roland FC100 midi controller - rewiring, need help!

[collen]

Hi

I just bought an old roland fc100 midi foot controller off ebay, with the intention of using it control ableton live's midi features. when it arrived, i realised i'd made a small mistake. there was no midi output and no power supply!

i now realise this is cos the fc100 is used to control the roland GT6 or GT8, and the midi and power supply are replaced by roland's own RRC cable format. so does anyone know how hard/easy it would be to replace the RRC with a standard midi output and a power supply?

the only thing i can find online about this is here: http://f16.parsimony.net/forum27394/messages/321.htm

if anyone could help, i haven't done electronics since college, and figured this was the place to come.

many thanks
collen

[samagoon]

Sorry I don't have an answer for you. I am in exactly the same position and need to know if you have found any solution yet. Regards, Samagoon

[collen]

yes, it can be done! i was assisted every step of the way by a very helpful new zealander. i've attached the doc he sent me, with the pin-outs you need.

any problems, pm me.

[samagoon]

Hi, Your pinout attachment is very welcome. I have also discovered in the past few hours thar Roland produced a rrc to MIDI converter box called the RMC-1. I have trawlled the net and found a few images of them in expired eBay items but I will keep tuned so that I can buy one if the pinout rewire causes me any grief.

Many thanks, samagoon.

[zcopter]

Hi samagoon!
Did you try this pinout attachment?
How does it work?
Does the fc100 send midi cc´s or program changes?
Thanks for help!

greetings from austria

zcopter

[collen]

the pinout works, i did it, and i use the modified fc-100 regularly, without any problem.

i cant remember if the fc-100 sends midi cc´s or program changes because i use a great program called bome's midi translator to translate the midi into whatever resulting output i need (cc, program change, keystroke, other midi notes, or multiple variations of all the above). i use the fc-100 to control ableton live (recording and live), reason and guitar rig all at the same time!

good luck finding the roland manufactured rrc-to-midi converter (RMC-1), i couldnt find anything but a few references to it on the net, and certainly no actual RMC-1's for sale anywhere! but you really don't need to buy one of those - just rewire what you've got. buy a standard midi socket from an audio/electronics site (or e-bay), use an old power supply - and then its 4 blobs of solder (2 for the power, 2 for the midi) - i was surprised how easy it was!! just be careful taking the original RRC socket off the circuit board.

any questions - private message me. best of luck.

[collen]

here's the pinout for anyone else who needs it, and cant get the word document:


1___________ RX
2___________no function
3___________Vin +10v <<<< To DC power plug
4___________signal GND <<<< To DC Power Plug
5___________TX - (midi out) <<<<< to 5 pin MIDI DIN
6___________TX + (220 ohm pullup) <<<<< to 5 pin MIDI DIN

pin numbers are for FC-100 end (looking at rear of FC-100)

[gajammer]

Hi Collen I'm using the FC-100 to control the Roland GP8 guitar effect processor. My 30' cable has gone south. I found the bad portion of the cable and spliced. I then ordered male and female mating connectors so that I have two cables that break down for easy storage then quick connect for setup. My question: before i do the smoke test and connect the GP8 to FC i want to make 100% sure I've got the right GND ... that's pin 4 - right?

[collen]

hi gajammer

i didntreally understand what you meant, so i emailed the guy who helped me,here is his response. hope it helps!




If I've undertood the other fellow's question properly... (let me know if anyone wants clarification)

1) His cable 'broke' so he repaired it by adding mating connectors between the broken section. (also makes it easier to store the 30' cable apart into two sections)
2) He wants to ensure that the 'repaired' cable is still properly configured (when the two halves are joined via the new/extra connectors) - It's still working as a standard RC Cable (not Midi)

Answer! He should connect the two cable sections and use a continuity checker to ensure the corresponding pins have a one-to-one connection. ie. no shorts to any adjacent pins etc., pin 1 on one end should come out to pin1 on the far end of the 30' length etc.

Additional Point! IF he has used the same style connectors as is already on the RC cable (6 pin DIN with male pins), AND one section of the split cable resembles a shorter RC cable (6 pin male DIN on each end) - the same 'continuity check' comments should apply to the smaller section/length of cable. (In this case the second length of cable would extend the first/shorter one to form the full 30' length - the extended end would mate to the shorter length via a female 6 pin DIN whilst being terminated by a male 6 pin DIN)

Crude depiction of two lengths with first length having male to male 6 pin DIN followed by second length with mating female pin style and terminated with male 6 pin DIN.

Male-Male cable section Female-Male cable section
<===> >===>

When joined, they form a male to male (normal config) RC cable

<=====>>======>

In case there's any confusion, the 'female' style is what's built into the footboard... : )

[reibian]

Hello.
I have an original FC-100 MKII service manual which has the PC board layouts and the schematic for RMC-1
If anyone is interested, I can scan. I've been meaning to mod my FC-100mkII, but have not done it yet.

Let me know.

S^2

[fdmiguel]

Hi, I'm quite interested in building a RCC cable to connect my GP8 to the FCC100 foot controller. Would you have the schematics? A detailed process would be nice since I'm not an eletronics expert. If you show me how I can connect wires at the right place. Thanks a lot.
Fabio from Brazil:)

hi gajammer

i didntreally understand what you meant, so i emailed the guy who helped me,here is his response. hope it helps!




If I've undertood the other fellow's question properly... (let me know if anyone wants clarification)

1) His cable 'broke' so he repaired it by adding mating connectors between the broken section. (also makes it easier to store the 30' cable apart into two sections)
2) He wants to ensure that the 'repaired' cable is still properly configured (when the two halves are joined via the new/extra connectors) - It's still working as a standard RC Cable (not Midi)

Answer! He should connect the two cable sections and use a continuity checker to ensure the corresponding pins have a one-to-one connection. ie. no shorts to any adjacent pins etc., pin 1 on one end should come out to pin1 on the far end of the 30' length etc.

Additional Point! IF he has used the same style connectors as is already on the RC cable (6 pin DIN with male pins), AND one section of the split cable resembles a shorter RC cable (6 pin male DIN on each end) - the same 'continuity check' comments should apply to the smaller section/length of cable. (In this case the second length of cable would extend the first/shorter one to form the full 30' length - the extended end would mate to the shorter length via a female 6 pin DIN whilst being terminated by a male 6 pin DIN)

Crude depiction of two lengths with first length having male to male 6 pin DIN followed by second length with mating female pin style and terminated with male 6 pin DIN.

Male-Male cable section Female-Male cable section
<===> >===>

When joined, they form a male to male (normal config) RC cable

<=====>>======>

In case there's any confusion, the 'female' style is what's built into the footboard... : )

[guitarzan]

http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/parts/dinconn.html

part #2701 male 6 pin din (pins like photo of 1828) two of these (buy wherever you like)

6 or 7 or 8 stranded wire shielded cable (good quality rubber jacket & you'll only use 6 wires plus shield - shield connects to metal outside ring of DINs)

solder wires to each end such that matching pins of each end connect together

do a clean job and watch out for shorting wires/strands

an old Commodore 64/128 Floppy drive cable seems to work, though it's a bit short....

[MuseMark]

Hi there, I'm new to this forum, I just bought an FC-100 off of ebay to control my MIDI units and the listing was....

Roland FOOT CONTROLER FC-100 Midi 11 Pedal EXC

I thought it was a MIDI Controller, I had no idea it was for a specific Roland unit, Can this be converted to a MIDI controller?? any help would be welcome as I bought it from the US, had to pay extra customs charge and the seller is not being very helpful :mad:

[collen]

hi mark

i did pretty much the same as you, bought an fc100 off ebay thinkin it was gonna be midi. but it turns out its not too difficult to rewire it midi rather than rrc. rrc is basically midi and the power lead combined.

so you have 2 options:

1. take the fc100's casing off, take the rrc connector off the circuit board, and solder in a midi din plug (will cost you pence on ebay) and a power supply socket, (use the pinouts provided in my earlier posts on this topic to know which bits to connect to where), buy a normal variable/multivolt power supply (or just use an old one if you happened to have one lying around like i did), and it will work - the fc100 will draw power from your power supply, and will out midi messages through the midi connector.

2. if your fc100 came with the rrc cable, you could look into rewiring the cable to output midi and draw power (again, you'll need to get a power supply). i didnt choose this option cos i didnt get an rrc cable come with the fc100, so i dont know entirely how youd do it. i thiknk someone else has posted how to do this. look at the earlier messages.

if you get as far as wiring the fc100 to output midi msgs, you'll then need a bit of software on your computer to sit between the fc100 and whatever it is you want it to control on your computer (live, protools, reason, guitar rig, etc) - for this job i heartily recommend bome's midi translator. this will transform the midi messages from whatever is hard-wired into the fc100 into something your software can actually understand. (it can also change any midi message into a keystroke- eg ctrl-z to undo, or stop playback, or change effect or whatever). as far as im aware you need something like bome's even if you buy one of the 'proper' midi controllers, eg behringer.

to reiterate: you havent bought a piece of junk that will never output midi - but you will have to learn a bit if you want to rewire it. if i could do it, i expect most people could - i hadnt picked up a soldering iron since school, which was a long time ago, but i managed to do it. hope that helps.

[MuseMark]

Thanks for your help, Mark :)

[burgiedanny]

HI guys, I just bought a fc 100 on e-bay thinking I was gonna control my boss gx 700 with it. Much to my surpries the cable doesnt fit! If I do this mod will my fc100 work with my gx 700 which has the midi plug in back?

[christian]

Burgiedanny- I have sent you an email that may sort out your problem

Christian :)

[danaaos]

hi there
i am looking for ROLAND FC-100mkII manual
or any link to download one
thanks

by the way i find the RMC 1 rrc to midi from a gay in Italy....

[christian]

Here you go dude

ftp://ftp.roland.co.uk/productsupport/Manuals/FC-100MKII_OM.pdf

:)

[burgiedanny]

So has anyone else done this mod? I'm haveing some problems with the posted diagram, I just wanna know if somebody else has had success with this. I can't seem to get a hold of collen to clarify the diagram for me. It seems that the numbers on the diagram and the numbers on the actual board do not match.

[kalle]

TX+ to 5 pin MIDI DIN is that right or is it pin 4.
Dose "220 ohm pullup" mean that ther is a 220ohm resistor between tx+ and midi din
here's the pinout for anyone else who needs it, and cant get the word document:


1___________ RX
2___________no function
3___________Vin +10v <<<< To DC power plug
4___________signal GND <<<< To DC Power Plug
5___________TX - (midi out) <<<<< to 5 pin MIDI DIN
6___________TX + (220 ohm pullup) <<<<< to 5 pin MIDI DIN

pin numbers are for FC-100 end (looking at rear of FC-100)

[burgiedanny]

O.K. I rewired my (RRC) fc-100 to work with my (midi) boss gx-700 and it works great. Here's the deal, I don't know how it worked for anybody else but the original document posted by Collen was all wrong for me. If you look on the actual circuit board the pins for the RRC plug on the back of the fc-100 are labled differently from the document posted by Collen and if wired like the document says, it will not work. So, here's how it worked for me......looking on the actual board of the fc-100 behind the RRC plug........Pin #3 is the DC + or (vin +10v)........Pin #4 is the DC- or (DC signal ground)........Pin #5 is the midi - or (TX-)........Pin #6 is the midi + or (TX+).............If you just want to rebuilt the cable to work (which is what I did) you won't have to take the circuit board out. Here is how to do it with the document provided by Collen..............Pin #3 is the DC +........Pin #2 is the DC -..........Pin #1 is the midi -.........Pin #6 is the midi +.........The midi out pinout diagram on the document seems to be O.K. I used a 9v dc 400ma power adapter to power the fc-100 by wireing a female dc plug into my RRC cord just below where I wired the new midi plug. Now I just plug in the 9v power into my RRC cord and plug into my gx700 midi input. Good luck!

[german66]

Dear Reibian,

I will appreciatte very much if you send me the FCC 100 schematic to:

german.vazquez66@yahoo.com.mx

Thank you very much and best regards.

Germ?n V?zquez.

[chuck1a1]

HI i HAVE A roland FC100 midi controller RRC CONVERTER AND A BRAND NEW CABLE ALL FOR 150 FIRM EMAIL ME AT CH898@HOTMAIL.COM

[trevcda]

Great thread! I've been wondering how this cable worked and what made it so special. I was really surprised to find it was just power and MIDI configuration. Knowing that now, has anybody tried using a seven pin DIN jack (like 5 pin 180 degree + 2 pins; will accept a MIDI plug) and running phantom power over a seven pin MIDI cable from the rack? Has anyone sourced a seven pin MIDI jack that will fit the FC100 series pedals circuit board?

Something else that occured to me; the FC100mkII has a tuner out doesn't it? I haven't looked at mine in awhile. Wouldn't the MIDI conversion defeat this tuner output?