Whereas MIDI is a reasonably easy protocol, it has distinctive necessities for the bodily layer. As a result of it was designed for use as half of a bigger system, which may be on stage with a whole lot of different cables carrying line voltage, amplified alerts, and all types of points with grounding, MIDI is meant to be remoted. This implies the receiving finish of a MIDI cable ought to have an optocoupler or different isolation barrier to stop injury to the gear, it doesn’t matter what is occurring to the cable. Getting this proper is usually neglected, however now you may drop the MIDI CHIP, a MIDI-compliant module, into any undertaking and instantly get bi-directional, remoted MIDI connections.
The MIDI CHIP is a pleasant, easy design that provides 5300Vrms isolation and comes as a pair, so that you’ve received one for each ends of a connection! It’s breadboard suitable, utilizing normal 0.1″ headers spaced appropriately. However it may also be used instantly, soldered or glued into nearly anyplace with its tiny 0.7″ x 0.85″ (~1.8cm x 2.15cm) footprint.
A easy jumper can change it to a buffered MIDI Via, which is a pleasant function because it provides isolation to an present connection. It could additionally function at both 3.3 or 5V, once more relying on a solder jumper. This permits it to interface with nearly any widespread microcontroller platform! It’s an ideal match for the Arduino MIDI Library. Seeing as how MIDI is actually only a serial stream at 31250 baud, it’s simple to interface with the UART portion of a microcontroller, so constructing customized controllers or MIDI sniffers with these boards is a snap.
Should you’re into synths, chiptunes, or simply MIDI management usually, the MIDI CHIP is sure to discover a use in one in all your initiatives. As talked about earlier than, you get a pair for the value, which is a superb deal! If you’d like built-in MIDI connectors, try the MIDI CHIP Professional from the identical vendor, an entire MIDI module able to be added to any undertaking!
