It’s actually day 2 now but I had some trouble getting images off my camera – so slightly late update…

 

After a 9 and a half hour drive from Cardiff we arrived in Oban at around 5.30am. I had stayed up for a good portion of the night as a driving buddy. As the sun was just about to start creeping up over the horizon in Scotland, the views were breathtaking, and unfortunately I didn’t have access to my camera (though it was still very dark). We had to wait a good while to board our ferry in Oban, and the sun rose for a beautiful sunny (albeit a little chilly) day.

The ferry departed around 6.30am and the trip was long – I think we arrived around 11am in Tiree. My comrades slept through it but I was wired from drinking coffee at 3am, again the views were breathtaking on the ferry as we cruised up the straight between the mainland and the Isle of Mull – I will be sure to keep my camera close on the return.

Tiree is absolutely stunning and we are lucky to have amazing weather for day 1. I took these pictures in the evening, here are some pics of our beachside accomodation (click to enlarge):

Once we had dropped off our personal items we headed over to Tiree Rural Centre which is a multi-purpose space on the island, and where the Tech Wave is taking place. And I mean multi-purpose, it is a cafe, a multi media meeting place, and a cattle market! We unloaded all the fabrication gear from Cardiff Fab Lab and whereever else, and after a short meet and greet we got stuck into building…

I had hoped to complete all wiring today in order to get stuck into code on day 2, but I didn’t make it by a long shot. I managed to cut holes in the plastic case to accomodate a MIDI socket which will be the main output I focus on, and also a barrel jack input so the unit can eventually be externally powered:

 

 

 

 

 

I then proceeded to wire up all power rail connections on the top board, being a ground plane and a 3V3 line for the pots:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally I needed to test the RGB LEDs I stuck onto the front panel as I couldn’t remember if they were common anode or common cathode. Common anode means you have one anode (+) pin and three cathode (-) pins, pulling the pins low means that current can flow and the associated colour is lit, common cathode means you reverse those rules. It turns out I have common anode, so I know how to wire up from here:

 

 

 

 

 

I was out of time at this point so we all headed back to camp for some extreme beach frisbee, a massive meal and wine to wash it down. Having not slept overnight, I put my head down early and slept like a log!

 

 

 

 

 

Next I need to draw up some basic schematics so I know exactly which pins I am going to use on the Arduino Due.