Low Cost Wireless MIDI Idea!

gtrplaya101

gtrplaya101

Member
Hey everyone, I had a random idea and was curious as to what you guys thought about it.

My idea is to create a lowcost Wireless MIDI system that is designed to work with practically any MIDI device. The applications of such a device would be to allow you to run your MIDI controller from anywhere on stage with zero MIDI cabling.

From my intial research I could offer two different levels. The "base" system would offer 300 ft of range and the "pro" level would allow up to 1 mile range.

Each system uses its own PAN (Personal Area Network) so every unit would be interference free allowing multiple wireless system to be ran at the same time. The system would also allow Mesh Networking allowing you to use two seperate wireless controllers to run one midi device and vise-versa. The options are really up to your imagination.

If it was worth it I could even add phantom power capabilities which would be good for elimiating power supplies.

Some back of the napkin calculations look like the base system would run $200 and the pro version coming in at $275.

Really I am just looking for ideas/suggestions. Feel free to shoot me down if you think its dumb!!

Also each wireless unit is about the size of a large lighter. Should be small enough to be easily attached to your controller!

Attached is a concept

MIDILinkWiring2.jpg
 
also and a BIG ALSO.

Both of those units are uni-directional. To run a FCB you need both midi out AND midi in capabilities. Mine has that! Without the bidirectional communication, features such as tuner display, patch names, status leds, etc wont work as intended on the FCB.
 
It sounds really cool - but I guess you'd then still have to end up running power to your controller (MFC in my case) which would negate the benefit for me personally, but I can see how this would be a potential benefit to people trying to cut down on wires (particularly in studio situations)

Great idea!
 
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yep! plus most time power can be grabbed off a light or something close. Really cool option if you place your rack offstage or in a different room from where you currently are!
 
gtrplaya101 said:
yep! plus most time power can be grabbed off a light or something close. Really cool option if you place your rack offstage or in a different room from where you currently are!
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^^Definitely.

I say go for it - At the very least it will be a great project and you never know what may come of it!
 
Please give up GAS-sing everybody ;-)
Seriously, it's a cool idea but I don't know if it can have a big succes nowadays.
Midi controlled gear (mostly rack stuff) has less market then 20-30 years ago.
But, who knows: maybe in the next years everything will change once again.
I hope so for you nice idea.
 
gtrplaya101 said:
Easy :)

MidAir is no longer made: M-Audio MidAir | Sweetwater.com

And the Midi Jet is $425

At $200 mine would be in better reach of everyone who is interested
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Ha! Well then I say go for it!

Your potential market, especially if you'll do bi-directional (you might want to consider doing bi-directional but not on a 7-pin cable, have a proper MIDI IN and OUT port), is much bigger than MFC users. Lots of keyboard players who want control over computers in control rooms from the live floor.
 
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I don't want to be negative or stop the party, but I think that there's too much of a market for this.
Why should a company like M-Audio stop producing the MidiAir?
Most of the MIDI devices I know need a power cable anyway, so I wouldn't be ready to pay 200 bucks for wireless midi, when I still need to plug in power anyway.

The big difference that would make people shell out 200 bucks is "no cable vs. cable(s)" - not "a few cables vs. more cables"

What I think would be a huge market is a wireless midi box that works with iOS. (Acts like a wifi hotspot without internet access, but implements CoreMIDI in a small box that you can hide in the back of your rack case with regular MIDI DIN connectors).

- The dock connector isn't designed as rugged as a Speakon connector
- iPads / iPhones / iPods have a decent battery time - you can play a gig without any cables
- it can be mounted to a mic stand
- there is software around that you could use to play with the Axe's (and other devices) MIDI parameters in real-time


Just my 5 cents...
 
kisslorand said:
WIDI-X8 - CME Product
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And again,

$460 not including shipping or tax


I guess I forgot to mention but they can also send and recive MIDI to USB if you want.

I still think it would work and would have some very practical applications.

I also think it would be very easy to intigrate a LiPo battery into the system to give you wireless power as well. From what I can see the MFC uses about .0833A of power (based on 120v power supply and a power consumtion of under 10w per owners manual). With such low power consumption and a 2200 mah battery I could get a run time of about 24 hours. Should be more than enough for the standard gig!
 
So my question now is:

Would a 7 pin wireless midi system capable of powering the MFC for 24 hours without recharge be of any more interest?? At this point there would be NO cables at all just a magic black box.
 
gtrplaya101 said:
And again,

$460 not including shipping or tax


I guess I forgot to mention but they can also send and recive MIDI to USB if you want.

I still think it would work and would have some very practical applications.

I also think it would be very easy to intigrate a LiPo battery into the system to give you wireless power as well. From what I can see the MFC uses about .0833A of power (based on 120v power supply and a power consumtion of under 10w per owners manual). With such low power consumption and a 2200 mah battery I could get a run time of about 24 hours. Should be more than enough for the standard gig!
Click to expand...

Sorry but it's sold 180€ here : CME WIDI-X8 - Cyberstore Thomann Français
 
Wireless MIDI is a great idea, provided you have a more convenient source of power for both the wireless unit and the MFC. Otherwise, you have to run a cord anyway—run power over the MIDI or RJ-45 cord and you're set already. Some thoughts:
  • I can't think of an application that would require more than 300 ft. of range. A mile is severe overkill with almost no market.
  • I'm not sure what advantages mesh networking would add. You could lower your price point by dropping the mesh.
  • 300 feet is way beyond the range of a PAN. I'm a bit confused here.
  • Check your math on the battery run time. A 3-volt, 2200 mAH battery provides less than 7 watt-hours of energy. If the MFC consumes 10 watts, that gives you a run time of less than an hour.
If you can market a wireless MIDI system withing those constraints, go for it!
 
One more suggestion to make it more usefull for other midi controller users.
If you'd insert a small screen to show the AXE FX tuner you might get into a wider market.
With that addiction i'd probably go for it.
 
OK, lost my first response, so I'll make this brief. I'm an RF engineer, so from a wireless perspective:
1-How do you get licensed for 1 mile, and why would you even need that? Most stages are a matter of yards, wide or deep. And how far away would the mixing board be even in a stadium?
2-The device needs a mount. I don't want to mess up the balance of my WX-7 wind controller, and you don't want it to dangle or stress the connector if I put it on a keyboard.
3-One device could feed many units. For example, if my keyboard controller is on stage, my other keyboards would be in a rack. (If they are co-located with the controller, there's no need for this device, right?)
4-Still not sure how this would work. If I have one, say 1 Mbps data stream, that give me about 29 midi channels. Now, I can break the stream down so that there is one channel per stream (ie, keyboard). I could break out each midi channel to a separate stream. Or, I could send the entire stream to each keyboard with its associated midi delays. Each has its pros and cons.
5-I see the fractal device. I see the foot pedal. What is acting as a hub? Or is it a 1:1 ratio between transmitters and receivers. I think this would be the easiest approach.

Just some comments.
 
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