the above schematic is for the Music Quest PC MIDI card : Music Quest PC MIDI Card MPU IH9MQ9 : info , drivers and tests , do you have one and miss the dongle?

That schematic is from a specific sound card, and it's useless unless you have that sound card.

On PCs, DE9 connectors usually are for RS232 connections and pinouts are different. Even if you rewire it, speeds are incompatible and the computer would be using different ports (0x300 vs 0x3F8).

If you need a MIDI connection, you should use a DB15 to MIDI cable (provided you have a sound card with MIDI/game port) or a USB to MIDI adapter.

Plus RS232 is electrically incompatible with MIDI, then you need a driver which can set the UART to proper MIDI encoding and provide the appropriate driver interface to Windows (or whatever).

I'm trying to use it with SoftMPU with the SBMIDI switch, connected to an external midi device. It's my only option of getting MIDI on my DOS machine, unless I come across an SCP-55 somewhere. I hope this clarifies things a bit.

Zuon wrote:

I'm trying to use it with SoftMPU with the SBMIDI switch, connected to an external midi device. It's my only option of getting MIDI on my DOS machine, unless I come across an SCP-55 somewhere. I hope this clarifies things a bit.

Does this help? (I think the cables are always the same, but am not sure)

You'll still need a suitable driver to be able to use it. AFAIK the Roland software (if you can find it) only makes it possible to communicate with the device outside games.

Why don't you try to find a PCMCIA card with a gameport on it?

yawetaG wrote:

Does this help? (I think the cables are always the same, but am not sure) […]
Show full quote

Zuon wrote:

I'm trying to use it with SoftMPU with the SBMIDI switch, connected to an external midi device. It's my only option of getting MIDI on my DOS machine, unless I come across an SCP-55 somewhere. I hope this clarifies things a bit.

Does this help? (I think the cables are always the same, but am not sure)

You'll still need a suitable driver to be able to use it. AFAIK the Roland software (if you can find it) only makes it possible to communicate with the device outside games.

Why don't you try to find a PCMCIA card with a gameport on it?

I have seen that before, but I'm having difficulty translating Din-8 (as the picture shows) to DIN-5. Like I said, I'm a major noob at this.

And I have, but I've heard DOS drivers are hard to find for such a purpose.

Zuon wrote:

yawetaG wrote:

Does this help? (I think the cables are always the same, but am not sure) […]
Show full quote

Zuon wrote:

I'm trying to use it with SoftMPU with the SBMIDI switch, connected to an external midi device. It's my only option of getting MIDI on my DOS machine, unless I come across an SCP-55 somewhere. I hope this clarifies things a bit.

Does this help? (I think the cables are always the same, but am not sure)

You'll still need a suitable driver to be able to use it. AFAIK the Roland software (if you can find it) only makes it possible to communicate with the device outside games.

Why don't you try to find a PCMCIA card with a gameport on it?

I have seen that before, but I'm having difficulty translating Din-8 (as the picture shows) to DIN-5. Like I said, I'm a major noob at this.

And I have, but I've heard DOS drivers are hard to find for such a purpose.

So are serial cable drivers that can actually be used in combination with games.
AFAIK, serial cables were mostly used to control MIDI equipment from a software MIDI sequencer or sysex utilities. The required drivers were not universally suitable for use with a serial cable and any MIDI device (i.e. sound module), but served to talk to specific MIDI devices made by the same company that wrote the driver software (so Roland driver for Roland module etc.). That probably also explains the difference in pin-out between serial cables shown in module manuals and a standard MIDI cable.
You would need a serial connection driver for your Serdashop module that somehow presents itself as a MPU-401 compatible device to a game to achieve what you want. On top of that, the module might need to be able to support a serial connection. I guess the best option would be to contact Serdashop to ask whether what you want to do can actually work in the first place.

So are serial cable drivers that can actually be used in combination with games.
AFAIK, serial cables were mostly used to control MIDI equipment from a software MIDI sequencer or sysex utilities. The required drivers were not universally suitable for use with a serial cable and any MIDI device (i.e. sound module), but served to talk to specific MIDI devices made by the same company that wrote the driver software (so Roland driver for Roland module etc.). That probably also explains the difference in pin-out between serial cables shown in module manuals and a standard MIDI cable.
You would need a serial connection driver for your Serdashop module that somehow presents itself as a MPU-401 compatible device to a game to achieve what you want. On top of that, the module might need to be able to support a serial connection. I guess the best option would be to contact Serdashop to ask whether what you want to do can actually work in the first place.

Why would I need another driver for my Serdashop board? I thought SoftMPU was the driver, and I don't believe Serdashop provides their own, if I'm not mistaken.

Okay, so you want to connect to an external Dreamblaster board from a DOS machine? Does that DOS machine have a game port? (15 pin D-Sub)

8-pin mini DIN connector to 9-pin D-sub or 25-pin D-sub cable for standard RS232-level serial ports - they cannot be connected to 5-pin DIN for MIDI.

As keropi explained, the 9-pin D-sub to 5-pin DIN is only compatible with the special Music Quest PC MIDI sound card which just has the 9-pin D connector for MIDI I/O just because a standard MIDI DIN socket would not fit there.

A standard PC has (usually) no MIDI connectors that could be connected to 5-pin DIN MIDI directly with just a cable.
Usually, at minimum what you need is a MIDI adapter with some electronics inside it to convert 5V TTL logic level MIDI IO on PC joystick port to standard 5mA level current loop IO for 5-pin MIDI DIN connections. Various schematics available on internet.

So, which equipment you would be connecting to?

^ He's trying to connect an external MIDI module to a laptop that has PCMCIA and serial ports but no integrated sound or a game port. In this thread he was already told to either get a SCP-55 (or similar) or a PCMCIA soundcard with a game port, but apparently that is too complicated/expensive/takes too much time...

Zuon wrote:

So are serial cable drivers that can actually be used in combination with games.
AFAIK, serial cables were mostly used to control MIDI equipment from a software MIDI sequencer or sysex utilities. The required drivers were not universally suitable for use with a serial cable and any MIDI device (i.e. sound module), but served to talk to specific MIDI devices made by the same company that wrote the driver software (so Roland driver for Roland module etc.). That probably also explains the difference in pin-out between serial cables shown in module manuals and a standard MIDI cable.
You would need a serial connection driver for your Serdashop module that somehow presents itself as a MPU-401 compatible device to a game to achieve what you want. On top of that, the module might need to be able to support a serial connection. I guess the best option would be to contact Serdashop to ask whether what you want to do can actually work in the first place.

Why would I need another driver for my Serdashop board? I thought SoftMPU was the driver, and I don't believe Serdashop provides their own, if I'm not mistaken.

Sorry, I thought you were trying to build a serial cable...and then the module itself also needs to support a serial connection. A mere serial->MIDI cable does not replace a MIDI interface.

Have you looked at the SoftMPU forum for help with using SoftMPU and a serial port to communicate with your module? There's several threads on the feature, most of which seem to indicate it's not particularly easy...

Doing this would require a software driver, a UART which supports clocking to 31250 baud, an RS232 to TTL converter circuit, and a current loop converter. The content of the first post indicates that the original author is probably not prepared for the amount of work involved.

I may not be prepared, but I do have peers more knowledgeable than I am. All I would like is some guidance on what to do/what my peers would help me do.

My DOS machine does not have a 15 pin D-sub. The only expandable port it has is, unfortunately, that serial port.

After asking some questions to one of my more knowledgeable peers, he said 9 pin serial and DIN-5 are not electrically compatible. He says the midi data would be able to be transferred, if it weren't for the fact that the different ports operate at different voltages. He says the only way I'll actually be able to get my serial port to talk to my MIDI device, is if I had a converter box - a standard cable won't do. He'll be able to help me whip up a quick one with a bread board, but I was wondering is such a converter actually exists to buy on the market? Does anyone know?

This is the Midi interface/daugterboard I have:
http://www.serdashop.com/MIDIBOARDCHILL
http://www.serdashop.com/waveblaster

RS232 to TTL converters are available for sale, but you would still have to do the current loop conversion.

Did you actually look at the SoftMPU forum that I linked to? Because in the 10th thread from the top of the first page, titled "Roland MT32 - Direct Connection to Serial / COM1 SoftMPU" - a title that suggests that it may be about a similar problem as you are experiencing - a solution to your problem is explicitly explained by Cloudschatze. It requires using a MIDI module supporting a serial connection as an intermediary.
To expand on that, such a MIDI module would have a serial port to which a serial cable such as the ones shown in the manual I linked to can connect. The module then converts the serial signal to the proper MIDI signal and sends it out through its MIDI OUT port towards your Serdashop module.
(and of course you would have an additional MIDI module with a different set of sounds and features that can also play back your music 😀 )

A suggestion: Instead of stubbornly continuing to claim there's no solution to your problem and implicitly asking others to give you exact instructions on how to accomplish something while not actually bothering to follow links provided, try to be a bit more pro-active in finding solutions. Otherwise I can only second gdjacob's suggestion that you are not prepared to accomplish this project.

gdjacobs wrote:

RS232 to TTL converters are available for sale, but you would still have to do the current loop conversion.

Which isn't a problem as that's just two resistors.

A real problem would be that MIDI requires baud rate of 31250 to which the standard(*) PC uarts are not capable of, so it would require baud rate conversion.
I think there are some projects with a microcontroller that is programmed to receive at PC baud rate and transmit at MIDI baud rate.
For quick one-off testing, I'd connect the laptop with null modem cable to another PC with one serial and one MIDI port to perform the conversion...

(*)Some multi/IO chips are capable of changing the baud reference clock so you can get MIDI compatible baud rate.

yawetaG wrote:

Did you actually look at the SoftMPU forum that I linked to? Because in the 10th thread from the top of the first page, titled " […]
Show full quote

Did you actually look at the SoftMPU forum that I linked to? Because in the 10th thread from the top of the first page, titled "Roland MT32 - Direct Connection to Serial / COM1 SoftMPU" - a title that suggests that it may be about a similar problem as you are experiencing - a solution to your problem is explicitly explained by Cloudschatze. It requires using a MIDI module supporting a serial connection as an intermediary.
To expand on that, such a MIDI module would have a serial port to which a serial cable such as the ones shown in the manual I linked to can connect. The module then converts the serial signal to the proper MIDI signal and sends it out through its MIDI OUT port towards your Serdashop module.
(and of course you would have an additional MIDI module with a different set of sounds and features that can also play back your music 😀 )

A suggestion: Instead of stubbornly continuing to claim there's no solution to your problem and implicitly asking others to give you exact instructions on how to accomplish something while not actually bothering to follow links provided, try to be a bit more pro-active in finding solutions. Otherwise I can only second gdjacob's suggestion that you are not prepared to accomplish this project.

I do apologize, I did not see your link. But now that I've looked at all these responses, I think it's safe to say I have enough information to accomplish my goal. I don't appreciate being called stubborn. It is my fault that I didn't see the link, and I do apologize. I'm used to links on websites being a different color (which isn't really an excuse).

I was never ignoring everyone's posts and claiming there's no way to do it - I was just under the impression (at the beginning) that I could have a direct connection. I have been proactive in doing my research before posting on this forum, but everything I searched for on google led me to dead ends. Nevertheless, I would still like to apologize for my lack on knowledge on this topic.

But once again, thanks everyone for all your input. I think I have a better understanding now. And even if I don't, I know someone who will, now that I know how to better explain the situation.

Jepael wrote:

A real problem would be that MIDI requires baud rate of 31250 to which the standard(*) PC uarts are not capable of, so it would require baud rate conversion.
I think there are some projects with a microcontroller that is programmed to receive at PC baud rate and transmit at MIDI baud rate.
For quick one-off testing, I'd connect the laptop with null modem cable to another PC with one serial and one MIDI port to perform the conversion...

Correct. The UART has to be flexible enough (enough dividers with a high enough base clock) to be set to 31250 baud.

gdjacobs wrote:

Jepael wrote:

A real problem would be that MIDI requires baud rate of 31250 to which the standard(*) PC uarts are not capable of, so it would require baud rate conversion.

Correct. The UART has to be flexible enough (enough dividers with a high enough base clock) to be set to 31250 baud.

...and if a PC UART could do it there would need to be software that can be used to set it to that rate because AFAIK that rate can't be selected in Windows.

Zuon wrote:

I do apologize, I did not see your link. But now that I've looked at all these responses, I think it's safe to say I have enough information to accomplish my goal. I don't appreciate being called stubborn. It is my fault that I didn't see the link, and I do apologize. I'm used to links on websites being a different color (which isn't really an excuse).

I was never ignoring everyone's posts and claiming there's no way to do it - I was just under the impression (at the beginning) that I could have a direct connection. I have been proactive in doing my research before posting on this forum, but everything I searched for on google led me to dead ends. Nevertheless, I would still like to apologize for my lack on knowledge on this topic.

Apologies accepted, and sorry I got a bit harsh 😀

MIDI is kinda confusing at times, I got mightily confused when I started researching it more as I thought it was a music (i.e. sound) signal, since it tends to be described on forums like these as "getting MIDI sound out of a PC" while it actually is a signal for instrument control (i.e. a set of more or less standardized instructions meant to tell a sound card or module how to produce a particular sound). 😊