Tonex One Controller: An open-source controller and display interface for the IK Multimedia Tonex One guitar 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.)
It allows selection of the 20 different presets in the pedal, by any or all of touch screen, wired footswitches, bluetooth footswitches, bluetooth servers, and midi programs.
A variety of hardware is supported, from a $6 board with no display, up to a $44 board with a 4.3" touch screen LCD and a pretty graphical user interface.
Note: this project is not endorsed by IK Multimedia. Amplifier skin images copyright is owned by IK Multimedia. TONEX is a registered trademark of IK Multimedia Production Srl
- Demonstration Videos
- Meet the Family
- Key Features
- Hardware Platforms and Wiring Diagrams
- Uploading/Programming Firmware Releases
- Configuration and Settings
- Usage Instructions
- Firmware Development Information
- Acknowledgements
- Firmware Release Notes
- License
- Donations
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkOs5gk3bcQ
This project can run on any of three different hardware platforms, varying in size and cost. All of them are "off-the-shelf" development boards supplied by the company "Waveshare."
The code could be adapted to run on other brand ESP32-S3 boards, but to make things easy, pre-built releases are provided for the Waveshare modules.
All platforms support Bluetooth, WiFi, wired footswitches, and wired Midi.
- 4.3" LCD board, supporting touch screen and advanced graphics including customisable amp/pedal skins and text
- 1.69" LCD board. Similar to an Apple Watch, this small board displays the preset name and number
- "Zero" board with no display, is the smallest and cheapest option
The supported features vary a little depending on the chosen hardware platform.
- LCD display with capactive touch screen ("4.3B" model)
- LCD display ("1.69" model)
- Screen displays the name and number of the current preset ("4.3B" and "1.69" models.)
- The User can select an amplifier or pedal skin and also add descriptive text ("4.3B" model)
- Use of simple dual footswitches to select next/previous preset
- Bluetooth Client support. Use of the "M-Vave Chocolate" bluetooth Midi footswitch device to switch presets (4 buttons, bank up/down)
- Other Bluetooth Midi controllers should be fairly easy to support with code changes, provided they use the standard Bletooth Midi service and characteristic
- Bluetooth server support. Pair your phone/tablet with the controller, and send standard Midi program changes, bridged through to the Tonex One pedal (note Server and Client cannot be used simultaneously)
- USB host control of the Tonex pedal
- Wired/Serial Midi support
For more information about the hardware platforms, refer to Hardware Platforms
For more information about uploading firmware to the boards, refer to Firmware Uploading
For more information about changing configuration and settings, for example to change the Midi channel, refer to Web Configuration
- Connect power
- After a few seconds of boot time, the LCD display should now show the description for your current Preset
- Change presets using one or more of the following methods
- Touch screen Next/Previous labels
- Dual footswitchs for next/previous preset
- Bluetooth Client mode: M-Vave Chocolate footswitches. Bank 1 does presets 1,2,3,4. Bank 2 does presets 5,6,7,8. Etc.
- Bluetooth Server mode: Bluetooth Midi controller to send Program change messages 0 to 19
- The Amplifier skin image is not stored in the Tonex One Pedal, hence this needs to be manually selected
- To select an Amp skin and/or change the description text
- Press and hold the Preset name for a few seconds
- Navigation arrows will appear next to the amp skin image
- Use the left/right arrows to navigate through the available amp skins
- Press the description text. A keyboard will appear, allowing text to be entered
- Press the green tick image to save the changes. Changes will be saved permanently and remembered when next powered on
- Connect power
- Change presets using one or more of the following methods
- Bluetooth Client mode: M-Vave Chocolate footswitches. Bank 1 does presets 1,2,3,4. Bank 2 does presets 5,6,7,8. Etc.
- Bluetooth Server mode: Bluetooth Midi controller to send Program change messages 0 to 19
For more information about the firmware development and customisation, refer to Firmware Development
- Waveshare board support files for display and touch screen driver examples
- https://github.com/vit3k/tonex_controller for great work on reverse engineering the Tonex One USB protocol
V1.0.3.2:
- NOTE: 1.69" version is not supported in this release!
- Changed partition table to fix issues with crashing on boot for some users
- new build type with pedal skin images instead of amp skins
- more efficient handling of skin images
- fixed compatibility issue with Midi BT servers that sent time codes
- support for dual wired footswitches on the Zero
- added support for M-Vave Chocolate Plus footswitch
V1.0.2.2:
- WARNING: these files have been problematic for some users! Please use V1.0.3.2 instead
- Updated to be compatible with Tonex 1.8.0 software
- Support for Waveshare Zero low-cost PCB without display
- Support for Bluetooth Server mode
V1.0.1.2:
- Fixed issue with USB comms. Pedal settings are read, modified (only the preset indexes) and then sent back to pedal
- Note: not compatible with Tonex V1.8.0
V1.0.0.2:
- Initial version
- Caution: this version has an issue with USB. It will overwrite the pedal global settings! use with caution and backup your pedal first
- Note: not compatible with Tonex V1.8.0
The Tonex One Controller is under the Apache 2.0 license. It is free for both research and commercial use cases.
However, if you are stealing this work and commercialising it, you are a bad person and you should feel bad.
Donations help fund the purchase of new equipment to use in development and testing.
Donate via Paypal
