[sdiy] USB for MIDI/whatever

[Craig Critchley]

I recently did a project using an FTDI USB interface chip.  There are two
versions, one with a serial interface (FT232) and the other (pictured,
FT245) with a parallel interface. There are also two drivers for both
devices.  One installs a COM port (e.g. pretends to be a serial port) and
the other has a DLL interface.  I don't know what it would take to write a
MIDI driver for it.  The FTDI datasheets that I've seen don't include any
programming information.

In the US evaluation boards are available from www.dlpdesign.com.  These are
similar to the ones shown on the site below.  www.saelig.com sells both the
evaluation boards and the chips.  They'll sell relatively small quantities
of chips.

These devices make it pretty easy to add USB to pretty much anything that
can communicate with a serial or 8-bit parallel port.  The main trick with
MIDI would be writing a driver that looks like a MIDI port instead of a COM
port.  Since my previous project called for a COM interface I used the FTDI
drivers unaltered and didn't dig into whether you could write a custom
driver for it.

                        ...Craig

----- Original Message -----
From: "Roman Sowa" <modular at go2.pl>
To: "Synth-Diy" <synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl>
Sent: Friday, March 07, 2003 11:58 AM
Subject: [sdiy] USB for MIDI/whatever


> Little too late on the topic, but maybe of some interest to some:
> Look for ASSEM-USBMOD at http://www.jelu.se/shop.php
> the module is here:
> http://www.jelu.se/images/usbmodule_asseml.jpg
> They say:
> "An assembled and tested USB Mini Module.
> This module is perfect for testing and learning more about USB.
> Connecting a device to the PC via USB has never been easier. "
>
> And it's like DIP24 in size.
> I haven't bought it, but it looks promising. Maybe some info
> could be found on FTDI website too.
>
> BTW, they sell cool mp3-player building blocks, or actually
> all except enclosure.
>
> disclaimer - I have no connection with www.jelu.se, I just
> found the site recently very interesting
>
> Roman
>