Workshop System – an analog modular synth with swappable RP2040 program cards

I happened upon a chance to play with one of these last year.

I was visiting London for only a day while on a trip around Europe, and made sure to visit Schneiders Keller while I was there. Tom (who brought us the open source Turing Machine eurorack module) came in to drop off a demo unit, and I got the first play on it.

It’s a lot of modular packed into a small package. Loads of fun. Also quite rugged and portable (built into a nice case, and can be powered by a battery bank).

Firmware is swappable, and can be completely customized.

> The microcontroller in Computer is an RP2040, the same as a Raspberry Pi Pico. The program cards are the entire flash memory for the Computer, so there is no firmware on the device itself. They can be programmed in C/C++ (Pico SDK), Arduino Pico, Circuit Python or anything else that works on RP2040. Program cards can be re-programmed or updated over USB with a simple drag-and-drop process. You’re welcome to sell or give away any code you create, and can make your own custom cards if you want.

cool