To even begin testing the PipeMare organ and controller, we needed a lot of changes to the master circuitry and firmware, as well as to the CAN bus and A-side power topology, and to the master power supply as well.
The master power supply has been upgraded to a more powerful 12V PSU for the slave instruments, and the slave instruments (for now only PipeDream61 and PipeMare) and the combined CAN bus and power cables have been modified for 12V supply instead of 5V.
As we needed some more dynamic control of the percussion instruments on the master controller, we needed a reprogramming of the firmware. In the end, to make the master microcontroller more simple and efficient, the entire firmware was rewritten. At least for now. The old firmware used a very neat and generic heap/buffer system to manage local instruments, but in the end it was too much trouble for the current needs, and not very efficient. If we, in the future, need more bling and functionality, we can dig up the old code and load it into a faster microcontroller, like the almost pin-compatible Arduino Due.
Now, we need to make last adjustments to the master firmware, and then recalibrate all the instruments on the master (i.e. glockenspiel, tubular bells and percussion). The we need to make sure that PipeDream61 still works after all the rebuilding and all the idle time. Then, and only then, can the work with testing and debugging the PipeMare controller begin.