25 pin to USB?

[enos211]

Hello,

My buddy has discovered a d8b V.5 with the CPU. I've ordered a 25-pin serial to USB cable to see if I can make the board talk to my newer PC/DAW. I primarily use Mixcraft but I am open to other DAWs if necessary. Does anyone have any insight on this? Thanks!

Anthony

[Jondav1120]

Hi Anthony,

I suspect that you will be out of luck with the 25pin serial to USB cable. The D8B data cable carries not one, but two serial connections. Due to this configuration the pin assignments on the 25 pin connector are far from the standard RS232 25pin standard. If the console is not connected to the CPU (at least initially) all you will get is an "Error 43- Host did not boot" message on the display.

Regards

John

[Y-my-R]

Hi Anthony... I second what John said.

Not sure how you're trying to integrate the D8B with your DAW/Mixcraft, but it's not as simple as connecting an "adapter" (i.e. serial/USB) between the D8B console and your PC.

There are a couple of threads on this forum, where people even just tried to replace the D8B rack unit with a different computer (to expand compatibility) to only take over the "regular" duties of the computer that comes with the D8B, and none of that worked. At some point I read that someone tried to do an Arduino project to replace the computer, but I never heard if that went anywhere.

Having your DAW computer replace the D8B computer AND host your DAW, is a couple of levels beyond these other attempts. So, a simple adapter won't do, I'm afraid.

I'm not sure what this is, but some years back I found this page, where someone interfaces via the serial protocol for some development purposes (it's not my content... this comes up when you google D8B and RS232):

http://d8b.adamdbradley.com/

If what you want to do is to "interface" with your DAW like a MIDI controller, why not just get a ProBox (emulated the MCU and HUI protocols)? That's the available solution to turn the D8B into a DAW controller, and there's an entire forum section dedicated to the ProBox. You might want to check that out. The ProBox connects to the DB25 port on the Console, and the USB on your DAW computer. So, sounds like that's what you're trying to do, but this requires specialized hardware, and not just a serial/USB adapter.

The ProBox with the D8B console (and the rack unit as a power supply) does NOT allow you to use the D8B as a MIXER, though. Only as a controller. To be able to use the D8B as a mixer AND as a controller for 24-tracks, you'll have to add an external serial-switch, to switch the D8B DB25 connection to go to either the D8B rack unit, or to the ProBox.

[Crash]

Are you wanting it talk as in pass audio to and from the two units? You need to be looking at I/O cards and some sort of appropriate interface in that case. MIDI connections will need to go both ways as well if you want to do MMC/MTC for transport control and automation. Something like a MOTU Micro Express should do the trick.