Midibox64E ignoring buttons and encs

[zappso]

Hi,

First of all, thanks to TK for making public such a great project!  When my Midibox parts arrived, I spent an entire 2 days and constructed everything.  Not wanting to wait, I mounted the pots and buttons onto cardboard, I suppose it's a Cardboard MidiBox at the moment.  I powered the unit with 9VAC and got the MIOS 1.9f message, followed by READY.

After a few weeks, I've had time to return to the project.  I connected the Midibox to my MIDI IN/OUT, then downloaded and installed MIOS Studio.  First thing I did after configuring MIDI Device Routing was test the MIOS LCD Message - success, yay.

I then proceeded to download midibox64e_v2_2a, and used MIOS Studio to install midibox64e_v2_2a\main.hex.

I get some output on the LCD display, but not what I expect from reading the documentation and forum.  It is the same whether or not I have DIN R5 / AIN R4 boards connected:

Int.1      [] [] [] [] [] [] [] []

1 |CC#            7  [127]  []

(The [] above is a full 8x5 block, and the first one on the first line is flashing a few times a second)

The box appears to be ignoring all input from buttons and encs.  On the DINR5 board, I tested voltages Vs->D7,Vs->D6, etc. and they were all 5V, this seemed to make sense as I understand they are high when open, tip to 0v to close.

(Wondering if I had uploaded the right file, I tried uploading setup_midibox64.hex instead, and the LCD display went nuts appearing to scan inputs, but I couldn't get it to stabilise even with all boards connected and all analogue inputs connected to Vs.  The box was unresponsive to MIOS Studio (the MIOS LCD message wouldn't work, saw no hex at all in MIDI In monitor), so I uploaded srio_interconnection_test in manual mode successfully, then after this bad experience re-uploaded main.hex.  So, back to square 1!)

If anyone could help, I would greatly appreciate it.

Regards,

zapps

Melbourne, Australia

[stryd_one]

Holy cow! Welcome aboard man. That's one heck of a good set of troubleshooting. You ruled out most of the usual suspects already.

You mentioned uploading in manual mode, was there a problem using smart mode? If your app is going crazy like that, it can cause the upload to fail, but the first layer bootloader should send the first request, which mios studio should respond to before your app starts, so using smart mode should work.

As you pointed out, it's broken even without ain or din, so at the moment I would focus on the core, dout and lcd.

Have you tried a different midi interace (if you have access to one)?

PS Welcome to the Melburnian MIDIbox crew :)

[zappso]

Hi Stryd,

Thanks for your reply, I will do some more testing on the core.  I plan to use my MIDIBox as a control surface for Cakewalk Project5.  I am using an M-AUDIO Audiophile (firewire) for MIDI IN/OUT.

It's great that you are in Melbourne!  Is there any chance we could meet?  I'd be very interested to see your MIDIBox projects in action, and I think I could fast-track the solution to my problem.  Don't worry, I'm not expecting you to just fix it for me, I did electrical engineering at Monash, was programming in assembly and designing circuits when I was 7 (yeah, I didn't get out much, can't catch a ball to save my life!).  Drop me an SMS on 04300 29191 if you have some spare time to catch up.

Kind Regards,

Chris

[/tilted/]

The display you describe is a standard display for the MB64e.

(Subbing ? for [])

[tt]

Int.1  ????????

1|CC#  7 [127]?

[/tt]

Are you saying that this display does not change, even with all the Core board AINs grounded?

I assume that your DIN/DOUT assignments are correct?

P.S.: I'm from Melbourne, too.

[zappso]

Yep, the display does not change.  I've got AIN boards connected to CORE:J5A and CORE:J5B, each has all of its analogue inputs connected to Vs.  I also have a DIN board connected to CORE:J9 and a single rotary encoder connected to DIN:J3:D7/Vs/D6.  When I rotate the encoder, I don't get any change on the display nor do I see any MIDI IN activity.

Cool, another Melburnian Midiboxer! It would be great to all get together a few times a year or more. I'd be happy to organise this, maybe even organise a live event, as a friend owns a pub in Brunswick St and I'm sure he would oblige.

[TK.]

Now I know at least 5 guys who are located in Melbourne! ;)

First of all, it would be interesting if any DIN pin is working - here a Troubleshooting Guide

If (with the MIDIO128 application) each button sends an individual MIDI Event, and each encoder sends two individual events, then it could be a configuration issue. The default pin and shift Register assignments can be found in main.asm (and mios_tables.inc), and for prepared variants in the appr. setup_*.asm file

Best Regards, Thorsten.

[/tilted/]

a friend owns a pub in Brunswick St and I'm sure he would oblige.

Which pub?

I live in Collingwood...

[zappso]

The problem was simply due to the labels on the SmashTV DIN board being a bit misleading; using the 5 J1 pins furthest away from the labels on the circuit board fixed the problem and now I can see activity when I connect buttons and encoders.  I've recompiled the MB64e application with settings appropriate for my setup.  However, I have a new problem now.

Whether I turn the encoder clockwise or anticlockwise, the value always DECREASES.

[zappso]

Fixed. It was either a dodgy connector to the board or a dodgy wire. That's what you get for recycling old IDE cables and connectors!