D8Bridge version 2.0 - Phase 1...

[bitSync]

I got tired from waiting d8bridge 2.0... I just tried to boot from a backup disk on vmware and it wont boot,It gets stuck loading something,It seems it lacks some config or the original machine cards/ports emulation,.. I have the d8b, and the cpu, so I will try to connect my laptop between the "console control data" cable using 2 serial to usb adapters , on from the cpu to my laptop, an one from my laptop to the console, and connect the dsp serial port directly from the cpu to the console (eventually i could put another 2 serial to usb between them just for reading the info sent, but for now i wish the sound section work normally) this way I can use a software that sends from cpu to console and viceversa, and this way the d8b can boot and function normally, with audio and all, but with the difference that i could "sniff" the information in the "control" serial port, and maybe detect buttons and faders activations, or maybe detecting a combination of buttons pressed and prevent normal comunication so that the "control" port is connected console<->laptop, instead of console<->cpu , entering "mcu control mode" (or maybe linking that port to a virtual serial port and use marc's software), but keeping the audio functions working, because the dsp serial port would be always connected...
I will try to make that cable, if someone wants to help me or something, please send me a message...

P.S. sorry for my bad english... it's not my native language...

@elperroromel,

I would be very interested to hear about your progress on this as I'm planning something similar to document the native serial I/O between the d8b console and the CPU.

I haven't verified this yet but the switches.d8b file that comes the D8Bridge may already have the mapping between the MCU 0x90 messages for button press, button release, LED on and LED off, and the serial message equivalents to those MCU messages. I can verify that the MCU hexadecimal messages in that file correspond to the messages that an MCU would produce on equivalent MCU switch operations. Please keep us posted on your progress!

[elperroromel]

I did some tests, and connected my laptop between the console and the mackie cpu and the console booted up normally (with sound) and I was able to "sniff" the communications in the control port while using the console normally, maybe using some program like "Bome's Midi Translator" , but for serial ports, I could detect some button combination and redirect the console data to Marks DBridge software (enter MCU mode),and then with other button combination redirect the port to the mackie cpu (normal mode) or maybe both (like maybe one fader control both DAW channel and mackie cpu channel volumes ) or filtering some or translating some ,etc. or writting a custom software to make that work ( that would take more time, but if someone is good at programming maybe could help )



here's the port you could use in the mackie cpu, just connect 2 of them instead of the "console data port" and you'll have the control and dsp ports exposed, you could just connect 2 usb to serial and have connection from you computer, except to connect to the console you'll need a custom db25 to two db9 cable, like this
this is the internal data cable in the console, that connects to the brain and dsp boards, you need a similar cable but with d9b ends,

[bitSync]

I did some tests, and connected my laptop between the console and the mackie cpu and the console booted up normally (with sound) and I was able to "sniff" the communications in the control port while using the console normally, ...

@elperroromel

Very cool. Some questions for you...

• What serial sniffer software did you use to capture serial data traffic?
• Also, was your laptop "between" (in series with) the CPU/console serial interface or were you just hanging off the interface with a serial Y cable watching a copy of the direct, uninterrupted traffic between the board and the CPU?
• Were you hoping to document the serial messages associated with the control surface?

Very cool indeed.

[elperroromel]

Very cool. Some questions for you...

• What serial sniffer software did you use to capture serial data traffic?
• Also, was your laptop "between" (in series with) the CPU/console serial interface or were you just hanging off the interface with a serial Y cable watching a copy of the direct, uninterrupted traffic between the board and the CPU?
• Were you hoping to document the serial messages associated with the control surface?

Very cool indeed.

It's just hyperterminal,
at first I tried that way : console <--->laptop<--->CPU but couldn't make it work properly, I think I need to set the serial port parameters correctly (baud rate,etc) or maybe need to connect all the wires (at first only connected the Transmit/receive/ground wires) or maybe was connecting the wires wrong, don't know, I was testing late at 3:00 AM and was sleepy , so I just connected all the wires directly from CPU->console and and hung 2 wires(send/ground) to the usb/serial (receive/ground) and finally the CPU worked well, today I will give another try to make it work console<-->laptop<--->CPU way, I think I need a null modem cable to connect the control serial port to the usb/serial directly,

I know it is far away from Marc's software, but at least I will be realasing my test results to see if more people are interested and could join or make better things to improve it and share their results, and maybe some day we could have an open source/freeware/developers version,

It would be great too if someone could get a way to boot the Mackie OS on a virtual machine and get rid of the CPU, as a previous user posted before,...

[elperroromel]

hey I just tried today and it works! I connected console<--serial1-->laptop<--serial-->CPU and run a program called Virtual Serial Ports Emulators and made a "bridge" connection (like a virtual null modem) and now It works with my laptop in the middle, now I will make some virtual ports so I can monitor the data from those ports, maybe one could connect to Marc's program (my doubt is if it work with the d8b firmware or only with d8bridge firmware) , mmm now I can make more tests, I currently program in PHP mostly, so I will try to play with those ports to see what can I do :p, I know Marc already did it years ago, but at least I'm open to share my knowledge and my advances,

I will post the video later...
if someone interested please let me know

[bitSync]

hey I just tried today and it works! I connected console<--serial1-->laptop<--serial-->CPU and run a program called Virtual Serial Ports Emulators and made a "bridge" connection (like a virtual null modem) and now It works with my laptop in the middle, now I will make some virtual ports so I can monitor the data from those ports, maybe one could connect to Marc's program (my doubt is if it work with the d8b firmware or only with d8bridge firmware) , mmm now I can make more tests, I currently program in PHP mostly, so I will try to play with those ports to see what can I do :p, I know Marc already did it years ago, but at least I'm open to share my knowledge and my advances,

I will post the video later...
if someone interested please let me know

@elperroromel,

I'm very interested. Nice work!

[elperroromel]

here is the video , I didn't have time to try more tests, maybe tomorrow,
there are two hyperterminal connected to the ports, one is showing the console messages and the other is showing the CPU messages, while there is a virtual null modem between both ports, if I move a fader in the console, It reads the Info from the right window, and If I move the fader in the mackie OS with the mouse, the left window shows the Info sent from the CPU to the console, now its time to make some virtual connections, or search a program like Bome's MIDI translator but for serial ports, or research how to program with serial ports in other languages ( I will try with PHP but I know it isn't made for these purposes ) but if I could make a program like a multiplexer that can redirect the ports to D8Bridge software or Mackie CPU, depending on a combination of keys ( or maybe starting with buttons in the program itself ) that would be great, the only problem is that I don't have the d8bridge program so I could try to make the redirect things work and theorically the d8bridge program would work well without losing the audio functions from the console, maybe simulating loading the d8bridge firmware from the d8bridge software,...

[elperroromel]

hey I just did some more tests and found an applet to connect serial ports to Javascript in a web browser, ( using http://www.walking-productions.com/jsserial/new/ ) and could write the BRIDGE CODE in Javascript!! ( just read from one port and write o the other and vice-versa) and cause I know how to Program Javascript, It would be easy for me to redirect the console port from one to other virtual port based on a HTML button selector, If someone is good programmer with other languages maybe could write a better code, cause Javascript I think is to slow for these tasks, I will play a bit with this and later will research how to program it in a better language like C, later I will upload the video where it shows how I can see the ports data in my web browser

[bitSync]

...or search a program like Bome's MIDI translator but for serial ports...

@elperroromel,

Dude, even more awesomeness! You're unstoppable!

About Bome MIDI Translator, it's a great program and I've used it to try to alter some MIDI message structures between D8Bridge and my DAW, but it operates only on MIDI ports, either real or virtual.

[elperroromel]

iyea maybe I need to write the program to do it, the problem is that i know about C/C++ but I'm bad at Graphic Interfaces in C++ (last time I programmed in C++ was using Visual C++ 5 and that was years ago, I forgot almost everything about how a GUI in Windows works, only remember an infinite loop checking messages, or Microsoft Classes ) , only in HTML is easy for me to make a web app, maybe could write a text application usable by console commands, and then someone good at GUI could make a frontend, maybe this way is better so it would be easier to make cross-platform or maybe using an OS independent language like Java,... It would be good too if someone would like to donate me a copy of d8bridge so I can make more tests