kpete

Tested V3.011pre5 release that changed back to 1 USB Midi port and it works fine now. Doesn't lock up and using the RESCAN function on MIOS Studio works every time. As far as the MSD crash, it still does. I don't know when this crept into the builds since I thought I tested this early in my testing. BTW-If you remove the SD card and use the control panel switches to enter MSD mode, the MidiBox switches lock up with no errors on the display and you get a message on the PC indicating that the disk needs formatting. This may be just another problem with writing files. I saw this issue before we upgraded to the new bootloader. Just forgot to mention it. Pete

I didn't see your response so I thought I would just do an update. Sorry I didn't restart MIOS Studio the first time after loading the new bootloader. But since then I must have tried 100 different times to come up with a pattern. With your comment I am currently closing Mios Studio, then power cycling the MidiBox, then starting MIOS Studio after the indication the USB port is active. It is failing on bring up. If I reselect the Midi IN and OUT on MIOS Studio to the MIDIO128 port it doesn't even show the auto QUERY request being sent out. From this state the only way that I have been able to get things to work every time is to press the > function key that causes the MidiBox to send out a test message that displays the next file name. It takes about 3 presses of the key to start seeing the messages. From here on out everything on the Midi side seems to be working. Now if I enable MSD mode from the MidiBox and try to copy the mios_studio.exe file onto the SD card it crashes with a “!! HARD FAULT !!†message at PC=0x511c244c. I have caused this failure a few times but the PC address was different each time. After this error I have put the SD card directly in a port on my PC so I can run a check disk and fix anything that might have been clobbered. I also took my MidiBox to another PC with Windows XP. I loaded MIOS Studio 2.3.1 and tried to see how its different from Windows 7. It seems to work fine. I did have to do a rescan of the Midi ports if I power cycle the MidiBox (as expected) but the Query works every time. Hope this information helps. Pete

Thank you jjonus for the info on the CakeWalk USB-Midi unit I am using. Will pick up a different one in the future to see how it works. I want to add that I uploaded the bootloader from the directory mios32_bootloader_v1_009.zip\mios32_bootloader_v1_009\MBHP_CORE_LPC1769 since this is the board that I am using. Is this right? Update: Found that whenever the Midibox is powered Off then On, that the MIOS Studio QUERY function doesn't work. You can see it retry multiple times but no response. If I push the > button a few times it started working. This was repeatable about 5-10 times than it locked up solid again. To fix it I had to restart MIOS Studio again. But once the Query works once, it keeps working until the Midibox is powered off and then on again. The problem just isn't always repeatable to get it working again. It sometimes starts working with just rescanning the Midi ports. All I know is that it doesn't come up in a usable state. Maybe the issue has to do with initializing variables on POR or something like that. Pete

Hi Thorsten, FYI - Well I know I did something bad but was able to recover from it using the Midi In1/Out1. After loading the V1.009 bootloader over the USB cable, I powered my Midio128 unit off and then on again before loading the new application. Just warning you guys, DO NOT do this unless you have a backup plan. It gives me the message “Bootloader is up-to-date!†on the display but the USB connection doesn't work any more. I went to the backup plan using Midi In1/Out1 but had some problems getting MIOS Studio to recognize my USB->Midi converter box. Its a “CakeWalk Music Connector 1†with the advanced driver switch set to the OFF position. Even when I tried doing the “Rescan MIDI Devices†function and reselecting the MIDI IN and MIDI OUT windows on MIOS Studio, it still didn't work. Had to close the application down and bring it up again to get it to work. I've had this very issue happen before and the only solution is to close and reopen MIOS Studio. Since I now have V1.009 bootloader and the V3.011pre software, its having problems communicating with my MIOS Studio 2.3.1. I am running on Windows 7 and you talked about deleting the drivers on the PC. Where do I go to delete them? I don't know if this will fix my problem or not. I did notice that the first Midibox ID is called Midio128 while the other 3 are called MIDIIN2 MIDIIN3 and MIDIIN4. Pete

I have seen the same problem where when fast forwarding thru a song while its playing, it jumps back to the start of the song. The problem starts around Bar 41 or 42. It might also be nice to be able to see the current position while changing it. Pete

This is great. And Sparx, hope you are feeling better soon. Good to see some action about testing this thing rather than just posting wish list dreams. Pete

Based on how may responses you are getting on your new features Thorsten, it looks like I am the only one with a unit to test them. Or maybe the interest isn't there. I don't know if this is very good since I would want more feedback about how it works which I don't think we are getting. All of the following relates to the Midio128 V3.011pre2 build. I wonder if I found what happened with the Midio128 unit locking up. But it doesn't seem to be anything that I said in my previous message. To lock it up just pop the SD memory card out of the slot and start the record function. The software locks up tight every time. I know I did some of this testing on the previous release but I didn't relate it to locking up for some reason. I also noticed that you added code that when backing up in the file structure that you loop back to the last entry. This was only working when going forward on the previous release but it is now much easier to get to the last file that was recorded on the card under POR conditions. I wasn't going to even mention this but thanks, it work great. I don't know if this is a issue or not but when I remove the SD card and then insert it again, the software doesn't seem to reset back to the first file. I don't see this as a problem since it just seems to work properly, even if I change cards. But was wondering what would happen if it was pointing to a file and I popped the SD card and made changes with a PC that included removing or changing that file entry. It would seem like you have some fairly complicated software to make sure that things didn't get mixed up but I just don't know. Just wondering if this is an issue that might be a bug in the future. I noticed that when I get to recording file names that are displayed as REC10.MID or larger, that the file pointer on the right side of the display starts jumping left and right on the display since the file string being one character longer. This is seen when the display is alternating between the “*RECORDING* 15. 5†message and the “REC10.MID 15. “ message. The last character in the field is going past the last character on the display. Not a big issue but its there. I am surprised at the amount of functionality that has been added to the TEMPO feature. I was expecting something simpler like always recording at a 120 BPM rate and only being able to change it when playing back a file. But what we have is something that I guess might be found in a real Midi studio player/recorder. BTW-I don't know much about these features since I have never needed them or used units that could even function with them. Things like if I set it to SLAVE mode, it doesn't play the song at all. I think it is just waiting for a train of Midi “Timing Clocks†(0xf8) to be received to define the tempo. And MASTER mode probably sends the 0xf8 command based on the current TEMPO knob settings (as a guess but not verified). I also noticed that when cycling thru the BPM modes, it takes 2 pushes of the button to move out of AUTO mode. I don't know now many people will use these different modes of AUTO, MASTER, and SLAVE but it seems like over-kill to me. I'm not even sure what AUTO mode does. I would probably want a tempo mode to ignore any 0xf8 commands and never send them and would set the BPM selected rate at the start of the record session and never modify it since it inversely affects the BPM rate when played back. On play back have the tempo set to the parameter in the Midi header, like it does now, but allow the user to change the tempo from the encoder knob while playing. Maybe this could be a 4th mode called Manual? Respectfully, Pete

Hi Thorsten, I tried your beta test V3_011_pre and it records beautifully. As it is recording it outputs a message like OUT2:91???? which is displaying the last command that was received. Along with the message flashing REC on the display which is great but shouldn't the OUT2 message say IN2 since the data is being received from the input port? When I record on Midi IN port 1 is shows OUT1 port. Something else happened that locked up the MidiBox has to do with the file system processing. I am not sure how I got it into this mode and don't know if what I am going to tell you is 100% correct as to the sequence, but here goes anyway. I recorded 3 files called REC1.mid REC2.mid and REC3.mid. Because I reused an SD card with other files on it, it placed the REC1 file at the head of the directory table and REC2 and REC3 as the last ones. This isn't the problem in fact I understand why this happens. But after I recorded the REC3 file, it played back fine but when it was in the STOP mode I could use the > and < functions and display all 3 files in sequence. I could go between the 3 files multiple times even though REC1 was at the beginning of the list and REC3 was at the end. If I tried to back up too far and display some of the other files in the directory, the display just locked up and I had to do a POR to get it back again. I don't know if I can duplicate this again, just that it happened. I know that the original player outputs its data to all ports when playing. Was it in the plan to add both the REC and PLAY options to the Router tables so that you can select the patches? I can only assume it is since there was talk about masking channels from the playback function. Something else I don't understand is the “Def.†selection in the “Rout†tables. All I can think of is that it stands for “Define†and when selected, the table entry is not used. Is this the case? Another question also has to do with the “Rout†function. I was wondering why there is a 2nd “Chn.†entry following the last “SrcD†entry. I would think that only the first channel value would be needed? I know I am getting a little anal here but when I first read about the router entries, it confused me with the names of ScrP and SrcD. I would have thought that the SrcD field would have been labeled something like “Dest†for destination. Pete

I'm sorry about my last post sounding so opposed to your question and I apologize. When I read it I started thinking about how it would be implemented and just thought I would put out a response which may not have been so smart. I don't really know now each track gets assigned to the Midi port in the file, just that it looks like another Midi file that is appended to the end of the last one and that they play in parallel by the player on different ports. With the response from TK it sounds like he can do this mapping at a channel level which might be good enough. My answer was related to a port implementation and I didn't want something like multiple port support to discourage TK from doing some of the simpler things. BTW-The lyrics being sent to the display is great. You make a good point that it wouldn't really fit as a Midio123 feature. But as a Midi player it does. Good point about the port question. Pete

I wasn't thinking about PLAY/REC multiple ports at all. IMO-This type of feature complicates the setup considerably and I don't think this type of function really belongs in the Midio128 application. This software is usually used for receiving Midi messages to control outputs or having switch contacts create Midi messages (ch1-16) over 1 port. Being able to play or record this information back to the Din/Dout boards would be a plus, but different messages to multiple ports at the same time – NO. Respectfully, Pete

Boy Thorsten, I am really surprised at your willingness for functional changes/additions. Its refreshing. While we are talking about changes, I was wondering if you could also add sending the START/CONTINUE/STOP messages when the mode of the player is changed. My organ system uses these commands for saving and restoring stop states when the player is starting a new file or just continuing the playing from a PAUSE state. Whenever the MDF-2 player is put into the STOP or PAUSE mode it sends a Midi STOP command. If the player was stopped in the middle of the file (PAUSE mode) and the file is made to continue playing the file, than a Midi CONTINUE command be sent out before continuing sending the file data. If a new file is selected (file pointer is at start of the song) then a Midi START command would be sent. My MDF-2 Midi Filler supports this function which works well with my organ. But when I use other players I have problems with them not supporting the Midi CONTINUE command which tells my organ system to restore the blind stops to the last playing states so the song can continue with the last stops set in the Midi file. I don't know now many people would use this but it might be best to also include an option for supporting this type of function since sending START might cause other issues with other Midi equipment. This change would make me very happy indeed and would replace all of the functions that are used with the MDF-2 player. I also know a few other people looking for a DIY Midi player that uses SD cards for a reasonable price. Pete

One of the changes that I asked for was implemented by Thorsten in revision 3.009 of Midio128 in post This change involved just as you ask to stop playing at the end of the song, but not as an option. Guess this change hasn't been described very well in the documentation. In fact very little of the operation of the player is described which is why I wanted to try it and see how it worked. All I want to do with the player right now is load SYSEX messages to a drum machine. The current operation of the buttons is perfect for this as it is designed. All I have to do is make sure that the SINGLE play mode is defined in the DEFAULT configuration file. The front panel on the unit will have only 3 buttons (Soft 1,2,and 3) and a LCD display. When Midio128 powers up it allows you to select the file name using Soft 2 & 3 buttons and starting the playing by pressing the Soft 1 button. If you want to pause the playing in the middle of the file, just press the Soft 1 button again. Of course you wouldn't want to do this in my case. Wanting the functions found in the SDMIDIcontroller would be great and I even thought that adding software to the encoder to change the TEMPO when on first menu panel could be added easily since it doesn't do anything right now anyway. And if it was able to record a Midi file then it could replace the other units all together. By just holding the SHIFT button the normal PLAY button (Soft 1) could be changed to a REC function. All I use on my home organ MDF-2 midi filler is the song select buttons, Play, Record and Tempo functions. And I want to replace the MDF-2 player with something else since I have had problems recording on the 2.25 disks. Pete Knobloch

I'm also new to the MidiBox forum. I have been looking for a cheaper alternative to the “SD Midi Controller†and the MidiBox was what I wanted to try out. And it has the USB and OSC functions that have interested me for some time now. I built the LPC_17 unit and added the LCD (J15a), SD card (J16), and Control surface buttons (J10), loaded the Midio128 code, and with a few bumps in the software revisions, it now plays my Midi files just fine. You don't need the Din or Dout boards at all. The player is very basic and doesn't have any other functions other than PLAY, STOP, and FILE select buttons. It also has a SINGLE and PLAY-ALL function but this is about it. I suspect that this feature was added to see now many people would use it. And I don't know if it supports multiple tracks on Midi Type 1 files. Of course these can be converted to type 0 files which only supports 1 track. Midio128 does have a lot of areas that I would like to see expanded on but for the cost, it works for me. The hardware that goes into the SD Midi Controller would be $50usd or less but it does have all the features one would need in the software which is what they are selling. About 7 years ago I bought one as a kit for about that same cost you show and had to make a case for it. Many years before I believe I saw the software code being available at one time but when I bought my unit, I couldn't find it on the web site. It looks like the code is now available again but I am not sure for how long. Pete

Thank You Thorsen, I loaded the V3.009 and it works great. I was a little hesitant to suggest the change because it being more of a "Creeping Elegance" type of change. Pete

Thank you Thorsten, I loaded the new V3.008 and it played all of my files with no problems, even the files that were created on my “SD Midi Controller†which also had problems. The other 2 changes are greatly appreciated and works just as I would expect them. There is just one other thing of the file repeating when set to SINGLE play. What I was hopping is that when the SINGLE mode was selected, that after the song was ended, that the player would automatically go into the STOP mode and NOT change to the next file name. This way if you wanted to repeat the same song, you would just press the PLAY function again. To play another single song you would use the < and > to select the new song and then press PLAY. For the hardware on the Organ I would provide the 20x2 display, an SD card slot, and 3 user accessible buttons <, > and PLAY. The Midio128 application would power up on the first user interface panel and the organist would just select the file they wanted to load to the drum machine and press the PLAY button. I would think that this function would also be useful for anyone who wants to Midify their small band or crank organ. This function is not something that is needed immediately but maybe you could include this in the next release when something else is found to be a problem. Thanks again, Pete Knobloch

Wanted to add that I put a few Midi type 1 files onto another SD card and it played the files fine. I was surprised that when I went to select the file name it started playing the file automatically. I was thinking about using this Midi player to selectively load SYSEX files to a drum machine but the auto start and continual repeat functions will be a problem. When I get closer to installing the software development tools, this might be the first changes that I might try to implement for my project. Also noticed that the play ALL/SINGLE option value isn't being saved in the DEFAULT file for the next POR. Pete

Here is one of the files. I couldn't attach a .mid file so I changed the extention to .txt. If you are wondering, this file came from a Duo-Art organ roll. Thanks for being so prompt with a response. Pete Dance of Hours.txt

Hi All, This is my first post to the group. I have used the Midio128 V2 for some time and it works great. With the advent of the new V3 that also supports the Midi Player I thought that I would venture into building up a CORE_LPC17 and see now it works. I have the hardware built up with the display, SD card and the 6 button “Control Surface†which all seems to be working. But I can't seem to get the unit to play my Midi files. When I try to play a song I get a “file MM001.MID is invalid†error displayed on the Mios Studio panel. This error gets repeated for all of the .MID files that are on the SD card with the exception of the file name which is changed for each file. These files play back on my MDF2 filler without problems. I was wondering if this error is because of the Midi files being a type 0 file. I am using the Midio128 V3.007 app. Pete Knobloch