Midio128 V2 configuration help please?

[Jazza!]

Hello everyone,

 

I have recently acquired a fairground organ book scanner that uses a Midio128 v2 core, and I am having some difficulties with it. Although hooking it up to Cakewalk proves it essentially works, I would like to remap the outputs and there my problems start. As the builder died I cannot (obviously!) ask him for help so I am hoping someone on this forum will oblige?

 

For info, the label on the PIC reads 'Bootloader v1.2b  MIOS v1.9f  MIDIO128 v2.2f  36-67'

 

Firstly, when running MIOS Studio and powering up the core, I get an upload request string of "f0 00 00 7e 01 f7" instead of the "f0 00 00 7e 40 <device-id> 01 f7" the troubleshooting guide suggests. So how can I determine the device ID? Pressing 'Query' at this point usually confirms the application is up and running MIOS8 (though it normally says that whichever device ID I pick???)

 

From here, I can send notes from the keyboard and see they are sent/received in the MIDI monitors, and send (and most of the time) receive MIOS Terminal strings. Also running a book through the scanner shows it is reading it correctly. When that all works, I open the MIDIO128 v2 tool, select device ID 0 and press 'receive' (which I hope uploads the application code from the PIC so I can view and save it before writing a more suitable code for my needs). Unfortunately here it gets to either 17% or 33% before displaying a 'No response from core - check MIDI in/out connections, Device ID and that MIDIO128 firmware has been uploaded' message, which the previous tests tell me have been. Selecting a different device ID gives the same result.

 

Does anyone have any helpful suggestions? Although I can use the existing application code and rearrange the scan into a more useable form using a Cakewalk CAL program, I would much prefer to have the scanner output something more user-friendly.

 

Many thanks in advance for your assistance.

Jazza!

 

[TK.]

Hi Jazza,

 

It's sad to read that a MIDIbox builder died! Do you know his forum name?

 

It seems that there is a problem with your MIDI interface, because SysEx messages are corrupted.

Is it already listed here? -> http://www.midibox.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=midi_interface_blacklist

Do you own an alternative MIDI interface?

 

Best Regards, Thorsten.

[Jazza!]

Good morning Thorsten and thank you for your suggestions,

 

I'm afraid I don't know if the builder of this scanner was a member of this forum or not. All I can tell you is his name was Ian Jeffries and he was from Southend On Sea, Essex, England.

 

To get this far, I am having to use two MIDI interfaces. The MIDI output from the scanner goes through a generic USB-MIDI adaptor bought from Amazon for £3 and MIDI in is via an unbranded joystick and MIDI interface that is connected to the joystick port of my ancient (but massively useful because it has joystick and serial ports as well as USB) Advent 7445DVD laptop running Windows XP Pro SP2. This combination  of adaptors has given me the best results so far for system messages, as any other seems to give none at all!

 

Can you (or anyone else) please suggest a reliable USB-MIDI interface for me or is there a whitelist I could refer to?

 

Thanks again for your time,

Jazza!

[novski]

http://www.midibox.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=midi_interface_whitelist

[Jazza!]

Thank you Novski - that's a really useful list to know about.

 

I have ordered a new M-Audio Uno off eBay this evening so hopefully that will do the trick. I'll report back in a few days when it arrives and I've had a chance to have a play with it.

 

Many thanks again.

Jazza! 

[Jazza!]

Now I'm getting frustrated........

 

A brand new M-Audio Uno arrived today, I plugged it into my laptop and installed the driver. Plugging into my Yamaha PSR-170 keyboard proved it both sent and received MIDI data to/from Cakewalk. So far so good.

Plugged it into the scanner, opened MIOS Studio and ............

 

NOTHING!

 

Closed everything down, updated the driver and ran Cakewalk in record while running a book through the scanner - still nothing. Plugged in my £3 Amazon special USB-MIDI adaptor and got MIDI output.

 

Can someone please explain what the heck is going on here?

Jazza! 

[novski]

Hey Jazza!

The Controller Microchip should have a ID number. Is there a sticker on top of it that has handwriten numbers on top of zeros?

Because that wold be the Hex number of your ID witch you have to convert to Decimal and write it in to the ID box in Mios Studio.

Second question is about what you wrote:

" Plugged in my £3 Amazon special USB-MIDI adaptor and got MIDI output."

Does that mean you received midi from the organ?

Best regards

Novski

[Jazza!]

Hello Novski,

 

There's no sign of a device ID number on the PIC (I carefully removed the printed label to check underneath and took it out of its socket to look underneath). The only possible numbers that could be are on the printed label which are 36 - 67. Assuming they're hex numbers they equate to 54 and 103 decimal, so I entered those in turn into MIOS Studio with the M-Audio Uno attached to the scanner and it still didn't recognise it.

 

This does come back to one of my questions from my original posting - when I power up the core with a semi-working combination of adaptors (generic Amazon device on MIDI out from scanner and unidentified MIDI-joystick adaptor on MIDI in to the scanner) I get an upload request string in the MIDI in monitor screen of "f0 00 00 7e 01 f7" instead of the "f0 00 00 7e 40 <device-id> 01 f7" the troubleshooting guide suggests. So how can I determine the device ID? Pressing 'Query' at this point usually confirms the application is up and running MIOS8 (though it normally says that whichever device ID I pick???)

 

So, is there a device ID even loaded on this chip? And if not, is there a way of loading one?

 

The scanner does work as it stands with the cheap Amazon interface (but not with the Midisport Uno or the MIDI to joystick interface). I can read books with it, but there are issues with the mapping - two pairs of notes map to the same output note (definitely a lookup table problem) and one note doesn't map at all (hardware or lookup table problem). I'd like to correct them and remap the output to a 'note map' configuration - i.e. the first track to note 0, second to note 1 etc, so I get a visual representation of the music book on the screen. But until the core wants to talk sensibly to me, I'm stuck.

 

Sorry if I'm sounding a bit ratty but I have limited time to devote to this project and despite the good advice I'm receiving, I seem to be going backwards :-(

 

Jazza! 

[novski]

hmm i can't follow. I think more to my english than what you wrote. Yes to your Question about the Device ID on the Chip. There must be one.

Do i unterstand you right, that what ever you do, it confirms with "the application is up and running." ???

 

Did you connect the Core to the USB interface direct or is there a joystick in between?

First of all: Connect it directly for Testing and use the M-Audio one because its really a problem that those cheap ones don't work. (they can work for some Midi Audio applications but not for the sysex loading part of MIOS...)

I think you have to click trough the ID numbers and take the time it needs because the next step is difficult:

There is a ID changer in ucapps.de LINK but read the manual in the .zip i have never used it until now.

hoppe that im not telling you bullsh.. :-)

 

Maybe someone can confirm those steps or has an idea...???

 

best regards

novski

[Jazza!]

Hello Novski,

 

Thanks for your suggestions.

 

I'm finding the M-Audio Uno to be completely useless. It simply will not communicate in any way with the core.

 

Using the only setup I have access to that gives me partial results (Joystick and MIDI interface to scanner MIDI in and a generic USB-MIDI adaptor to scanner MIDI out) after a lot of false starts I was able to upload a 'change ID' hex file. The system rebooted and ............

 

It's totally dead :-( I cannot get any response from the core and where the scanner used to give an output, it doesn't anymore.

 

I have to admit I'm out of my depth here. This a completely new field to me and I'm running out of time to scan these books. I've looked on eBay for a new PIC18F-452 and a programmer and although I can get them quite cheaply, I'm not confident of improving the situation unless anyone has written 'PIC Programming for Total Dummies?' as most of what I've read doesn't make that much sense to me. None of my friends or acquaintances are able to help either (they're as clueless as I am - mainly worse!)

 

Unless there is (or someone can do me) a step by step idiots guide to PIC programming and help me write the routine to read 54 photo-detectors and map them to MIDI (I don't even know where to start with that particular project) I'm favouring throwing the PIC core away and replacing it with an Orgautomatech Key2Midi 64 board from Christian Blanchard in France. It's designed to do precisely what I want with a simple user interface to set the outputs (if I want to as it looks like the default setting will suit me). It will cost me £80 but I know it will work and my time is more valuable than money.

 

Feeling rather disillusioned :-(

Jazza!

[novski]

Well thats sad.

Midibox is a extremely cool Project. If you like to do things your self with midi or related, im sure it will make you happy. But it isn't a "unboxing-and-ready-to-use thing". If you don't get it done with that different product, you may come back and get a new pic from the midibox-shop.com for further tests.

Best regards

Novski

[kpete]

Hi Jazza,

 

So I have to assume that you loaded the "device_id_00.hex" file to your MidiBox.  If that is correct then when you loaded it, this file erased the original Midio128 software and that is why its not responding to your scanner anymore.  If your hardware had an LCD display connected to it things might be clearer as to what is going on.

 

Since it looks like you were able to load the .hex file, you somehow stumbled onto a way to change the software.  Now the next step that I think you have to do is load the Midio128 software into your MidiBox. 

 

In your first post it said: "  the label on the PIC reads 'Bootloader v1.2b  MIOS v1.9f  MIDIO128 v2.2f  36-67' "

To me it looks like he programmed your unit with MIDIO128 v2.2f.  The 36-67 values might be the mapping defines for what's sent as the inputs are changed on the Din card.  I have one of the MidiBox V2 boards that shows MIOS v1.9E and the chip is a PIC18F432.  With the versions being so close, you must have one of the PIC18F chips which is good.  Your next step would be to load the latest v2 Midio128 software.  I think there should be a copy of this software somewhere, just that I can't find it so I can not reference the .hex file for you to download.

 

Does anyone think that I may be on the right track here or am I propagating bad information?  If I am correct, where can we get a copy of the Midio128 v2 software that might work on this hardware?

 

Pete

[aeoline8]

Hello Jazza

 

This may not be the answer you want -but - I started out experimenting with JOrgan and Midibox with an M-Audio UNO which did not work at all. I then tried an M-Audio 2 X 2 "Anniversary" interface which gave trouble. I finally ordered a MOTU MicroLite from Amazon and have not had a problem since. I am driving 70 pipe organ SAMs with Windows XP Pro and 3 Midibox Core 8s. I think the root cause of the M-Audio issues was the drivers, even the latest version.

 

Regards

 

Al

Edited April 18, 2014 by aeoline8

[Jazza!]

Thanks Pete and Al for your inputs.

 

I've found the latest MIOS and bootloader here - http://www.ucapps.de/mios/mios_v1_9g.zip so will have a go at uploading it when I have time. I've also ordered a new PIC18F452 and programmer just in case the existing PIC has fried itself - I hope it hasn't but you never can tell! What a pity it seems only the bootloader can be uploaded by the programmer and not all the firmware/software. How much aggravation would that save people in the long run?

 

I've looked into the MOTU MicroLite but here the UK the cheapest one I can find (new or secondhand) is £111 and I honestly can't justify that kind of outlay for something I'm probably only going to use the once. I do have an eye of a couple of MOTU Fastlanes that use the same software and are far more reasonably priced.

 

Fingers crossed I'm back on the right path now.

 

Jazza!

 

P.S. There's no LCD connected to the core so that doesn't give me any clues to what is/isn't going on.

Edited April 21, 2014 by Jazza!

[kpete]

^{The MIOS and Bootloader software you found is good to load but it is not the Midio128 software.  It is only the support software for the application.  I found a version of Midio128 but it is an earlier version from what was loaded in your unit.  To find it:}

^{Go to the http://ucapps.de/ web site and on the left side under the MIOS area, click on "MIOS8 Download".  There is a zip file  called midio128_v2_2c.zip that has the .hex file for version 2.2c.  This software should work fine for what you need.} 

 

^Pete