Making a Midi keyboard

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platinum95

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Joined 2012
#1
Hi there.
I'm new to this site, so please be nice 😛

I have an old casio keyboard here which is broken. I opened it up and have it sitting here in front of me. What I want to do is use the existing switches that are there for the keys, and use some sort of microcontroller to output a midi signal.
I'm a electronics hobbyist so I know my way around a circuit board, but I am new to Midi, however I understand the fundamentals of it.

Could someone point me in the right direction as to what IC's to use. Maybes there's already an IC that translates switches into a midi signal?

Thanks!
 
#2
Are the keys just switches (on/off) or do the have velocity information as well?

If they're just switches you can use an arduino pretty easily to do this. There are tons of examples online for midi + arduino.

Good luck,
Nelson
 
#3
Hmm, I'm not sure what the name of these types of switches are. If you've ever opened a game console controller, its the switches that are on the buttons.
As far as I know, they are just on/off, and they work just like on/offs, so for the sake of this project, lets just assume they are on/off 😛
 
#8
kinkennon is giving away midi encoding scanning software for a standard $59 single IC computer with 64 inputs. He has a link to the vendor. If you want to buy an encoder, you are near midiboutique in Bulgaria. They sell both note-on-note-off encoders for one contact, and velocity encoders for two contacts. Many people on the the midi organ forum listed above like artisan in Washingon State.
 
#9
platinum95 said:
Hi there.
I'm new to this site, so please be nice 😛

I have an old casio keyboard here which is broken. I opened it up and have it sitting here in front of me. What I want to do is use the existing switches that are there for the keys, and use some sort of microcontroller to output a midi signal.
I'm a electronics hobbyist so I know my way around a circuit board, but I am new to Midi, however I understand the fundamentals of it.

Could someone point me in the right direction as to what IC's to use. Maybes there's already an IC that translates switches into a midi signal?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I designed and built this critter from 1989 to 1995 and owned it until 2003. All 3 manuals and the pedal board are MIDI with velocity. The processor was an Intel 8031 for each keyboard with external ROM and an 8255 parallel port to send and receive to the switch matrices. Most folks don't do this but RS-232 drivers make excellent MIDI drivers - much more robust than using 74HC04 inverters. Send me an email and you can have the software if for nothing else as a working example. The stops control has capture function (combination action) that runs MIDI SYSEX messages. The streams were all combined with an Anatek studio merge that sent to both windchests in parallel. It isn't very difficult but it's important to not have any bugs.

haskey.com - John Haskey - Residence Pipe Organ

G²
 
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