rhand@well.sf.ca.us (Roger Hand) (05/08/91)
My serial port works fine -- I use it for my modem. But an ECE midi box doesn't seem to work at all. The box is good -- I hooked it up to someone else's Amiga and it worked with no problem. I'm using a Bars + Pipes demo that came with an AMiga Plus mag. The demo is supposed to support MIDI output. I changed preferences to 31K, no handshaking, and upped the serial buffer to a couple K. Nothing! Not for play OR record. The MIDI cables are also good, and the keyboard midi input/output works fine if fed from a different MIDI controller. Why would the serial port work OK for the modem and not for the MIDI box? HELP! Roger rhand@well.sf.ca.us
rivero@dev8a.mdcbbs.com (05/09/91)
In article <24628@well.sf.ca.us>, rhand@well.sf.ca.us (Roger Hand) writes: > > My serial port works fine -- I use it for my modem. But an ECE midi box > doesn't seem to work at all. The box is good -- I hooked it up to someone > else's Amiga and it worked with no problem. > > I'm using a Bars + Pipes demo that came with an AMiga Plus mag. The demo > is supposed to support MIDI output. I changed preferences to 31K, no > handshaking, and upped the serial buffer to a couple K. Nothing! Not > for play OR record. > > The MIDI cables are also good, and the keyboard midi input/output works > fine if fed from a different MIDI controller. > > Why would the serial port work OK for the modem and not for the MIDI box? > > HELP! > > Roger rhand@well.sf.ca.us I'll just bet that the Amiga you use and the Amiga the MIDI box works on are different models. More precisely, one of them is an A1000. If that's the case, then you need to contact the builder of your MIDI box to get the correct version for the system you plan to use it on. There are some differences between the serial ports from the 1000 to the rest of the family, particularly in where power is supplied and a couple of other control lines. If this is NOT the case, then the serial port on your machine may have a bad line;; one that is NOT used for serial communications but which is needed for MIDI. Still one more thing you need to check are the CIA timers, which many MIDI adapters/software packages use in place of the system clock. If one of these has failed, it will create some problems for MIDI that don't show up in other serial port applications. I recall a development project I worked on that got hung for a while because a CIA timer had died, and by coincidence, there were NO other programs on that system that used that particular timer, which made it very hard to track down. Hope this helps. Mike
rhand@well.sf.ca.us (Roger Hand) (05/14/91)
re: bad MIDI box; OK (for modem) serial port Several e-mail responses that I got (the original post was mine) mentioned the 1000 vs 2000 rs-232 port incompatability. Well, both machines were 2000's, so that wasn't the problem. Someone mentioned the fuse might be blown on the power line to the port. The modem has it's own power supply, while the ECE MIDI box uses the PC's power. Where is the fuse? I've got a rev 6.0 motherboard, and would love to get this problem cleared up! Thanks for all the responses . . . -Roger rhand@well.sf.ca.us
ewilts@janus.mtroyal.ab.ca (Ed Wilts) (05/15/91)
In article <24760@well.sf.ca.us>, rhand@well.sf.ca.us (Roger Hand) writes: > > re: bad MIDI box; OK (for modem) serial port > > Someone mentioned the fuse might be blown on the power line to the port. > The modem has it's own power supply, while the ECE MIDI box uses the PC's > power. > > Where is the fuse? I've got a rev 6.0 motherboard, and would love to get > this problem cleared up! There isn't a standard fuse per se. It's a diode, so it's not user-replacable. Time to see your local service center, I'm afraid. I've been there, and it doesn't take the service guys long now that you've assisted with the diagnosis. > > -Roger rhand@well.sf.ca.us -- .../Ed Preferrred: Ed.Wilts@BSC.Galaxy.BCSystems.Gov.BC.CA Ed Wilts Alternate: EdWilts@BCSC02.BITNET (604) 389-3430 B.C. Systems Corp., 4000 Seymour Place, Victoria, B.C., Canada, V8X 4S8
mab@druwy.ATT.COM (Alan Bland) (05/15/91)
I once had a similar problem with my A500: modem worked, MIDI didn't. MIDI had been working fine for months, then suddenly got flakey. Actually, MIDI out worked but MIDI in didn't. I tried two different interfaces, same problem. The interfaces worked on an A2000, so it was clearly a problem with the A500. I opened up the case, reseated all the socketed chips, blew out all the accumulated dust and cat hair, and it started working again. I decided that cat hair must be conductive and was causing a short somewhere :-) -- -- Alan Bland -- att!druwy!mab == mab@druwy.ATT.COM -- AT&T Bell Laboratories, Denver CO -- (303)538-3510