[sdiy] midi clock

[Seb Francis]

pfperry at melbpc.org.au wrote:

> > > detecting any given MIDI byte. Both use a UART chip (6402) which seems
> > > to simplify things considerably.
> >
> Well as a non-programmer I am naturally sympathetic to the 6402, but unless you salvage one from a very old modem or compter, a PIC costs less... also, some of  those Penfold circuits might be making heroic assumptions regarding the MIDI signal beig pretty clean, no sysex etc.

I would agree here.  After reading that Penfold book, I built a MIDI to 16x drum trigger + 8x gate interface based on a 6402 and discreet logic.  It ended up being a very big circuit which could easily have been done using a PIC and minimal external components.  At the time though, I was very inexperienced with electronics, and having to learn all about PICs at the same time as trying to learn electronics would have been too much.  The whole project was definitely a worthwhile learning exercise if nothing else :)

And (just like pretty much all of the Penfold circuits) the logic I used will not handle all MIDI eventualities properly.  Having said that, it seems to work pretty well, as long as I set my sequencer to send the right type of note off messages!

Seb

P.S. If anyone actually wants a 6402 chip (they're pretty hard to find nowadays), I have a couple of spares kicking around which I would sell.