Yah, made the guy send notes. It's so awesome! Especially when you assign some real instruments to your track - orchestral and real drums playing 8bit song I nearly laughed my head off 
65 Jun 21, 2014 5:05 am
Re: Arduinoboy midi in problem (31 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)
66 Jun 21, 2014 4:21 am
Re: Arduinoboy midi in problem (31 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)
From what I read on the arduinoboy page sending notes requires some special version of LSDJ that has MIDIOUT sync mode?
67 Jun 21, 2014 4:11 am
Re: Arduinoboy midi in problem (31 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)
Ok reassembled everything using one of my UNOs (put the allegedly broken pro mini aside) and it seems to be working. I mean I see it sends ticks when it is supposed to, but how do I send notes? Anyways I'll carry on with googling and trial and erroring, just letting you know that the thing full worked finally (cause I'm so sure everybody cares lol).
PS
I noticed one weird thing though. From what I see on my breadboard (and the thing works, so I think it was assembled correctly) Trash's schematic shows MIDI IN jack from the front side (the side where you plug in the MIDI cable) while the MIDI OUT jack from behind (where the connectors to solder to are). Is that correct or have I gone mental (finally)?
68 Jun 21, 2014 2:04 am
Re: Arduinoboy midi in problem (31 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)
I can only presume that I've accidentally burned the TX pin, but how...
69 Jun 21, 2014 1:54 am
Re: Arduinoboy midi in problem (31 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)
Oh bad luck won't leave me 
So I assembled MIDI OUT and tried it with LSDJ and Arduino stopped working. Reseting doesn't help and I can't load the sketch anymore it says stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
70 Jun 20, 2014 5:07 am
Re: Arduinoboy midi in problem (31 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)
nitro2k01 wrote:
Could you arrange them by which ones work and which don't and take a picture? Or describe what's printed on each.
They are all absolutely identical (sorry I don't have any camera atm not even phone). I examined them all under the magnifying glass to spot minor differences in prints, but no - all the same. The print is:
F*
6N138
1012T1
*Fairchild Semiconductor logo
It's actually not a print but sort of engraving. I bought them a while ago from this chinese store (http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-PCS-6N138-DI … 1351707421). Now I see that the couplers I have are not the same as on the picture (picture has prints as opposed to engraving). So it was probably the lowest quality factory with 70% of faulty chips
71 Jun 20, 2014 4:45 am
Re: Arduinoboy midi in problem (31 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)
Final verdict - 4 of 6 optos I have DO NOT work. Two do. I thought I tried them all but I somehow missed these two. Mystery solved. Now I'm gonna finish MIDI OUT part and then finally get to soldering the stuff to the perfboard, preparing the case and stuffing everything inside. My head is in once piece this time.
72 Jun 20, 2014 4:30 am
Re: Arduinoboy midi in problem (31 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)
So my midi in suddenly came to live, I've no clue how and what did I do...
73 Jun 20, 2014 4:19 am
Re: Arduinoboy midi in problem (31 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)
Diode is good, LED part of the optocupler is also good. Don't know a quick way to check the receiving part of the opto tho...
74 Jun 20, 2014 3:51 am
Re: Arduinoboy midi in problem (31 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)
Nope this setup didn't work either. Frankly I didn't expect it to, since the original schematic should work as well. And if latter didn't work, then something is fundamentally wrong...
So I ordered another opto from another manufacturer just in case it really is the cause. In the meantime - is there a way to test an opto? Some quick circuit perhaps?
Because I checked every single other part of the circuit and it is fine. I mean components are not faulty and behave how they are supposed to.
Actually I didn't check the diode, maybe this guy is faulty...
75 Jun 20, 2014 12:41 am
Re: Arduinoboy midi in problem (31 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)
yogi wrote:
I agree that it's unlikely that all your optos are bad.
For the 6n138 circuit, I refer to the MidiBox.org's reference design. Your Resistor values may very, but should be simular to these.
On the Midi side:
PIN 4 of the midi socket goes thru a 220R (Red, Red, Bro) to PIN 2 of the 6n138
PIN 5 of the Midi socket goes to PIN 3 of the 6n138
A 1n4148 is connected between PIN 2 & 3 of the 6n138; Cathode (bar) to PIN 2On the TTL side of the 6n138:
PIN 5 to GND
PIN 6 to Rx in; with a 1.2K pull-up (Bro,Red, Red; don't confuse with 220R Red, Red, Bro)
PIN 7 thru a 5.6K to GND (Grn,Blu, Red)
PIN 8 to VccYou should not have a GND from the Midi cable connected to anything. The Arduino/6n138 and GB should have a common Vcc & GND.
When sending Midi notes, should see lower then +5 V on midi socket PIN 5 or 6n138 PIN 3; most DMMs aren't fast enough to detect the serial bit transitions; just a lower average voltage. Should be lower with higher Midi traffic. A logic probe or a scope should detect the clocking of bits. If no changes are detected, suspect your cables/socket/KB
IF you see incoming Midi bits and you don't see output transitions at 6n138 PIN 6: problem with opto. If you have the transitions on the TTL side @ PIN 6 but no response from the Arduino, suspect wrong wiring, Arduino pin or firmware.This is all pretty basic, in most cases it 'just works' so in your case it's prob something simple that's been overlooked ( had this bite me a few times)
yogi
I'll try what you suggested when I get home, but it is different from the original Arduinoboy schematic I'd assume that the original should've worked as well... hmm...
76 Jun 19, 2014 11:48 pm
Re: Detect button press on DMG by Arduino? (4 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)
Jazzmarazz wrote:
This will...only work when the gambeoy itself is looking to read buttons though. If you want to be able to read presses at any time, I cannot help you. To be honest, the gameboy may be looking for a button press a million times a second, so the compromise is minimal at best.
Oh that's quite enough for me Thank you kindly 
77 Jun 19, 2014 9:54 pm
Re: Arduinoboy midi in problem (31 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)
katsumbhong wrote:
Trash80 says there needs to be a common ground.
I have common ground as well as common +5V
78 Jun 19, 2014 9:05 pm
Re: Arduinoboy midi in problem (31 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)
nitro2k01 wrote:
friendofmegaman wrote:(although I'm using 914 so it shouldn't be reversed)
This doesn't make sense. The black marking should indicate the cathode on a 1n914, just like on a 1n4148. And there's no reason you should not reverse the diode either. It should always be pointing the opposite direction to the diode in the optocoupler, or it will mute the signal.
Yah I'm sorry I wasn't clear, that's what I meant. Cathode of my 914 is attached to pin 2 - where optocoupler's anode is. Anyways I tried reversing it in case I've confused anode and cathode, but no...
Jazzmarazz wrote:
What opto are you using?
I'm using 6N138 (datasheet: http://www.fairchildsemi.com/ds/6N/6N138.pdf ) Are there other optocouplers that could be used for this purpose?
Anyways my major line of deduction here is that when I press a midi key nothing happens - channel 1 LED doesn't blink and mGBoy is silent. I conjecture that the signal is not getting through the coupler. Midi cable as well as the jack are good. Bollocks how is it possible that 6 optos don't work. I've probably made some stupid mistake I can not track perhaps I should disassemble and re-assemble everything again (luckily I'm on the breadboard testing stage now).
79 Jun 19, 2014 6:47 pm
Re: Arduinoboy midi in problem (31 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)
I checked the whole IN circuit several times made sure resistors are good (as well as the values), tried reversing the diode (although I'm using 914 so it shouldn't be reversed) and swapping wires to MIDI jack. Other side of the optocoupler is fine either, the resistor is good, the wires go to RX and 4-th pin in the right order (not swapped).
Startup blinking is fine, mode switching is fine when I press a button the corresponding LED lights up I saw videos on YouTube how it works so this part is correct. Also with LSDJ LEDs blink correctly with the rhythm of the track. But of course for MIDI IN I'm using mGB. Both arduinoboy and mgboy software are the latest versions.
Once I get hold of a camera I'll make a picture of the circuit... So far major suspect is the optocoupler
80 Jun 19, 2014 5:07 pm
Re: Arduinoboy midi in problem (31 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)
MaxDolensky wrote:
What DAW are you trying to use with it?
I'm not using any DAW. It's just a MIDI keyboard plugged into MIDI IN of the arduinoboy and arduino boy is plugged into the link port of the gameboy. Gameboy has a speaker so I should hear the sound.