the 5v idea

Thu, Oct 7, 2010

mmmm what if the entire synth could run on 5v? Just power it over USB. It would make a perfect companion for your laptop but also very easy to install with your desktop PC. The development is also a lot more “portable”. Now I have to work with my own bulky +/-15V power supply. It would be fantastic to just work with an USB cable connection. My MacBook can charge my iPad (1A) so the USB power connection should be powerful enough to drive a (tiny) synthesizer.

Leading to this idea was also the fact that I received my sample MAX7403 8th order lowpass filter chips from Maxim today. These operate at a single 5V power supply  and I think they’ll make great audio filters! Cutoff is addressed via square wave so the Arduino PWM can operate this…