MIDI Monitor

Created in February 2000

The MIDI Monitor reports events, which are transmitted over the MIDI cable, in a readable form. It is useful for testing the MIDI equipment if no computer is available (ie., like on stage). I use this small thing to debug my MIDI applications.

The monitor shows on a 20x4 character display: MIDI channel, Note On/Off, Aftertouch, Controller, Program Change, Pitch Bend in text form and SysEx Data in hexadecimal format. With the two pushbuttons you can scroll through the history. If MIDI Time Code (MTC) is received, it will be displayed in the upper line. Alternatively also the current song position (bar/beat) as well as the BPM can be displayed if MIDI clock events are received.

Optionally an 8 digit LED display can be connected to the monitor which displays the MIDI-Time-Code (or songposition). If you want to use this circuit only as a MTC Monitor, just leave out the LC Display.

	Since version v1.010 controllers will be optionally displayed as text instead of numbers.
	MTC is always displayed in the top line, so that the other events won't vanish from the screen.
	During synchronization via MIDI clock the transmitted informations will be displayed instead of the MIDI Time Code, additionaly the Beats-per-Minute are displayed. Limitation: since the software uses the same resources for MTC and MIDI Clock, both cannot be displayed at the same time.

Download

Schematics
File	Size	Description
midimon.pdf	11k	Schematic of the MIDImon
mtc_extension.pdf	12k	Schematic of the optional MTC LED Display Extension
mbhp_doutx4_mtc.pdf	12k	Connection Diagramm to the DOUTX4 modul
PCBs
MBHP	LINK	see MIDIbox Hardware Platform
Firmwares
MIOS Download	LINK	MIOS based firmware for PIC18F devices with source code
PIC16F Firmwares	LINK	Firmware for PIC16F877 (expired, don't use it for new MIDIboxes!)
Misc.
midimon_resarray.jpg	11k	How to connect a resistor array (Reichelt part #SIL9-8 10k, EUR 0.12) to the MBHP_CORE module
MIDIbox Wiki	LINK	A lot of additional informations on MIDIbox and MIOS

Last update: 2023-11-04