Ledfyr
Offline
Sweden

Hello!

I've got an Arduinoboy shield from Lowtoy and fear that I have messed it, or the Arduino itself, up.
Everything seemed to work - I successfully played notes in mGB using a MIDI keyboard and MIDI out from LSDJ also worked pretty well.
Though I had one issue with LSDJ MIDI out: when sequencing my Access Virus C I randomly (every 10-20 seconds) got patch changes to patch 0 on the current bank.

So I tried to solve this by re-uploading the Arduinoboy software to the board (with AlwaysUseDefaultSettings = true). Too bad I forgot to disconnect the MIDI cable going to MIDI in on my Virus C, which was powered on. This lead to a lot of notes playing on the Virus for a few seconds during the software load and then silence. I briefly saw some text on the Virus saying "NO MIDI SIGNAL" or similar.

After this the Virus froze, but it worked fine again after a restart and plugged in to my PC/MIDI keyboard.
Sequencing the Virus again using LSDJ MIDI out triggers the note indication on the Virus' display but no sound, and after a few seconds the Virus freezes again, not responding to menu clicks etc.
Sequencing my PC using LSDJ MIDI out doesn't trigger notes to be played (this worked before). After a while I even got a bluescreen! I tried to monitor the MIDI traffic on the PC using MIOS studio but no MIDI messages were displayed.

The Arduinoboy LEDs light up like they should in LSDJ MIDI out mode (LED 1 lights up on channel 1 notes, 2 on ch 2 notes etc). Using MIDI in and mGB doesn't work and no LEDs are lit (like they used to be).

I have measured all resistors on the A-boy - they're fine. The 1N4148 diode also seems fine - there's a voltage drop in one direction but not the other. I was unsure on how to measure the optocoupler so I replaced it with a new one (carefully noting the pin orientation). Still no luck though.

I'm about to buy a new Arduino board to test with the shield but I wanted to see if there's any obvious things to check to pinpoint the problem.
Does anyone have any ideas?

I've been lurking this forum for some time and it seems to be such a friendly place. I'll make sure to write a proper introduction.
Thanks for bearing with me and sorry for the long post!
//David

Ledfyr
Offline
Sweden

I don't know why, but setting alwaysUseDefaultSettings = false again solved my problems! MIDI in and out works again, no freezing etc. I even re-downloaded the original arduinoboy code and tried both true and false. Using true results in the strange MIDI behaviour above.

I'm guessing the random patch changes were caused by a bad GB cable. I tried another cable and didnt have any problems. I'm ignoring patch changes on my synth now anyways.

Thank you Lowtoy for a great product!
Hope this post can help anyone with similar problems.