I just got my disklavier Mark III and unfortunately the MIDI ports are used by the CD player unit on the other side of keyboard.

So, I'd like to not have to unplug MIDI cables every time I want to hook up my laptop to play MIDI files. This is a great opportunity to use the "To Host" serial cable!!

However, they really don't put the old serial ports on laptops anymore, so I bought a serial-to-USB adapter. But I cannot get it to work.

Does anyone have any experience getting the serial cable to work thru a USB port?

I have every setting correct, as I can use the serial cable successfully on a antique laptop from the mid 1990's (with a real serial port), so I know all the settings are correct.

Thanks for any advice! -Tony

P.S. I have the same results hooking it up to my Clavinova: it works with the old laptop with the real serial port, but not with the new laptop with the USB-to-Serial adapter.

When we owned a Yamaha P120 I wired up my own "to-host" cable (scrounged the cord/plug from an old broken B&W handheld scanner) and got it to work with our old laptop.

When I was issued a new laptop that didn't have a serial port, I was able to get it to work by using the "USB Serial Parallel Adapter" (ASM Part Number:41R0019; FRU Number:4A4955) "Manufactured for Lenovo" that they gave me. It looks just like the following, but with a lenovo rather than IBM logo:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834995091

So it might be an issue with the particular USB adapter you are using. As an aside, I've never been able to program an FPGA via the parallel ports on ANY of these kinds of adapters, so there must be some fundamental timing or voltage issues on that port.

The downside of to-host on the P120 is a big pile of impulse ground noise on the audio outs induced by the serial connection (this is why MIDI is an opto-isolated current loop). I was able to push this down somewhat with an audio transformer isolation box and clean up the rest in CoolEdit, but it was a pain to deal with.

Good luck!

dewster,

If you know for sure that IBM adapter worked, I'll spend the $20 and grab one off of ebay. Although it is REALLY clunky; this will be in a high end room, but beggars can't be chooser. My netbook is so small, it was looking real nice next to the Disklavier with my current (non-working) adapter not even visible.

I have spent like 8 hours today and maybe 5 before that trying to resolve this, so this will be a huge relief if this thing works.

Thank you! -Tony

Tony T, it might be worth dropping a line to Yamaha / Disklavier support - they may be able to suggest a compatible adaptor.

Cheers
James
x

Great idea. I also thought of checking with a dealer; some may have an adapter in the store.

I had a thought about the IBM one: If I put a 3 foot USB extension cable on it, I could place the large IBM unit under the piano somewhere, so it would be hidden after all ...if I need to go that route.

I think between the IBM product and the Yamaha support and the dealer, I will probably get a decent solution. I will post it here when I do so future users might benefit.

Any other input or suggestions are welcome!!

-Tony

It definitely worked for me, but YMMV with all of the variation that goes on in the PC world.

Update:

I called Disklavier tech support and "the expert" says he has never heard of adding a serial-to-USB adapter to the end of the Host cable. That's surprising since they have no *available* MIDI port on this MARK III system (both in/out are occupied by the CD player). I just figured they'd have a list of those adapters that worked. Am I the only one who ever called that wanted to hook up their Mark III to their computer?

I also called 3 dealers and all three were clueless.

However, the technician on the phone did come up with a possible solution if the serial-to-USB doesn't work: get a MIDI combiner ...which would be like a splitter but in the opposite direction.

-Tony