Experience - Case studies - CSO Journal (page 2)

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[page 2]

07/14 8:31 AM

hello.

i will not be able to attend this week´s meeting, but i can give you a brief update of the status of work at onShore.

i have been in touch with Paul Heggeland of CR and we discussed the changes/additions in the conduit layout. So it seems like we are straight on that issue. Paul told me that they would be "marking" the spots where the conduit will be installed, so the next big step would be for onShore to inspect this before the installation. Paul can give me an update on when that will be happening and i can meet him at the site to cover those issues.

one question that remains is the use of the cable tray. I´m not really sure of its functionality since it looks like we are going to be using conduit on most of the cable runs.

we have been receiving equipment since late last week. this morning we received all the computer systems from Motorola (wow, that was a fast turnaround!) so we will begin testing the hardware within the next few days. we can then provide a complete system to CSSI for their use. we will also begin shipping units to Kandu, hopefully by the end of the week (we are still waiting on the samplecell cards). we can also provide a station for the CSO (holly) for her use.

so things are going to begin rolling at onShore over the next few weeks. we have already diagnosed a defective speaker (which we are in the process of shipping back for replacement).

if any of these issues need immediate attention please feel free to call me at 312-850-5200. thanks nick

07/21 2:57 PM

hello everyone. sorry for getting this out late but i had a little flood at my house on Friday, fun, fun.....

Anyway, we are moving full steam ahead now that we have most of the equipment in-house. We sent out the samplecell card + RAM to Kandu as soon as we received it. It should now be in their hands so they can begin their work.

We are still missing some key components. We will be contacting those vendors throughout the beginning of this week to see if we can get updated ETA. The Tally displays are one of those items. We did, however, get hold of a manual for the displays which we sent to Kandu. We hope this helps.

We are also still waiting on the PCI Ethernet cards for the Resource Terminals. We have an ETA date of August 5th for those. I just received email from James at Kandu who said he will need the cards sooner. So, we will begin looking for a different brand of Ethernet card. Prices should be about the same.

We are planning on sending out the Motorola machines to Kandu, CSSI and CSO this week. Kandu´s first couple of units should go out on Monday, the remainder by mid-week. CSSI can also expect to receive a machine so they can continue building the Resource Terminals.

I just spoke with David at CSSI, and i guess they no longer need the Motorola´s right away. They do, however, need the trackball. We have most of the assembly but are still waiting on the button and the faceplate. We will call the manufacturer right away for an ETA. We will get the trackball to CSSI as soon as we receive it.

The Instrument. Jesse is making great progress. Late last week he "brought to life" the main processor of the Box. He is conducting further tests to make certain the chip is operating properly.

That´s all for now..... Nick

I think that the CSO expected us to send out the musical activity box circuit design job, but we were very excited to keep it in-house. Our circuit design was more sophisticated than had been anticipated by the CSO--probably because several of our programmers have degrees in music or are active in music themselves. For example, I have personally worked on audio projects for years, have my own band, and have cut several commercial disks. Our lead programmer, Jesse Bouwman, graduated in 1993 from the University of Chicago with a B.A. in Music, having studied theory, history, composition and orchestration. I understood the electronics work well enough to discuss it with the CSO and ESI, but it took Jesse´s electronic expertise to come up with a design and make it happen.

We wanted to make the music boxes as realistic as possible; make the duration of tones like a real instrument. And that´s what we did. Actually, the problems were more mechanical than software design-related. For example, we had to install springs under some pads to get the tension right.

The activity boxes are independent MIDI musical instruments; i.e., they could plug into a keyboard and control the keyboard. This instrument is already talking native MIDI. We wrote a program for the microprocessor built into the activity boxes that packages the velocity and note information directly into MIDI packets instead of just sending raw binary analog data when buttons are pressed on the instruments.

onShore is obligated for the next year to keep these boxes working.

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