Build an ArduinoBoy

Step 6 Using Your ArduinoBoy

Your ArduinoBoy, if assembled correctly, should behave no differently than any other MIDI input device. When used with mGB, it will have 5 separate MIDI channels. Channels 1 and 2 are steady tone generators, 3 is a tone generator that seems to have a three note pattern in my limited tests (the timbre of the note will change each time you play on this channel, following a pattern), channel 4 provides bass sounds (use like a drum, bass guitar, or synth), and channel 5 is noise (most often used in GameBoy games for explosions and running water).

Plug your MIDI out device into the port connected to the opto-isolator, your ArduinoBoy into your GameBoy, and your reprogrammable cartridge into your GameBoy as well. Set your ArduinoBoy to mGB mode by pressing the button until the LED connected to digital 8 lights up. From here on out, you can use your GameBoy as a MIDI instrument. Adjustments to the sound generated can be made at the GameBoy using mGB's interface, specifically, timbre, octave, channel, and note attack. The other ArduinoBoy modes are used with other GameBoy chiptune creation programs, specifically, Nanoloop and LSDJ and are beyond the scope of this Instructable.