*Buildlog* Midi foot controller from gamepad!
*Buildlog* Midi foot controller from gamepad! Posted on: 02.06.2011 by Beverley Stanphill Hi!New to the community s and i hope that im welcome here! Im planning on building a midi foot controller from a old gamepad. The gamepad is the Saitek P480 shown below. The goal is to achive 6 buttons and 2 knobs with pots. it's very simble design and could be made very easy BUT, i am who i am and ofc that means i have to do it a bit extra complicated. The purpose of this controller is actually to use it live with my guitarrig which uses a Line6 POD X3 normally, but i also recently invested in a 10" atom dualcore netbook which will act as a VST host and here's where the controller comes in. I bought 6 footswitch buttons called "3PDT" and looks like this: And the pots are 10K, i might nee 100K who knows? The functions im after is to have LED's to both the buttons and the knobs. To get the LED's light up when pressing a button isen't that hard, but i need it to light constantly when pressing the button and light of when hitting the button again when the midinote is deactivated. For the knobs i need them to be brighter the more you turn the knob up, get my point? So that i have an idication of how much the knobs are turned. Yesterday i went to a local metalshop which custom made me a metalbox for this. 24 x 24 cm big and 5 - 3 cm slanted. Hope you can help me out with this since all i can find on the net is without leds. PS. this will also be the buildlog for this project. DS. Cheers, Jimmie | |
| Chasidy Heckenbach 02.06.2011 |
Originally Posted by Tha Gooch
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| Janell Selser 02.06.2011 |
Originally Posted by rudeez
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| Chasidy Heckenbach 02.06.2011 |
Originally Posted by BradCee
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| Shay Wyche 02.06.2011 |
Originally Posted by fullenglishpint
My beeper just went ..... |
| Beverley Stanphill 02.06.2011 | Hi! New to the community s and i hope that im welcome here! Im planning on building a midi foot controller from a old gamepad. The gamepad is the Saitek P480 shown below. The goal is to achive 6 buttons and 2 knobs with pots. it's very simble design and could be made very easy BUT, i am who i am and ofc that means i have to do it a bit extra complicated. The purpose of this controller is actually to use it live with my guitarrig which uses a Line6 POD X3 normally, but i also recently invested in a 10" atom dualcore netbook which will act as a VST host and here's where the controller comes in. I bought 6 footswitch buttons called "3PDT" and looks like this: And the pots are 10K, i might nee 100K who knows? The functions im after is to have LED's to both the buttons and the knobs. To get the LED's light up when pressing a button isen't that hard, but i need it to light constantly when pressing the button and light of when hitting the button again when the midinote is deactivated. For the knobs i need them to be brighter the more you turn the knob up, get my point? So that i have an idication of how much the knobs are turned. Yesterday i went to a local metalshop which custom made me a metalbox for this. 24 x 24 cm big and 5 - 3 cm slanted. Hope you can help me out with this since all i can find on the net is without leds. PS. this will also be the buildlog for this project. DS. Cheers, Jimmie |
| Beverley Stanphill 04.06.2011 | So, im currently working on the knobs while waiting for the switches to arrive. I've hooked up 10k linear pots to both X and Y axis. They're working great and except one thing. It dosen't react until iv'e turned it to about 11 o clock. And the other one reaches maximum at about 2 o clock. Does that have to do with calibrating the gamepad or is it wrong ohms on the pots? Also, how and where do i hook up a led to them to get them to act as dimmers? EDIT: I noticed something about Arduino UNO, would that work for my project and all the things i wanna be able to do with leds etc? |
| Graham Frazier 03.06.2011 | For the foot pedal/pots, you could use something like this... http://backstage.musiciansfriend.com...50360000000000 And just wire up one of your analog inputs from the gamepad to a TRS jack on the side of your box. The pedal is just a pot on the inside, so if it's the wrong resistance you could just open it up and change the pot. And to setup the LEDs to stay on when you press a button on your pedal, you could wire up a relay like one of these... http://www.sparkfun.com/products/524 to each button and each LED. The relays would act as on off switches. You might have to power the led's with a battery rather than the board though. |
| Shay Wyche 02.06.2011 | EDIT: Is it possible to do dimmer leds to the 10k pots? Yes, connect the variable connection (often known as the wiper) to the positive leg of the led, and connect the negative leg of the led to ground. This should light up the led when at full, keep it dim at around half and off when in the off position. |
| Beverley Stanphill 02.06.2011 | Haha, jeah i know but i gonna make a "brushed aluminium" look decal just a bit smaller with rounded corners on top of it and print the name of it aswell as namnes above the buttons and knobs. gonna carv the vinyl away before i drill the holes so that's fine, i just wanted to do something in the meantime while waiting on the buttons! EDIT: Is it possible to do dimmer leds to the 10k pots? |
| Chasidy Heckenbach 02.06.2011 |
Originally Posted by Tha Gooch
|
| Janell Selser 02.06.2011 |
Originally Posted by rudeez
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| Beverley Stanphill 02.06.2011 | Will try that LED scheme when i get the switches combined with another i found on the net. I fixed the box now atleast and made it black, not by spraypaint but by wrapping it in vinyl, i work at a signshop and is used to doin cardecor and shit so. And most important, it was free |
| Chasidy Heckenbach 03.06.2011 | not sure about your buttons but this is how fbonito wired up the arcade buttons for his gamepad based awesome diy arcade controller: i really have no clue why there's 9 poles on your buttons... |
| Beverley Stanphill 03.06.2011 | Damn.. That sucks, i should have read more about htis stuff before i got it going. Im always like that, i want it to happen right now, not later. Anyway, i could probably change the electronics later on. For a normal LED blink when the button is pressed, how should it be wired you guys believe since it's 9 poles on the switch. |
| Chasidy Heckenbach 02.06.2011 |
Originally Posted by BradCee
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| Shay Wyche 02.06.2011 |
Originally Posted by fullenglishpint
My beeper just went ..... |
| Dorcas Bassignani 02.06.2011 | believe that would need a midi brain and some bomes work or something.... |
| Beverley Stanphill 02.06.2011 | Jeah, i should probably gone with a diffrent setup for the controller but for now i wanna continue this way. Anyone has a clue about the led lightning im after? |
| Tatum Ansaldo 02.06.2011 | If you hadn't already started building I'd be recommending a McMillen softstep. |
| Dorcas Bassignani 02.06.2011 | twiddling knobs with your feet...? hmmm... jokes are too easy... but cool idea, gonna watch this |
| Arcelia Siebeneck 02.06.2011 | a pre-made foot pedal potentiometer would be pretty sweet... I wonder if such a thing exists? You could probably make one yourself actually... and yeah, pretty sure you'll need 10k pots for that usb gamepad. edit: here's quite an advanced guide on building your own midi foot pedal: http://www.maxmidi.com/diy/foot/index.html there are some useful hints in there |
| Beverley Stanphill 02.06.2011 | Thanks man! Haha, they will not. Im giggling alot with the pedals and stuff live so im sitting on the floor alot aswell. Im kind of a effects / FX guitarist. Im doing all the layers and atmospheres in my band and some chugg chugg riffing aswell. My band is vildhjarta. I could go and buy a cheap Behringer foot controller but they're way to big, i need something handy and custom built for my needs so. I thought this could be a fun solution. Im making the box a bit to big just to have space to add buttons/knobs/sliders later if i need them. |
| Tatum Ansaldo 02.06.2011 | nice project! How are you planning to operate pots with your feet? I believe you'll need 10k linear pots, but I'm no expert on these matters. I'm sure MiL0 and Archies'bald will turn up here with advice soon enough. |
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