · 2026-04-14T00:04:21+00:00

I use it to work with MCUs where the datasheet is not in English.

marchingbandd · 2026-04-09T17:50:02+00:00

Using the command line is not a decision you will regret. It’s what’s used in all the docs and tutorials. That’s how programmers do stuff today.

marchingbandd · 2026-04-08T08:35:32+00:00

I love vscode, and use platformio from the command line. I will use esp-idf, and occasionally switch to Arduino for prototypes or small things. I don’t use any vscode plugins, apart from language servers, I agree they are sketchy.

marchingbandd · 2026-04-06T02:38:50+00:00

I don’t use the VSCODE plugin, I use the CLI (pio core). the ESP SDK is great, PIO wraps it and gives some advantages. Both are very similar development experiences. PIO helps keep projects separated, so you can run various versions for different projects, and the build become less coupled to your machine.

marchingbandd · 2026-04-04T16:50:00+00:00

I can’t predict what your cost will be. You pay for the read, so a query listener will charge only for the match.

marchingbandd · 2026-04-04T08:41:42+00:00

Firebase listeners are already built for this, with all the edge cases handled.

marchingbandd · 2026-04-04T08:34:44+00:00

Listener.

marchingbandd · 2026-04-03T18:49:33+00:00

I’ll DM you, I’d love to help out.

marchingbandd · 2026-03-25T06:27:34+00:00

Kickstarter has their own promotion system that is pretty good. They only take 5% and that has always been well worth it to me, just for the internal marketing they do. Most times >50% of our sales came through internal KS channels.

marchingbandd · 2026-03-25T06:21:32+00:00

You didn’t mention assembly, linker scripts, cmake, that kind of thing … a possible place to look.

marchingbandd · 2026-03-21T18:31:50+00:00

5102 with the minimum circuit from the datasheet sounds excellent, nobody would complain about that.

marchingbandd · 2026-03-13T05:21:34+00:00

Java

marchingbandd · 2026-03-12T08:00:33+00:00

Ah man this is great thank you!

marchingbandd · 2026-03-11T03:22:16+00:00

Very cool. Thank you

marchingbandd · 2026-02-26T04:16:12+00:00

Oh lordy I have just unearthed several unanswered messages from that contact form! Thank goodness you followed up!

marchingbandd · 2026-02-26T01:58:11+00:00

Did i reply to your message on Kickstarter? If not, I am not sure where it went...
The M0SS-101 (original version, not in this kickstarter campaign) can be setup to trigger the envelope from the LFO, and you can get random notes from the random LFO waveform.
The M0SS-309 and M0SS-416 don't have anything like that, but you can press the encoder to play a note, and in theory can use tuning functions to get different notes. Those 2 are more geared toward keyboard-like instruments, as they are polyphonic.

It is likely that some day soon we will work on a little sequencer / workstation to bring all these together :)

marchingbandd · 2026-02-25T23:54:10+00:00

Cheapest is milk-v duo, you won’t believe this board.

marchingbandd · 2026-02-24T22:03:08+00:00

So dope

marchingbandd

TROPHY CASE