Contriller with USB-MIDI and BTLE

Support
1

Hi All.

First post!

I’m looking for a controller to drive my midi instrument project that

  1. supports USB-MIDI (i.e. it is seen by a USB host as a MIDI compliant device), AND

  2. has BTLE.

The Teensy controllers support 1) and ESPs support 2), but I want BOTH. An option is to get a Teensy and use a BTLE add-on board, but if I can get it in one unit…

Gonzo

2

No-one?

3

Hi Gonzo,

Have you checked out the open E drums project? Here’s a video of him using an ESP32 as a BLE MIDI controller: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccONpgYz_Sw

He’s got links to his git hub repo and a blog post about it in the video description. You might also want to check out: https://open-e-drums.com/link.html

Cheers,
Oliver

4

Hi Oliver. Thanks for that.

I want a controller that does BOTH BLE MIDI AND USB MIDI.

Yes, I know the ESP can do BLE MIDI because I’ve done it. What I want is the ESP to be able to do what the Teensy can do - be seen as a USB MIDI device AS WELL as do the BLE.

I don’t think the ESP can do that, and the Teensy can’t do BLE MIDI.

I haven’t been able to find a single controller that can do both functions.

Gonzo

5

Hmm, I’m not clear on what you’re trying to achieve. Do you want to be able to switch between output over USB and output over BT, or are you trying to do both simultaneously? Or am I totally misunderstanding?

I mean you can make either do as you wish, but I take it you’re trying to get an off the shelf microcontroller setup with both a USB and BLE interface? An Arduino Nano 33 IoT may be what you’re looking for: https://core-electronics.com.au/arduino-nano-33-iot.html

Or a Nano 33 BLE - https://store.arduino.cc/usa/nano-33-ble
Just note that these are 3.3v logic, not 5v like the older nanos.

6

Hi Oliver. I want to be able to a) plug the instrument into a DAW via USB and have it seen as a MIDI instrument (for that you need the MIDI USB gadget ability) and b) send the MIDI via BLE to the DAW for mobile use. I don’t want to use the functions at the same time, but I want to be able to switch between them. There are times when the airwaves are so congested that BLE is just not reliable enough. I had a look at those Nanos, but I don’t think they have the ability to configure the USB port appropriately.

Gonzo

7

Hi Gonzo,

Someone else may be able to confirm, but I think you should be able to achieve that with one of those boards and the Arduino MIDIUSB library (example: https://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/MidiDevice )

Certainly worth a bit of exploration.

Cheers,
Oliver

8

Thanks again Oliver. They appear promising - I’ll look into those further.

Gonzo