I mentioned it elsewhere: I needed a GM5 that does not have all the MIDI connectors next to each other, because that just eats away too much valuable space for me. Also, I wanted status LEDs for each input and output - I find this quite handy for troubleshooting, and during the last ten years my old Thru box (which has a MIDI indicator LED) was the one tool I would take with me all the time - just because of the LEDs.
Attached you can find some pictures of what I have come up with.
All the easy-to-lay tracks have been done on grid-style board, with the more challenging connections done using a wire-wrap pen. The LEDs are low-current ones (and yes, one is still missing… have to order some more). The original GM5 board sits piggyback on this one and can be removed easily. The whole thing is USB-powered and has a 5m USB cable fixed to the chassis.
The MIDI connectors have solder lugs, such that any mechanical stress on the PCB is avoided. They just snap into a rectangular hole in the chassis. The five inputs and outputs sit on separate and different headers to make servicing easy and confusion impossible.
I’m sorry, I’m new to this whole Midi hardware stuff. I’ve always been working with midi notes inside DAW (Ableton to be specific) so posibilities of chaining devices together via midi is kind a new to me.
Nice casing. What is it? Did you machined that openings for sockets or you did it by hand? It looks is it is cut accurately.
I see you was short on green LEDs so you used black one instead. Interesting.
The case is from Reichelt, very cheap (9,80 EUR) but designed very well: it has like rails on the sides so a 100mm wide board slides in nicely.
The LED holes were drilled by hand using a Dremel (well, a handheld Proxxon Minimot). The rectangular openings were done drilling holes in the corners and using a jigsaw. This is rather unprecise, but the MIDI sockets nicely cover that.
And for the LEDs… well, I guess you are right - haven’t thought of actually making that a feature 8).
The unit (or its twin) is probably going to sit in the back of a rack, which means that when I move the rack, I only have to unplug the USB connector instead of many MIDI cables.
Out of curiosity - what did you use to buffer the signal for the LEDs?
74HC04 - the complete schematic is attached to my second post. You may want to change the values of R16-R20 and R21-R25 accordingly if you use different (=standard 20mA) LED types.
