What occurs to out of date gadgets? Technological growth has superior at a blistering tempo over the past century and that has put us in a state of affairs through which our gadgets develop into outdated and impractical in a remarkably quick period of time. The PlayStation 4, for instance, is barely 11 years outdated. But, many tens of thousands and thousands of the PS4 consoles world wide are actually gathering mud because the launch of the PS5. That’s true of the PS4 controllers, too (which, clearly, outnumber the consoles). As an alternative of letting her outdated PS4 controllers find yourself in a landfill, Becky Stern transformed them into music sequencers as a present for Sam Battle.
Stern accomplished this venture for the YouTube Secret Santa present alternate, through which a number of the world’s hottest makers create distinctive presents for one another. Stern drew Sam Battle on this yr’s alternate and also you possible know him from the Look Mum No Pc channel. He’s a gifted maker and musician with a robust curiosity in devices that make uncommon sounds in enjoyable methods. Realizing that, Stern revived a two-year-old PS4 controller venture.
The unique aim of the venture was to switch the PS4 controller’s PCB with a DIY board to introduce new performance. That venture fell by the wayside, however this Secret Santa alternate gave Stern the motivation to complete it. Her imaginative and prescient was easy: make the PS4 controller perform as a standalone music sequencer able to taking part in loops or one-off samples.
To attain that, Stern designed a customized PCB to switch those inside two defective PS4 controllers. That PCB needed to match correctly and work with the entire current buttons. Stern additionally gave herself an extra problem by selecting to combine the PS4 controller’s built-in speaker, which the person can choose as an alternative of auxiliary audio output if desired.
The customized PCB hosts an Adafruit KB2040 growth board, which is predicated on the Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller. Borrowing CircuitPython code and inspiration from a sequencer venture by John Park, Stern programmed that board to play the loops and samples based on button presses. Within the case of the loops, urgent a corresponding button merely mutes or unmutes the observe and they also keep in sync with the beat. As a particular personalization, Stern used samples that Battle himself created and makes accessible for obtain on-line.
In fact, the PS4 controllers had been additionally personalized in enjoyable colours. One of many two even has a Furby ear connected — one thing that may make sense to followers of Look Mum No Pc.
