Arduino => Build a MIDI controller ???

Forum 2005-2010 (read only) Hardware Interfacing
1

Hi,

I'm a newbie here!

I plan to build a MIDI controller.

I watched around midibox.org stuff, but I guess arduino/wiring are more open, more directed to the future (OSC, etc etc)

here is a little sketch:

I need a lot of LEDs, a lot of button.

Could Arduino board natively support that?
Any ideas about making that with arduino? I mean, Do I have to use Processing (only) between hardare and my MIDI Application ? or can I use max/msp ? or even, none soft interface (C/C++ embedded?!) ??

Any informations appreciated :slight_smile:

2

You can't directly control 64 switches and almost as many LED's with Arduino. But it's not very difficult to multiplex the digital I/O pins to get the number of I/O pins you need.

Check the playground for examples of using shiftregisters to expand the number of digital I/O pins

3

You can't directly control 64 switches and almost as many LED's with Arduino. But it's not very difficult to multiplex the digital I/O pins to get the number of I/O pins you need.

Check the playground for examples of using shiftregisters to expand the number of digital I/O pins

thanks a lot !

with this multiplexing, is the speed very high yet?? is there latency?

4

Yes you can do it, but you'll need some additional components:

  1. to drive the LEDs (the hard bit). Especially as you're running so many, and they are tri-coloured, you'll need to investigate using a shift register or even a dedicated LED driver/controller.

  2. to multiplex the button inputs (the easy bit). There are tutorials on using the 4051 family multiplexers on this site, which should give you what you need. You should be able to do it with very low latency.

And just use the ATmega's built-in serial for MIDI I/O.

5

thanks a lot for the clues!

I guess it is more expensive than midibox.org
But the most important things : performance & open platform for future

6

Yes you can do it, but you'll need some additional components:

  1. to drive the LEDs (the hard bit). Especially as you're running so many, and they are tri-coloured, you'll need to investigate using a shift register or even a dedicated LED driver/controller.

shift registering: Did someone already do that?
LED driver/controller : What kind of driver / controller may I use?

  1. to multiplex the button inputs (the easy bit). There are tutorials on using the 4051 family multiplexers on this site, which should give you what you need. You should be able to do it with very low latency.

ok for that..!

thanks a lot!