Launchpad pro Textscroll sysex

Hi lightingboy ,

You would use the Stream Byter and a SND command. Try this out:

- Drop a Stream Byter onto the canvas and also the Launchpad destination (out)
- Connect the Stream Byter to the Launchpad port
- Open up the Stream Byter (use the 'cog' button) and paste this in:

IF LOAD
  SND F0 00 20 29 02 10 14 +F
  SND 40 01 48 65 6C 6C 6F F7 +F
END

- Press 'Install Rules' and in theory the Launchpad should display some (looping)  text in whatever colour 40h maps to.

So, how does this work? The SND command issues an arbitrary MIDI message defined by the bytes that follow. For setting the Launchpad text, the first part is fixed and will always be the same:

F0 00 20 29 02 10 14 +F

The +F flag allows us to split the message over multiple SND lines. The maximum number of bytes that can follow one SND is 16 so longer messages need to be split. Although I didn't need to split for the above (15 byte message) I did so to increase readability and demonstrate this

The next byte (first byte in second SND) is the text colour - I don't know what these map to so I picked the mid-point (40h). You can experiment with this value to get the colour you want

After that is the 'loop' byte which is either 00 (don't loop) or 01 (loop)

Next is the message and you have to specify each character in hex. Use this table:


                         Hexadecimal - Character

    00 NUL   01 SOH   02 STX   03 ETX   04 EOT   05 ENQ   06 ACK  07 BEL
    08 BS    09 HT    0A NL    0B VT    0C NP    0D CR    0E SO   0F SI
    10 DLE   11 DC1   12 DC2   13 DC3   14 DC4   15 NAK   16 SYN  17 ETB
    18 CAN   19 EM    1A SUB   1B ESC   1C FS    1D GS    1E RS   1F US
    20 SP    21 !     22 "     23 #     24 $     25 %     26 &    27 '
    28 (     29 )     2A *     2B +     2C ,     2D -     2E .    2F /
    30 0     31 1     32 2     33 3     34 4     35 5     36 6    37 7
    38 8     39 9     3A :     3B ;     3C <     3D =     3E >    3F ?
    40 @     41 A     42 B     43 C     44 D     45 E     46 F    47 G
    48 H     49 I     4A J     4B K     4C L     4D M     4E N    4F O
    50 P     51 Q     52 R     53 S     54 T     55 U     56 V    57 W
    58 X     59 Y     5A Z     5B [     5C \     5D ]     5E ^    5F _
    60 `     61 a     62 b     63 c     64 d     65 e     66 f    67 g
    68 h     69 i     6A j     6B k     6C l     6D m     6E n    6F o
    78 x     79 y     7A z     7B {     7C |     7D }     7E ~    7F DEL


Finally, F7 terminates the sysex.

The above example will set the text each time you press the 'Install Rules' button or if loaded from a saved scene at load time. You can of course put the SND rule to set the text in response to a MIDI message that could be fed in externally into the Stream Byter.

Hopefully, that is enough to get you started. Any questions (I did not cover changing the speed of the loop) just post away.

Regards, Nic.

Oops, sorry.

The second SND also needs a +F flag. I adjusted the test code above, so please try again.

Regards, Nic.

Hi lightingboy ,

You mean you tried the other sysex command from MidiFire Stream Byter or from something else?

Can you try this out of interest?

IF LOAD
  SND F0 00 20 29 02 10 14 40 01 04 48 65 6C 6C 6F F7 +F
END

I just downloaded the programmer's guide and I see that their example is pretty similar to what I came up with bar an explicit loop speed (which are meant to be optional).

Unfortunately I only have a Launchpad S here and not a Pro, so I cannot verify/test myself.

Regards, Nic.

Hi lightingboy ,

Right, so something is meddling around with the split message. Maybe there are other messages going through (clock? active sense?) or your routing is setup so that the Launchpad is receiving the sysex messages twice. Not sure, but we can workaround this sneakily so you can send longer messages:

1. Add a 'MidiFire' source (in) port to the canvas and connect to our Stream Byter. Your routing should look like:

  MidiFire -> Stream Byter -> Launchpad

2. Replace the rules with this:

IF LOAD
  SND F0 00 20 29 02 10 14 +F +I
  SND 40 01 48 65 6C 6C 6F F7 +F +I
END
IF M0 != F0
  XX = XX +B
END

Now, when you press 'Install Rules' the two part sysex is fed back into MidiFire via CoreMIDI loopback and assembled into a single message before being sent on to the Launchpad.

Give this a go and let me know how you get on.

Regards, Nic.

Hi lightingboy ,

Yes, you certainly can!

First, you need to determine what the hex code is for the button you wish to map. Hook up an Event Monitor to the Launchpad and press the button. Open the Event Monitor detail (press cog) and you'll see the hex code. I think it will be a note on and off event as you push/release the button. You're only interested in the note on event.

You then take the note on hex code, let's say for argument's sake it's middle C (hex: 90 3C nn) then you would hook things up like so on the MidiFire canvas:

Launchpad -> Stream Byter -> Launchpad
          ^
Midifire  |

and then in the Stream Byter you would use code like:

IF M0 == 90 3C
  IF M2 > 0
    SND F0 00 20 29 02 10 14 +F +I
    SND 40 01 48 65 6C 6C 6F F7 +F +I
  END
END
IF M0 != F0
  XX = XX +B
END

Now, when you press that button on the Launchpad, the Stream Byter will trigger the injected sysex message which gets fed back to Launchpad.

Regards, Nic.

Hi lightingboy ,

Don't worry about getting on my nerves - I'm exceedingly patient!

So, what happens when you add the LP as an input that goes wrong exactly?

If you hook up an Event Monitor to the Stream Byter output you should only see the sysex messages coming out. The rules at the bottom are meant to block anything coming from the LP being sent back to the LP and hooking up the monitor should tell us whether I got that right or not (looks correct to me).

Are you running any other apps at the same time? Could one of these be forwarding stuff from the LP back to itself?

Regards, Nic.