JPS62141591A - Network system for electronic musical apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to an electronic musical instrument network system, and in particular to a system in which a loop network is automatically established simply by sequentially connecting a plurality of terminals including electronic musical instruments etc. in cascade using a single composite cable. Regarding the system that was created.

[Background of the Invention] Conventionally, for example, MIDI (Music) has been used to connect an electronic musical instrument such as a synthesizer to an instrument and transmit performance data.
InstrumentDigital Inte
Interface standards such as rface) have been established.

This standard allows for example two electronic musical instruments to be connected to each other.

However, since this kind of MIDI)lJ format is based on the point-to-point system, it is impossible to connect multiple electronic musical instruments to perform performances, etc. It was impossible to connect a disk drive or the like directly to the interface line. In order to incorporate terminals other than electronic musical instruments into the network, a control computer and special software are required to control these terminals, and therefore the various cables of the MIDI ID interface are required to transmit the information. Is the system extremely used? In addition to this, there was the inconvenience that in order to operate this system, knowledge of computers was required in addition to knowledge of the instrument itself. In general, each time the system configuration was changed, it was necessary to change the software and redo the wiring.

[Objective and Summary of the Invention] In view of the problems with the conventional type described above, the present invention provides an electronic musical instrument network system that easily loops using a single path line without physically connecting each terminal in a loop. The purpose is to enable a network to be configured, thereby realizing a high-performance system with a high degree of freedom in system configuration.

In order to achieve such an object, in the present invention, a system is formed by simply sequentially connecting a plurality of terminals including electronic musical instruments etc. in series using composite cables each including a pair of optical fiber cables or coaxial cables. .

Then, a first transmission line in each composite cable transmits a signal in the outward direction, and a second transmission line transmits a signal in the backward direction. Furthermore, the terminals at both ends of the network are configured to be able to send signals transmitted through one transmission line back to the other transmission line. With such a configuration, a loop network can be configured without physically connecting each terminal in a loop.

[Description of Embodiment 1] Next, an electronic musical instrument network system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings while comparing it with a conventional system. FIG. 7 shows an outline of a loop network system conventionally used in a so-called local area network (LAN). This system has multiple terminals 1-1, 1-2. ......, 1-5
and optical fiber cables 2 connecting these terminals in a loop. In this system, information signals are transmitted in a ring shape, for example, in the direction not shown by the arrow, and information can be exchanged without being heard at any end.

However, in such a system, it is necessary to connect each terminal in a loop, which makes the wiring complicated and the wiring work complicated, as well as limiting the degree of freedom in arranging each terminal. there were.

FIG. 1 schematically shows an electronic musical instrument network system according to an embodiment of the present invention, which eliminates the disadvantages of the conventional system. The system of FIG. 1 includes a plurality of terminals 3-1. 3-2. ...
..., 3-5, and composite cables 4 that sequentially connect these terminals.

Each composite cable 4 is configured by integrating an outgoing transmission line 15 and an incoming transmission line 6, and can be connected to each terminal through a common connector. Further, each transmission line is, for example, an optical fiber cable or a coaxial cable.

What should be noted in the system shown in Figure 1 is that the terminal 3-
1 to terminal 3-5 via each terminal 3-2.3-3.3-4
Although the terminals 3-5 and 3-1 are sequentially connected in series by the cable 4, there is no connection from the last terminal 3-5 to the first terminal 3-1. That is, according to the present invention,
A loop network is constructed by apparently connecting each terminal in a cascade manner using one cable, without physically connecting them in a loop.

However, in the system of FIG. 1, for example, as shown in FIG. 2, at the last terminal 3-5, transmission 1i15
It adds the signal it should transmit to the signal received via the transmission line 6 and sends it back to another transmission line 6. On the other hand, terminals connected in the middle of the network, e.g. 3-4
In this case, the signal received from the outgoing transmission line 5 is transmitted to the next terminal via the outgoing transmission line 5, either as is or with its own signal added thereto, as required. Similarly, the signal received from the return transmission line 6 is sent to the next return transmission line 6 as is or with its own signal added thereto, as required. Note that each terminal reads its own data from each transmission line as necessary. With such a configuration, a user can configure a loop network by simply connecting each terminal sequentially using one cable and without physically connecting the terminals in a loop.

In this way, each terminal has, for example, two connectors, and the mode is switched to return or pass the received signal depending on whether or not the cable 4 is connected to each connector.

FIG. 3 shows the configuration when there are two terminals 1-0 In this case, each connector 9 of each terminal 7 and 8
2, only connectors 10 and 11 are connected to each other by cable 4. Each terminal tests whether a cable is connected to its connector, for example by using a switch mechanically actuated by insertion of the connector, or by sending a test signal from the terminal to one of the transmission lines. It is possible to determine whether a cable is connected to the connector depending on whether a signal is returned from another transmission line. And in Figure 3, J3
In the terminal 7 connected to the network, the cable is not connected to the connector 9, but only to the connector 10. Therefore, it is determined that the terminal 7 is connected to the end of the network, and the transmission line 6 is connected to the terminal 7. A return route is formed from the transmission line 5 to the transmission line 5. Similarly, in the terminal 8, it can be seen that the transmission line 4 is connected only at the connector 11, so that a return route from the transmission line 5 to the transmission line 6 is formed. Note that each terminal 7.8 exchanges information with each transmission line via an interface circuit 13.14.

FIG. 4 shows the internal setting state of a terminal connected in the middle of the network. In the figure, cables 4 are connected to two connectors 16 and 17 of a terminal 15, and these cables 4 are respectively connected to other terminals. At the terminal 15, when it is found that the two connectors 16 and 17 are both connected to the cable as described above, the transmission $ connected to the connector 16 is
15 is set to be sent to the transmission 115 connected to the connector 17, and the signal from the transmission line 6 connected to the connector 17 is set to be output to the transmission line 6 connected to the connector 16. In addition, if necessary, transmission tl
Signals are exchanged with A5 or 6 via the interface 18.

Furthermore, in the system according to the present invention, the internal settings of each terminal are automatically changed not only when the system is initially formed using various terminals and cables, but also when the system configuration changes midway through. . For example, the fifth
Assume that the system configuration is as shown in Figure (a) 1. In this case, there are three terminals 19, 20, and 21.
are connected to each other by each cable 4. Similarly to terminals 7 and 8 shown in FIG. 3, terminals 19 and 21 are set so that signals are returned at portions corresponding to connectors 22 and 23, respectively. Further, the terminal 20 is set so that signals are exchanged between the connectors 24 and 25 in the same manner as the terminal 15 shown in FIG. In this state, for example, as shown in FIG. 5(b), the connector 25 of the terminal 20
When the connector of the cable 4 connected to the terminal 20 is pulled out, the internal setting state of the terminal 20 is changed. That is, the terminal 20 is set to return signals at the connector 24, and the system is configured by the invading terminals 19 and 20.

FIG. 6 shows an example of a procedure for determining the connection state at each terminal. In this figure, whether or not a cable is connected to a connector is determined by sending a test signal from the connector to one transmission line, and this test signal is sent back to the other transmission line via the cable and another terminal. This is done using an active sense that detects whether or not the current is coming.

First, a determination operation is started by turning on the power, for example, and active sensing is performed for the right connector. That is, for example, a test signal is transmitted from the connector 12 on the right side of the terminal 8 in FIG. 3, and it is determined whether or not the transmitted test signal is returned. If the test signal is not returned as a result, the terminal is assumed to be connected to the right end of the network, like terminal 8 in FIG. 3, and necessary processing such as internal circuit settings is performed.

If a test signal is returned, it is assumed that another terminal is connected to the right connector, and an active sensing operation is performed for the left connector. As a result, if the test information is returned, that is, if there is a response, it means that another terminal is connected to the left connector, and therefore the own terminal is, for example, terminal 15 shown in FIG. It is determined that it is connected to the 9th part of the network, and internal circuit settings and other settings are performed. Further, if there is no response from the left connector, it is determined that the terminal is connected to the left end of the network, and internal settings, such as those of the terminal 7 in FIG. 3, are performed.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, a network having an arbitrary configuration can be automatically formed by a simple operation of sequentially connecting a plurality of terminals using an apparently single cable. There is no need to directly connect a cable from the last device to the first device, and the degree of freedom regarding the arrangement and type of each terminal is extremely large. Furthermore, since a loop network system is logically formed, an extremely high-performance electronic musical instrument network system can be realized.

In addition, when a composite cable containing an optical fiber cable is used as a cable that connects each terminal to 111M, high-speed information transmission is possible, there is no delay or variation in signal generation, and it can be used on stages, etc. If you do so, you will not be affected by noise (and problems such as grounding will also be resolved).

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block circuit diagram schematically showing an electronic musical instrument network system according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a t!
41 is an explanatory diagram showing the signal transmission state within each terminal in the system; FIGS. 3 and 4 are schematic block circuit diagrams showing the internal setting states of the terminals connected to the end and intermediate parts of the network, respectively; 5 factors <a> and (b) are explanatory diagrams showing changes in the anjiQ status of terminals when the system configuration is changed, and Fig. 6 shows the processing procedure for determining the connection status of each terminal. The flowchart and FIG. 7 are explanatory diagrams showing a conventional loop network system. 1-1.1-2. ......, 1-5: Terminal, 2: Optical fiber cable, 3-1.3-2. ...-, 3-5: terminal, 4: cable, 5.6 = transmission line, 7.8, 15, 19, 20, 21: terminal, 9, 10
, 11, 12, 16.1? ,22,23.24.25
: Connector, 13.14.18 : Interface circuit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] The network comprises one or more composite cables each including one pair of transmission lines, and a plurality of terminals each including at least one electronic musical instrument, and the terminals are sequentially connected in cascade by the composite cable to form a network. An electronic musical instrument network system, characterized in that a signal from one transmission line of the composite cable can be looped back to another transmission line at an end terminal of the network.