WARBL Forum

hello

I'm wondering, since the hardware of warbl is opensource if it would be possible/easyand not too expansive to make the warbl become wireless, using widi commercial adapters

https://www.woodbrass.com/cables-midi-c ... 54054.html

what's strange is that apparently there is no such device with a (midi over)usb interface rather than mini jack or the old 5pins midi connector

There are some adapters available for USB MIDI, but the challenge is that they need a power source. One solution is to use the Yamaha UD-BT01 adapter and power it with a USB power bank, like in this example video with a EWI: https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=ht ... egUIARCdAg

Of course that arrangement would be too big to attach to a WARBL, so you'd still need a cable running from the WARBL to the Yamaha adapter and the powerbank.

You can also take a look at the experiment I did with the Yamaha adapter a few years ago: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=55

Another option is the PUC+, which unfortunately they seem to have stopped making but you may be able to find used. It had it's own internal battery, but was still too big to just attach to the WARBL. In practice it would be similar to using the Yamaha adapter with a powerbank: https://www.zivix.co/puc

The CME WIDI Uhost provides a powered Bluetooth MIDI option for USB controllers.

https://www.cme-pro.com/widi-uhost/

(I haven't tried it with the Warbl, but CME stuff is usually pretty good Their WIDI Bud Pro is an excellent low-latency dongle.)

I can confirm that the Warbl and the Yamaha UD-BT01 work fine together. I have been using the UD for a number of years now with various wind controllers, and they are very reliable and compact. However, as Admin says, you need an external battery. My Warbl and UDBT01 together pull 360mA, so a 5000mAh battery would last theoretically over 10 hours. It's actually difficult to get small power banks these days, however, if you're going to put it in your pocket, it can probably be large-ish. Another thing you need to be careful of with power banks, is that some of them turn off when the current draw is not very high. My 10000mAh one shuts down when powering the Warbl/UD because they don't draw enough current!

It looks to me like the CME device still needs an external power supply?

Also note that using wireless transmission is fine, and you can get low latency and quite reasonable range, but if you play, say, 10 metres from the receiving device (and speaker), then you add 30msec to the latency you hear, simply because sound is pretty slow.

You can receive the BLE MIDI with various devices. My solution is here https://gonzos.net/projects/ble-midi-receiver/

Gonzo

Thanks for the confirmation. That’s interesting that the power consumption is so high—I measured it at around 50 mA when powering it with a li-po and a boost converter as shown in my photos in the link above.

I like your BLE receiver! For USB MIDI output you could look at the NRF52480-based Arduinos like the Nano 33 BLE, which can act as a USB MIDI device.

Hi Andrew.

Yes, you're right about the current draw. I re-measured it, and it's about 50mA as you said. I don't know what caused my USB volt/current meter to show 350mA (maybe a user problem??). At that draw, any battery is going to last a very long time.

That's good info on the Nano 33 BLE. I didn't realise it could be configured as a USB MIDI device. Until now I thought that the Teensys were the only devices that could be configured that way, and they don't have BLE. I think you've just started me on some new projects.....

Gonzo

Yeah, those chips are pretty cool! Ideal for a MIDI device with USB and Bluetooth! I'm just stating to experiment with them myself.

Many interesting suggestions on this thread !
Apparently a regular bluetooth receiver (not a special midi device) can handle midi on a linux computer following instructions here :
https://tttapa.github.io/Pages/Ubuntu/S ... BlueZ.html

As for the emitter side , the battery + yamaha UD_BT01 properly packaged could also act as a kind of keel to give the warble more weight and stability...
may be i will try this.

Yes, Bluez does work. I tested it, expecting, because it was built-in to the OS, that it would be really low latency. It turned out that it was OK, but not particularly fast. Writing my own application using Bluepy was faster.

If you're using Bluez, you need to allow the peripheral to be paired and connect automatically, and then the BLE MIDI port will be created on the PC each time the UDBT01 turns on. Unfortunately, you will have to write your own shell script to automatically route the MIDI to your synth/DAW, or do it manually each time it connects.

Gonzo

It worked out of the box, but the battery i have is 20000mAh and too heavy .I just bought a very compact 5000mAh one which has the perfect shape for a warbl keel.
https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B08ZYP ... =UTF8&th=1