As I have mentioned in my previous posts about the Ensoniq Control 16, it is a DAW control surface designed to interface to proprietary DAW software via a proprietary PCI card.  As I have the C16, but not the PCI card, I have been working on reverse engineering the interface so that I can build a USB adaptor for it and use it with my PC.

I have previously written about how I built an RS-232 adaptor for the Control 16, but this alone did not allow me to communicate with the Control 16 as I did not know its communication protocol. As I did not have the PCI card to act as a master and provide something for the C16 to communicate with, I was not able to sniff the communications and reverse engineer them. My solution instead was to replace the firmware running on the C16’s microcontroller with one that I custom wrote, and which used my own communication protocol.

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As I stated in my first Control 16 post, the C16 is meant to connect to a proprietary Ensoniq PCI card (which I don’t have.)  So instead I have been reverse engineering the C16 interface so that I can convert it for use with my PC.  The C16 has two connectors on the back a 1/4″ jack, which is used to connect an optional footswitch; and an RJ-45 connector, which is proprietary.  Both connectors are mounted on a board called PWR/SER_I/F.

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I bought an Ensoniq Control 16 off Trademe cause it was going for fairly cheap relative to new control surfaces.  The problem with the Control 16 is that it is designed to only work with a proprietary PCI card from PARIS.  So I am planning on reverse engineering it and building a USB adaptor.  First things first, though, it needed to be disassembled so I can reverse engineer the circuit.  Here are some pix for those who are interested.

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