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Modular MIDI Controller


Cigue
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Hello MIDIBox!

About me

First off, my english isn't the best - and while I don't make many spelling mistakes, often I'll be using weird formulations. I am sorry for this and hope you will bear with it while considering this project.

I am a Software Engineering student from Quebec and a DJing enthusiast. I've been doing simple electronics and less simple programming for about two years now as a hobbyist. I'd like this to change in the upcoming years. I am at the feasibility study stage of my business plan, and I am comparing options between chaining Arduino MEGAs and using a single 32-bit MIOS core.

I have open source credentials in the form of contributions to the SRL Library at www.villavu.com, where I have fixed or improved several functions. More importantly, I have also provided help and guidance to beginners in the SRL project and have made available my best functions into an alternative library, some functions of which have been cannibalized by the main library. Over my year long stay at SRL, I have accumulated positive karma and merit badges by starting and contributing to community projects, by exchanging ideas and help head-to-head with both beginners and experts and by contributing and maintaining well-written, useful scripts. I'd like to work the same way with the MIDIBox community.

About my project

My projected product is a fully open source modular MIDI controller. What customers would be paying for isn't the product in itself, since it is going to be fully open source - rather, it is the assembly of the project, the customer support and the guarantee of a quality product that I will be putting a price on.

The following statements apply unconditionally to my project:

  1. The first goal of the project is to make a Traktor Pro 2 oriented MIDI Controller.
  2. The product will be fully open source, including coding and hardware specifications and diagrams. Non-IC physical parts description will be limited to working specifications.
  3. While the wiring diagrams will be fully available, PCB traces MIGHT be freely available. This is to be determined later.
  4. The software part of the product will be based on MIOS and will use both a custom library and possibly other libraries the copyright holders of which have consented use of for this project.
  5. The library that will be created for the sole purpose of the project will be fully documented and made available for free.
  6. The hardware part of the product will be created from scratch, using only parts freely available on the internet; when custom parts will be needed, they are to be made available to the public in the form of an assembly kit.
  7. The use of such custom parts will be minimal and non-central to the project; if a custom part is required for the full use of the controller, then it will be made available for sale as a single item, and a guide for its construction by hobbyists will be made available for free.
  8. The library will be maintained by me as long as the product will remain on sale.
  9. The profit margin on the fully assembled product will not exceed 45%; the profit margin on assembly kits will not exceed 25%; the profit margin on custom parts will not exceed 30%.
  10. I promise I will try to the best of my capacity to involve suggestions from the MIDIBox community in the design process.
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Doesn't sound that bad, especially since you are experienced in supporting people, and since you are planning to create a new application which could be interesting for some people around here. Kits are always welcome as well.

But I can't decide this yet, because you are unknown to the community.

I would propose that you are starting to document the progress in this forum.

When it goes into the right direction, you will get my official approval.

Hope that these conditions are ok for you.

Best Regards, Thorsten.

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It's better than nothing. I'd like to start reading MIDIBox documentation before I commit to this, can you link me to a good starting point? Also, are there any user created libraries of note? I'm looking for pre-existing functions dealing with LCD/7-segment/14-segment displays, LED matrixes, shift registers and multiplexers. I'd also like to know what the community's ideas and methods are regarding rising edge detection and dealing with high precision rotary encoders. You don't have to find any of these for me, but if you can show me where to start looking that would be just swell.

Edited by Cigue
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It's better than nothing. I'd like to start reading MIDIBox documentation before I commit to this, can you link me to a good starting point? Also, are there any user created libraries of note? I'm looking for pre-existing functions dealing with LCD/7-segment/14-segment displays, LED matrixes, shift registers and multiplexers. I'd also like to know what the community's ideas and methods are regarding rising edge detection and dealing with high precision rotary encoders. You don't have to find any of these for me, but if you can show me where to start looking that would be just swell.

This is a good entry point:

http://www.ucapps.de/mios32_c.html

It makes sense to read the READMEs from the beginning, as they explain the basics step by step.

There are various approaches for LED matrices, the BLM16x16+X is the most flexible one: http://svnmios.midibox.org/listing.php?repname=svn.mios32&path=%2Ftrunk%2Fapps%2Fcontrollers%2Fblm_scalar%2F

There are no drivers for high precision rotary encoders yet.

The existing MIOS32_ENC driver only works for common rotary encoders with a scan speed of 1 mS

Best Regards, Thorsten.

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Still brainstorming, do you think it would be possible to write a compatibility layer for Arduino so that it can use MIDIbox libraries? Also, is MIOS published under a particular license? What about the MIDIBox libraries?

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Still brainstorming, do you think it would be possible to write a compatibility layer for Arduino so that it can use MIDIbox libraries? Also, is MIOS published under a particular license? What about the MIDIBox libraries?

You should work with peter lindener on that one, he's another guy around here who wants to make midibox and arduino talk to eachother. What is the goal? to run mios on arduino? or to use an arduino to add extra functionality to a midibox?

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That would be a rather cool ´hood project. Garden sprinkling, synchronized to your newest beats :-)

Back on topic, I begin to see a scheme here, if MIDIbox software/hardware was converted to the Arduino license, all doors to unrestricted commercial utilization would be wide-open, right?

Edited by Hawkeye
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don't need to automatically convert licenses... many licenses are compatible with each other...also, two projects talking to each other don't need the same license.

also, unrestricted commercial utilization is not desired by TK and the midibox community as a whole (and i'd think you'd know that?). why would you want to do that?

Edited by bilderbuchi
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frankly, i don't get the arduino-hate and paranoia on here. sure, the approach of this peter lindener was not very subtle (or reasonable), but after a quick ruffling by the community at large he grew more reasonable.

also, this thread here shows how it's done , imho (hats off for that btw!). cigue is nothing but corteous, did his homework,...

and for the record: i fully respect and understand TK's attitude towards commercial proposals. but i also understand how the midibox community can appear intimidating and abrasive-looking to outsiders at times, so i can see why some threads derailed the way they did.

edit: furthermore, the arduino license is far from unrestricted.. a mix of CC attribution-SA, GPL and LGPL.

Edited by bilderbuchi
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Bilderbuchi, Cigue is Peter Lindener, if you want proof, pm me.

I´ve been working in the multi-hunting business (finding multi accounts controlled by the same human player in browser games) since 2003 and after analysis of a few keywords and sentence punctuation habits, you will see it.

Greets,

Peter

Edited by Hawkeye
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Bilderbuchi, Cigue is Peter Lindener, if you want proof, pm me.

I´ve been working in the multi-hunting business (finding multi accounts controlled by the same human player in browser games) since 2003 and after analysis of a few keywords and sentence punctuation habits, you will see it.

Greets,

Peter

you saw it too?

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There are tools and common analysis methods (in fact, there is a market for identity matching tools, not only in the gaming and gambling sectors, but also regarding fraud-prevention in e-payment systems), but in this case, you just need your eyes.

I´d also like to stop the discussion on this subject now and concentrate on more productive things :-).

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  • 3 weeks later...

That would be a rather cool ´hood project. Garden sprinkling, synchronized to your newest beats :-)

Some kind like that.....

I don´t think that this a Midibox or an arduino is, but it could be a Midibox! :sorcerer:

Edited by CSC
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[*]The first goal of the project is to make a Traktor Pro 2 oriented MIDI Controller.

Than is Core32 or LPC a Hattrick !

Sorry, but

the small Traktor Control Surface is breakfast for this..

Edited by CSC
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  • 3 months later...

Bilderbuchi, Cigue is Peter Lindener, if you want proof, pm me.

I´ve been working in the multi-hunting business (finding multi accounts controlled by the same human player in browser games) since 2003 and after analysis of a few keywords and sentence punctuation habits, you will see it.

Greets,

Peter

you saw it too?

Wow, that's fucking creepy, bordering on slanderous. I have no idea who this Peter Linderer person is, nor do I want to find out. In any case, I have decided not to work with MIOS on this project, as it seems any technical advantage I could find to using the MIOS platform and hardware would not be worth dealing with the community and murky licensing.

I do realize that I'm burning some bridges here, and if I come back it will probably be under a new username. That would however be the first time I do so.

I'm a bit curious/entertained as to what "proof" you claim to have that I am someone else, however I don't care about what I imagine to be the squabbling and childish polemics of yet another internet forum.

I've started development on the Teensy platform using Arduino code libraries, if you are interested in what comes next you are welcome to PM me. If I get banned in some access of modrage then you can also contact me at carl dot pee pee at live dot ca.

Thank you guys for being civil, and I admire/respect the work you've done. Pardon me however if I don't feel welcomed here.

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