Congratulations! You’re a few simple steps away from owning a great little music-tech gadget that will serve you for years and that you’ll have the satisfaction of having built yourself.
Building this project takes about ten minutes if you’ve done some DIY electronics before, complete beginners should expect to take a little longer. The instructions assume that you can identify components, solder and do simple voltage and continuity tests with a multi-meter. There are lots of resources available to help you learn these skills – just hit Google or YouTube and you’ll soon be ready to start!
But before you do… we highly recommend that you
- Take the time to read through this guide a couple of times
- Check your parts against the Bill of Materials at the bottom of this page to ensure that you have everything that you need
Enjoy building your MidiIn, we hope you make great music with it!
Tools
To complete this build you will need
- Soldering iron
- Solder
- Wire cutters
- You’ll also need a clean, well-lit workspace with a heat-resistant surface to work on.
Build Instructions
Putting MidiIn together is very simple, as there are few parts and only two types of part.
Solder parts into the marked positions; where a part has to go a specific way round there will be markings on the PCB to guide you, and a clear note in the instructions.
Fit the board and PCB together
Fit the standoffs to the PCB using the M3 nuts. Attach the PCB to the front panel using the M3 machine screws. Ensure that the PCB stays the right way up – the text on the PCB and on the front panel should both be the same way up.
JK1 – DIN socket
Gently drop JK1 into place (you might need to give it a bit of a jiggle or manipulate the pins a little to get it to seat properly). When it’s in place, you should find that the metal rim of the jack sits less than a millimetre proud of the top panel.
We need to flip this over and keep it in place and keep it pushed right into the PCB – we’ve found that using a small coin (a UK penny is perfect) as a “shim” under the flipped-over jack is perfect. Solder one or two pins and then flip it back and check it’s still where you want it to be. De-solder and adjust if necessary, then flip back over and solder the rest of the pins.
J1 – 2-pin header
J1 goes on the back (or bottom) of the PCB. In order to solder it in place, we’ll need to remove the PCB from the panel. Remove the two M3 machine screws and set them aside.
Solder the 2-pin header into position, then re-assemble the module.
That’s it – you’re done! Your MidiIn is ready to use!
Testing
There are so few components in this project (and the important one is “keyed” to fit in the correct orientation) that there’s nothing to test in this module.
Using MidiIn
Connect the 2-pin header J1 to any corresponding Midi In header on any of our other Midi-enabled products. You’ll now be able to send Midi to your gear using a “traditional” 5-pin DIN cable.
Bill of Materials
In addition to your PCB and panel, you’ll need parts. The full list of parts for the project is given below, with Mouser part numbers to aid you in identifying compatible parts. Although we’ve used all Mouser parts in the example build above, you may be able to obtain cheaper compatible parts by shopping around.
| Reference | Value | Description | Qty | Mouser Part | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JK1 | 5-pin, female | DIN socket, PCB mount | 1 | 490-SD-50BV | |
| J1 | 2-pin, male | IDC header | 1 | 538-87891-0206 | |
| M3, 14mm | Standoffs | 2 | 855-R30-3001402 | ||
| M3 x 6mm | Machine screws | 2 | Use eBay or local hardware store | ||
| M3 | “Nyloc” nuts | 2 | Use eBay or local hardware store |
Make Synths Not War 