I'd like to trigger one of 12 MIDI note values each time an object is struck but I don't want the same value to be triggered twice in a row. What is the best way to go about this?

At the moment I'm just using [random 12].

Thanks.

I've recently got an arduino board (mega 2560) and I'd like to start making a basic piezo drum trigger as a simple project to get started with arduino.

I've connected a piezo with a 1MOhm resistor wired in parallel to the arduino and I'm getting nice, readable values in the arduino serial monitor (between 0-1023).

So the next step would be to use the comport object in PD to receive the serial output from arduino then divide it by 8 to get a value between 0-127, right?

But when I activate the comport in PD, arduino's serial monitor starts displaying weird ASCII characters. It's the same situation if I try to use a potentiometer - fine before opening the comport and a seemingly meaningless mess once it is open.

Is there an issue with my system or am I missing a step?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

@Gromit said:

two other ways

Thanks, method A in your patch works a treat.

@audiolemon said:

[urn] would be better for this I think.

Thanks for your reply.

I wasn't aware of [urn] before but I get the impression that it is not what I'm after. I phrased my title badly - repeating numbers are fine but not the same number twice in a row. So 1-2-1 is fine but 1-1-2-2 is not.

I'm trying to develop a way of digitally triggering foley footsteps using a wii fit balance board, each footstep triggers one of 12 footfall samples and hearing the same sample twice in a row feels kinda unrealistic.

Do you upload the Standard Firmata sketch in the usual fashion? But then it will be erased when I upload my piezo drum trigger sketch, right? Or do I just write the drum trigger sketch within the Firmata one?

Thanks