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ChipMusic.org / Forums / Posts by friendofmegaman
did you check your midi cables and your interface??
I'm using a midi keyboard and it sends midi messages fine to my laptop. I don't see what could be wrong in this setup 
Cable's fine so as the keyboard...
Greetings...
I'm having hard times making arduinoboy work. I checked the wiring 1 billion times and it seems that the optocoupler is buggered. The problem is that I have 6 of them and neither works, which is kinda weird. I'm pretty sure about the pin numbering since I've checked it with the data sheet.
Here's what's going on:
1) I press a key on the midi keyboard and it sends the sequence MIDI ON C5 CH1 - MIDI OFF C5 CH1 I checked that with a MIDI monitor
2) LEDs do not respond on key presses (neither does mGB of course). Arduino is in mGB mode (LED attached to pin 8).
3) I don't have MIDI OUT yet, but in LSDJ master mode LEDs are blinking correctly as music goes from which I assume the LINK pins are also correct
4) Mode switching works fine
5) Multimeter shows 5V on RX and TX pins of Arduino - is it supposed to be so?
I'm using arduino pro mini. Official Sparkfun's one. Powered from the GameBoy
I tried another GB, double checked the link cable - they're fine, tried removing diode - no luck. Since LEDs don't react on keys I assume that signal never reaches arduino. If so then it's an optocouple problem right? Are they fucking different somehow? It's reeeally suspicious that all 6 couples are faulty (however I bought it from the same ebay seller).
But these 5V on RX and TX bother me...
in the main sketch file change these lines
boolean alwaysUseDefaultSettings = false; //set to true to always use the settings below, else they are pulled from memory for the software editor
0x00, //force mode (forces lsdj to be sl)
0x00, //modeto
boolean alwaysUseDefaultSettings = true;
0x01, //force mode
0x05, //modeso force mode is enabled, and //mode is the mode you want it to be forced to, in this case mode 5 - MGB. Leave out all the LEDs besides status. tie pin 3 to ground so the mode isn't accidentally switched. you can do this to make a stripped down arduinoboy for any mode.
Thanks a ton mate!
Today I'm being one of those annoying people who creates two (or more) topics in a row.
The idea: RGB backlight + RGB LEDs to illuminate silicon buttons. All controlled by Arduino.
When a button pressed it lights up in its own color (say, A - red, B - green, DPAD-blue, etc).
In the variable clock mode (when LTC is on that is) all buttons are lit and the color changes depending on the speed. Blue (Slow) -> Red (Fast). Thus the pot will be a stereo pot.
Now the question is - how to let arduino know that a button was pressed?
Is there some kind of a stripped version of the Arduinoboy with only one mode - MGB that is?
It is actually trivial to change the code to run in the MGB mode by default and ditch the button and LEDs, but I hate when there's more code than actually needed. Strip the code is also not a big deal but what's the point if someone has already done that.
This stripped version could fit into a GBC. There's definitely no room for 2 MIDI jacks, but one is actually doable (but please don't tell me to use audio jacks for MIDI outputs I'm aware of this method and I don't like it :b ). Thanks 
I'd like to see Nitro's version it must be good. Especially if he's planning releasing it on a cartridge I'm definitely getting one.
friendofmegaman wrote:I'm just getting started with MIDI so I might got things wrong, but I'm having hard times to find a MIDI keyboard with 5-pins. Maybe real expensive ones have it tho...
A hard time? They nearly all do aside from newer ones. Grab something used at a thrift shop. If you're just starting out, you don't need something new and huge.
If anything, pick up one of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a … 10213400:s17 bucks. Can't go wrong.
This thing looks badass!
But yah thanks for the advice I'll look for the proper MIDI kb I checked Amazon and ebay and the search returned all USB keyboards so I've got the false impression that 5-pin is not used anymore it was also backed up by this video where the dude says 5-pin are obsolete these days.
Very few USB keyboards have the ability to be midi
Host devices
I'm just getting started with MIDI so I might got things wrong, but I'm having hard times to find a MIDI keyboard with 5-pins. Maybe real expensive ones have it tho...
I think a viable solution could be using a single USB that takes care of in an out since modern midi keyboards all use USB anyway...
UPDATE
Found this article http://shiftmore.blogspot.com/2010/01/q … r-usb.html I'm sure someone has tried that already could you please share you thoughts?
In my current project I have both PS/2 and MIDI. However when I plug a keyboard it only works when arduinoboy is in master mode (I think I've got the modes correctly). The corresponding arduinoboy LED is always on in this case and when I press a button on the keyboard this LED goes off and then the previous one flashes and then the first one lights up again. Does anybody know how to explain this behavior? And how do you typically make PS/2 and arduinoboy work together (not at the same time of course)? Thanks!
PS. Arduinoboy is not finished yet I was just testing the connection to the link port so I can't check the MIDI yet.
One of the most pointless things I've ever seen. I fucking want one!
I'm afraid not. In retrospect, it would have been a good idea to buy some flux along with everything else...
It's a good idea. A bit of flux will make it easier to solder. Just don't be hasty
Thanks for the quick replies. I've scrapped through to the metal, which looks like copper, but the solder wont take to it. I'm using lead-free solder with a flux core, so I'm not manually applying flux, and my wire is copper solid core, but I'm afraid I really don't know any other specifics... Why is it I can't solder the wire to that panel? Is it something to do with the solder or wire I'm using?
That's weird the first time I did this thing I used lead free solder as well... Do you have flux? A bit of flux could help
Don't worry the mod is not killed by this mistake. This ribbon cable is extremely fragile and easy to break. What you need to do is to look at the metal panel where the ribbon cable is attached to. Now there you can notice two obvious traces. These are '+' and '-' of the front-light (you can trace from the ribbon cable which is which). What you need to do is take a knife or a blade and scrub these traces until you reach metal surface (the top layer is pretty thin so you'll get there in not time). Then just solder your wires there. Thus you don't have to worry about crappy ribbon plastic shite and your mod is gonna be fine.
Those cables are for printer connections only. They cannot fully emulate a full DB25 connection over USB.
Bummer...
So the good thing is this parallel port has 8 data bits (more than we even need) and its speed is 12 000 kbps (and we need 4 000 kbps). Two questions:
1. How do we put data there without a uC (since I doubt we can solve lacking clocks problem there for we must consider non-uC variants)?
2. How do we read the data at the PC side?
ChipMusic.org / Forums / Posts by friendofmegaman
