tell me if this can be done

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guitar ed

guitar ed

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ok...........here's the deal; I hate having to swap midi cables every time I wanna mess with a different device. I'm using a standard joystick midi interface. The main problem is that all my midi devices are lacking a midi thru port; just in and out. That makes the good ol' daisy chain thing pretty difficult to accomplish. Now, if I had a connector that plugged into my joystick port, and I went out and bought 6 5-pin midi (din) jacks, could I wire three of those jacks to the 'in' cable, and the other three to the 'out' cable, essentially giving me three seperate interfaces? I realize I wouldn't be able to use more than one device at a time, but that's not a problem. My goal here is to be able to hook everything up and leave it alone. I'm tired of crawling behind my stuff to swap these durn cables! Any opinions on this before I go to Radio Shack? I sure would appreciate it. Thanks.

ed
 
I dont believe that you can just split a midi or digital audio signal with wires. I've never heard of anybody making a splitter. My understanding is that some type of IC is required to split the signal and send it to the different jacks. If I am wrong somebody please correct me.

Just buy a bigger interface, splitter/merger or a patch bay. You can get either for less than $200. The splitter/mergers are less than $100.
 
Instead of messing with the cables, wouldn't it make more sense to buy connectors and build a switch box?
 
probably.............got a schematic? Actually, I work in the security biz. We do surveillance systems. With each time-lapse vcr there is a connector that fits right in the joystick port on a puter. The pins are numbered correctly and everything. Attached to this connector is a circuit board with 16 screw terminals, to which I could easily connect wires to the corresponding pins. It was just a thought. I could buy a MIDI patch bay, but I like to build shit. I might still give it a shot. If I do, I'll let ya know what happens. Thanks.

Ed
 
Joysticks are analog. MIDI is digital. But good luck. Hopefully you can prove me wrong.
 
guitar ed said:
probably.............got a schematic?
Click to expand...

well not one that I've tested, but it's a fairly easy concept. It's more or less your original idea, but instead of having all the connectors soldered to one cable, you have the ends soldered to a switch which in turn isolates and connects the specific din to the cable. You would just need two extra ends to plug your midi-joystick cable into, this way you don't hafta mod the cable at all. The easiest way construction wise would be to have a two sepeate switches for your IN and OUT. Here's a shitty little diagram (the periods are only for spacing puproses).

............................................................................../--5 pin din
midi to computer<-----5 pin din------------------|switch|---5 pin din
..............................................................................\--5 pin din

............................................................................../--5 pin din
midi out from computer>----5 pin din------------|switch|---5 pin din
..............................................................................\--5 pin din

You could go by a computer repair shop and see if they have a old broken keyboard switch, take that apart and you should get an idea of what I am talkin' about. Hmmm... for that matter a couple of keyboard switch boxes might even do the trick (one for midi in, one for out) -- you'd have to find older ISA ones (5-pin din). You could connect the computer to the "keyboard in" on the switch box, and connect your midi devices to the "keyboard outs", the box consists of pretty much straight wires, so I'd be more or less like a cable extention connector, only it contains a switch. I _really_ don't know if this would work, but they're cheap so maybe pick one up and give a try. Let me know how you go.
 
There ya go !!!!!!!!!!! Man, we need to SOLDER stuff !!!!!! Anyone can buy equipment, but when I say I'm 'building' a studio.........................well, you know ! I mean I'm BUILDING a studio!!!!! Hey, Yak, if you're interested, I got loads of schematics for all kinds of guitar fx pedals and stuff. I think the website is AMZ or something like that. Anyway, they had me breadboardin' all kinds of pedals, but I still can't find any good MIDI schematics for switchers, or patch bays. Still lookin', though.
ed
 
yea, I'm totally into that -- check out http://www.harmony-central.com/Effects/ > "Schematics and Construction Tips", they have a whole wack of pedal schematics (including the site you mentioned). If I ever get some free time I wouldn't mind workin' out a few of the beta amp schematic projects goin' around (I remember reading something about an ultimate tube amp project years ago). Also check this out http://www.harmony-central.com/MIDI/interface.html, they have a few schematics on midi interfaces, they aren't quite what you are looking for, but maybe you could find one suitable to mod for multiple in/out.
 
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