Using PIC18F in another project as Serial>HID MIDI converter

[operators123]

Hi, after finshing building megadrum, I've gone on to make some more MIDI controllers, but I've come back to ask a question about megadrum's circuit which has intriuged me. (It's atiny bit off topic but I hope this is ok)

In this new one I'm building, it going to be centered around a Atmega644 acting as the 'brain' to read buttons/pots/encoders and output/recieve MIDI. Now, I'm going to program this AVR with my own AVRisp, using arduino as a compiler (yes you can hack arduino's IDE to use a atmega644 with it apparantly).

Obviously the disadvantage of building your own arduino circuit is finding a way to communicate MIDI from the Tx/Rx pins on the Atmega644 into the computer using DIP chips. Yes, I can use a FT232 adapter, but this isn't HID MIDI, which I want. Atmega16u2 would be great, but it's not available in DIP form (and using adapters is hard to create in eagle)

I see megadrum uses a PIC18F2250 programmed as a serial>HID MIDI converter.
My question is that, if I use the PIC18F2250 with megadrums' firmware for it, and built around the same components that megadrum does, would it be able to take the serial output of atmega644,and still send CC messages, note on/offs and some LED output over USB?
Also would I be able to modify the firmware to change the Devices signature (from 'megadrum' to my own name)?

[dmitri]

My question is that, if I use the PIC18F2250 with megadrums' firmware for it, and built around the same components that megadrum does, would it be able to take the serial output of atmega644,and still send CC messages, note on/offs and some LED output over USB?

Why not just try and test it? You can also look at the source code.

Also would I be able to modify the firmware to change the Devices signature (from 'megadrum' to my own name)?

I released the source code under GPL license so for non-commercial use, yes you can.

[operators123]

Yeah, I guess I'm just going to test it, in theory it should work, but either way if something doesn't I'll just have a look at the source code.