Lightbox - DIY Traktor MIDI Controller
Lightbox - DIY Traktor MIDI Controller Posted on: 06.07.2009 by Karine Noe WORK LOG:- $192 worth of buttons ordered from www.arcadespareparts.com - $40 - front panels cut out from acrly in a local shop (including a drill and some super glue) - $272 for three UMC32 units from www.sparkfun.com - Did a re-work of the layout for the controller (new pic below) - $92 worth of extra buttons to fit the new design from www.arcadespareparts.com - $146 yet another UMC unit, some leds, resistors and more ribbon cable from www.sparkfun.com - $32 for potentiometers, knobs and a few push switches from www.electrokit.se (swedish store) TOTAL COST SO FAR: $750 (I would have saved about $100 if I hadn't changed the design which required two further orders from the two opposides of the world from my point of view - California & Hong Kong) My idea with this controller is to create a realiable work horse for club gigs, utilizing the club/pub's own hardware mixer. The measures follows that of the CDJ-1000 to ensure that you'll always have room to fit it in "on site" and the sturdy arcade buttons will hopefully last me a long long time. The design is not intended for mainly urban/scratch DJ'ing and rock/soul/pop gigs either, since it has no pitch faders for adjusting tempo or jog wheels for scratching. And not to forget: this is two controllers intended for use with traktors "External Mixer"-mode, meaning that you will use a hardware mixer to blend your channels together - which provides better sound quality on large PA's and also leaves room for me to fit other goodies onto these badboys. First prototype almost done! There are some estethic artefacts here and there due to poor planning, but overall it's looking pretty nice imho. All the soldering is done and the LED's work like they are supposed to: | |
| Doug Bieling 16.07.2009 |
Originally Posted by boileroo
|
| Karine Noe 16.07.2009 |
Originally Posted by MisterMoleyMole
|
| Doug Bieling 16.07.2009 |
Originally Posted by kingnerk
The Hale micro site seems misleading then with its use of AND/OR. "32 analog and/or digital inputs provides MIDI note or continuous controller data to your host application." |
| Adolf Hit 15.07.2009 |
Originally Posted by Str8upDrew
WORD! Definatley not with power tools though, small burns are one thing, no fingers are another. |
| Dillon Paganini 08.01.2011 | I was just wondering autonic. the umc32 uses a different wiring scheme and I was wondering how you split it for digital and analog inputs? |
| Karine Noe 11.08.2009 | A video of it in use is coming up in a few days... it looks much better in a slight dimmed environment with the LED's lighting up. |
| Myrtle Billegas 10.08.2009 | awesome. now that calls for respect. would def like to see a vid of it beeing used |
| Latia Pfleider 05.08.2009 | HIgh Five bro |
| Karine Noe 05.08.2009 | Updated first post with new images of the *almost* finished first prototype. Will start building the second unit soon (just waiting for 6 more green arcade buttons). |
| Graham Frazier 27.07.2009 | This thing looks better and better everytime i see it. |
| Karine Noe 26.07.2009 | Updated first post with last order details and hopefully the final pricetag for the two controllers: $715 (!) If I had ordered exactly what I needed from the start and utilized the info at www.ucapps.de for forming my own micro controller, I believe I could have trimmed the costs down to about $400-$500. But hey, I'm lazy and the UMC is one sexy piece of PCB. |
| Latia Pfleider 25.07.2009 | Looking good autonic. I like you idea with the lighted play/loop I might use that. |
| Karine Noe 26.07.2009 | Updated first post with picutres of the acryl boxes and an updated illustration... |
| Karine Noe 16.07.2009 | Updated first post with a new illustration that contains descriptions of each button (the greyed out text means that it's a secondary function) |
| Doug Bieling 16.07.2009 |
Originally Posted by boileroo
|
| Karine Noe 16.07.2009 |
Originally Posted by MisterMoleyMole
|
| Marco Piangiamore 16.07.2009 | nope still only 32 inputs per umc! for instance i have 16 buttons, 12 knobs and 4 switches on mine |
| Doug Bieling 16.07.2009 | That makes more sense! So its only 2 per unit and your making 2 of them on the front page. So the website is right. You could have 32 buttons and 32 faders from one UMC32? |
| Karine Noe 16.07.2009 | Actually, I need four UMC32's.... (in my original design i needed three umc's for four deck control in one box... now I've changed it so that I will create two boxes with two umc's in each) |
| Doug Bieling 16.07.2009 |
Originally Posted by kingnerk
The Hale micro site seems misleading then with its use of AND/OR. "32 analog and/or digital inputs provides MIDI note or continuous controller data to your host application." |
| Cyrstal Pannone 16.07.2009 | no its a maximum of 32 inputs made up of either knobs or buttons |
| Doug Bieling 16.07.2009 | Why do you need 3 umc32's? I understand that you get 32 buttons AND 32 knobs or faders per board. Would 2 not have done the trick ? |
| Adolf Hit 15.07.2009 |
Originally Posted by Str8upDrew
WORD! Definatley not with power tools though, small burns are one thing, no fingers are another. |
| Karine Noe 15.07.2009 | Yeah, the costs are running up a bit. Right now I plan the whole project to total at around $800-$900 for two identical boxes. |
| Lacey Westergreen 15.07.2009 | seems like i've overlooked that one... the new design looks awesome! its getting quite expensive though. |
| Karine Noe 14.07.2009 | Updated the first post with the new design and some more info regarding the update. |
| Karine Noe 14.07.2009 | yea, I've gleared at that solution too... but... besides the need for third party applications I also loose the LED functionality that I get with the UMC32:s...(the ability to toggle LED's from within traktors functions) |
| Lacey Westergreen 14.07.2009 | tell me if this HID-device raving is getting annoying, but looking at the number of controls, you could've done this with two of these for a lot less money spent: http://www.leobodnar.com/products/BU0836/ sure, you'd have to convert it to midi via software, but i've found this method to work like a charm. |
| Graham Frazier 14.07.2009 |
Originally Posted by sarasin
"If you don't like my fire, then don't come around, 'cause i'm gonna burn one down." |
| robert chanda 14.07.2009 |
Originally Posted by Str8upDrew
|
| Karine Noe 14.07.2009 | Update: I've bought the micro controllers from sparkfun.com (3 UMC32 units) for $270 including shipping to sweden and insurance of the parcel. I also ordered a new set of SANWA-buttons (supposed to be top of the line when it comes to arcade pushbuttons?) from: www.arcadespareparts.com. The 64 of them took a $192 chunk of my wallet including shipping and insurance of the parcel. The controller boards are due July 16th and the buttons will arrive July 20th (if FedEx are true to their promises). So there will be some massive soldering early next week! Oh, and I've also discovered that my new SANWA buttons only can be mounted in panels with an height of 2-5mm... which means that I'll have to get a new piece of acryl that's thinner than my current 6mm piece. (The upside is however, that with the sanwa buttons I'll have room for my sound card inside the box aswell since they are only 2.5cm in height compared to the previous buttons that were 6.5cm in height) |
| Lilliana Perris 13.07.2009 |
Originally Posted by Str8upDrew
|
| Karine Noe 11.07.2009 | these buttons: http://happcontrols.com/pushbuttons/5891xxl.htm (But from another webpage) |
| Graham Frazier 10.07.2009 | What arcade buttons did you order?? Just wondering. |
| Karine Noe 10.07.2009 | Saftey procedures are not an issue for me - I've got lightning fast reflexes. The custom engraving for the pots are underway anyhow. 4 done, 12 to go. (Looks like crap from below but it fits perfectly) |
| Graham Frazier 11.07.2009 | Like Norm Abram says, "Measure twice, cut once." and... "Before we use any power tools, let's take a moment to talk about shop safety. Be sure to read, understand, and follow all the safety rules that come with your power tools. Knowing how to use your power tools properly will greatly reduce the risk of personal injury. And remember this: there is no more important safety rule than to wear these — safety glasses." |
| Karine Noe 10.07.2009 | Yeah I hope so. The buttons are ordered and will arrive in approx two weeks and the UMC32 controllers should arrive within a few days. I've discovered a potential problem however. The potentiometers/knobs are too short to be mounted through hole, meaning that I'll have to engrave the acryl just where they are to be mounted (and it's not that much space left over actually). |
| Jene Martley 10.07.2009 | Wow dude this will be sick when its done :eek: cant wait to see how it turns out! |
| Belen Wermes 09.07.2009 | cant wait to see the finished product |
| Graham Frazier 08.07.2009 | Hell yeah, this looks sweet. |
<< Back to Reviews of DJ equipment Reply