Midifighter -> RS232 protocol

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Midifighter -> RS232 protocol
Posted on: 28.12.2011 by Joya Pomerinke
Hi guys!

I'm using a discontinued product which utilises RS232 standard to control some software on Windows XP.

It's a simple Matrix (8 buttons horisontal and 7 buttons vertical like when you call a bomb in the battleship game - A 8 - etc.)

The production is as mentioned discontinued and it is getting harder to obtain used boards and therefore i'm wondering if it is possible to use a Midi Fighter to gain the same result.

What i am interested in is to use the midifighter product in some kind of extended version eventually in the full matrix so you dont have to call A before 8 but there is a direct A8 button.

The Midifighter should, to avoid too much flashing and so on, just send midi signals to a piece of software which emulates the RS232.

I have one of the mentioned boards in stock - it would be possible to "rip" the RS232 commands to port them to the software.
The original software reads the RS232 from a COM port defined in the configuration - That could probably be assigned to a virtual com port without problems.

The software is freeware and it is possible to test it without any other hardware than a Midifighter (or maybe the emulator it self).

As i havent read any copyright notices, licenses and so on i have not mentioned any hardware ID or manufacturers. If you have guessed what product i'm talking about please don't mention the Name as i don't want to get in to any problems

Is there anybody out there that can help me.
If the issue is solved there will be a reward if the software is complex to make.
Kimberly Lewark
04.01.2012
Originally Posted by Zster
The Midifighter should, to avoid too much flashing and so on, just send midi signals to a piece of software which emulates the RS232.
What I would do is write a program to receive MIDI from the Midi Fighter (or other MIDI controller), maps each MIDI message to the rs232 command and them outputs it to a virtual com port for the software to receive.

Originally Posted by Zster
I have one of the mentioned boards in stock - it would be possible to "rip" the RS232 commands to port them to the software.
The original software reads the RS232 from a COM port defined in the configuration - That could probably be assigned to a virtual com port without problems.
Exactly. Once you have the set of commands and can send them to the program (I believe com0com and similar can route one virtual COM port to another), you just need a way of triggering this from MIDI messages.

Originally Posted by Zster
As i havent read any copyright notices, licenses and so on i have not mentioned any hardware ID or manufacturers. If you have guessed what product i'm talking about please don't mention the Name as i don't want to get in to any problems
I have never heard of talking about interfacing/modifying products as being illegal. Unless you signed an NDA, you can talk about whatever you want. As for modifying it - you are not modifying it at all, you are creating external software to talk to it. I don't believe there's anything they can do to legally stop you from doing this.
Joya Pomerinke
28.12.2011		Hi guys!

I'm using a discontinued product which utilises RS232 standard to control some software on Windows XP.

It's a simple Matrix (8 buttons horisontal and 7 buttons vertical like when you call a bomb in the battleship game - A 8 - etc.)

The production is as mentioned discontinued and it is getting harder to obtain used boards and therefore i'm wondering if it is possible to use a Midi Fighter to gain the same result.

What i am interested in is to use the midifighter product in some kind of extended version eventually in the full matrix so you dont have to call A before 8 but there is a direct A8 button.

The Midifighter should, to avoid too much flashing and so on, just send midi signals to a piece of software which emulates the RS232.

I have one of the mentioned boards in stock - it would be possible to "rip" the RS232 commands to port them to the software.
The original software reads the RS232 from a COM port defined in the configuration - That could probably be assigned to a virtual com port without problems.

The software is freeware and it is possible to test it without any other hardware than a Midifighter (or maybe the emulator it self).

As i havent read any copyright notices, licenses and so on i have not mentioned any hardware ID or manufacturers. If you have guessed what product i'm talking about please don't mention the Name as i don't want to get in to any problems

Is there anybody out there that can help me.
If the issue is solved there will be a reward if the software is complex to make.
Adolf Hit
04.01.2012		If you are asking if the MF could be programmed to mimic a monome it definitely could.
The very first midifighters actually were based around the monome code however the hardware and software has changed significantly since then.

What you would want to do is learn how to use the LUFA USB library to create serial interface profile instead of the USB AUDIO CLASS midi profile it currently uses, then change the application code so the data is being parsed in the same manner as on the monome.
Kimberly Lewark
04.01.2012
Originally Posted by Zster
The Midifighter should, to avoid too much flashing and so on, just send midi signals to a piece of software which emulates the RS232.
What I would do is write a program to receive MIDI from the Midi Fighter (or other MIDI controller), maps each MIDI message to the rs232 command and them outputs it to a virtual com port for the software to receive.

Originally Posted by Zster
I have one of the mentioned boards in stock - it would be possible to "rip" the RS232 commands to port them to the software.
The original software reads the RS232 from a COM port defined in the configuration - That could probably be assigned to a virtual com port without problems.
Exactly. Once you have the set of commands and can send them to the program (I believe com0com and similar can route one virtual COM port to another), you just need a way of triggering this from MIDI messages.

Originally Posted by Zster
As i havent read any copyright notices, licenses and so on i have not mentioned any hardware ID or manufacturers. If you have guessed what product i'm talking about please don't mention the Name as i don't want to get in to any problems
I have never heard of talking about interfacing/modifying products as being illegal. Unless you signed an NDA, you can talk about whatever you want. As for modifying it - you are not modifying it at all, you are creating external software to talk to it. I don't believe there's anything they can do to legally stop you from doing this.

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