display simple text from PureData?

Remork

i'm actually well beyond the whole thing now, as i wanted my line breaks on screen different -
i'm aiming to spread 6 lines of text over the full display height instead of 8 lines.
because you can never overengineer something to death quite enough

Remork

so now i have Pd running a ton of background stuff to drive the display correctly.
but i'm averaging around 15% cpu, and i'm not getting any dropouts or mode switches with new selections, so it seems to be fine. if it ain't broke..

giuliomoro

Remork i just made a simple [RandomRandomizer] patch to seed Pd's random object differently at startup.
if not, every time i reboot, the random shows its true face as the pseudo-random it is.. every random string is the same then.. boring!

sometimes people would use an analog input reading to seed a random algorithm.

Remork but i'm averaging around 15% cpu, and i'm not getting any dropouts or mode switches with new selections, so it seems to be fine. if it ain't broke..

🔝

Remork

by the way, i just made a simple [RandomRandomizer] patch to seed Pd's random object differently at startup.
if not, every time i reboot, the random shows its true face as the pseudo-random it is.. every random string is the same then.. boring!

so i used [realtime] to check the time between boot time and the first long button press (that's needed to open the OSC connection from Pd), and ran that through a [mod 136] object, 136 being the number of items in my array to randomly choose from. so now it's a lot less likely to have the same standard seed at startup.

happy with the whole thing, just about to wrap it up.

i actually might run the audio output through reed relays as well, to avoid that nasty pop-to-the-speakers in the beginning.. seems to occur well before my display 12v line is pulled high, so i can just use that same signal and same schematic.

giuliomoro

Remork i actually might run the audio output through reed relays as well, to avoid that nasty pop-to-the-speakers in the beginning.

you could try adding a 4k7 pulldown to ground from each of the HP out channels to ground. We added that in the latest revision of the cape, but it may not be 100% effective.

Remork

giuliomoro you could try adding a 4k7 pulldown to ground from each of the HP out channels to ground. We added that in the latest revision of the cape, but it may not be 100% effective.

good enough!

Remork

giuliomoro sometimes people would use an analog input reading to seed a random algorithm.

ow. yeah, that makes sense.
i quite like how the user now defines the seed, though 🙂
but definitely one to remember.

Remork

Remork pondering making my own OSCformat workaround

ended up doing this. took me a google-session to understand the syntax, but it went well.
couple of hours well spent. let's hope that new O2O you guys are cooking up makes it so i'll NEVER HAVE TO DO THIS AGAIN. 🙂

Remork

question - does Bela go into a kind of sleep/idle mode after a period of no input or output?

because if i run my code (press button, play soundfile, wait for file to end, repeat) all is well.
but if i wait a couple of minutes after the last soundfile has ended before requesting a new one, Bela is unresponsive when i push the button. but if i push and hold the button, it does 'wake up' and respond after a while.

now a long press is something i implemented, but only at startup.. (long press at startup opens OSC connection.)
so i guess i just want to make sure i'm not looking for a coding error while there's something happening at the hardware level.

giuliomoro

Remork question - does Bela go into a kind of sleep/idle mode after a period of no input or output?

Remork also, when i long press to 'wake up' bela, i get a pop in the speaker like the one that happens when i start up Bela - like the DAC is re-activated.

that's weird, it would seem that the program is crashing ...

Remork and it doesn't seem to happen when i try to monitor what's going on thru the IDE.
so when hooked up to laptop, no such behaviour..?

What you can do to try and track this down is:

make sure you have no IDE tab open
power up the board using the usual power source (not sure what you are using there), or plug it into the computer if you are usually powering it via USB.
wait for the issue to appear
connect the board to your computer while it is still running (if not already plugged in)
run the following:
```
ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no root@bela.local
date
journalctl -u bela_startup -n 200 | cat
dmesg -T | tail -n 50
```
The first line logs you onto the board the second line gives you the current time on the board (which doesn't correspond to the current time because the board will have not been connected to the internet since reboot. The third line will give you the log of the program that has been running at startup and there you will see any crashes and restarts timestamped (relative to the board's clock). The fourth line will show the latest entries in the system log. Maybe that will tell us something about why the program crashed.

I also find it interesting that it would restart following a button press ... just to clarify, that button is connected to one of the Bela digitals and read from Pd using the stock bela_digital API, right?

Remork

also, when i long press to 'wake up' bela, i get a pop in the speaker like the one that happens when i start up Bela - like the DAC is re-activated.
but the button behaves exactly like at startup. it feels like Pd is somehow 'reset' after file end.

Remork

..and it doesn't seem to happen when i try to monitor what's going on thru the IDE.
so when hooked up to laptop, no such behaviour..?

Remork

giuliomoro I also find it interesting that it would restart following a button press ... just to clarify, that button is connected to one of the Bela digitals and read from Pd using the stock bela_digital API, right?

yes.
the way it's hooked up is that a loadbang decides the state of two spigots - the digital read signal goes one of two ways. at startup, it's directed to a 3000ms debouncer (so you need to hold it down for 3 seconds) going to the OSC connect command. the debouncer output also resets those same spigots, so any subsequent button press is now going to the main program to select random files, start playback etc.

the route to the long debouncer is only set by a loadbang - nothing else is connected that could wrongly cause that initial state. so it would seem to have crashed and reloaded.

i'm running it off the 5v line of an ATX supply, which should be pretty stable.
only option i haven't been able to check is to see whether or not that supply was on a dirty mains line (there's welders in the building, and i hear it in my guitar amp when they weld.)

hasn't happened anymore since i hooked it up to the laptop, but i'd rather be able to reproduce the problem and fix it than for it to remain a mystery.

giuliomoro

Remork hasn't happened anymore since i hooked it up to the laptop, but i'd rather be able to reproduce the problem and fix it than for it to remain a mystery.

of course. You could keep powering it from the ATX and only plug in to the laptop after the issue has happened.

Remork the route to the long debouncer is only set by a loadbang - nothing else is connected that could wrongly cause that initial state.

You wouldn't be able to have the DAC being reinitialised from within Pd. If you hear the DAC clicking, it probably means it crashed. It would be useful if you can see the blinking LED on the BelaMini cape or USER3 on the BeagleBone: it should stop blinking most of the time when it crashes (unless it crashes in a very bad way 🙁 ).

Remork

giuliomoro You could keep powering it from the ATX and only plug in to the laptop after the issue has happened.

will do. thanks!

Remork

hasn't happened again since.
well, so far.
will let it run today and see if it was just a glitch in an otherwise smoothly running system..

Remork

scratch that.

i think the ATX power supply, while a promising solution to all my powering needs on paper, is just not suitable.
i tried running everything off of it, and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
which is no good.

switched over to another PSU for the 12 display line, with Bela still on the ATX 5v line, and bela wasn't properly booting (it opened the 12v line for a second, then crashed. and repeated that cycle.)

the minute i plug in the USB from the laptop, all is well.
now i have it running just on the USB as a power supply and Bela does its job perfectly.

so far for the ATX.. i think its 5v line is just not clean, stable or regulated enough.
only thing i can try is putting a 5v regulator on one of its 12v lines myself.
if that doesn't work, then i'll need to come up with some other, foolproof solution.

giuliomoro

Remork only thing i can try is putting a 5v regulator on one of its 12v lines myself.

That could work, if it has enough current (about 200mA @ 12V with a switching regulator). I recommend using a RECOM R-785.0-1.0 regulator, it serves us well on Pepper and Salt for 12V -> 5V conversion.

Remork

yeah well.. i tried a 7805 (which should be more than ok for those kinds of currents) but the switching noise underneath just becomes unbearable. let's just decide that ATX supplies and audio are not the best combo 🙂
will give Bela a dedicated wall wart. quickest and easiest..

giuliomoro

Remork (which should be more than ok for those kinds of currents)

Well, the current is actually 400mA, so a linear regulator like a 7805 going 12V -> 5V quickly becomes a portable heater. A switching regulator would require less current and generate less heat. However it's probably going to be at least a bit noisier (even though the RECOM above is pretty good).

Remork ive Bela a dedicated wall wart. quickest and easiest..

yes

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