![arduino usb host shield keyboard arduino usb host shield keyboard](https://i.snap.as/3qZwBTi.jpg)
The way I see it- it isn’t designed for that. You can’t currently convert midi from your computer to hardware midi using this device. However there are a couple of things that it currently won’t do. It runs quite happily on USB bus power, any generic USB plug adaptor that you might get with a mobile phone, or a 9v DC supply. In the example shown, the Mutable Instruments Midipal provides a midi clock for both instruments, but I did try it out as a channel splitter, which enabled the entire thing to be played as a 4 voice synth (albeit with a very cramped keyboard!). The little Akai keyboard (MPK Mini mk1) is great for this setup, as it has different presets which allow you to switch between controlling the two synthesizers- each of which is set to a different midi channel. This is completely standalone from any sort of computer, and runs off just two plug sockets.
Arduino usb host shield keyboard portable#
Here you can see it at home in a portable synthesizer rig I constructed over the Christmas break.
![arduino usb host shield keyboard arduino usb host shield keyboard](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Th88RiSmj2w/maxresdefault.jpg)
The resulting device is not much bigger than two packs of playing cards. While I was at home over Christmas, my Dad offered to case the thing up (having a much better selection of tools, not to mention a lot more practical skill!).
![arduino usb host shield keyboard arduino usb host shield keyboard](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61CZPs7Wr1L._AC_SY355_.jpg)
My advice would be to stick to a one-way conversion- USB Midi in to hardware midi out, but more on that later. This, it later turned out, was unnecessary. The small piece of breadboard holds a 6N137 optocoupler for the Midi input. The picture below shows what I ended up with (click for larger version)Īs per Spider’s instructions, the TX port of the Arduino shield connects up to the Midi out socket, with a 220 ohm resistor inbetween, along with the ground and 5V pins. This is the beauty of open-source and the internet, and really the point of this post: anyone can get the info and do-it-themselves! Yuuichi Akagawa’s updates on Github made it possible to use multiple devices via USB Hub (more on that later), and “Spider” over on the V-Guitar forums provided the invaluable step by step guide to making it work.
Arduino usb host shield keyboard code#
Now- important disclaimer: I am not the author of any of the code here, the credit must firstly go to Collin Cunningham for writing the code (way back in 2010). Total cost was around £21, so even if it didn’t work, I hadn’t spent a bomb. So I took the plunge and ordered the two boards.
![arduino usb host shield keyboard arduino usb host shield keyboard](https://chome.nerpa.tech/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/xkeys.gif)
However, a bit of googling led me to this discussion on a V-Guitar forum, which suggested that using a USB Host shield and an Arduino could translate USB Midi to a ‘regular’ 5-pin Midi output, as well as providing power to the controller itself. Fair enough – there are issues with the amount of space to fit a MIDI port on a small controller, and they are marketed mainly at computer musicians. I was looking to get a small midi controller, but found myself frustrated by the fact that most of the smaller, cheaper ones were USB only. It turned out my fears were unnecessary- this project can be realised by a total novice. Not being a coder by any stretch of the imagination, I had wondered whether or not I’d have the skills to make anything useful using an Arduino. A great many of these projects are built on the Arduino platform, an open-source board which will do pretty much whatever you program it to. The internet provides a massive (and free!) repository of interesting and inspiring projects to try. In the last couple of years I’ve become aware of the huge boom in DIY music equipment.