In this video I mount, update and test the Syntherrupter with its MIDI capabilities and gives a walk-through on how I am using it. Some of the details from the video is written as a part of this post. To read all the parts, read the article about the complete DRSSTC controller project.
First I had to upgrade the firmware, since this was about half a year since it was first done. Max had put out 6 new releases in the meantime, which also included support for the 7″ Intelligence version of the Nextion display. So no more custom editing and changes to the display, I can just download the image to it!
MIDI Setup for Tesla Coil
The first tests after upgrading the Syntherrupter firmware from v4.1.0 to v4.2.0-beta.3, was to test the simple mode with coil settings with oscilloscope. It was confirmed to be 100% accurate with an example of 280 Hz at 60 uS on-time.
For the PC MIDI Setup, I ran through the suggested programs in the Syntherrupter documentation. https://github.com/MMMZZZZ/Syntherrupter#pc-midi-setup. The free SynthFont 1 program gave me a lot of problems with virtual COM port locking up after each played MIDI. I had to close the program and open it again. I then tried Hairless MIDI<->Serial and loopMIDI together with my regular MidiEditor program. That worked flawlessly.
To get into the coil settings, its good to remember that buttons with additional settings behind, are highlighted with a double frame in the Syntherrupter UI. You access these deep menus with a long press, as defined in ms in the overall settings menu.
The cutout for the display was not great, I have unfortunately misaligned something. So its shifted 2 mm both left and down. But overall you do not really notice it and the layout of the panel is satisfactory.
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