I’m a new BomeBox user. I have read the manual and many threads of the forum but still don’t understand the routing.
At first I had a hard time connecting the BomeBox, as the URL 192.168.153.1 did not respond at all on my PC. Then I tried with my iPad but found it difficult to switch between Hotspot and WiFi, so I decided to try again with my PC.
Then I figured that because my PC is connected by an Ethernet cable rather than through my WiFi, that this could be the problem and I tried to connect the BomeBox by an Ethernet cable as well. This worked and I finally was able to upload Projects to my BomeBox.
Until I have a reliable USB Hub, I just connect my Piano de Voyage to the BomeBox by means of USB MIDI. This way, however, I can’t see any MIDI signals (capture MIDI) in the MIDI Translator Pro and also I see no immediate effect when changing a project, unless I re-upload it to the BomeBox.
To make things a little easier, I have no MIDI software (synths, loopers, DAW’s) runnung on my PC so far. So I guess I’m not needing any Virtual Ports. I’m using the PC only for programming, testing and uploading my projects. Still I don’t know how I must route my gear. For instance, in the router, there are, among others, 3 lines reading like this:
BomeBox
BomeBox: Piano de Voyage
Piano de Voyage
This irritates me. What’s the difference?
Ideally, I would like my BomeBox to operate via WiFi (despite my PC being connected by an Ethernet cable), having the possibility to edit my project on the Bome Translator Pro running on my PC and immediately being able to test the effect of the changes and having the ability to capture MIDI, and only at the very end to upload the project to the BomeBox, all without reconnecting cables.
Then I just need to know how to switch between processing the project on Bome Translator Pro and processing the project on the BomeBox.
BomeBox is the generic BomeBox port exposed to your computer. Typically since you are using Remote Direct MIDI you do not need to monitor this on your PC. On you BomeBox this will be seen as your PC name
BomeBox ← Network Connection → PC Name
BomeBox: Piano de Voyage
This is how BomeBox exposes you USB port over the network to your PC. When connecting your Keyboard, BomeBox will assign the name based on what your USB interface shows (in this case ‘Piano de Voyage’). Then with Remote Direct MIDI, you will see it on your PC with the same name prepended with the BomeBox name. For monitoring the output of you keyboard on your PC, you should use this as your input port of your PC.
Piano d Voyage
If your keyboard is attached to BomeBox, the it will see it locally with this name. If using Bome Network, your PC will see this as the name shown above.
If it is attached directly to your PC, then it will see it locally on you PC with this name.
I suggest in your project file you use MIDI aliases with some generic name. That way as you move your project from your PC to your BomeBox, you can simply re-assign the alias to whatever physical name you want to use. Typically an alias name should be something other than the real physical name. I would recommend something like ‘My-Piano’ for input and ‘MySynths’ for the output devices (if they are on MIDI DIN).
You can learn more about aliases from this tutorial.
If you have a local WiFi router that is on the same network as your wired PC, you can configure your BomeBox as a DHCP client instead of a Hotspot (the default) and then use wireless. You PC will communicate to the same router via ethernet as your BomeBox (via WiFi).
I would recommend you leave the ethernet as configured (as a DHCP client) and then you can do either but not both at the same time. If you connect your BomeBox via ethernet, make sure that WiFi is turned off or Bome Network will try to connect to both ethernet and WiFi (vi different IP address) at the same time which will cause havoc.
If you want to then use your iPad to connect to BomeBox, just connect to it via your router connection as well and not directly to BomeBox.
If later when you have no ethernet connection, you will need to configure WiFi as a hotspot again (while you are connected to ethernet or you will lose your connection).
For me, what I do is everything ethernet (Both PC and BomeBox) for development and testing. I just leave WiFi configured as hotspot and turned off and when I have no ethernet, I connect to my BomeBox directly at the HotSpot address. That way I never worry about losing network connectivity to my BomeBox.
As I said, I do all of my testing on my home wired network. I use aliases and when I upload my project to BomeBox, I re-assign the aliases there.
When no wired network is present, I turn on BomeBox WiFi and use it as a hotspot. If uploading from my PC, I need to switch my PC to the BomeBox wireless network, which is a bit of a pain and why I don’t do it this way.
I’m updating the project with my suggested alias. Here is how it looks while the project file is loaded on my PC. (I’m using a different keyboard)
Note, that I changed the MIDI thru routing to reflect the new alias port names.
Here is how it looks when running my project on BomeBox. I can monitory the keyboard input using Remote Direct MINI on my PC. (using a different project file).
Thank you, Steve. I think I now have an understanding of what Aliases are good for.
On the other hand, I think I have a complete mess in my mind what concerns the routing, and in which case processing is done by the Translator Pro and when by the BomeBox. I have to prepare my questions carefully in order to understand the answers you will give me. I will come back soon.
Assume that I have just a Keyboard (USB MIDI), a Soundbox (MIDI DIN), and the BomeBox in between. Furthermore, I have a PC running Bome Translator Pro.
First task: Development of projects with the possibility of testing it and capturing MIDI in Bome Translator Pro, that means, every modification to the project reflects immediately when playing the keyboard. In this task, the BomeBox acts solely as a so called USB MIDI Host (named after the famous Kenton device), which means that it routes the incoming USB MIDI to the outgoing MIDI DIN. Somewhere in between acts the project currently enabled in the Bome Translator Pro.
Second task: After the finished project has been uploaded into the BomeBox, the USB MIDI from Keyboard is now translated by the BomeBox rather than by Bome Translator Pro. This serves only as a final test before taking the gear on the road, whithout the PC.
Now my question is: Can I switch from the first to the second task and back without reconnection of cables, just by changing the routing, and how would I do that exactly?
For testing on computer, close the project on your BomeBox, Then on your computer set the alias of your keyboard ‘My-Piano’ to point to ‘BomeBox: Piano de Voyage’. Have your alias ‘My-Synths’ point to ‘BomeBox:BomeBox DIN’. You are using Remote Direct MIDI for both connections on your computer to your BomeBox device.
Once you test that it is all working there, upload your project to BomeBox and start it.
Set your aliases for BomeBox and run you project.
If you want to also monitor using your computer, you would need to set up another route on your BomeBox from ‘BomeBox:BomeBox DIN’ to ‘Computer’ (whatever your computer name is). On your computer you an open a new project and select ‘BomeBox’ as your input device. Then you will see anything coming out of the translator running on your BomeBox. You should not try to also monitor the Remote Direct MIDI ports on your computer.
Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care
Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz
What do you mean by ‘Remote Direct MIDI’ ? The term is not to be found in the Bome Manual nor in the BomeBox instructions. What’s the purpose and definition of the term?
(First task) I’ve done as you said and the following happened:
I can capture MIDI and can see the log and, upon pressing the F7 note, the log shows exactly what should happen see the screen capture after pressing F7:
However, although the log shows it, it has no effect on the Soundbox (MySynth). The notes are not processed as shown in the log but the raw notes are transmitted without translation.
(Second task) Upon uploading the project to the BomeBox, a strange thing happens: I don’t even have to press F7 in order to have the effect of it (i.e. selecting voices for channels 6, 7 and 8). It is like someone already had pressed that F7 button. How is that possible? Otherwise everything works as expected with the BomeBox in charge.
Turn of any routing in your BomeBox. Perhaps there is also a direct route from your Piano (USB) to your Synth (MIDI DIN). This can be done on the routing screen of your BomeBox. By default, it routes everything to everything else so this is what is probably happening.
F7 is just sending the initialization sequence. The translators are always set up to do the channel routing. If you want to turn it on and off dynamically, you need to set up other translators to enable or disable the channel routing.
Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care
Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz
and it seems to upload forever. When in this mode, the BomeBox is still loaded with the last project and works. However, I cannot close the project, and that means I cannot test projects on the Bome Translator Pro anymore.
I haven’t seen this before. Are you on the latest firmware?
Can you clear your browser cache and then refresh the browser screen. It is possibly working but not properly showing in your browser.
Of course you can do a factory reset. Then go and delete any project you don’t want and then try uploading again. Of course after factory reset, you will need to reconfigure your BomeBox for both network connection and password, so try anything else you can do before doing factory reset.
Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care
Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz
All LED’s, Power, Pair, Wifi, and ‘PoE In’ are illuminated. When I disable Wifi, I lose connection to above URL regardless that the BomeBox is connected to the Router by an Ethernet cable.
Hmm, so maybe you should check to ensure your BomeBox is configured correctly for both WiFi and ethernet. Assuming you can get to the BomeBox in any form, you should be able to set ethernet to client and WiFi to Hotspot. If you need to do a network reset to connect, the instructions for that are in the online manual page 28.
The BomeBox address on the WiFi and ethernet will be different.
Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care
Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz
and can see the log 
