Welcome to the purrChestrion wiki!

What is purrChestrion?

purrChestrion is an Arduino-based project to add MIDI input and other features to a B.Toys Meowsic keyboard. It has the potential to work in other toys and/or keyboards, but YMMV.

Why?

I've always had a soft spot for interesting synthesizers and toys that make music (or in some cases, just noise). The Meowsic keyboard, being a fairly popular kids keyboard that meows when you play it, has been on my radar for a while. As I started looking into this particular keyboard, I was surprised to find out that nobody added MIDI input to one of these silly cat-shaped toys yet.

Sure, there have been projects to convert one of them into a simple MIDI keyboard (in other words, to control other MIDI audio devices or DAWs), but since there are plenty of options for MIDI keyboards on the market (admittedly, more boring ones), in my opinion that's quite the opposite of what I was looking for.

This is why I was determined to find a way to add MIDI input to the Meowsic, and potentially other musical toys and keyboards.

Limitations

While the Meowsic is a pretty neat little keyboard, it still is (and always will be) a cheap toy. While I've tried to optimize as much as possible when it comes to MIDI performance, its dinky little glob-top microcontroller WILL have trouble keeping up with fast MIDI files. Don't expect Rush-E to sound good on this thing.

Also, once the purrChestrion board is installed, make sure the board is powered. Even when NOT using its capabilities. I have noticed that the Meowsic does some weird things otherwise. Possibly because the board is basically hijacking the keymatrix of the Meowsic.

I haven't tested this with other toys/synths/keyboards, but I assume this might be the case there as well.

Sounds neat! How do I do it?

Well, there are several options. You could either buy a board (link soon) from me, or you could order a board from a PCB fab. I'm still looking into the best options to sell these boards, so watch this space.