Fate of Downrush

jamiefaye

I haven’t been working on Downrush for awhile now. The biggest reason is because I myself have stopped using it.

One big reason for that is that the FlashAir card does not work very well with my MacBook. When the FlashAir is active, my wireless mouse often stops working.

Another reason for losing interest in Downrush has to do with the fact that Toshiba is discontinuing the FlashAir product, which is causing the price of existing cards to go up.

So what to do next?

The best set up for a future Downrush involves exploiting the fact that modern web browsers have decent Midi support. Access to SysEx messages is possible as long as the web site involved uses HTTPS (encryption).

An ideal setup would be for Downrush to be served-up from the web, running in the browser, using SysEx messages to access the file system on the Deluge. No information about the files themselves has to go into the cloud.

The SysEx commands we need are: list directory, upload file, download file, rename file, delete file, & trigger reload. While I would love to see Deluge extended to do much more, like allowing you to change synth settings individually, the file manipulation stuff is all I need.

Using SysEx and USB Midi (assuming you can handle a bitrate way bigger than 30K baud) will make Downrush (and many other 3rd party apps) available for the Deluge without requiring users to buy anything.

p_wats

Thanks for all the work you've done so far, @jamiefaye ! I was using Downrush last night and would love to see it able to continue in some form.

Here's hoping you can get the SysEx commands needed.

Eddy

big thanks @jamiefaye for the incredible work on downrush, hope you can give us more genious tools for the wonderful deluge.
Some Sysex secrets could open a world for example on raspberry also

AndrewLevinMusic

Just saw this! I think Downrush is still *hugely valuable. There are still several wireless SD cards out there. How difficult would it be to create a universal version that works on EZ Share, SanDisc, etc?

manysounds

@AndrewLevinMusic said:
Just saw this! I think Downrush is still *hugely valuable. There are still several wireless SD cards out there. How difficult would it be to create a universal version that works on EZ Share, SanDisc, etc?

Seconded
or thirded, maybe fourthed

Kenoubi

I have a FlashAir, but I never got Downrush to work. But doing this through MIDI instead would be AMAZING. It would open so many doors for 3rd party computer software to interoperate with the Deluge, without requiring any weird hardware at all. Synthstrom, are you listening?

AndrewM

*disclaimer I am working on MIDI 2.0 specification within the MMA
One of the new features being worked on by the MIDI Association is a thing called Property Exchange which provides manufacturers with a set of standard SysEx messages for managing and auto configuration of their devices. Part of what is available is the ability to transfer files (8 bit over 7bit protocol)

I would recommend that the Deluge was to go down this path instead of writing custom SysEx.

I am happy to help in anyway I can to get this done.
Andrew Mee
Chair of the Property Exchange working group

mbryne

@AndrewM said:
One of the new features being worked on by the MIDI Association is a thing called Property Exchange which provides manufacturers with a set of standard SysEx messages for managing and auto configuration of their devices. Part of what is available is the ability to transfer files (8 bit over 7bit protocol)

Amazing, this is great news, this would be a great approach for the Deluge / Downrush moving forward.