Adapt the SAO port on your badge or project to have a real MIDI DIN connector for input and output using two GPIOs available with bit-banged or native UART. MIDI is a very simple and powerful serial protocol with minimal requirements. You can add a MIDI IN & OUT port to any project, easily - even if it doesn't have a real serial port available.

I wanted a way to turn my Core64 into a MIDI grid controller, so I designed the MIDI SAO. It worked very well and I decided to make it available for others to have fun with.

This is an authentic MIDI connection, for both the input and the output. There are input and output indicator LEDs on the front so you can see the activity as well. This is version 1.0 of the design and it does include some camouflaged bodge wires on the bottom side to overcome my mistake in the layout. Can you spot the bodge wires? Either way, it works great now! There is even a QWIIC socket installed to extend to other I2C devices.

Is it a Hackaday project? Of course! Learn more about this project and MIDI here: https://hackaday.io/project/202327-sao-to-midi

The latest firmware in the Core64 project supports this SAO natively in music mode.