Triggerboy

Photo of the Triggerboy in Matt Payne's VJing setup, shown in a case with various banana plug ports on top. It's wired to an NES that also has a bunch of banana plug ports that have been modded into the case. I think it might also be connected to a Sega Genesis too?

Triggerboy is an open-hardware electronic synchronization tool to assist in the creation of live music visuals. It is an application for the Arduino hardware platform that is intended to interface with the LittleSoundDJ sequencer for Game Boy handheld systems. It syncs tempo/clock from the Game Boy and can run on-board audio analysis and FFT spectrum analysis. It uses this information to trigger the digital out pins on the Arduino in time with the music.

So far, Triggerboy has been employed during live performances by The Glowing Stars, Matthew Joseph Payne and Slime Girls to trigger circuit-bending of NES and Genesis consoles to create glitchy, 8-bit visuals. It has become a regular component in Matthew Joseph Payne's rig for live visual performance. I collaborated with Matt in the design of the unit and the development of the hardware, and wrote all of the software.

It is based on the open-source Arduinoboy code and schematic with heavy modifications.

Here's some videos of the Triggerboy in action, driving a circuit bent game console: Slime Girls @ The Crepe Place, 9/29/2012

WebsiteGitHub
Time1.5 months (in free time)
Team2
RoleProgrammer, electrical engineer
TechnologiesArduino, C
Completion Date28 September 2012

Photo of Matt Payne projecting circuit-bent 8-bit visuals on top of himself as he plays the drums, the glitches are being triggered automatically in time with the music by the Triggerboy. Photo of my Triggerboy development workbench, showing a Game Boy Advance running the LSDJ sequencer connected to an Arduino development board. The Game Boy link cable and audio line out are both wired to a bread board shield on the Arduino. Photo of Matt Payne projecting circuit-bent 8-bit visuals over Slime Girls during a live performance. Some of The glitches are being triggered automatically in time with the music by the Triggerboy.

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