ff-ad9833 Repo

For my on-going exploration of ad9833 audio generation using FlashForth 5, a code repository is now available at codeberg:

https://codeberg.org/infrared/ff-ad9833

So far, I have a demo-pitches word that plays c4, e4, g4, and c5 frequencies, but I can set other frequencies ranging from a4 to g#6, using the words I have so far. There is no system yet for setting duration, so I can’t play notes proper. But it was fun setting up a system for setting the equal temperament pitches.

In microcontroller programming, it is much easier to justify efforts to save memory. I needed to store the precalculated frequency register data values for each pitch. Originally I had a table like so:

$5274 , $4000 ,
$538d , $4000 , 
$54b7 , $4000 ,
$55f2 , $4000 ,
...
$4b5a , $4002 ,

With each line (two 16 bits words) representing one pitch. However, the first two bits in each 16-bit word are actually not frequency data, but register addressing bits, which can easily be added in later. Also, the second 16-bit word in each pair has (in my application) only two bits of actual frequency data, which are the two right most bits. So, I cut the table memory usage in half by packing those two bits into the left-most two bits of the first word in each pair:

\ packaged freq register data for equal temp
\ pitches from A4, A#4, B4 , ... , G#6
\ format numbered from lsb to msb:
\ 0-13: the 14 LSBs of the lsb register load
\ 14-15: the 2 LSBs of the msb register load

create packed-pitches
$1274 , $138d ,
$14b7 , $15f2 ,
$1740 , $18a2 ,
$1a19 , $1ba7 ,
...

Now each line in the table is actually two separate pitches. Then I just need a few words to separate the bits back out into separate words, and recombine them with the frequency register addressing bits:

0  constant na
1  constant na#
2  constant nb
3  constant nc
4  constant nc#
5  constant nd
6  constant nd#
7  constant ne
8  constant nf
9  constant nf#
10 constant ng
11 constant ng#

0 constant o4
1 constant o5
2 constant o6

: pull-pitch ( note octave -- u ) 12 * + cells packed-pitches + @ ;

: pull-14lsb %0011111111111111 and ;

: pull-2msb %1100000000000000 and 14 rshift ;

%0100000000000000 constant FREG0

: tx-pitch ( note octave -- )
    pull-pitch cp>r pull-14lsb FREG0 or 2tx-spi
    r> pull-2msb FREG0 or 2tx-spi ;

In testing, I have some trouble with some pitches getting distorted when I set the volume to higher levels. I suspect the problem is that I am still using the USB power supply and need to feed in my +5V from an external PS. I plan to try that next week, God willing.