Yesterday was Midify launch day, and to celebrate I made a new demo video:

 

It’s true. I installed a MIDI port in my microwave. “Why a microwave” you ask?

 

I wanted to show how versatile Midify was and how much fun you could have controlling everything in sight, even if those things aren’t musical instruments, so I tried to think of something really random and delicious. Then I saw the microwave sitting there on the shelf.

So the best part about YouTube is that no matter what you upload there is always some guy who thinks that it’s fake. Or girl. Usually it’s a guy though. If you are that guy or girl, I assure you my microwave really does have a MIDI port on it. Here are a couple pictures of the midification process (it was a quick and dirty job so no comments about the craftsmanship please):

Microwave PCB

 

This is the circuit board out of the microwave. That blue connector hooks to the keypad so that was where I needed to tie into.

Microwave PCB Side 2

 

This is the other side of the circuit board. Everything is really well labeled on it which made this mod much easier.

Microwave Keypad Ribbon Cable

 

This is the ribbon cable that goes to the membrane keypad on the front of the microwave. There are way fewer conductors in the cable than there are buttons, and there’s more than 2 or 3, so that told me that the keys are wired up in a matrix configuration and that I would need to use some transistors in conjunction with the Midify board.

Mapping the Keypad

 

I used some clip leads and my trusty meter to test continuity between every pair of conductors and figure out what combinations corresponded to which button on the keypad.

Attaching the MIDI board

 

Here is the Midify / transistor board after it was wired up to some of the pins on the keypad connector. The idea is that each Midify output turns on a transistor which bridges two pins on the connector, making the microwave think that someone just pushed a button.

All done!

 

All done. The only thing left do do was to mount the 2.5mm phone jack on the top cover of the microwave, put it back together, and the world’s first MIDI-controlled microwave was mine!

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