Itsy Bitsy nRF5280 BLE MIDI Setup Issues

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IsaacCull
 
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Itsy Bitsy nRF5280 BLE MIDI Setup Issues

Post by IsaacCull »

HI
I am trying to complete the Robot xylophone project by Liz Clark.
Everything is built and ready to go however I am having an issue connecting the itsy bitsy nRF52840 to my Mac Book Pro over bluetooth.
I did a continuity test on all my wiring and everything is connected as it should be (I did find a couple errors/cold solders)
I can get the board to appear as an icon in the MIDI Studio within the Audio Midi setup when I have it plugged into the Mac via usb but I cannot get it connected to Bluefruit Connect nor does it appear in the MIDI Studio as a connected bluetooth device.

I am hoping to use Logic to output MIDI to the Xylophone.
When I create an external MIDI track the itsy bitsy shows up as the device that will be receiving MIDI.
I imagine the Circuit Python code that is on the itsy Bitsy is looking for a Bluetooth connection and so It won't work this way.

Is there a way to alter the code so I can just send MIDI through the USB connection and forgo the Bluetooth connection?

My coding knowledge is basic so I am stuck and don't know how to proceed.

Following the instructions for the BLE setup, I cannot get the BTLE LED to change any colour except RED.

I have 3 Itsy Bitsy and they all have behaved the same.

Here are some screen grabs of my OS and Logic setup and the Circuit python code on the Itsy

All help is appreciated!
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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Itsy Bitsy nRF5280 BLE MIDI Setup Issues

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

Yeah, you can use either Serial MIDI or USB MIDI for wired connections:

https://learn.adafruit.com/midi-for-makers
https://learn.adafruit.com/guitar-hero- ... essentials

We have lots of MIDI projects over in the Learning System:

https://learn.adafruit.com/search?q=MIDI

Skim through those to find anything that looks useful.

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IsaacCull
 
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Re: Itsy Bitsy nRF5280 BLE MIDI Setup Issues

Post by IsaacCull »

Thanks Mike

Going in!

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IsaacCull
 
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Re: Itsy Bitsy nRF5280 BLE MIDI Setup Issues

Post by IsaacCull »

All MIDI aside, I am still puzzled as to why my Mac laptop and Desktop using either Bluefruit connect or LightBlue cannot find any of these itsy Bitsy chips??????

There is a list of Unknown Devices and phones and iPads but not the Adafruit chip

What am I missing here?

Please don't hesitate to point to something basic and obvious as the solution would seem to be in that zone.

If there is power to the board should it not be popping up in Bluefruit Connect?

This is keeping me up at night!

Anyways, gonna hit the above lessons on MIDI now!

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IsaacCull
 
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Re: Itsy Bitsy nRF5280 BLE MIDI Setup Issues

Post by IsaacCull »

Still no luck getting the itsy bity(s) to connect via Bluefruit connect on my Mac Pro and Mac Pro laptop or on my iPhone

I have circuit python installed and running the code to make the chip discoverable and still.........crickets.

I don't think its possible to have three defective boards and the fact that this isn't working on either of my computers points to something basic being out of whack here.........

Do I have to press a button on the board?
Do I have to plug the board into a separate power source?



Ready to try anything
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IsaacCull
 
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Re: Itsy Bitsy nRF5280 BLE MIDI Setup Issues

Post by IsaacCull »

and I finally got my two boards to connect to the Bluefruit connect on my phone using this code
Screenshot 2022-10-30 at 9.45.47 AM.png
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Still no luck with getting it to connect with my Mac pros.

Ive gone through all the bluetooth setting on the Macs, which are few and still no luck....

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Itsy Bitsy nRF5280 BLE MIDI Setup Issues

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

I haven't heard of any issues with BLE on macOS, but will check around to see if anyone else knows of something.

For reference, what version of macOS are you using?

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