Hello everyone,
I want to design a device that helps keeping several other electronic music instruments synchronized.
For many years, and still today, MIDI clock signals where the most common way to synchronize drum machines, synthesizers, digital audio workstations and other musical gear. But MIDI clock is rather unreliable, and after a while some audible drift happens between different devices.
Fortunately, in recent years, syncing became a lot easier, with the help of modern networking technology.
First of all, there's Ableton Link, a protocol that makes syncing between modern devices a lot easier, but until now it is restricted to modern hardware like PCs oder iPads (devices that have a proper OS).
On the other hand, modern DJ CD players like the top Pioneer products also rely on network protocols to sync to each other.
My idea is now to create a box that connects to other PCs or DJ players via WIFI or ethernet, and syncs them to each other, but also outputs a corresponding MIDI clock signal.
In the beginning I intended to use a simple arduino with a connected Ethernet IC to sniff on the communication between DJ players and generate a MIDI clock signal, as this was my first idea. Later on, I wanted to include Ableton Link, too, which would require another device with Linux, as Ableton Link is not available for such low level devices. Now I want to use a SoC that offers all I need in one chip.
I am planning to use the QCA4531, as it offers all I need, and it has an I2C interface, which can be used to communicate with another MCU (like a STM32F103), which could control the user interface like buttons and encoders, and for a display and LEDs.
Unfortunately, I can't find a datasheet to the QCA4531. Does anyone have it and could send it to me?
Another question I have is about processing power: The device should behave like a normal router, providing connections between all connected devices. Features like firewall etc. are not necessary, as the device normally should not be connected to the internet, but connect to another router for internet access. Is it possible to estimate how much processing power the additional functions I intend to include will need? MIDI clock generation should be simple, and the syncing of DJ players is some simple packet sniffing, so that should not be that difficult, too.
How high is the CPU usage of a QCA4531 router when there are only simple tasks like network routing involved? Is it mostly idling, or is there already some power needed?
Is it possible to use the QCA4531 as some kind of WIFI bridge, so it can connect to the WIFI from another router, an provide internet to the connected devices?
Cheers,
Bastian
