Pure Data to Arduino Over Serial

Contents:

• To Get this Example Working
• Pure Data to Arduino over serial in Action

A basic example of getting the Arduino to make music using Pure Data.

• First, get the extended version of Pure Data here: http://puredata.info/community/projects/software/pd-extended

• NOTE: You need the exended version with the comport object, used to talk to the serial port.

• Next, flash your Arduino with the following code:

  #include <SoftwareSerial.h>
  
  SoftwareSerial mySerial(0, 1); // Change to whatever you hooked
                                   // RX, TX up to
  
  void setup() {
   mySerial.begin(9600);
  }
  
  void loop() {
   for (int i=0; i<255; i++) {
   mySerial.write(i);
   delay(100);
   }
   for (int i=255; i>0; i--) {
   mySerial.write(i);
   delay(100);
   }
  }
  

• Then, save this Pure Data patch to a text file, name it SimpleExample.pd, and open it up in Pure Data:

  #N canvas 499 140 450 300 10;
  #X msg -158 30 devices;
  #X floatatom -120 111 5 0 0 0 - - -;
  #X msg -94 32 open 2;
  #X obj -120 78 comport 2 9600;
  #X msg -37 33 close 2;
  #X obj -117 177 osc~;
  #X obj -116 212 dac~;
  #X obj -120 140 * 10;
  #X connect 0 0 3 0;
  #X connect 1 0 7 0;
  #X connect 2 0 3 0;
  #X connect 3 0 1 0;
  #X connect 4 0 3 0;
  #X connect 5 0 6 0;
  #X connect 5 0 6 1;
  #X connect 7 0 5 0;
  

A nice feature of Pd is that all the patches are in a simple text format.

To Get this Example Working:

• Open Pure Data
• Open the "SimpleExample.pd" file in Pure Data
• Click on the "devices" message box: This will list any available serial ports in a numbered list.
• On my Mac, the usb port connected to the microcontroller was on port 2; (it may be different on your computer)
• Find the correct port number and change the "open" message from "open 2" to "open (your port # here)".
  • To do that, enter Edit mode under the Edit menu.
  • Now you can type directly into the message boxes.
  • After you change the "open" message, leave edit mode and do the following:
  • 1. Select "compute audio" in the main Pd window
  • 2. Click on the "open" message to open the serial connection

You should see output of the comport changing, and should hear a rising and falling tone.

Original tutorial by:

• Anna Kaziunas France (except where otherwise noted) Some rights reserved. 2013

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License