Tonex Controller: An open-source controller and display interface for the IK Multimedia Tonex One and Tonex pedal

This project uses a low-cost embedded controller (Espressif ESP32-S3) to form a bridge to the IK Multimedia Tonex One guitar pedal (which does not have native Midi capability) and also the Tonex Pedal.

Development Info

The code is written in C, for the Espressif ESP-IDF development environment version 5.4.1, and using the FreeRTOS operating system. The LVGL library is used as the graphics engine.

Task overview:

Control task is the co-ordinator for all other tasks
Display task handles the LCD display and touch screen
Midi Control task handles Bleutooth link to Midi pedals
USB comms task handles the USB host
USB Tonex One handles the comms to the Tonex One pedal

Building Custom sources

Building the application requires some skill and patience.

Follow the instructions at https://www.waveshare.com/wiki/ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-4.3B#ESP-IDF to install VS Code and ESP-IDF V5.02
Open the project Source folder using VS Code
Follow the instructions at https://www.waveshare.com/wiki/ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-4.3B#Modify_COM_Port to select the correct comm port for your Waveshare board, and compile the app

Menu Config options

Use the Menu Config system to select which components of the Controller you wish to enable.

Partition Table

All platforms: "partitions.csv"

SPI RAM config

Mode of SPI RAM chip in use:

"Octal Mode PSRAM"
"Quad Mode PSRAM"

Serial Flasher Config

Flash Spi Mode:

"QIO" (Quad mode)
"DIO" (Dual mode)

Flash Size:

"8MB"
"4MB"

Wireshark USB Capture

Download and install the latest version of the free app "Wireshark" from https://www.wireshark.org/
Install it, ensuring the option for USB Pcap is enabled
Start the Wireshark app
Connect Tonex pedal to the same PC
In the Wireshark app, select the Capture interface to USBPcap

- Press the blue Sharkfin button to begin capturing all USB packets

- Start the Tonex Editor software, and let it complete its sync process
- Press the red square button to stop capturing

- Use File -> Save As to save the captured data to disk

Debug Logs

Extensive debug logging is used, in the form of serial printing from the main ESP32-S3 "UART" transmitter pin. To view these logs:

Obtain a USB serial adaptor, compatible with 3.3 volt TTL signals (low-cost example shown below)
Connect the ground pin on the adaptor to a ground pin of the ESP32-S3
Connect the "RX" pin of the adaptor to TX pin of the ESP32-S3 board (pin locations shown for some platforms below.)
Download and install the latest version of the free app "Tera Term" from https://github.com/TeraTermProject/teraterm/releases (or use any other serial terminal program)
Connect the USB serial adaptor to your computer, and let it load any drivers it needs
Run Tera Term, and select the option for "Serial" and select the comm port corresponding to the USB serial adaptor
Select "Setup" -> "Serial Port", and change the baud rate to 115200
Power on the Controller board. Logging should appear on the Tera Term screen
To log the data to disk, select File -> Log