First post, by Khaal
Hi everyone,
I am trying to build myself an emulated midi setup for my retro gaming PC. I'm using old laptop as a "midi device" connected to a P233 MMX via AWE64 Value (also tried with SB16).
For testing purposes I bought some cheap MIDI-USB cable and tried to build my gameport - midi cable using schematics as seen here: http://midi.teragonaudio.com/hardware/pc_intfc.htm (I'm no expert in this field but I like to mess around with stuff 😲 ).
I encountered couple of issues:
1. It seems I either messed something up or that midi-usb cable didn't like that contraption (used 74LS00 + CNY17-3)... Didn't work at all (IN LED indicator flashed when I plugged OUT from AWE64 for a split second and then nothing)
2. When I connected Txd (with 220Ohm resistor) and ground from sound card directly it then started playing but... it stops somewhere between playing 1 note and an hour or so... to make it start work again I either need to unplug the USB cable and put it back along with removing the device from the system or put my laptop to sleep and wake it up 😀
I tried it on various PCs and it's the same thing on any of them 🙁.
With that said, maybe someone can help me:
Might it be something with cheap cable and omission of said circuit?
Will getting Roland UM-ONE solve my problem?
Considering all I need is MIDI OUT from Sound Card and into my laptop, do I need that circuit anyway or will a simple cable be enough? Do the ebay cables like https://tinyurl.com/y75mkwk9 even have any ICs?
Was trying to google it but all I was getting were issues with actual USB midi devices and not enough voltage.
I will be very grateful for any hints! 😀
Edit: Forgot to mention, when playback stops IN LED indicator on the cable itself keeps flashing.
Edit 2: I tried to mess around and following Arvydas (http://www.arvydas.co.uk/2013/07/cheap-usb-mi … ay-be-required/) I modified the cable's circuit board (added CNY17 instead of what he did and moved the 220 Ohm resistor onto the circuit board instead of my gameport -> midi cable, looks ugly, but now it accepts "normal" midi specification input config, but still doesn't work 😀 )