Network, MIDI, and Serial cards coming soon

[TomXP411]

From Kevin Williams on Facebook:

Hey everyone, Novel time! It's been a long time since I gave an update on the network and serial card, and I do apologize for the delay. There were a few technical issues I ran into, as well as the fact that we had to decide once and for all how to implement networking on the system. I had taken a few different approaches before we decided on a UART based connection to an ESP32 module. Making this decision also led me to change the crystal on the UART to align with the default baud rates the ESP32 uses. As a result, the card will now support a max speed of 921,600 baud. Although we haven’t really tested it too much yet. The screen update routines are throttling the throughput, so further optimizations will be needed.

While it is nice that the card will support nearly one megabit of network speed, it did come at a bit of a cost. The new crystal will not generate a baud rate that is suitable for MIDI. I had aligned it to do so on my first version of the card, but I felt it was more important to get the network speed up to 921.6K instead of 576K. As a result, I decided to make the Network / Serial card. One physical port with all pins present (RTS/CTS/DSR/DTR/RI/CD/RX/TX) which will also work up to 921.6k, and the ESP32-based network card itself.
What happened to MIDI then? Not to worry, I decided to make another card which uses the same dual UART, so now we have a dual port MIDI card. One set of ports is accessible via 3.5mm->DIN adapter cables, and the other is connected to the wavetable header. I also added a 9-pin port which exposes power and both MIDI ports. I haven’t built one yet, but I plan to make a daughter board with physical 5 pin DIN ports, and perhaps MIDI through for each one. This will be optional, and unnecessary if you only use one MIDI port, or just the wavetable.

Lastly, I made a small Dream SAM2695 based general-MIDI wavetable board. This is the same chip Serdashop uses on their Dreamblaster S2 board. It’s not my intention to compete with them, so I won’t be making other wavetable boards, but I do at least want to have one available. This will work with any standard wavetable card, not just the Commander card. I did add one little feature however, the SAM2695 supports karaoke mode and a microphone input! I haven’t tested it, but it should mix your voice in, and even support some echo/ delay effects all accessible via MIDI commands! I’m sure it will be fun for about 5 mins, but it does make it a little unique and may be fun for some.

~~~TLDR~~~
They are not here yet, but the last protos are enroute and should be here in 2-3 days. I will build them and test them and make any final placement adjustments. This has been the biggest pain. After much digging, I believe I have located a bracket which will work in low- and high-profile cases for all the types of cards I’ve designed. DB25, DB9, and screw mount only. I’m close to pulling this all together, and I mostly have the parts on-hand to build 100 of each of these cards. If all works out, I’ll make a final adjustment and order the final parts I’m missing and get the PCB order in. We’re working on so many things at once, I must take my time to make sure we work out any issues before running the final board.
Ok enough whining, just really wanted to say that we are still working on it and doing our best to make them work and fit perfectly.
Oh yes, lastly, right angle risers for the pizza-box Lazer case will be in-stock by the time these cards ship, and probably sooner. They are done, and my connectors showed up today. Cart boards are also in there somewhere too, but I think I’ve typed a long enough novel. I’ll send another update on them shortly.
Take care!