40hWiki - Serial Py IO

About

Serial-PyIO is used to connect the monome devices to various applications. Serial-PyIO translates the native serial protocol of a monome 40h to other communication protocols (e.g. OSC), mainly usable in audio applications (e.g. pd, ChucK, MaxMSP, ...). Serial-PyIO makes it possible to use monome devices under any operating system that runs Python.

Here's an image of a monome 40h:

Serial-PyIO manages multiple monome devices and multiple applications at the same time. Thus, you can have multiple applications running and quickly assign your monome to an application. Serial-PyIO also uncouples application from device size. In this way you can use a small device, such as a 64, with an application designed for a bigger device, such as a 256.

Serial-PyIO supports the standard OSC protocol designed by Monome.

Additional features:

Easily adjust device location
Virtual devices of arbitrary size
Device orientation
Easily expandable

Screenshot

Here is a screenshot showing Serial-PyIO in action, with multiple applications and virtual devices.

Download

...the most recent version of Serial-PyIO.

Installation

First you need python. If you're running windows you also need the python for windows extensions.

Then you just unpack the Serial-PyIO archive in some convenient place.

Getting stated

To launch Serial-PyIO: open a terminal and go into the installation directory and type python serial-pyio.py. Under Windows and OSX, you may be able to just double click on the serial-pyio.py file.

When you start Serial-PyIO for the first time you get a window with two parts. You will use the top part to manage running applications and the bottom part for devices.

Firstly you need to add a device. Go into the device menu and select the device you want to add. Setup the parameters and validate. You must know the name of the port where your device is plugged in. The port name differs from one operating to the other:

Linux: this will be something like /dev/ttyUSB0 or /dev/ttyUSB1...
Windows: this will be something like COM0 or COM1 or COM2...
OSX: you will have to open a terminal and type: ls /dev/tty.usbserial* . The port of your device will be in the list. For example /dev/tty.usbserial-m64-0022.

Secondly you need to add an application. Go into the application menu and choose the needed application. If you want to connect your device to a regular application such as Max or Chuck, add an OSC application. Serial-PyIO also includes standalone applications that you can use for testing purposes or just for fun! Size of the application is application specific. Regular sizes are multiple of 8.

Finally you need to assign your device to the application. To do so, you just select the corresponding radio button in the right part of the device section. If the assigned application has a size bigger that the device one, you can drag the middle blue square to change the device location.

You can save the configuration so that you don't need to add devices and applications each time: File->save config.