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This is gorgeous! Thanks for sharing. Here, let me embed a couple of links to better host your photos. Do I guess right that you picked up Special Walnut instead of Dark Walnut? It looks great. Good work!
Katherine (and others): there is a very slim possibility that we shipped a few units with no software on them at all! This, of course, would account for No Sound. The most direct solution is to download the latest software from our Github page and flash it to your Macchiato. If you have never done this sort of thing, you may want to find an Arduino-enthusiast friend, who will be able to do this with both eyes tied behind his back. Otherwise, obtain a USB-Tiny programmer and the AVRDUDE utility. Follow the Github instructions.
If you do not want to mess with this, write to us at info at zeppelindesignlabs dot com and we’ll work it out.
Here’s a couple things to check:
1. An earlier version of the Macchiato software sometimes showed this behavior. We believe your board has the latest software on it, but the only way to be sure is to download the latest from Github and re-flash it. (I see you just ordered a USB Tiny programmer.)
2. We had a generic USB-to-MIDI cable here in the Lab that proved to be a piece of junk. It was actually missing some components from its innards and yielded unreliable MIDI conversion, with all sorts of ill effects. This is not an uncommon problem. Here is an article on fixing a buggy cable.
3. The MIDI specification allows for two ways to tell a device to stop playing a note: with a Note Off message, and with a Note On / Velocity = 0 message. Theoretically they are equivalent, but we have seen several devices fail to respond reliably to one or the other. We developed the Macchiato to take Note On/Velocity 0 messages. Check your DAW. See which message it is sending. If there is an option, try to get it to send Note On Vel 0 in place of Note Off.FOLLOW UP: We released some updates summer 2017 in an attempt to rewrite the Macchiato to compile on a more recent version of Arduino and Mozzi. These updates had some stability and other performance issues, and we recently reverted to a vamped-up version of the old code. So the latest release, v1.1.2 (software file v1_171024) is packed with the latest features, sounds a little better and is every bit as stable as the original Macchiato — but it still has to be compiled with Arduino 1.0.5r2.
Thanks to our awesome BETA testers, we have decided to add a few more amazing features to this fall’s release: a fabulous, fun MIDI controller for your Macchiato or other MIDI device.
!!BRAVO!! I am SO GLAD to hear you solved the mystery! That’s really good news for a Monday morning. Have fun with your gear, and if you capture any crazy-wild sounds, be sure to share them with us.
Glen
Hi, Glen here. Brach is out of town this week on family business. He may or may not weigh in as he is available. Thank you for your patience with this de-bugging process.
“I work for the local ABC affiliate. I found you all while researching ways to record environmental sounds to create an effects library. I also have a personal interest in making a version of this into a hydrophone. I purchased this unit to experiment. If we find a use for this application we may order a second one and work it into our production gear. It seems like a good product from an engineering stand point as well.” — Raymond, WATE-TV, Knoxville Tennessee
Ian Swanwick sent us this nice photo of a fantastic Percolator build. His construction notes follow:
“Thanks [Glen] for the compliments, it really did turn out well and your instructions were excellent.“The finish is 3 coats of Minwax oil based stain ‘honey 272’ with sanding in between, followed by 2 coats of Minwax polyurethane fast drying ‘clear satin’. The polyurethane was left over from a few years ago and I don’t think I’d use it again – too hard to get an even finish.
“I plugged the screw holes on the sides and they are very hard to see with the stain. For the grill I substituted brass screws for the exposed heads as I think they look a little better.”
NEWS from ZDL: We think the biscuit technique is so nice, that starting in April 2017, when you order a ready-made Percolator amp, cab or combo, it will feature this method of construction. In future, we hope to adapt the kit to this method also.
Good job Kevin! Is that MinWax Red Mahogany? That was always one of my favorite stains back in my custom cabinet days. It looks very elegant on your 1×8.
Glen
Holy Cannoli Jeremy! We’ve had some trouble with our Forum Notifications routine, and your post escaped our attention. Pray tell, how’s that Macchiato of yours? Still silent? What’s the serial number? Do I understand you get no sound from either the onboard speaker or through the headphone jack? Among the possible explanations are 1) a damaged component, as you noted; 2) an undetected broken solder joint along the critical signal path, probably somewhere from the volume pot to the point where the signal splits between the speaker and the jack. I’ll have Brach, the Macchiato’s designer, chime in tomorrow. Sorry for the delay.
Glen
This is usually caused by the opto-coupler’s output ringing because it is driving too high of an impedance. We have found that some opto-couplers are more sensitive than others in this way. The fix is reducing the value of the pull up resistor on its output (R18). If you replace R18 with something less than 1000 ohms, it should help….Alternatively, if you have another resistor (anything between 300 ohms to 2500 ohms) you could put it in parallel with R18 and the parallel combination will be under 1000 ohms.
