USB hosting Novation Launchpad with FTDI Vinculum VNC2 chip
2,711 views · Published 2 March 2012 · 1:07 · Indexed 3 October 2026
Channel: Jason Hotchkiss · 2012 · Science & Technology
This is a step in an ongoing project to make a standalone embedded version of the MIDI sequencer projects for Novation Launchpad (Shown in some of my other clips) The Launchpad is a USB-only MIDI control surface designed for Ableton, but I want to make it into a standalone, general purpose, hackable MIDI toy a bit like an monome. My intended solution is a USB box containing an Atmega328 hooked up to an FTDI VNC2 microcontroller/USB controller providing both usb hosting for the Launchpad and usb-serial conversion for programming the AVR. This means Arduino IDE can be used to program it over USB just like an Arduino Nano. This clip shows a home made board containing just the FTDI VNC2 IC. Its taken me a while for the IDE and libraries for this chip to make sense, but now I've cracked it and I am on a roll! The chip is powerful and cheap, but the IDE is a bit clunky and the sample code needs tweaking before it works, but perseverance pays off.
