How To Use the Midifighter Menu Mode

[Fatlimey]

How To Enter and use Menu Mode
20091230: created by Fatlimey

To enter Menu Mode, hold down the top-left key while resetting the
Midifighter. You can reset the Midifigher by either by plugging in the USB
cable, or by pressing an optional "reset" button that can be soldered to the
top left of the motherboard.

Once in Menu Mode, the LED will display 7 option keys and a flashing "exit"
key:

    * * * *   <- Menu items
    * * * .
    . . . .
    . . . #   <- Flashing exit key

Any changes made to the options are only written to the Midifighter if
you exit the Menu Mode through this top level "exit" button - this allows you
to playwith the options without having to remember the previous values.
Only when you are sure the Midifighter is set up to your specifications should
you use the top level "exit" button to commit your changes.

The seven menu items are:

1. MIDI channel
2. MIDI velocity
3. MIDI base note
4. Enable keypress LED
5. Enable Four Banks mode
6. Enable Expansion port Digital inputs
7. Enable Expansion Port Analog inputs

1. MIDI Channel

    # . . .   <- Flashing exit key
    . . . .
    * * * *   <- MIDI Channel in binary
    o . . o   <- increment/decrement keys

Each note generated by the Midifighter is generated on a single MIDI
channel. By default this is Channel 3, but the first menu item allows
you to change this to any of the 16 MIDI channels. The 4-bit binary
value can be altered by incrementing and decrementing or you can
directly toggle bits in the value itself.

NOTE: MIDI channels are written down as "1..16" but their binary number
is written "0..15", therefore all leds off will represent the binary
value b0000, which is interpreted as "MIDI Channel 1", b0001 is "MIDI
Channel 2", b0100 is "MIDI Channel 5", etc.


2. MIDI Velocity

    . # . .   <- Flashing exit key
    . * * *   <- MIDI Channel in binary (high bits)
    * * * *   <- MIDI Channel in binary (low bits)
    o . . o   <- increment/decrement keys

Each NoteOn event has an accompanying velocity. As the Midifighter keys
are not velocity sensitive we use a single fixed value for all
events. This menu item allows you to alter that velocity value. The
7-bit binary value can be altered by incrementing and decrementing or
you can directly toggle bits in the value itself.


3. MIDI Base Note

    . . # .   <- Flashing exit key
    . * * *   <- MIDI note in binary (high bits)
    * * * *   <- MIDI note in binary (low bits)
    o . . o   <- increment/decrement

The lowest note generated by the keypad defaults to C2 (note 36), but
the 16-key window can be positioned anywhere in the possible 127 MIDI
notes. The 7-bit binary value can be altered by incrementing and
decrementing or you can directly toggle bits in the value itself.

NOTE: if the Expansion port Digital Inputs are enabled, the lowest value
that can be set in this menu is 4 = b0100 to allow the digital inputs to
generate the 4 MIDI notes immediately below the keypad.

4. Enable Keypress LED

    . . . #   <- Flashing exit key
    . . . .
    * * * *   <- All on or all off, click to toggle
    o . . o   <- Toggle

The LEDs react to MIDI inputs on the same channel and note numbers that
they generate when pressed. This allows advanced users to directly
control the display of information on the 4x4 grid using their software
mappings. The keypad also automatically lights the LED associated with a
keypress. This feature can be disabled if the user requires complete
external control over the 16 LEDs using this menu option.

The four LEDs of the "boolean bar" are either all on or all off. They
can be toggled using the increment/decrement buttons or by directly
toggling the LEDs.


5. Enable Four Banks Mode

    . . . .
    # . . .   <- Flashing exit key
    * * * *   <- All on or all off, click to toggle
    o . . o   <- Toggle

"Four Banks mode" is a mode of operation where the top four keys toggle
between four banks of 3x4 keys. The MIDI states on each bank are tracked
so switching to a different bank will correctly display the LED state.

NOTE: This feature is not currently functional.

6. Enable Expansion Port Digital Inputs

    . . . .
    . # . .   <- Flashing exit key
    * * * *   <- All on or all off, click to toggle
    o . . o   <- Toggle

Enabling this option causes the Midifighter to read the values of the
four external digital input pins and track their state using a debounce
buffer. Pins should be wired using a 10K ohm pull-up resistor with a
switch connecting the pin to ground to avoid unconnected pins for
generating spurious MIDI events.

The four LEDs of the "boolean bar" are either all on or all off. They
can be toggled using the increment/decrement buttons or by directly
toggling the LEDs.


7. Enable Expansion Port Analog Inputs

    . . . .
    . . # .   <- Flashing exit key
    * * * *   <- All on or all off, click to toggle
    o . . o   <- Toggle

Enabling this option causes the Midifighter to read the analog values of
the four external Analog Inputs and generate MIDI Control Change (CC)
events on channels 16, 17, 18 and 19 (the "General Purpose 1-4" CC
channels) if the voltages change. The ADC samples the channels to 10-bit
accuracy but only the top 7 bits of this are used as the CC value.

The four LEDs of the "boolean bar" are either all on or all off. They
can be toggled using the increment/decrement buttons or by directly
toggling the LEDs.

[Tekki]

This nifty controller seems to amaze me more and more every single day.
(And every new thread on the controller ofcourse. )

[UnholyKnight]

Do you guys have a recommended program to use on OSX yet to apply updates to the MIDI Fighter firmware? I see that in the readme file you list atmel's flip, but that is only available for Linux / Windows platforms.

[Fatlimey]

Originally Posted by UnholyKnight

Do you guys have a recommended program to use on OSX yet to apply updates to the MIDI Fighter firmware? I see that in the readme file you list atmel's flip, but that is only available for Linux / Windows platforms.

You're looking for a "DFU programmer" (Device Firmware Update, a standard set of commands recognized by the AVR bootloader). The preferred Mac and Linux command line programmer is "dfu-programmer" available from Sourceforge here:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/dfu-programmer/

More details on this in the "How to flash a new HEX file" document coming as soon as I can stand behind each recipe on all three platforms. People developing from source have it a lot easier as the commands to reprogram the device are included in the makefile - once the environment is set up you just "make flip" under Win32 or "make dfu" under Mac or Linux.

[UnholyKnight]

Thanks for the response. I have used it in the past for small electronics projects, but wasn't entirely sure if it'd work with the MIDI Fighter. I dug around a little in the code yesterday and flashed the device with new code twice. It all looks good.

[EanGolden]

very nice job on this write up Robin- the guide is very clear and easy to use!

[de_stilj]

When four bank mode is going to be available it is going to be really cool for me since i'm using my midi fighter in serato and I want to control everything on it.

[DeVuzData]

I don't understand the "RESET" instructions. My nephew was messing around in the Menu Mode (my bad) and now my MF doesn't work in TP.... ugh! I don't have a reset button..... so how do I do it? Just want to go back to the factory default.

[Systemattik]

I got the same problem as above. Is there a restore default option available to sort out? My 2 1/2 year old son propably did the damage this time....

[midifidler]

Are you guys seeing any midi messages at all?

It could be the base note or channel has been changed which would break any existing mapping