Building MIDI controller

[Gonzoo]

Hello everybody!

I'm building a MIDI controller for Resolume and I'm almost finished but something is not the best.
I've checked the cables, the power supply, the midi cables. I think the problem will be the brain of the controller, the PIC18F452, a microcontroller manufactured by Microchip. It needs some boot program but I don't know how can I write a program for an IC.
I have 11 rotary potenciometer, 5 fader and 60 buttons.
I've ordered the ingredients from a German guy but unfortunately he's not home in programming it just selling...
http://www.mikes-elektronikseite.de/ (http://www.mikes-elektronikseite.de/shop_englisch/index.htm)
If anybody has some experience in this please help.
Thanks a lot, Zsolt

[johnnylocust]

That would be a midibox design. The forums for it are here (http://69.56.171.55/~midibox/forum/index.php) . The people there are very helpfull and quite fanatic about midibox.

[akira_k]

To write a PIC you need a PIC wrter, obviously!!!

try to get hold of someone with it or go to an electronics shop, some of them program PICs for you in exchange of a fee.

Obviously you need the BIN program file to burn into the PIC... Are you sing some plan you found on the net, or how were you planning to use the controller?

[Gonzoo]

Originally posted by johnnylocust
That would be a midibox design. The forums for it are here (http://69.56.171.55/~midibox/forum/index.php) . The people there are very helpfull and quite fanatic about midibox.

Yes I have a JDM Burner built by the shematic of UCAPPS.de (http://www.ucapps.de) but i don't know what should I write into the PIC.

[levon]

the boot loader is in the downloads section of the ucapps site.

[PiedPiper]

I am currently doing a uni course on embedded systems,
currently we are using a motorola microcontroller, learning all about how to program rotary knobs, and sliders / faders.

Although i suspect it will be a little while yet before i would be up to writing to code for a full on midi device.
*however it would mae a nice useful idea for my project later this semester :)*

I will have a look at the PIC18F452, and see what can be used to write the cdoe for it, if it can be written in C of C++ then it's hella easy, but if it requires all assembly then well lol, good luck.

-PP.

[karl]

i think PIC's are small basic programs so no c/c++ asm should be required...

[PiedPiper]

i checkd out the PIC he's talking about and it appears to support C - which aint so bad.

i assume you can get a compiler for the specific PIC, from the manufacturer.

Gonzoo - how do u intend to connect the controller to your PC?
via usb? rs-232? or a proper midi connection?
I know you can get rs-232 -> usb chips which would make it easy to connect to a pc.


Personally i am dreaming of a user semi-configurable midi device, so that i can arrange the sliders and knobs in a manner similar to the interface of any application...

[Gonzoo]

Originally posted by PiedPiper
i checkd out the PIC he's talking about and it appears to support C - which aint so bad.

i assume you can get a compiler for the specific PIC, from the manufacturer.

Gonzoo - how do u intend to connect the controller to your PC?
via usb? rs-232? or a proper midi connection?
I know you can get rs-232 -> usb chips which would make it easy to connect to a pc.


Personally i am dreaming of a user semi-configurable midi device, so that i can arrange the sliders and knobs in a manner similar to the interface of any application...

I use the COM port. I've just downloaded the bootloader and a program called MIDI OX. I hope it will work.
If you ave any experience with this program please give my some useful tips.
Thanks a lot, Zsolt

[alangeering]

The PIC is supported by a free ASSEMBLER and IDE from Microchip (MPLAB), this uses the MPASM assembly language.

There are C compilers available from many commercial sources, and if your program is small enough, there are some free codespace limited compilers available.

Look at IAR and other companies.

PICBASIC is also available, a compiler from a form of BASIC to MPASM and hex for the microchip PIC.

There are plenty of ways to write your programs for the PIC.

Overall it's a great little microcontroller. Its only failings are its lack of registers. Microchip have been great at adding periferals to the PIC, so its still very capable.

If you like microcontrollers and C then also look at the AVR from Atmel and the GCC compiler (free).

Other alternitives are the motorola chips, Intel 8051 varients (again there are free C compilers for these) and the Zilog Z series.