MIDI "Chocolate" šŸ« controller with the Mod Dwarf, an introduction

Anyway, it has no evident advantages over the cheaper chocolate, which has an expression pedal jack

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The advantage would be a visual information that the current state: it has four LEDs, one for each parameter.

Anyway, Iā€™m developing a plugin as an alternative for showing popups on Dwarf screen when a chocolate :chocolate_bar: footswitch is pressed. If someone is interested in:

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Great idea. Do you think it could be possible to send the same messages via midi SysEx in order to display on some diy arduino-like based external controller?

The plugin idea is to assign a midi message for its ā€œfootswitch parametersā€. When the parameters has its state changed (on to off or reverse), then the plugin shows a popup informing it.

If you have an Arduino like device that send midi messages to Mod dwarf that can be assignable for a plugin parameter, just like we do on Chocolate, then yes, itā€™s possible.

It didnā€™t possible to recover the original screenshots. But today I took new screenshots and also update the post content: I add more information how to use it with Dwarf using Bluetooth instead of USB cable, add a new option (that I think itā€™s useless for us, but is good to know that it exists) and add links for Tetr4-switch and Gossiper plugins.

Thanks, @Casanunda . I updated the content with an observation with your tip.

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Hey, maybe Iā€™m late hereā€¦ but as there are so many settings and answers I couldnā€™t read everythingā€¦

I just bought an M-Wave Chocolate with the wireless MIDI adapter, I connected the Chocolate to my Mercury7 pedal and I was able to change the presets on my Mercury7 pedal, also test it on my Quad Cortex via midi and I was able to control both.

My doubt is, if I can send a Midi signal leaving my Quad Cortex to enter Chocolate and when I change the presets in Neural it will also change the presets of mercury7 through Chocolate

Here we are a year later, Iā€™ve got CME Widi Bud Pro another use case (Connecting Artiphon Orba2 to MDX), and as far as I can see it is still the same - CME dongle does not work with Chocolate. (does not work with m-wave dongles as well)

Iā€™ve found a community spreadsheet for the CME dongle compatibility, where it is mentioned ā€œCME says this requires help/fix from MVaveā€ on Chocolate.

Also Iā€™ve wrote a letter to M-Vave for support@sincoaudio.com, I do not have much hopes, but it would be great if Chocolate would be finally compatible with WIDI stuff. Maybe some letters from other interested people could bring M-Vaveā€™s attention to the problem. At least Mvave guys still do software/firmware updates for their devices, so it might work.

hey allā€¦ just got one of these chocolate thingsā€¦ seems like a nice little box! ā€¦thanks for the tipā€¦

one question: in ā€œcustom controlā€ mode, i can successfully set whatever CC number i want and successive presses of the chocolate button does toggle the value of that CC between 0 and 127 - confirmed with the MIDI display plugin on my Dwarf. however, no matter which way i put the ā€œvisual behaviorā€ switch in the chocolate app, the display just shows ā€œ00ā€ when no button is pressed and ā€œā€“ā€ while any button is down. so the display on the chocolate is useless in custom mode.

anyone else seen this problem, and know how to solve it?

[later edit----------------------------

iā€™ve just observed that the ā€œvisual behaviorā€ switch in the app does this:

  1. when it is ā€œONā€ (to the right), the CC of that switch toggles between 0 and 127 with successive full cycles of the button.
  2. when it is ā€œOFFā€ (to the left), the CC of that switch toggles between 0 and 127 within one cycle of the button (0 when the button is up and 127 when the button is down).

so, maybe thatā€™s what "visual behavior is supposed to mean? still, itā€™d be nice if the display showed some useful information in custom mode. :frowning:

-----------------------------------------]

thereā€™s also nothing on the chocolate display to indicate expression pedal value - but i think thatā€™s as expected, because thereā€™s no ā€œvisual behaviorā€ switch in the app for that input.

btw: if i switch the chocolate to another mode (i.e. any of the program change modes), the chocolate display does display the program changes just fine, so at least some things about the display are working.

Looks like m-wave does not care.

marulong@sincoaudio.com <marulong@sincoaudio.com> 

Hi.

We have our own midi system. If you need to use chocolate to connect to other devices, you can use our midi system

P.S. Meanwhile,Iā€™d stopped using chocolate with their m-wave usb dongle, as it loses wireless connection even within a one meter distance.
Reliability is not included. :frowning:

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@ignis32, for who did you send this email? There are two companies: m-Vave and m-Wave. Maybe you sent for the m Wave company a question related to a product made for other company?

I have a problem with the on off switch. If I miss and kick the chocolate and its on off switch touches other thing, the controller turn down and turn up

Related to Midi connectivity, try to update the midi and the chocolate, maybe it makes their more stable. But I think that a USB connection will always be more secure, btw.

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Yes, unfortunately. I created the ā€œPlugin Gossiperā€ to get some feedback related to this situation. Related to the Mod Ui restrictions, it was the best that I could do.

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It was m-vave, I always spell it wrong. To be exact, I used support email from cuvave.com (other name for the same company to my understanding), and asked if they are going to fix incompatibility with CME devices.

I always kept it updated, but it does not seem to help a lot, unfortunately.

It might be that this unreliability is caused by the wireless audio transmitter from the same m-vave that I use, I guess it uses approx the same 2.4 ghz frequencies. Anyway, my chocolate loses connection so easily and often, that bluetooth has no sense for me even at home.

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one other thing i just noticed:

again in Custom Mode, i can edit CC assignments for the buttons, using the CubeSuite app on my android phone (chocolate connected by bluetooth), and they save just fine. however, ā€œvisual behaviorā€ settings made in that app donā€™t saveā€¦ i have to make those changes in the mac version of CubeSuite with the Chocolate connected to my mac mini by USB for them to be permanent.

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Hi,

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rightā€¦ when iā€™ve saved ā€œvisual behaviorā€ as ā€œonā€ in the mac version of CubeSuite, it still shows as ā€œoffā€ in the android app - but the button does function properly as a momentary switch. thatā€™s as youā€™ve seen, right?

but what iā€™ve observed is that when i change that setting to ā€œonā€ in the android app, neither the button function nor the indication in the app saves. so itā€™s not just the app indication thatā€™s buggy, but also the appā€™s ability to actually save the button function.

itā€™s an interesting journey figuring out what works on this device and what doesnā€™t! :wink: ā€¦iā€™m sorry that i didnā€™t read all the knowledge from all you wonderful folks carefully enough, and ended up duplicating some of what was already stated. oops.

ā€¦anyways, i hope this last little observation is helpful in some wayā€¦

cheers, all!

LATER: after some more experimenting, i have to say that getting the ā€œvisual behaviorā€ state saved is often not reliable even with the mac version of CubeSuiteā€¦ :unamused: sometimes works, sometimes doesnā€™t.

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Hi @plutek,
Sorry for the late reply. I wanted to make a test before confirming.

First of all, I only use the Android app.
And the result is actually the opposite : when I save ā€œvisual behaviorā€ as ā€œonā€, the switch is latching. ā€œOffā€ is for momentary. It works as @SrMouraSilva says in the original post :

You can do a quick test with the MIDI Display plugin as I just did. I confirm what I said before : the app saves the option properly and the pedal works as expected. The only bug happens when I restart the app : ā€œvisual behaviorā€ always appears as ā€œoffā€ even though the pedal still works with the previously saved settings.

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hi @funkypou ā€¦ thanks for your testing, and for taking the time to write about it! sorry i was confused about what was going on, during my pre-gig rush to set everything up. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

indeed, i can now confirm that all is as you report it:

ā€¦it is really excellent to feel secure that the android app can be used to edit button functions!

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ā€‹I needed to use inversion of values for the expression pedal (0~127 to 127~0), which is only possible in ā€œAdvanced Custom modeā€, and make Chocolate work in Stompbox mode. For that I configured each button for the ā€œSingle step (switch between two banks)ā€ mode and for each bank I entered the values 127 or 0 for that channel, that is, effect on or off.


in the expression pedal settings i assigned the values 127~0:

this way the pedal worked the way I needed it to, that is, when stepped on the heel it goes to zero and when stepped on with the tip of the foot it goes to the maximum value.

Anyway, Iā€™m having trouble getting the chocolate actuator situation backā€¦ I reported this in another topic, if you can help me:

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Hello all!

Does anybody know if I can connect more than one m-vave chocolate via a signle BT dongle?
Apologies if this has been asked (and answered) before.

Unfortunately no. At least if are speaking about m-wave dongle which I have.

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