MIDI = Musical Instrument Digital Interface.
5 PIN DIN 180° (DIN41524) FEMALE at the peripheral.
5 PIN DIN 180° (DIN41524) MALE at the cable.
MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) connects electronic musical instruments over a 31.25 kbaud asynchronous serial current loop on a 5-pin 180° DIN connector. Only pins 4 and 5 carry the signal; pins 1 and 3 are unused, and pin 2 is the cable shield, grounded at the OUT (and THRU) end. At a MIDI OUT the loop is driven from the device’s UART through current-limiting resistors (typically 220 Ω at 5 V), supplying about 5 mA to light the opto-isolator in the receiving device’s MIDI IN.
| Pin | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | n/c | Not connected |
| 2 | GND | Ground |
| 3 | n/c | Not connected |
| 4 | CSINK | Current Sink |
| 5 | CSRC | Current Source |
Notes
- MIDI is a 5 mA current loop on pins 4 and 5 (a logical 0 is current on). The framing is 31.25 kbaud (±1%), 8 data bits, no parity, 1 stop bit (8-N-1), sent LSB first.
- At a MIDI OUT, pins 4 and 5 are driven from the UART transmit line through series current-limiting resistors (about 220 Ω each at 5 V signalling), often via a buffer for extra drive.
- Pin 2 (the cable shield) is grounded at the OUT and THRU jacks but not at the IN, to avoid ground loops. A MIDI THRU jack repeats the signal received at the IN.
- Pins 1 and 3 are unused.
Signals
- CSRC (current source, pin 5) — the data line, driven from the UART through a series resistor.
- CSINK (current sink, pin 4) — the loop return.
- GND / shield (pin 2) — cable shield, grounded at the OUT/THRU end.
- Pins 1, 3 — not used.
References
- MMA — 5-pin DIN electrical specs (MIDI 1.0 Electrical Specification) — the official MIDI hardware interface.