• 02Sep

  Beginnings

  Progress Update Comments Off

  So, I’ve put up a new version of the static scene game today, based in my hometown of Spokane, Washington.  It’s still just shooting random zombies that come your way, but the scenery is different, and it’s a much better lead into where the game is going graphically – extensive use of free Google Maps assets to create a game where you get to play in actual locations.

  You won’t really notice all that much new stuff in the gameplay; unfortunately, much of the work I’ve been doing has been related to the back-end stuff, and most of that work has been put into the database backend of the stand-alone game.  However, obviously I’m starting to get new assets in, and starting to work on level design.  Hopefully, this weekend will bring about a new test, one that plays much more like a first-person shooter (one that’s also much more fun…).

  That said, the most easy thing to notice is the addition of new study options.  If you have any lists of things you want to study, please e-mail them to alan@openchord.org!

• 22Jul

  New Project!

  Announcements, Development, Progress Update Comments Off

  So, it’s pretty obvious that OpenChord.org is at the end of it’s life.  It’s been that way for probably close to a year now, but I haven’t really had anything to update here.  However, in the meantime, I’ve been working on a different project – the making of a non-music-related game.  Instead, it’s a game designed to assist with memorizing flash-cards.  I still don’t have  a name for it, but you can try the beginnings of it here:

  www.OpenChord.org/Zombies

  That’s just kinda a basic example of fundamental gameplay.  It doesn’t include what I’ve been working on this last week, which is all back-end stuff to increase the functionality of the project.  Namely:

  • Transitioning cards to an SQLite database, compatible with flashcards created in the popular Anki program
  • Implementing a spaced repetition algorithm, so items you learn get reviewed at longer and longer intervals, and the items you failed at show up more frequently.

  I’ll be trying to update this blog more frequently, both as a progress report to myself and as a way to keep track of progress.  If you have any ideas, please feel free to e-mail them to Alan@OpenChord.org, or leave them in the comments!

   

   

   

• 12Apr

  Bad News, Good News

  Development, Progress Update Comments Off

  First, the bad news – We’re not going to be able to implement Xbox 360 compatibility on our own.  Looking into it, the security the 360 uses is based on a pretty hardcore chip, and while that chip has been recently hacked, doing so involves using an electron microscope, and might only be valid for one chip at a time.  If anyone knows any contacts within Microsoft who might be able to talk to us regarding licensing these chips, we’d love to hear from you, but like most other big developers, Microsoft hasn’t been too keen on letting tiny companies get their hands on those chips.  I can’t blame them; if there were hundreds of cheap 3rd party controllers making the Xbox 360 experience much worse, or allowing for cheating on multiplayer online games, nobody blames the controller manufacturers, just Microsoft.  Still, for now, it looks like native 360 compatibility is out.  However, if you’re really interested in using the V1 on the 360, send us an e-mail, since if you’re willing to use the circuit board from an existing guitar controller, we can probably work something out for that pretty easily.

  On the good news side of things, after some re-jiggering and testing, we’ve merged the Wii and PS3 firmware!  This means that you don’t have to do a firmware update to switch between the systems anymore, and it’s going to be easier to figure out which firmware  you need.  Instead of V1_Wii.hex and V1_USB.hex series’ of binaries, they’re being replaced by the OpenChordV1.hex series.  Most people should need the 12MHz hex file, but there are still some 16 Mhz boards out there – Anyone who bought kits at PAX or since then has the 12 MHz board, but to check, if you see 16.000 on the little silver oval on the PCB, then you’ve got a 16 MHz crystal, so you’ll need the 16 MHz code.  Or send us an e-mail if you’d like a 12 MHz crystal; we’re more than happy to drop one in the mail for you, free of charge.

• 07Apr

  Back in Spokane

  Development, Progress Update Comments Off

  After a few weeks of being on the East Coast, I’m finally back in Spokane, ready to start doing more hardcore engineering (and taxes.)! Right now, our Xbox 360 is Red Ringed, but I’m fixing that tomorrow; however, things aren’t looking so hot for Xbox support right now – nobody it seems has been able to get anything near working. Instead, everyone making arcade sticks and the like have just been ripping out the PCB from an existing controller and interfacing with that – since guitar controllers are at least $20 each, and a lot of plastic, it seems pretty expensive and wasteful to be ripping up whole controllers just for a little chip.. If it comes down to that, though, we’ll go ahead and make some instructions for how to add Xbox 360 support in such a way.

  That said, we’re also looking at getting an oscilloscope to check out and see if we can maybe send the proper signals to the Xbox – we’ll let you know how that one goes, but judging from the seeming lack of 3rd party Chinese controllers, it doesn’t look particularly promising, unfortunately.
  As a side note, if anyone is interested in having a PlayStation2 compatible guitar, let us know. It’s something that we were working on, but couldn’t figure out; however, I’m starting up a project with Kellbot, working to integrate our boards with her awesome Katamari Ball, so since I’ll be dusting off that PS2 code, I’m wondering how much effort we should be putting into getting it to work for the guitar as well?

• 23Mar

  Kits Kits Kits!

  New Release, Progress Update Comments Off

  We’re getting all geared up for PAX East!  Tonight we went ahead and put together almost 100 kits – enough to run out of microcontrollers at least, although we’ve got another shipment of them waiting for us in Boston.  We’ll be selling them there at our booth, along with letting anyone who stops by play Frets on Fire with our custom guitars.  We’re also going to have some buttons with our logo available for sale, with the profits of those sales going to Child’s Play.  Of course, with all of our products, 10% of the profits go to charity anyways, but we thought the buttons would make a good piece of swag to raise even more money for such a good cause.  So if you’re coming to PAX, come check us out!

• 18Mar

  FCC Testing, Round 2

  Progress Update Comments Off

  I’m sorry to report it, but it looks like we’re not going to be able to get our device FCC approved before PAX. I were hoping we could get it tested here in Spokane, but the lab that used to be here closed down, and besides, there might be tricky things about the guitar that make it’s current configuration hard to test.

  A little bit of background, basically anything that has a chip inside it that runs faster than 1.705 megahertz needs to be tested to make sure that it complies with Chapter 15 of FCC regulations, ensuring that it doesn’t accidentally create electromagnetic interference (i.e., it doesn’t mess up your radio, TV, cell phone, etc. signals). This is because chips really draw their power every time the clock swings, instead of a constant drain, so the electricity going into the chip is rapidly going on and off. That on-and-off current is basically a tiny radio transmitter, hence the FCC wants to make sure that that little radio signal isn’t strong enough to jam your roommate’s radio. So you have to get it tested, and it’s why you see a little FCC logo on anything you plug into your computer.

  What’s hard about the guitar is that I’m not sure how valid our testing becomes if, say, we use a different model of guitar, which we do a lot, or if we revised our circuit board at all. However, we are looking into the possibility of breaking up our design into a fast-clocked USB/Wii communication circuit, that would get approved once, and a slow-clocked guitar-reading circuit, which doesn’t need approval at all, since things going slower than 1.705 MHz are exempt. Or maybe we only have to get FCC verification instead of a declaration of conformity, which means that we can possibly self-test our equipment.

  I’ll keep you posted,
  Alan Chatham
  Lead Developer

• 24Dec

  Setback

  Progress Update Comments Off

  Setback!  It’s for the best that we figured it out now, but in order to actually sell a product, at least in the US, we’re going to need to get FCC approval, it looks like, since our guitar has a chip that’s going fast enough to generate possible interference.  It shouldn’t be hard, but it does mean that we should probably do a little more development, just to make sure that our circuit board is as good as it should be.

  However, kits don’t have that restriction, and so while we’re still working on some play testing, we should have kits ready to go once some new parts show up!  With the kits, we’re also looking at increasing the device’s flexibility and making it programmable via USB.  Things to look forward to in the New Year!

• 17Dec

  Bootloading

  Development, Progress Update Comments Off

  USB Bootloading!  This week, I’ve been working on (well, working on getting it to compile) a USB bootloader for the chip we’re using.  What does this mean?  It means that instead of having to buy a $40 programmer to update the firmware on the chip, firmware updates can now also be handled via USB, something that is super-nice.   This means that we can keep upgrading the guitar and adding new features, and  you simply (well, right now, unfortunately slightly less simply) have to download the new code and install it on your device.  This also means that we’re probably going to be able to offer kits really soon, since we can continually update the firmware as time goes on.

• 15Dec

  Australia

  Progress Update Comments Off

  So it’s been a while, huh.   This time, I was moving to Australia…

  Also in the last couple of weeks, we finally got a PlayStation 3 to do some testing on, and it doesn’t work.  That is to say, it didn’t work.  We’ve figured out what was going wrong, and now I’m happy to report that the OpenChord.org codebase is now compatible with the PlayStation 3!  I’ve only tested it out so far on Guitar Hero 5, but it should work with any Guitar Hero or Rock Band games.

  Also, we’re still working on the clip-on version – that’s what we’re doing our usage testing on right now.  (I’ll let you know when I’m getting 5 stars on Expert mode…) We’re trying to get things figured out playability and electromechanically still, so it doesn’t break midway through your songs, and we still need to find a good case.  But we’re also looking for a name!  Check out the poll on the left, and if you have some better ideas, let us know in the comments!

• 19Nov

  Circuit Boards, etc.

  Development, Progress Update Comments Off

  We finally got in the circuit boards we ordered a while ago, built those, then lo and behold, the even newer circuit boards came in!  These extra-new ones are compatible with both the Wii and USB (although it requires reflashing the firmware to change which type of a controller it is…)  Still, they’re super-pretty, and smaller, so they fit in smaller cases.  We still need to find a good case for the new clip-on model, but maybe our big problem is using a clip that’s too small, so it keeps slipping off the guitar…

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