DIY (Do It Yourself)MIDI Expander using YAMAHA DB50XG

Status: complete

Once upon a time.... okay about 20 Years ago I was something like a Computer Freak, who had all interesting equipment which was available at that time. Who ever has played the 3D Computer Game Decent with a professional Wavetable, knows what I am talking about, when mentioning GREAT SOUND.

Now in 2009 I remembered what kind of Hardware I was using at that time: a Yamaha DB50XG WaveTable Extension Board for SoundBlaster Cards.

When googeling for MIDI Expander there are several results which explain how to connect to the board for making it a stand-alone MIDI Expander. Design and production of the Support PCB took only a few hours. It contains an Optocoupler for converting the MIDI-in Current Signal into TTL and some Power-Supply stuff.

The rest was easy: getting a suitable housing and a handful of connectors and ready is the very cool MIDI Expander to be used with any standard computer or keyboard. All Parts necessary cost only a few Euros and are assembled in two hours.

Because I do not believe to be a great number of those cards still around, the documentation here will be somehow compact. In case you need more info or would like to get a PCB: just send a mail!