picoTracker - music tracker software

PicoCalc
1

Hi all, appreciate this may be a bit niche!

I’m waiting for my 'calc to ship and, having picked it up on a bit of a whim, have been wondering what to actually do with it apart from admiring it gently.

Over the weekend I went down a bit of a tracker related rabbit hole (the music composition software rather than GPS!) and I noticed some form factor similarity between the Polyend Tracker Mini and the 'calc, and then one search led to another and I came across the repo for the picoTracker.

Has anyone made use of anything similar, or indeed used this on this device?

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The idea is indeed attractive. The battery life of the picocalc would make it suitable for very long music creation sessions. Unfortunately, PWM sound is not great (or at least, I haven’t seen a configuration where it shines). Maybe with an added i2s sound output, it could work. Also, memory is limited on the pico so you’d have to stream audio directly from SD-card. I don’t have enough experience to say whether it would have the bandwidth. There is also the Luckfox Lyra option which has all the beefs needed but requires some soldering.

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Hi, I may take a look. I have done some compile challenges with LittlePiggyTracker on Lyra may it is easier for the Pico to compile. But I cannot promise anything.

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Let me second that emotion! I was literally just thinking about this and decided to see if anyone else was and lo and behold, you are! Please look into this. Once I get more familiar with coding my PicoCalc, I may try it if someone else hasn’t already.

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On the face of it, the picoTracker is targeted at the pico 2 so hopefully it should just be a case of dealing with inputs - the board Xiphonics have out together does’t look all that dissimilar.

I don’t yet have a 'calc in hand but in theory you should just be able to flash the .uf2 and away you go, or at least “away you go until the first incompatibility…”!

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Personally, I think the sound that some wizards are able to get out of a pico is pretty great, so that gives me a lot of hope!

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I have now the toolchain up and running, now it is time to change things up.

  • Display
  • Keyboard
  • Audio

Wish me luck!

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Good luck! This is going to be fun.

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Hi,
I done some test and changed the code comparing it to the lyra driver and madcock picomite implementation. Sadly no success, I think i have to wait for my debug module.

Maybe some of knowing one can have a look on my configuration?

#define DISPLAY_SPI spi1
#define DISPLAY_CS 13
#define DISPLAY_DC 14
#define DISPLAY_RESET 15
#define DISPLAY_SCK 10
#define DISPLAY_MOSI 11
#define DISPLAY_MISO 12
#define DISPLAY_PWM 23 → It is on mcu as i know

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You can have a look at picocalc-umac/src/lcd.c at main · benob/picocalc-umac · GitHub (and lcd-3bit.c) which is a more or less a straightforward port of the lyra driver.

1 Like
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Thanks, that look great. I will take a look tonight.

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So, There are some more issues.

TLDR: It is more effort than I have anticipated. So I like to concentrate on LittlePiggyTracker for Lyra. Sorry.

If you look at the schematics:
PicoTracker:

image
image1183×552 114 KB

PicoCalc:( Schematic is mirrored)

image
image619×367 31.2 KB

As I read this:

  • There using the SPI ports for the Display is used in the Picotracker Software for the Keys.
  • The Audio Interface is SPI and not PWM. So this have to changed. I am afraid this is outside of my capabilities
  • PicoTracker Audio SPI is there where the SDCARD is on the the Picocalc.
  • PicoTracker SD Card is where the Picocalc PSRam is

I am not saying it is impossible, but it is definitely for me. It means a complete rewrite of the original code.