Arduinoboy, pitch mod and PS/2 socket question (Page 1) - Nintendo Handhelds - Forums

1 Mar 17, 2014 9:32 pm

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CA

Hello there,

I entered chiptune quite recently and there are several things I don't completely understand. So I was hoping you guys could clarify a couple of things and help a noob. I'm trying to sort out which mods are real must have and which could be omitted for the sake of space. I'm looking into arduinoboy right now and trying to figure the following:

1. Arduinoboy and pitch mod
If I understand correctly this one transforms a boy into a MIDI device. Does it allow you to control pitch through MIDI keyboard? If so, then you don't need pitch and Arduinoboy together?

2. Arduinoboy and PS/2 socket
Same idea. If you have a MIDI keyboard as input it seems to be more powerful than the keyboard (since it's musical instrument of a sort). Why would anybody have PS/2 socket as well?

And one more thing. I'm having hard times to find some nice worklogs or tutorials for internal arduinoboy. Concretely I'm a bit confused how do I stuff two pretty big MIDI sockets into a DMG. I saw people put them on the sides of the shell, but I think it requires trimming the PCB and relocating the pars. I'd really like to avoid that (but maybe I haven't got much of a choice here).

Thanks!

2 Mar 17, 2014 9:47 pm

herr_prof

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1) The pitch mod controls the global pitch of the chip, and is unrelated to midi notes. If you did the pitch mod, and then controlled the device via midi, the notes would be different with the mod enabled.

2. The arduinoboy emulates the ps/2 mode , as well as gives you the ability to control the dmg over midi. ps/2 mode is the only way to play notes into LSDJ. The ps/2 socket is only better if you want to avoid using a arduinoboy. Its a simpler mod with less parts.

There is always the tacomidi approach, where you have the midi i/o come out via trs stereo mini jacks, and then have a specially modified cable that terminate in regular din midi connectors.

3 Mar 18, 2014 12:43 am

stargazer

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SLC, UT

Why isn't tacomidi more popular? It seems like such a better idea if you're going internal.

4 Mar 18, 2014 1:33 am

herr_prof

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Beats me! I would personally go even further and just make a db9 connector with midi and audio out sticking out the bottom, then you can have a custom length cable with your various outputs, or use the headphone jack.