Remember having 1-color graphics on your computer or even your phone?
RK-002/VID
Remember having 1-color graphics on your computer or even your phone? Looking back they were kind of cool and it certainly is a specific form of art creating good graphics for them.
About a year ago we started working on an experimental firmware version for the RK-002 which applies to this, just a side project – fun stuff. It is a bit of a strange concept, but the idea is to have a very lo-tek B/W video generator with you which you can power – and control from a MIDI device. Just by adding two resistors to the output of the RK-002 you can generate a low resolution (96×64) B/W video signal.
Our visit to the Superbooth this year has shown us that this does trigger one’s imagination. In the video example here you can see a small video animation which powers the RK-002/VID from just a Volca Keys running a sequence on MIDI out.
The circuit to connect the RK-002 to CVBS video is just all too simple, see this picture:
UPDATE: We have made this circuit into a small addon for the RK-002: The RK102 – A plug (limited production) which you can fit on your RK-002 with Female DIN on one end and RCA/CVBS on the other end.
You can control various things on the screen with your MIDI controller:
Image memory octave (10):
C3-A3: Show screen buffer 1-10
Image FX octave:
C4: Clear screen
C#4: Invert screen
D4: Scroll left (velocity=amount of scroll)
D#4: Scroll right (velocity=amount of scroll)
E4: Melt down FX
Pitch bend moves image up/down.
‘Etch-a-Sketch’ style drawing:
C#5: Pen white colour
D#5: Pen black colour
F#5: Pen off
D5: move cursor left
E5: move cursor right
F5: move cursor up
G5: move cursor down
Cursor movement also via MIDI controller:
CC45: X-position
CC48: Y-position
Here’s a link to the ‘Playground Page’ where you can drag-drop images to the RK-002, stream your webcam via webmidi or play around with text or trigger animation FX.
