D-Command Monitor Section Midi Output

[LDS]

I've been trying to brute force my old D-Command monitor section into something useful over the past week. After some head scratching, it turns out that it uses midi over RS422. This was the standard serial port protocol of Macintosh computers back in the 1990s. If you have an old serial port based midi interface laying around, you can pretty easily get midi control change messages straight out of the monitor section of your Icon.

I used an old MOTU Midi Time Piece II, and butchered a spare Sync HD to HDX serial cable to connect my D-Command's DB15 port to it. Here is a video of my D-Command monitor section controlling Genelec GLM software. Most of the buttons in the monitor section do something, though there is a bit of internal logic happening inside too. As an example, the 'dim' button simply minuses the dim value from the main monitor level value.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iU-3QH7DkCo

[Pete Gates]

Love this, it's ingenious!

Pete

[LDS]

Originally Posted by Pete Gates

Love this, it's ingenious!

Pete

There was absolutely a moment of "I can't believe that actually worked".


For those wanting to play at home, I have attached a quick scribble of the cable details. It plugs directly into the computer port of the MOTU. The MOTU is set to 1mHz xmit, and the 'direct connect' is set to Cable X... which I can only assume means a crossover serial cable. I don't have a manual for it, and it seems like it never made it online either. You should see lights blinking immediately when you plug 'em together.

Below is a link to a very quick and cheeky Bome project if any GLM users want to get up and running quickly. You will need Bome MIDI translator pro, and in GLM you will need to choose Bome Midi Translator 1 as your midi input and output. You will probably also need to quickly change the incoming midi port for each of the three rules to reflect your physical midi input.

The tiny little project does a few things - it sends a reply to the ping which convinces the D-Command that your XMon is turned on under Rule [0].

It also slightly alters the volume range - the D-Command transmits values 0-106 for Volume, while GLM expects 127 to be the top of the range. Rule [1] just adds 16 to the volume value. From there, just calibrate your D-Command as usual.

Rule [2] inverts the mute button. Mute on the D-Command is 0, while GLM is 1... so it just flips it.

Volume CC ID = #7
Mute CC ID = #57
The ping comes in on #10 value 0, and the echo goes out on #10 value 127.

At some point I'll properly document all of the midi details. And maybe even write an app or an Arduino project that handles it all.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wdxaan0xx...pXY5Sw--a?dl=0

[sthiellin]

Hi !
Sorry for digging out this old post.
Yesterday evening I was thinking bout turning a good old xmon into a brand new modern monitor controller, and today, bam !
I came across your post !
My idea was to use an ESP8266 driven touchscreen to make a portable controller for my xmon.
You did the opposite but this is not far from what I wanna do.
Have you had any luck with the Arduino thing ?

And second question, do the ping has to be continuous or you just send it one time at startup ?

Thanks
Sly

[LDS]

Hi! I haven't done a thing since the previous post, and a bunch of it has shuffled out of my mind since then. I moved to a Trinnov D-Mon for monitor control which directly supports both ICON and Eucon monitoring sections, so GLM is being used sparingly here.

The biome files are still in the dropbox link above. You can probably download a demo of biome and open them. From memory the ping happens at a regular interval to ensure the XMon hasn't detached. I'm unsure whether the ping actually happens in reverse as I don't have an XMon.