I’m posting this here as I have two devices that can’t be powered from the MioXL, the Dreadbox Nymphes, and my 1010Blackbox. This sucks because those power sources are also where the midi-implementation lies in their USB-MIDI setup.
I’m INCREDIBLY happy to report that the pyramid is successfully powered and running devices across all three outputs now (though I’m nowhere near close to maximizing the number of devices!)
I’m posting this question/answer combo for anyone else who is considering a pyramid and also has a mioXL.
But be forewarned: I’m still irritated that the mioXL can’t power my other two devices. The Nymphes only needs 350 mA. That’s not asking much.
yeah, a few of us are using the mio range… they are great.
absolutely love my mioXM and would recommend it
oh apart from the Auracle software for configuring, that is seriously tedious to use… its seems iConnectivity have no idea in this department, since apparently the older iConnectivity software was as bad… but hey ho, fortunately, I don’t reconfigure too often!
as for other gear…
I did have one device that couldn’t be powered from it (*) - interestingly I spoke to the dev of that device and they got it contact with iConnectivity, and got it to work, so there is something other than just current draw.
so Ive been pleasantly surprised how many devices do work from it.
its not too big an issue though, what I did when I was having issues, was just have a powered usb hub plugged into it since the mio range supports usb hubs.
actually that was quite useful, since it stopped me having to reach around the back to plug in new usb devices
(*) it worked in every way, just couldn’t be powered from it.(it would kind of alter on startup, and glitch), but admittedly, it pulled very close to 500mA, which is near max usb spec.
I must be a unicorn here. I read reviews claiming that the software was a bear, and I found it the most intuitive network routing UI I’ve ever seen. Click the device you want to route, then turn on the devices you want to route to. I was done setting up my shop in less than 30min. I used the manual only to show me the back panel while connecting and to save presets. I was SUPER scared of setup too. The reviews made it seem intimidating.
This makes me wonder if folks were trying to replicate a more complicated routing scenario using midi thru and whatnot? It’s also fair to point out I’m a software engineer with nearly 13yrs of experience so it could be an engineer brain thing. (It makes sense because it’s what I would do.)
I’ll reach out to dreadbox and 1010music and ask about this. Can’t hurt to ask!
Power for host ports: mioXL: Each host port can provide a maximum of 500 mA, up to a total of 3 Amps (3000 mA) across all 10 ports
So unless the 3A total gets exceeded, powering the Nymphes shouldn’t be an issue from capacity POV. Is the Nymphess class-compliant? The Mio seems rather picky about that.
No, it just misses some pretty obvious functions from a UI perspective.
Eg
Say you want to remap all messages going to a device from midi channel 12 to midi channel 1 … you have to do this by typing channel number ( in their silly pop up window thing) in for every type of midi message.
no ‘Select all’ type functionally.
It’s like this all over the place you have to make 20 changes when they could easily simplify to a couple.
It gets so laborious if your doing major changes.
So it’s not that you cannot do something, it’s that they just make it painful to do so.
… and that as an engineer winds me up, as it’s such a simple thing to fix.
( and yes, I sent them a FR when the mio came out, so looks unlikely it’ll happen as the app has had very few changes from day 1 )
As i said , no issue with functionality of router … just the software needs to be redone with someone with some better UX experience
My apologies if I made that sound like I was talking down–I hate it when people do it to me.
I haven’t gotten very granular with any of my uses just yet. It could well be that I’m not yet creative enough to think through things like this. I know for example, folks have gotten alot of mileage out of the Digitone by using the MIDI tracks for some automations or more complicated phrases, but I haven’t seen the utility yet.
The Blackbox manual says it needs a 2A power supply so based on that, the Mio wont be enough to power it.
I’m actually shocked it needs more than the Nymphes. I’ve always been under the impression that analog circuits require more juice. So yeah, I’m not shocked that didn’t work.
I have a powered bay with a 4.0A psu on the way.
iConnectivity has now released the SysEx specs for the X-series so you can roll your own control software
@thetechnobear I could help you to atone for my bad wordsmithing above?
lol, no worries @industrialist … gave me a chance to have a whinge about the software
sysex specs , oh thats pretty cool… its a pretty elaborate spec though, going to take quite a lot of going thru to make it function.
but could be an interesting way, to quick change a few things from a scripting language.
It’s an elaborate spec but much of it is repetition, it’s actually quite a nice a protocol. I reverse-engineered a good portion of it before iConnectivity released the sysex specs and wrote my own cli-based control software to escape the terrible software (nearly got a carpal tunnel syndrome from the initial setup) and the Windows that came along the ride. Haven’t had time/motivation to update the software to fill in the gaps and use naming etc from the spec as it mostly does what I need already.
yeah, that is true… it did look fairly logical, seems to have a kind of data model type approach rather than a ‘functional approach’ … which makes sense given the complexity for routing tables.
but its not a spec where you can say I want to do X, and just go find a single sysex message which does that … but I agree thats not really suitable for these products… so it is what it is.
Actually the Blackbox 2A requirement includes some kind of reserve for powering an attached USB device. So the actual consumption is somewhat less, but the manual doesn’t state how much.
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