MIDI "Chocolate" 🍫 controller with the Mod Dwarf, an introduction

[Zavorra]

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

[SrMouraSilva]

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

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

Control to CV - HMI Widget popup message on the screen

If someone is interested in, there is a preview: [image] [Gossiper - Pedal Pi LV2 plugin] As you can see on the video, there is a parameter on screen. Because of it, it’s possible to show the alerts. Then, this parameter exists just for enable the hmi popup presentation. I added four of parameters like this, then I see the popus on four distinct pages. For me, just parameters is sufficient, but Is four sufficient for the community? [image] If someone is interested in, please…

[Zavorra]

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?

[SrMouraSilva]

The plugin idea is to assign a midi message for its “footswitch parameters”. 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, it’s possible.

[SrMouraSilva]

@LievenDV

I noticed som of the screenshots are missing in the section where I try to map a press of a button to the behaviour of a plugin. If you have the time, could you chech this because I was a bit stuck. I’m pretty new to MIDI etc so it isn’t all that intuitive for me at the moment

It didn’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 it’s useless for us, but is good to know that it exists) and add links for Tetr4-switch and Gossiper plugins.

@Casanunda

Set the CV logic Operator to “XOR” instead of “OR”.

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

[Gabriel_Farias]

Hey, maybe I’m late here… but as there are so many settings and answers I couldn’t read everything…

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

[ignis32]

@quadmod

Sadly the Chocolate is not compatible with WIDI ( a great set of BLE Midi dongles with various features and form factors). CME (the makers of WIDI) say the issue lies on the Chocolate side, they’ve offered to work with Cuvave (M-vave) on this

Here we are a year later, I’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)

I’ve found a community spreadsheet for the CME dongle compatibility, where it is mentioned “CME says this requires help/fix from MVave” on Chocolate.

Open Source WIDI Compatibility List

Also I’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-Vave’s attention to the problem. At least Mvave guys still do software/firmware updates for their devices, so it might work.

[plutek]

hey all… just got one of these chocolate things… seems like a nice little box! …thanks for the tip…

one question: in “custom control” 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 “visual behavior” switch in the chocolate app, the display just shows “00” when no button is pressed and “–” 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----------------------------

i’ve just observed that the “visual behavior” switch in the app does this:

1. when it is “ON” (to the right), the CC of that switch toggles between 0 and 127 with successive full cycles of the button.
2. when it is “OFF” (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 that’s what "visual behavior is supposed to mean? still, it’d be nice if the display showed some useful information in custom mode.

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

there’s also nothing on the chocolate display to indicate expression pedal value - but i think that’s as expected, because there’s no “visual behavior” 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.

[ignis32]

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,I’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.

[SrMouraSilva]

@ignis32

Looks like m-wave does not care.

@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?

@ignis32

P.S. Meanwhile,I’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

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.

[SrMouraSilva]

@plutek

so the display on the chocolate is useless in custom mode

Yes, unfortunately. I created the “Plugin Gossiper” to get some feedback related to this situation. Related to the Mod Ui restrictions, it was the best that I could do.

[ignis32]

@SrMouraSilva

m-Vave and m-Wave

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.

@SrMouraSilva

try to update the midi and the chocolate

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.

[plutek]

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, “visual behavior” settings made in that app don’t save… 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.

[funkypou]

@plutek

“visual behavior” settings made in that app don’t save

Hi,

@funkypou

there’s a bug in the CubeSuite app that makes “visual behavior” appear “off” when you start the app, even when it’s actually “on”.

[plutek]

right… when i’ve saved “visual behavior” as “on” in the mac version of CubeSuite, it still shows as “off” in the android app - but the button does function properly as a momentary switch. that’s as you’ve seen, right?

but what i’ve observed is that when i change that setting to “on” in the android app, neither the button function nor the indication in the app saves. so it’s not just the app indication that’s buggy, but also the app’s ability to actually save the button function.

it’s an interesting journey figuring out what works on this device and what doesn’t! …i’m sorry that i didn’t read all the knowledge from all you wonderful folks carefully enough, and ended up duplicating some of what was already stated. oops.

…anyways, i hope this last little observation is helpful in some way…

cheers, all!

LATER: after some more experimenting, i have to say that getting the “visual behavior” state saved is often not reliable even with the mac version of CubeSuite… sometimes works, sometimes doesn’t.

[funkypou]

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

@plutek

when i’ve saved “visual behavior” as “on” in the mac version of CubeSuite, it still shows as “off” in the android app - but the button does function properly as a momentary switch. that’s as you’ve seen, right?

First of all, I only use the Android app.
And the result is actually the opposite : when I save “visual behavior” as “on”, the switch is latching. “Off” is for momentary. It works as @SrMouraSilva says in the original post :

@SrMouraSilva

• “Visual behavior” on:
  On/Off - Press to change the CC value to 127, press again to change the CC value to 0, press again to change the value to 127…
• “Visual behavior” off:
  Momentary on (CC value to 127) when the footswitch is pressed and off (CC value to 0) after it is released

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 : “visual behavior” always appears as “off” even though the pedal still works with the previously saved settings.

[plutek]

hi @funkypou … 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.

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

@funkypou

the app saves the option properly and the pedal works as expected. The only bug happens when I restart the app : “visual behavior” always appears as “off” even though the pedal still works with the previously saved settings.

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

[Yan]

​I needed to use inversion of values for the expression pedal (0~127 to 127~0), which is only possible in “Advanced Custom mode”, and make Chocolate work in Stompbox mode. For that I configured each button for the “Single step (switch between two banks)” 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, I’m having trouble getting the chocolate actuator situation back… I reported this in another topic, if you can help me:

Return message MIDI controler / DISPLAY / CHOCOLATE

I will expose my difficulty, if there is already a topic or solution, please guide me. I’m building my setup with MOD-DUO + MODFOOTSWITCH + MVAVE CHOCOLATE + PASSIVE EXPRESSION PEDAL + TABLET (OR CELL PHONE) I’ve already managed to make the connection and control everything, including chocolate, I managed to use the “Advanced custom mode” to work as a stompbox to use the expression pedal with inverted values 0-127 (If you’re curious, I’ll explain this configuration later). My problem is that …

[TheRedOne]

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.

[ignis32]

@TheRedOne

if I can connect more than one m-vave chocolate via a signle BT dongle?

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