{"id":713,"date":"2023-10-31T05:37:28","date_gmt":"2023-10-31T05:37:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/?p=713"},"modified":"2026-06-24T10:45:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T10:45:07","slug":"on-board-drone-machine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/2023\/10\/31\/on-board-drone-machine\/","title":{"rendered":"On Board Drone Machine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Drone Machine is a 5-voice DIY synthesizer built on the OnBoard sProject PCB. Powered by an ESP32-S3 microcontroller with audio output via a stereo I2S DAC, the Drone Machine takes advantage of the sProject&#8217;s capacitive touch pads for triggering tones, and potentiometers for adjusting the features of each tone; such as frequency, release time, timbre, vibrato, drive, delay and reverb. An OLED screen displays the current parameter values a sounding voice levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The sound of the OnBoard Drone Machine ranges from a pure triangle wave to various FM tones and can be made more aggressive with overdrive and delay feedback.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"296\" src=\"https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/sProject-Blue-dual-image-1024x296.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-999\" style=\"width:1128px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/sProject-Blue-dual-image-1024x296.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/sProject-Blue-dual-image-300x87.png 300w, https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/sProject-Blue-dual-image-768x222.png 768w, https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/sProject-Blue-dual-image-615x178.png 615w, https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/sProject-Blue-dual-image.png 1128w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Drone Synth Version 2 (2026) on a &#8216;blue&#8217; PCB with surface-mounted components (left) and with a cosmetic cover (right).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Software for the Drone Machine was written by Andrew R. Brown using the <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/algomusic\/M16\">M16<\/a> audio synthesis library.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"763\" src=\"https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Drone-Machine-V1-1024x763.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-725\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Drone-Machine-V1-1024x763.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Drone-Machine-V1-300x224.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Drone-Machine-V1-768x573.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Drone-Machine-V1-1536x1145.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Drone-Machine-V1-2048x1527.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Drone-Machine-V1-483x360.jpg 483w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Above is an image of the Drone Machine version 1 &#8211; which has suffered a bit of wear and tear through use and testing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"OnBoard Drone Machine Demo\" width=\"1505\" height=\"847\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/943zGxPjw3w?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A quick demo of the Drone Machine in action.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Workshops<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Like all sProject PCB designs, the Drone Machine is DIY assembled from a kit. Workshops for building Drone Machines have been run since 2023. Below are some photos from these workshops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"288\" src=\"https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/WS-1-Collage-1024x288.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-724\" style=\"width:1333px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/WS-1-Collage-1024x288.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/WS-1-Collage-300x84.png 300w, https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/WS-1-Collage-768x216.png 768w, https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/WS-1-Collage-1536x432.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/WS-1-Collage-2048x576.png 2048w, https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/WS-1-Collage-615x173.png 615w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"343\" src=\"https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/SunshineCoastWS-copy-1024x343.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-828\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/SunshineCoastWS-copy-1024x343.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/SunshineCoastWS-copy-300x100.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/SunshineCoastWS-copy-768x257.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/SunshineCoastWS-copy-1536x514.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/SunshineCoastWS-copy-2048x685.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/SunshineCoastWS-copy-615x206.jpg 615w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Performances<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Contemplation\" width=\"1505\" height=\"847\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NTUgxzEdt54?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A live performance with the OnBoard Drone Machine at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music in 2024.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Drone Machine is a 5-voice DIY synthesizer built on the OnBoard sProject PCB. Powered by an ESP32-S3 microcontroller with audio output via a stereo I2S DAC, the Drone Machine takes advantage of the sProject&#8217;s &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1002,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hardware"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=713"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1003,"href":"https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713\/revisions\/1003"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}