Even if this project is less relevant because of Megasquirt et al, precision timing is useful for many many applications outside of automotive. I would definitely like to see an article on your Ferrari project, even though I’m never going to replace a Ferrari ECU… And of course now we have been warned in advance that a bunch of the comments will say sonething like “derp should have used a Megasquirt!” :-)

Sorry to hear about the other part of the story.

Under that sort of thinking @Spencer I don’t think a marble machine can ever be a touring machine – the very basic element of how it works means thousands of marbles moving around, requiring many parts to shift them to drop them in time, catch ’em and recycle ’em ready to go again. Its not possible to build a marble machine without huge numbers of moving parts and potential points of failure.

But what you can do, and for the most part IMO MMX achieves is being designed such that failures are almost impossibly unlikely to be anything other than minor inconvenience rather than a more terminal breakdown… Combine that with proper maintenance checks to the schedule – presumably between venues disassemble enough to check/replace all the wear prone parts, add any lubricant etc, and set the tour up that ever nth performance has a longer pause where you can strip it entirely for a deep clean and replacement of all the wear surfaces even if they still look good.

Perhaps he should have recorded himself playing on a drum, and measured how tight his own playing is. As long as the MMXT is better than that, then I think he could sleep easy.

That’s an excellent tip, thank you, will certainly check it out!

Consider checking out the music by Detektivbyrån. Martin and Molin are both in it (and perhaps others from Wintergatan?). Their music is similar in many ways.

I enjoyed them anyway!

I see Martin’s point how the MMX could never be turned into a touring machine. Every moving part creates an opportunity for failure. When a failure does occur a diagnosis is not likely to be forthcoming as swiftly scanning through such complicated mechanisms made of tiny parts on a stage with harsh overhead lighting all while an audience looks on sounds like the stuff of nightmares. Assuming that a broken or loose part could be identified and a replacement is readily available, many components are so cramped and would require significant disassembly just to gain access. None of this is feasible on they fly and that threat is enough for Martin to lose sleep every night.
I support Martin moving on from the MMX, but personally it would have provided some closure to many following contributing to the project if Martin had at least composed and performed a song or two on the MMX before getting rid of it. I know that he had some family stuff to attend to and maybe for himself it was best to just scrap it and move on.

That’s why you use a patch loom. I’ve done it on plenty of collectables and classics, gut an old ECU with the correct connector for the car, wire it to a modern ECU along with any support circuitry required. Plug and play and can be reverted to original if required. I’m not doubting the op made his arduino-ferarri but this is a tried and tested method I personally know examples of going back to the late 90s, my first vehicle recieving this treatment in about 2001 after seeing the success of others.