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New Ploytec USB3.0 16x16 MIDI Interface


Thomasch
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Seems Ploytec developed a succesor of the old GM5.
It's USB 3.0 with up to 16x16 MIDI In/Out.
It's not atmel based like the old GM5, instead it will use Texas Instruments TUSB9261.
I called them some minutes before and the friendly Ploytec employee told me, that within the next half year there will also become a board available with pinheaders for the shiftregisters etc.
He gave me the approval to repost the PDFs here.

usb3_midijunction_sch_16x16.pdf

usb3_midijunction_sch_8x8.pdf

usb3_midijunction_sch_1x1.pdf

Edited by Thomasch
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geez, latencies are already pretty damn good on the GM5 relative to many other interfaces. That's also good to hear! I'm at the point where, build or buy, I need a MIDI interface that has multiple ports, handles sync well, is low latency, and reliable. GM5 almost gets me there but sometimes it just likes to completely junk out while I'm in Ableton Live (it's entirely possible it's something I'm doing since I'm the one that populated the board :P). Rackmount would be a nice plus.

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Ah man so close, but I still want a Rackmount solution fairly badly. My GM5 is sitting on a rack shelf in the back with some nylon screws and standoffs. It works fine but makes things awkward and a bit vulnerable (it's not in an enclosure). But otherwise that's an impressive option if it lives up to the hype (and if it's using the new Ploytech chips I'm guessing it is).

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 10.2.2017 at 5:21 PM, Altitude said:

MOQ is 500pcs on the new chips (2500 euro), board design is also way more complex.  Kind of hard to justify a DIY version when you can buy one fairly inexpensively

 

https://www.alyseum.com/u3-88c.html

When i called Ploytec i forgot to ask about prices and minimum order quantities. Did you called them too or where did you got the number of 500pcs MOQ?

500pcs is a heavy number for DIYers like the MIDIbox community.
No idea if there will be smaller amounts possible in the future or by request.
With 2500€ per 500pcs, 5€ seems to be a fair price for one of these memory chips with the software on it.

Unfortunately the linked interface make use of only 8x8 MIDI In/Out instead of the possible 16x16.

Lets wait for what kind of news will come with the mainboad the employee mentioned on phone.
Maybe things will become more interesting to us, when its released and more informations are available.
At least this mainboard will free us from soldering 0.4mm pitch...

Edited by Thomasch
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  • 2 weeks later...

Too sad...
It could become a cheap DIY 16x16 MIDI In/Out USB Interface.

But what i don't understand is, why do they not produce their own interface brand?
Everything is more or less developed and all they have to do is ordering some printed PCBs and cases in china.
Instead it seems they only provide a licence solution for 3rd party manufacturers.
Is the market for their MIDI Interfaces that big, that they want to share it with the handfull of other manufacturers?

However...

Edited by Thomasch
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That is just their business model, and it is perfectly understandable not to want to deal with consumer electronics issues. They are probably not a very large company and having to produce (and pay for the production) up-front could break their back, financially.

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