Before you get started on making the PZ-1, make sure you've been through the basic tutorials on using the Circuit Playground. You'll need to have installed the Arduino IDE, added the Circuit Playground board to Arduino, and added the Circuit Playground library. This excellent guide, Introducing Circuit Playground and Circuit Playground lesson #0 will show you how to do all of that and get you going.
Plug your Circuit Playground into your computer now, and launch the Arduino IDE. Double check that you've selected the board and port as in the Lesson #0 tutorial and are ready to upload code.
USB MIDI with Teensy Core
There are a few different ways to have the Circuit Playground speak MIDI over USB to your computer. For this project you'll install the Circuit Playground Teensy Core board environment called TeeOnArdu into your Arduino IDE.
Add the Teensy Core by clicking Tools > Board > Board Manager... in the Arduino IDE, and then clicking in the search field (it says Filter your search...) and typing Adafruit TeeOnArdu. Click on the board entry and then click the Install button.
How to Use It
- In the Arduino IDE, select the new entry under Tools > Board > Circuit Playground (TeensyCore)
- Then, select Tools > USB Type > MIDI
- To upload new sketches you just have to double-press the reset button on the Circuit Playground each time you hit the upload button
- If you decide to use your Circuit Playground as a regular Circuit Playground again, just select it under Tools > Board >Circuit Playground and upload an Arduino sketch like Blink File > Examples > Basics > Digital > Blink. The first time you have to double-press the reset button, but after that your Circuit Playground behaves like out of the box.
