Is anyone still developing on this platform?

[audioartillery]

I bought the dev kit about 10 years ago and made a couple effects before getting completely distracted with other things.  I've recently gotten back into it (after some really awful time spent putting together an XP VM with working JRE -- ugh).

 

So I was just wondering... is there anyone left out there still using this kit?  When I got the itch to do more effects work I started looking at the options out there.  It's too bad Line6 didn't make a second generation dev kit with a more modern toolchain and a more common DSP processor.  Not that would ever do them much good, I don't imagine the dev kit was a financial success for them.

 

On the bright side, the ToneCore dev kit is still as viable as it was when introduced.  Sure, the assembly programming can slow down development and the hoops you need to get the old software to run sucks... but it does work.  And there are blank modules on eBay for cheap.

 

If you aren't using this platform any longer, is there something you've moved on to?  I'd really like something inexpensive that I can build real pedals out of and give to friends.

[deltalejo]

I haven't used the kit for some time, but I'd like to have some time to continue experimenting with it.

I have knowledge of some other platforms for audio effects development, like the FV-1 from Spin Semiconductor or The OWL, an open source platform.

Another possibility could be to make your own development platform, I think its not so hard, you can learn a lot from the documentation of the ToneCore DSP dev kit or The OWL, maybe you can use an ARM and an AVR processor, both has open source compilers that runs on multiple platforms, so the toolchain would be more versatile.

If you like the last idea, I'm willing to help you with that, just tell me, or maybe we can continue developing with the ToneCore.

[audioartillery]

Thanks for the response!  Yeah, I've looked at most of those options.  I'm not thrilled with any of them.

 

The FV-1 has a lot of traction, but I dislike the closed source, Windows-only toolkit and assembly programming.  I don't see it as an upgrade from the ToneCore for prototyping.

 

I'm considering an ARM Cortex-M based solution (Teensy 3.x + BlackAddr guitar adapter).  The adapter is well thought out and I'm much happier with a GCC based toolchain.  The 16-bit Teensy audio library isn't ideal but if I toss that it's a reasonable 24-bit piece of hardware.  My concern here is mainly CPU cycles -- will it keep up for high end effects? 

 

I haven't looked into the OWL much.  I want something that doesn't cost $300 to replicate if I want to give a friend an effect.

 

There's a guy on the DIY stompbox forum that is putting out boards based on the XMOS multicore processor line.  This is definitely interesting but kind of a mixed bag.  The toolchain is closed source but they have OSX and linux versions available.  They can be programmed in C but it's a weird multiprocessor C variant.  My real hangup here is the viability of the XMOS line.  It's pretty new and not widely adopted.  I know ARM boards will be around in 10 years, will this?

 

 

I'll probably keep struggling with the ToneCore for a little bit since I've got the hardware all working.  I'm really struggling with simple arithmetic for some reason, even though in the past I developed a fairly complex effect on it.  Once you get something working they're nice pedals, and I have a couple docks, might as well do something with them.

[deltalejo]

Well, the TCDDK is a good platform, maybe we can share what we found working on that, I have made an improvement for the template that a want to improve further when I find some time. Just tell me and we can help each other.