BomeBox concepts and WebConfig interaction - Basic technical questions

Hello all,
I currently try to familiarize myself to the technical structure and functional behaviour of BomeBox and come to technical questions about some basic concepts.

My setup is as follows:
(a.) BomeBox MT (as witten on the backlabel), Serial #0002765195, Firmware 1.5
(b.) On a PC with Win7 Pro: Browser Firefox to access the box via web config
(c.) Power via PoE, Connection PC<->BomeBox by ethernet cable

My questions:

(1.)
In most discussions on your site I find the term ‘BomeBox’. On the backside/label of my box I read
‘Model: BomeBox MT’

What does ‘MT’ mean and are boxes around which are ‘not MT’?

(2.)
Virtual midi port says:
“Creating virtual ports is the first step which creates endpoints…”
“You do this in the MIDI router of Bome Network Prol”

Does this mean I need Network PRO in order to use “virtual unlimited midi ports”? (I know that for both
a license is needed)

(3.)
In order to basically talk to the BomeBox/WebConfig only a browser is needed (if an IP address was previously obtained via DHCP).

BomNetwork is not necessary for this type of communication, correct?

(4.)
In Web config of the Box under ->Main->Log I see a check box ‘verbose’. Checking and unchecking
this box did not change the displayed text.

What is ‘verbose’ used for?

(5.)
Is the content of the log-file always cleared on power-on of the box?

(So that the events I see are those which happened after the last power-on. No older log information is
stored in the BomeBox)

(6.)
BomeBox keeps a local file inside the box which describes

  • Routes
  • Interfaces and their alias names
    (as long as they are not overwritten with uploaded project files)

Correct?

(7.)
A BomeBox with nothing connected to it (only WebConfig to query the BomeBox) reports:

-No MIDI Routes
-MIDI Ports: 1 IN, 1 OUT
-MIDI Translator: [no project]

If I then connect a class compliant MIDI Interface (miditech midiface 8x8) I see the following:

Each of the 8(in)+8(out) interface ports get two entries:
(example only for one interface given)

  • MIDIFACE 8x8[1]
  • USB1 MIDIFACE 8x8[1](Auto Alias)

If I do a ‘Add Route’ on WebConfig page ‘MIDI Routes’ I see 16 possible selections (for only 8 hardware ports of the midiface interface per data flow direction).

I can add 2 routes which are in reality only 1 functional route:
(example)
Source: MIDIFACE 8x8[1] Destination: BomeBox DIN
Source: USB 1 (MIDIFACE 8x8[1]) Destination: BomeBox DIN

Why does BomeBox not concatenate these two ‘logical routes’
into one line of information on the ‘MIDI routes’ page of WebConfig?

(might be there is a technical reason I do not understand so far)

Thank you very much for your anwers!

Hi and welcome to the Bome community!

MT stands for Midi Translator. All BomeBoxes have the capability to run ‘signed’ Bome MIDI Translator Pro, project files. By signed, that means you need to create the project file with a paid version of Bome MIDI Translator Pro. The free trial version does not do signing.

The Pro license is for communications between computers only. You don’t need a Pro license to communicate between a computer and BomeBox. You will need to download the free Bome Network license if you want to use the Unlimited Named MIDI ports on your computer.

To speak ‘MIDI’ to any MIDI devices between your BomeBox, you will need Bome Network on your computer (for computer to computer communication). For BomeBox to BomeBox communication, Bome Network is build in. For generic network traffic, BomeBox acts as a generic network router and as such, routes packets like any other network router but does not otherwise process them.

Use verbose when instructed by support. I believe for some traffic it just allows more log messages to come through. I don’t quite remember and would need to research this further.

I believe it is cleared at power up. Again, this would only be used when instructed by support for troubleshooting.

The first entry is the physical hardware port. The second entry is an ‘Alias’ that is created to the same port. If you load a project file and both of these have routes added, you will get double MIDI messages. Typically I assign my own aliases in MT Pro and use those instead of the physical device names.

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care


Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz

Hi Roland,
not sure if Steve’s answers were all you needed?

A few additional details:

No, all existing BomeBox are locked to the ‘MT’ edition. We can engineer different editions, but at this time we don’t have any such plans.

This option is not retro-active: it only applies to subsequent log messages (there will be more detail).

Yes, this is how it works internally. The BomeBox always remembers the state and restores it when powering up. All routes, alias assignments, the currently selected MT project file (if any), network settings, and many other things are stored in configuration files.