Old Dell i6000 laptop into controller??
Old Dell i6000 laptop into controller?? Posted on: 22.04.2011 by Loreta Altema Ok, so i have this old dell i6000 laying around that i always seem to trip on or stub my toe on.. So on the way out to the trash ghis morning after turning my big toe purple again, i thought, maybe i can turn this into a midi controller..So, basically what i need are ideas possiblities of what to make and using minimal other parts build a midi controller from a circa '04 laptop... Seems as the laptop would already have 90% of the hard work done right?? This will be my firtst DIY midi anything, so please forgive my ignorance. **edit** Was believeing, i also have a bluetooth keyboard for my Mac that has a goofy acting power button.. I just keep it as a backup but maybe i should start with that first??? | |
| Louisa Oberc 26.04.2011 |
Originally Posted by m00n
Without seeing the internals I can't say yes or no, or if yes how hard it would be, but from the pics of the unit itself... If it still works, I wouldn't hack it apart (it will be a one-way mod... no more analogue mixer)... It seems just too good of a mixer (from the looks, no clue how it actually performs) to sacrifice... If it is dead, that's a different story Numark M1: This is more like it... old and feature free enough to sacrifice, even if it still works.. The internals are likely to be fairly simple as well. Less is more when you are learning as you go. If you want to give it a go, carefully open it up and take pictures of the circuit board (both sides) and anything else that looks important... I should be able to tell you more then. The hardest part is isolating the pots and buttons from the rest of the circuit, after you've tapped into them, the rest is the same as any other diy midi controller: gamepad, arduino, pre-built midi-brain, etc... Here's a post with a few pics of the internals of my mod (Behringer DX-500). There's a crap-ton more wiring between the board and the faceplate. One of these days I'll post a writeup on that mod, I have more pics I haven't posted yet... http://www.djranking s.com/community /sho...249#post226249 |
| Loreta Altema 26.04.2011 |
Originally Posted by ToOntown
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| Loreta Altema 26.04.2011 |
Originally Posted by DjNecro
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| Loreta Altema 22.04.2011 | Ok, so i have this old dell i6000 laying around that i always seem to trip on or stub my toe on.. So on the way out to the trash ghis morning after turning my big toe purple again, i thought, maybe i can turn this into a midi controller.. So, basically what i need are ideas possiblities of what to make and using minimal other parts build a midi controller from a circa '04 laptop... Seems as the laptop would already have 90% of the hard work done right?? This will be my firtst DIY midi anything, so please forgive my ignorance. **edit** Was believeing, i also have a bluetooth keyboard for my Mac that has a goofy acting power button.. I just keep it as a backup but maybe i should start with that first??? |
| Jerica Canne 25.06.2011 | If you haven't finished this project yet, or for anybody else, I'll post an idea, and the story behind it. (Wall of text-galore, sorry in advance). I have an old laptop that I barely can use. The charging-socket is ruined more or less, the screen is broken and drops in and out (and gives me some nice glitch-esque moments), and I can't really use it for anything. I have a newer laptop for a reason :P The other day now, I decided to hook it up and save everything worth saving, the only thing that's stopped me from throwing it out for the last year or so. After that, I figured I would later on take out the chips and use them for some sort of decoration, either paint on them or put them together with some plants, etc. That whole jazz. But, what to do with the casing? Why, a MIDI-controller, of course! An old, ruined laptop hooked up to another laptop, would seem rather cool live, wouldn't it? I guess many people would at first believe I'm just using two laptops, but people who don't know/care about controllers wouldn't probably be any more or less impressed anyway :P I decided to do a quick Google-search, and the first result was this thread. Though I don't use these community s too often, I could only say; DJTT community s, how I love thee! Before that though, and this is what could be relevant to others here, I unplugged my trusty Novation Launchpad (I'm a Live-user mind you, I don't know how fond Traktor-, Serato-, etc-users are of the Launchpad) and made som measurments. It fits almost perfectly, apart from leaving a large, free space on one side (wide laptop). In short, and the important part of this post: So my plan is quite easy; I'll order another Launchpad (they're cheap, and the more the merrier), remove the guts of the laptop, place the Launchpad inside, and either turn the laptop-screen into a secondary monitor (could be great for viewing effects), or just put pretty pictures on it. Still not sure what I'll do about the free space though. Either another, really small controller, or nothing. I was believeing about building a controller for it (so I could use the rest of the space optimally), but my programming-skills aren't much to brag about, nor is my interest in it unfortunately, and I'm just looking for another cheap, fun thing to do. I'll post an update or something if I end up turning this into more than just big talk. |
| Lewis Stumpf 28.04.2011 | Do you want to use the buttons as a midi inputs? Cause that can be done. Or do you just want to use the case as a holster for some knobs and such? Cause that can probably also be done |
| Loreta Altema 26.04.2011 | Wow, great work! I underestimated the amount of work very badly. Def time for me to read more.. |
| Louisa Oberc 26.04.2011 |
Originally Posted by m00n
Without seeing the internals I can't say yes or no, or if yes how hard it would be, but from the pics of the unit itself... If it still works, I wouldn't hack it apart (it will be a one-way mod... no more analogue mixer)... It seems just too good of a mixer (from the looks, no clue how it actually performs) to sacrifice... If it is dead, that's a different story Numark M1: This is more like it... old and feature free enough to sacrifice, even if it still works.. The internals are likely to be fairly simple as well. Less is more when you are learning as you go. If you want to give it a go, carefully open it up and take pictures of the circuit board (both sides) and anything else that looks important... I should be able to tell you more then. The hardest part is isolating the pots and buttons from the rest of the circuit, after you've tapped into them, the rest is the same as any other diy midi controller: gamepad, arduino, pre-built midi-brain, etc... Here's a post with a few pics of the internals of my mod (Behringer DX-500). There's a crap-ton more wiring between the board and the faceplate. One of these days I'll post a writeup on that mod, I have more pics I haven't posted yet... http://www.djranking s.com/community /sho...249#post226249 |
| Loreta Altema 26.04.2011 |
Originally Posted by ToOntown
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| Loreta Altema 26.04.2011 |
Originally Posted by DjNecro
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| Louisa Oberc 26.04.2011 | The only thing that you would be able to do (in my opinion at least) would be to repurpose the keyboard... but... um... you already have one If you were talking about hacking apart an old analogue mixer and turning it into a controller, well... We can talk |
| Shonda Soulier 27.04.2011 | i have an idea: Old Laptop Oxygen 8 Duct tape position the oxygen 8 onto the keyboard of the old laptop, wrap duct tape around the casing of each device until the oxygen 8 is firmly secured in place (do not block the USB port on the back of the MIDI device!!! you need this!!!). i believe that would be sufficient in accomplishing this task. you have turned your laptop into a MIDI controller! |
| Loreta Altema 26.04.2011 | Nah you were probably understanding me right.. Have no real purpose or need for another controller, alot of that post was my big toe, haha. When it comes to DIY midi, I know less then nothing, so if it is impractical then I prob wrote it, lol. |
| Isreal Roberto 26.04.2011 | how exactly would it be useful as a midi controller? Just because a thing has a circuit board and a power supply does not make it easy to turn into a controller. You need a circuit board built specifically for that purpose. If you started adding knobs to an old laptop you wouldn't just be able to solder them to somewhere and expect it to do anything. Maybe I misunderstood how you're believeing of going about this... |
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