Driving Lcd Display From Node Red
Posted on July 13, 2025
| 3 minutes
| 432 words
| Michael Earls
In a previous post, I covered the steps of how to connect an LCD display to the Raspberry Pi. This post will demonstrate how to use it in a Node-Red flow.
Install Node-Red You can follow these directions to install Node-Red on your Raspberry Pi. I took the extra step to install Node-Red as a service that starts with the Raspberry Pi.
sudo systemctl enable nodered.service
Then, I started the service by typing
[Read More]Interfacing Raspberry Pi With Lcd
Posted on July 13, 2025
| 3 minutes
| 530 words
| Michael Earls
I’ve spent the past few days exploring a project that allows me to display text on an LCD using a Raspberry Pi. We will be using Python in this post, so familiarity with Python will be useful.
First, make sure you have I2C enabled. You can check this by running:
sudo raspi-config
Connect your LCD to the Raspberry Pi I am using a LCD display with “2004A” on the bottom. It has an I2C backpack so it can be driven by the Raspberry Pi’s I2C pins.
[Read More]How I Created Custom USB Music Drives with a Built-In Music Player
Posted on June 8, 2025
| 3 minutes
| 438 words
| cerkit
Creating a physical music product in the digital age can be a rewarding way to connect with listeners. Here’s how I built a series of custom USB thumb drives containing my music, a self-contained HTML player, and visual artwork—perfect for promotional giveaways or unique fan experiences.
🎧 What You’ll Need USB thumb drives (I used these from Amazon) Your .mp3 files Album or track artwork A single, standalone index.html file (like the one I built here) with embedded CSS and JavaScript A Mac or PC Optional: label maker for custom drive stickers 🔧 Step 1: Prepare Your Music Folder Create a folder on your computer with the following structure:
[Read More]Building a Curated USB Music Playlist Web App
Posted on June 5, 2025
| 2 minutes
| 418 words
| Michael Earls
Welcome to this step-by-step walkthrough of how we created a beautiful, responsive USB music playlist viewer using only web technologies. We’ll highlight each transformation stage and show the exact prompts that guided us to the final product.
🎬 Intro We began with a basic idea: display a curated set of MP3s from a USB drive with a clean, simple web interface. What followed was an iterative design journey refined with the help of AI prompts.
[Read More]How to Select JV-2080 Banks and Patches From MPC
Posted on September 16, 2024
| 2 minutes
| 340 words
| Michael Earls
I once owned a Roland JV-1010 sound module. I bought it in 1999 to go along with my FP-9 Stage Piano (which I still use in my home studio). I really loved the sounds on the JV-1010, so last year, I decided I wanted to start using those sounds again. However, the price of the JV-1010 was really close to the price of the JV-2080, so I just got that instead.
[Read More]How to Fix Paused Printer on Mac
Posted on July 17, 2024
| 1 minutes
| 139 words
| Michael Earls
I’ve been having difficulty getting my Mac connected to a wireless printer. No matter how I configured it, it would always enter paused mode whenever I printed a document.
It turns out that all I had to do was connect to it via IP address on the Add Printer dialog. To get the IP address, first attach to the printer using AirPrint. Then, you can look at the printer’s webpage and get the IP address from there.
[Read More]Music Setup Part 3
Posted on April 30, 2024
| 1 minutes
| 126 words
| Michael Earls
I’ve written a few posts on my musical instrument setup. I’ve learned that it isn’t as easy as I thought it would be. There are so many variables that it makes it hard to land on any one configuration.
Currently, I am making my setup focused on the hardware, not the computer. However, I have the computer connected to a Scarlett 2i2, which is connected to my 18i8 audio interface that’s connected directly to the MPC.
[Read More]Music Hardware Setup Pt. 2
Posted on April 19, 2024
| 2 minutes
| 304 words
| Michael Earls
After working with the setup from my previous post, I ran into issues with the dawless abilities. I’ve created a new setup that involves keeping the computer in the loop, so I can add VSTs and other benefits.
I decided to connect the Scarlett 18i8 to the computer so I can still have sound coming from the computer. I then plugged the Mixer and MPC into it so I could record in my DAW.
[Read More]Bridging the DAWless gap with Ableton Link
Posted on April 18, 2024
| 5 minutes
| 1028 words
| Michael Earls
I have been working diligently to find the perfect hardware setup that will allow me to just sit down and jam out, recording the “performance” in case something good comes out of it. My “eureka” moment was when I was sitting there with two separate clocks running thinking, “How do I synchronize all of this and make it all work together?” That’s when I remembered that the MPC and Bitwig Studio both support Ableton Link.
[Read More]Lunetta 1
Posted on March 23, 2024
| 2 minutes
| 364 words
| Michael Earls
About seven or eight years ago, I started down a path to create my own synthesizer using discrete electronic parts like CMOS chips, resistors, capacitors, and the like. Early on, I discovered the “Lunetta” synthesizer, made from 40106 CMOS chips. By hooking them up a certain way, you can achieve a square wave. This was a lot of fun.
Unfortunately, I got distracted by more capable machines like the Arduino and various FPGAs along the way, so my adventures were short-lived.
[Read More]