MIDI controller works with bela mini, not with bela

brkmrkt

Dear bela community, I work since months with a bela mini (with a Pd patch) and a korg nano kontrol MIDI-controller. It works perfectly fine, I just need to reset/restart the bela mini quickly after plugging in the MIDI controller. Changing the exact same setup to a bela it does not recognize the MIDI controller (BELA_IMAGE_VERSION="v0.3.8e"). Also not after a restart. The patch works fine though, the test tone is hearable. Do you have any idea what the problem could be? Any ideas would help me a lot.

giuliomoro

brkmrkt I just need to reset/restart the bela mini quickly after plugging in the MIDI controller.

what does this mean?

Please try the following on each board:

run dmesg | tail -n 20 a few seconds after you plug the controller in
then run amidi -l

and report here the outputs of each.

brkmrkt

Dear giuliomoro

Thank you for your prompt reply to my problem!

I just saw on the the scheme (Pin Diagram) or the bela mini, that it is the "Bela Button" which I press on the bela mini to recognize the midi controller. So I usually first power it up with the midi controller plugged in. When I press the "Bela Butten" after starting up the bela mini, the MIDI controller gets recognized.

Sorry that I have to ask, but where do I have to run the dmesg and the amidi messages? In pD and if so, where do I have to route the messages to? Or is the a debugging possibility on the bela itself? Sorry I'm pretty new to the bela world. Any hint will be highly appreciated, thank you!

giuliomoro

brkmrkt I just saw on the the scheme (Pin Diagram) or the bela mini, that it is the "Bela Button" which I press on the bela mini to recognize the midi controller.

OK, so is the issue happening only when you boot the board with the controller connected and you have a program running on boot? Or is it always the case that the controller doesn't work on the Bela?

brkmrkt where do I have to run the dmesg and the amidi messages?

in the console of the Bela IDE. Do this without any patch running.

brkmrkt

Ah it seems that the korg nano kontrol gets recognized by the bela when I don't run a Pd patch as startup object:

root@bela ~/Bela# dmesg | tail -n 20
[ 24.945510] Mass Storage Function, version: 2009/09/11
[ 24.945536] LUN: removable file: (no medium)
[ 29.311613] usb0: HOST MAC be:1a:f6:f7:0a:5f
[ 29.312028] usb0: MAC be:1a:f6:f7:0a:60
[ 29.313912] usb1: HOST MAC be:1a:f6:f7:0a:62
[ 29.325116] usb1: MAC be:1a:f6:f7:0a:63
[ 29.614003] configfs-gadget gadget: high-speed config #1: c
[ 32.411783] net eth0: initializing cpsw version 1.12 (0)
[ 32.540767] SMSC LAN8710/LAN8720 4a101000.mdio:00: attached PHY driver [SMSC LAN8710/LAN8720] (mii_bus:phy_addr=4a101000.mdio:00, irq=POLL)
[ 32.608874] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
[ 1348.563636] musb-hdrc musb-hdrc.1: VBUS_ERROR in a_wait_bcon (89,
[ 1349.598241] usb 1-1: new full-speed USB device number 2 using musb-hdrc
[ 1349.750802] usb 1-1: New USB device found, idVendor=0944, idProduct=010f
[ 1349.750823] usb 1-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[ 1349.750833] usb 1-1: Product: nanoKONTROL
[ 1349.750842] usb 1-1: Manufacturer: KORG INC.
[ 1420.513213] systemd[1]: apt-daily-upgrade.timer: Adding 36min 43.190636s random time.
[ 1420.558867] systemd[1]: apt-daily.timer: Adding 5h 35min 18.865257s random time.
[ 1490.162743] rtdm_pruss_irq_close
[ 1501.792258] rtdm_pruss_irq_open
/root/Bela
root@bela ~/Bela#

root@bela ~/Bela# amidi -l
Dir Device Name
IO hw:0,0 f_midi
IO hw:1,0,0 nanoKONTROL MIDI 1

brkmrkt

Would it then be necessary to try to address the midi controller directly in the Pd patch? Still I could not understand why the Bela Button "trick" on the bela mini works and on the bela not.

brkmrkt

Dear Giulio
Since the bela seems to recognize the midi controller I tried to find a solution to address the controller from the Pd patch. I also found a quote on this forum saying: "Note: the device hw:1,0,0 is always loaded by default (if available)." It seemed to me that the midi controller does not become available early enough for the bela on startup, so I was looking for a solution to address it later with a delayed bang. I found this idea of yours from September 21 in the forum:

brkmrkt

alt text

brkmrkt

Now it seems to work. I still have to try it in the field tomorrow and on Friday, if it really works properly/solid.  

But do you think this could be a way to go?

(sorry for the fractions of the post. I was not able to add the Pd code as elegantly as you into the forum :-)

giuliomoro

brkmrkt (sorry for the fractions of the post. I was not able to add the Pd code as elegantly as you into the forum :-)

you do that by enclosing the "code" with triple backticks: ``` e.g.:

```
[loadbang]
|
[delay 2000]
```

gives
[loadbang] | [delay 2000]

> brkmrkt But do you think this could be a way to go?

well ... the point of the [delay] is to ensure the system has had enough time to recognise the MIDI controller before you try to use it. The trick of restarting the program as you do on BelaMini does effectively the same: it restarts the program, so that by the time it starts a second time, the system has had some extra time to load the device. I am surprised that one works and the other one doesn't. Can you perhaps try the button trick again waiting a couple seconds more before pressing the button to restart the program, just to verify there's nothing weird going on?

brkmrkt

Thanks Giulio for the advice with the triple backticks!

Concerning the bela button trick I just did some tests:

bela mini:
Strangely the midi controller gets detected now even with my old patch (without the solution above). Always on normal startup by bowering the bela mini, also around 3min later by pressing the bela button.

bela:
The bela still works as expected with the old patch (without solution above). The controller does not get detected on startup, neither with pressing the reset button.
As soon as I implement the solution above back in the patch, the midi controller gets detected.

Since I need to run both bela mini and bela with the same patch, I kept the solution above also in the patch on the bela mini. It seems it does not do any harm to address the midi controller (again) with the delayed bang.

So far that's good for me, thank you for your help, Giulio! I highly appreciate it