Bomebox - Midi Fighter 64 starts in low power mode

I have a Midi Translator project that uses the Midi Fighter 64.
I ran this project on the Bomebox without any problems.

The MF64 used to be connected to the Bomebox through an iConnectMidi4+, but when I try to connect it to the Bomebox directly it goes into a sort of low power mode that still runs the firmware, but very slow(a button press or release takes half a second to register, multiple buttons takes seconds).

I have tried the following options:
Power > Bomebox > MF64
Bomebox(powered by HUB) > Powered HUB(2 different ones) > MF64
Power > Bomebox > Powered HUB(2 different ones) > MF64

I tried every combination I could think of and tried different power supplies and cables, but I can’t get it to work.
I hope someone can help me with this.

Hi and welcome to the forum!

In this configuration, are you using the supplied USB cable or a third party cable. Some cables may not provide for enough power. The BomeBox itself needs consistent 5v power at 150mA. Any attached devices may require more if not using a powered USB hub. Also make sure you are not powering via a USB charging port as they tend to cycle power up and down to quick charge devices. BomeBox will not like this.

The same is true here. Make sure that you are using a ‘non charging’ port on the USB hub you are powering the BomeBox from.

For me, I decided to go with a PoE (Power over Ethernet) injector as it provides higher voltage and is not as susceptical to power fluctuations.

If the power light on your BomeBox is also flickering, this is usually a sign of inconsistent power.

As far as I know the MIDI Fighter 64 takes quite a bit of power. I have a Launchpad MINI (original version) that does as well and it is very picky on the power configuration I have which is why I decided to go the PoE route. Also the MF64 might be picky about which port you are connecting to on your powered USB hub. Make sure you are not connecting it to a port meant for fast charging.
If you could share the USB powered hub types you are using, I might be able to advise further if there might be an issue there.

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care


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

Hi Steve,

The hubs I’m using are a D-Link DUB-H7, of which I have multiple in use for years, and a small Orico hub which doesn’t have a type number on it(its a small black round 4-port hub with support for OTG).

The D-Link hubs have a 3A power supply.
The Orico I have tried with a Ikea Koppla charger which does 2.4A on a single port and with an Official Raspberry Pi charger.

In this example:
Power > Bomebox > MF64
would be:
Ikea charger with a good quality cable/ Raspberry Pi charger > Bomebox > MF64 with a good quality cable, not the original one but I tried multiple and they all work when connecting to a pc.

With the hubs I tried the non-charging and the charging ports but it seems to make no difference.

Also, any of these combinations are happily powering my Launchpad pro together with a Zoom AR-48, even on a powerbank.

I agree that it looks like a power problem and that the MF64 is power-hungry. I have seen the same behaviour when using it together with multiple devices on an unpowered hub.
The current setup should have more than enough power though, but whatever I throw at it, the MidiFighter won’t go into normal mode.

OK I have a D-LINK 7. The older ones only have 1 charging port. The newer ones are all charging ports so don’t work well. I don’t know about the Orico. On my D-Link since mine is an older one I can use it but some ports don’t work well so you might need to experiiment a bit. I think the color of the LED is different whether it is charging or normal (green or blue but don’t remember which is which). Since iConnectivity has AC power, I’ve found it ample enough for any devices I have connected. My recommendation would be to go with a good PoE injector. I did for my BomeBoxes and have never experience power issues after that. For me it was well worth the extra $20 USD investment. I even use POE on one BomeBox and then daisy chain to a second one and it works just fine so only One Poe Injector required for 2 daisy chained BomeBoxes. I have a lot of USB devices, some which I found power hungry.

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care


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

I also picked up one of these when I was having power issues and it told me which of my MIDI controllers were the most power hungry.

The D-Link DUB-H7’s I have here are the black plastic ones with 2 charging ports.
If I use the same hub on the iConnectivity or any PC/Laptop/Raspberry Pi it has no problem powering the MidiFighter 64 together with several other devices like Launchpad pro and Xone:K2.

Same thing with the Orico hub, it can power the Bomebox, Launchpad pro and Zoom AR-48 all together, from the Ikea charger or a powerbank.
So it seems weird that this could not power the MF64 by itself.

The Bomebox seems to work fine, power led is steady.
When the MF64 is connected and I try to press all buttons together, they all light up bright white without reduced brightness. It just takes a couple seconds for the firmware to notice they got pressed.
It’s like it just booted up on a very slow clock speed.

I can try to buy a POE power supply, because it’s more convenient anyway.
But I’m not very confident this will actually fix the problem because to me it looks like a problem with device initialization.
It would also mean I couldn’t run the setup from a powerbank.

Also, about 1 in 20 times, the iConnectivity also refuses to recognise the MidiFighter to the point that I sometimes have to reboot it because even reconnecting doesn’t work.
Maybe that’s an indication of what is going on here, because it only happens with the MF64.
I really hope something can be done to identify and fix this in the Bomebox, because DJTechTools support is basically non-existant.

Found the solution, it’s late now so I’ll come back tomorrow to explain.

Hey are you using WiFi as well? If so, please make sure your country code is right? If you are using a project file, please share it so I can see if it is playing a factor into the slowness.

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care


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

Thanx for trying to help Steve, it turned out to be plain old user error.

So, while I was completely focused on the MidiFighter 64 starting up normally so it would be usable, apparently it was actually functioning “normal”.

Even though it didn’t seem to start up like it should, it was still being detected by the BomeBox so I could reassign the ports from the iConnect to the MF64.
As soon as I did that, it went into “normal mode”.

So this is what is happening:
When you plug a MF64 into a phone charger just to give it power, nothing happens.
When you plug it into a computer/iConnect, it starts up at full speed immediately, what I consider normal.
When you plug it into a BomeBox, it starts up in “slow mode”…

…until you specifically open the input port from the MF64. :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

If I just open the output port, it stays in “slow mode”, but as soon as you open the input port it springs back to life.
I have never seen this behaviour apart from the BomeBox.

So, the only question I have left is:
What is different about the way Windows or Linux/alsa “opens” a midi port versus the BomeBox?

Unfortunately I don’t have an answer for this but I’m glad you got it to work!