The User Interface
Last updated
Last updated
At the very top we see the Menu Bar.
File Menu
The File Menu lets you load Patches (individual FV-1 programs) as well as Banks (groups of 8 programs). You can also save an individual patch as a Spin ASM file, or copy the current patch as Spin ASM to paste into the Spin IDE.
You can export the entire current bank of 8 patches to a HEX file suitable for programming into the FV-1's attached EEPROM using something like a CH341 or a PICKit2 (clone).
For programming into the Spin Development Board, "Export to Spin Project" is offered.
Edit Menu
The Edit Menu provides access to standard editing functions, along with a reference to their keyboard shortcuts.
Loop
Clicking on "Add" drops in two blocks to be used as a feedback loop in your patch.
Block menus
The Block Menus hold a variety of blocks which provide access to the signal processing power of the FV-1 chip.
I/O Mix - functions related to bringing audio in and out of the FV-1 as well as a variety of audio mixer blocks.
Waveshaper - blocks intended to distort your audio, mostly
Dynamics - various limiter blocks
Filters - a variety of 1 pole and 2 pole filters
Delay - delay oriented blocks
Reverb - a handful of ready to go reverb and smaller components for building reverbs
Modulation - blocks used for chorus, flanger, and phase shifter.
Pitch - pitch shifter and offset blocks.
Control - blocks used primarily to process control, rather than audio, signals.
Instructions - blocks which (mostly) implement single FV-1 instructions
Simulator
Access to the built-in patch simulator feature
Help
Includes link to Help (which is currently broken as it points to Patreon, but since you're reading this, you're at the right place anyway) as well as the "About" dialog.
Patch selector
The next section of the UI is the patch selector. SpinCAD Designer lets you work on 8 patches at once in a "Bank". Click on the patch #1 (from 0 to 7) to select the patch you wish to work on. These will map to patches 0 through 7 on your FV-1 once the program is loaded into the EEPROM.
Simulator control bar
The "Start Simulation" button will begin simulation of the current patch. The 3 sliders to the right of this button correspond to Pot 0, Pot 1, and Pot 2 as used in your FV-1 code. These can be moved around while your simulation is running so you can see how the pots will affect your patch.
Scope feature control bar
The scope feature is experimental at this point. It can be used to visualize signals in your patch by bringing them to the output block pins.
Patch display panel
The patch display panel is the work area where you drop blocks from the menu then connect them up and adjust their internal parameters with Control Panels.
Resource allocation toolbar
This panel shows how the patch currently being worked on has allocated resources. As long as none of the indicators are red, your patch should be able to be assembled into functioning code on the FV-1. That doesn't mean it will work properly though! It's just an indication that you haven't used too much of anything.
Indicators are available for:
Instructions (128 total)
Registers (32 total)
Delay RAM (32768 total)
Internal low frequency oscillators (LFOs) - 2 Sin/Cos, 2 ramp
