This 'unofficial' Forum is dedicated to the Clavia Nord Keyboards, including the Nord Stage, Nord Electro and Nord Piano. Discuss any issues around Nord's keyboards, share your favorite patches, samples, and music. We are not affiliated with Clavia!
I'm seeing conflicting answers regarding Nord keyboards in general on this, but none specific to the Stage 4. The use case is to build something similar to this: https://www.norduserforum.com/nord-elec ... 21568.html to control pitch bend and things through MIDI. i'd like to power it from the keyboard, ideally. also, if anyone has schematics they could share, that would be appreciated
cgrafx wrote:Nord provides 3.3v on midi port. No power on USB as the Stage 4 is not a USB host.
This + let's remind that the "power" on MIDI is the nominal one required to support the MIDI current loop at its MIDI OUT, it can also power some very-low-current devices (like the Ocean Beach DB-1 drawbars, some MIDI foot controllers like MIDI Solutions' and similar) but in general it should not be "abused" and requires a careful design.
Last edited by maxpiano on 22 Feb 2024, 08:47, edited 5 times in total.
cgrafx wrote:Nord provides 3.3v on midi port. No power on USB as the Stage 4 is not a USB host.
This + let's remind that the "power" on MIDI is the nominal one required to support the MIDI current loop at its MIDI OUT, it can also power some very-low-current devices (like the Ocean Beach DB-1 drawbars, some MIDI foot controllers like MIDI Solutions' and similar) but in general it should not be "abused" and requires a careful design.
are there any risks to "abusing" this? I saw https://mitxela.com/projects/flash_synth which powers using midi out, similarly to what you mentioned. I was thinking of using a similar design but would hate to damage the keyboard
also, from what I've read, it seems like most devices provide 5v on midi out (and the 3.3v was added in the midi 1.1 spec I believe). do you think this affects compatibility with devices like these?
cgrafx wrote:Nord provides 3.3v on midi port. No power on USB as the Stage 4 is not a USB host.
This + let's remind that the "power" on MIDI is the nominal one required to support the MIDI current loop at its MIDI OUT, it can also power some very-low-current devices (like the Ocean Beach DB-1 drawbars, some MIDI foot controllers like MIDI Solutions' and similar) but in general it should not be "abused" and requires a careful design.
are there any risks to "abusing" this? I saw https://mitxela.com/projects/flash_synth which powers using midi out, similarly to what you mentioned. I was thinking of using a similar design but would hate to damage the keyboard
also, from what I've read, it seems like most devices provide 5v on midi out (and the 3.3v was added in the midi 1.1 spec I believe). do you think this affects compatibility with devices like these?
It could, it depends on the device specs and besides voltage (latest Nord keyboards work on 3.3V as you also have noted), the other limitation is current; to tackle the risk companies like MIDI Solutions sell also a MIDI Power Adapter device https://midisolutions.com/prodpwr.htm, to their boxes (or also other's) if the keyboard is not providing enough power and also Ocean Beach DB1 had the possibility to power it via an internally mounted 9V battery (if powering via MIDI was not working properly)
