*BUILD LOG* My DIY Controller
*BUILD LOG* My DIY Controller Posted on: 07.10.2010 by Diamond Mellberg Hey everybody!I've been lurking around here for a few months now, trying to get started dabbling with Traktor and saw a lot of really great DIY controllers out there. So, I figured I'd try my hand at my own DIY controller. My setup is going to be a fairly basic 2 deck controller for use with Traktor Pro, based around the A-Pac from Ultimarc. I've more or less lost track of how much everything has cost me so far, but I'll do my best to give an approximate ballpark figure for everything. Parts list (so far): 9x Sanwa OBSF-30 buttons. -4 Blue -4 White -1 Red ~$30 after shipping. (Should have just gotten all my buttons from the DJTT store. Shipping from Hong Kong is freakin' expensive!) 8x Sanwa OBSF-24 buttons. -4 Black -2 Green -2 Fuchsia ~$17 after shipping 1x A-Pac from Ultimarc ~$43 + s/h from UK 1x sheet of 1/4" thick acrylic from Lowes, cut into 2 15"x7" pieces. ~$15 Various nuts and bolts ~$5-10 Still need to finalize what potentiometers/knobs I'm going to get. A few pictures of the parts/build process so far (sorry for the crappy quality, had to take them with my iPhone as my camera's batteries died): The OBSF-30 buttons The OBSF-24 buttons The A-Pac Size difference between the 30 and the 24 A few pics of cutting the acrylic. I printed out a rough template with Paint (was going to use AutoCAD, but it didn't want to cooperate with me) and taped it to the acrylic, then drilled a hole in the center of each button location. I then used a dremel with a cutting bit to cut out each button, then a sanding bit to make any fine adjustments. Took about 1 1/2 hours to do. A wasp decided this seemed like an interesting project and decided to come supervise: The end result: Not the neatest work ever, but it'll do. Anyway, off to work, I'll post more as the project goes on. | |
| Allene Manitta 05.12.2011 |
Originally Posted by extraclassic
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| Melinda Shick 17.10.2010 |
Originally Posted by MiL0
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| Diamond Mellberg 07.10.2010 | Hey everybody! I've been lurking around here for a few months now, trying to get started dabbling with Traktor and saw a lot of really great DIY controllers out there. So, I figured I'd try my hand at my own DIY controller. My setup is going to be a fairly basic 2 deck controller for use with Traktor Pro, based around the A-Pac from Ultimarc. I've more or less lost track of how much everything has cost me so far, but I'll do my best to give an approximate ballpark figure for everything. Parts list (so far): 9x Sanwa OBSF-30 buttons. -4 Blue -4 White -1 Red ~$30 after shipping. (Should have just gotten all my buttons from the DJTT store. Shipping from Hong Kong is freakin' expensive!) 8x Sanwa OBSF-24 buttons. -4 Black -2 Green -2 Fuchsia ~$17 after shipping 1x A-Pac from Ultimarc ~$43 + s/h from UK 1x sheet of 1/4" thick acrylic from Lowes, cut into 2 15"x7" pieces. ~$15 Various nuts and bolts ~$5-10 Still need to finalize what potentiometers/knobs I'm going to get. A few pictures of the parts/build process so far (sorry for the crappy quality, had to take them with my iPhone as my camera's batteries died): The OBSF-30 buttons The OBSF-24 buttons The A-Pac Size difference between the 30 and the 24 A few pics of cutting the acrylic. I printed out a rough template with Paint (was going to use AutoCAD, but it didn't want to cooperate with me) and taped it to the acrylic, then drilled a hole in the center of each button location. I then used a dremel with a cutting bit to cut out each button, then a sanding bit to make any fine adjustments. Took about 1 1/2 hours to do. A wasp decided this seemed like an interesting project and decided to come supervise: The end result: Not the neatest work ever, but it'll do. Anyway, off to work, I'll post more as the project goes on. |
| Allene Manitta 05.12.2011 |
Originally Posted by extraclassic
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| Candyce Parrinello 01.12.2011 | i may try to sidestep midi altogether. if i can get a program to recognize keyboard input, i can map the a-pac to the keyboard...at least i hope so. arduinos are a bit intimidating at this point. bummer about your job, though. hope things turn up for you. |
| Diamond Mellberg 01.12.2011 | I never ended up getting to the point where I could map it. I never did get the midi interface software to cooperate, and shortly afterwards lost my job so the project has been on indefinite hiatus until I figure out what I want to do with it. In that time, I've been believeing about a redesign, plus, a friend of mine had an Arduino sitting around his basement that he didn't want anymore, so I may switch over to that. Keep me posted on how yours turns out. |
| Candyce Parrinello 30.11.2011 | i just ordered an a-pac and buttons/knobs to do something very similar. i am going to use it with virtual DJ and ableton live. how tricky was the mapping? ever gonna post finished pics? |
| Joan Kollmorgen 20.10.2010 | Give Glovepie a try |
| Melinda Shick 20.10.2010 | Theres always Junxion, but you have to pay. |
| Diamond Mellberg 18.10.2010 | Hey all, figured I'd give a quick update while I'm sitting at work. I'll try and get some pics up later. I've got good news and bad news: The good news is I got everything hooked up, and it works, as far as my computer recognizes that buttons are being pushed, and the x-y axes are registering. The bad news is I can't get that to register in Traktor Pro. I hook up the device, and run Rejoice with Midi Yoke, but nothing will register. I can't for the life of me figure out how to get this to work. I've tried Rejoice, Joy2Key, Joy2Midi, and VMIDIJoy, none of them work. I downloaded MJoy, but can't figure out how to use that, either. If anyone has any thoughts, I'm all ears. Hopefully I can get this figured out... |
| Melinda Shick 17.10.2010 |
Originally Posted by MiL0
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| Arcelia Siebeneck 17.10.2010 | does the A-Pac support potentiometers? |
| Ninfa Larranaga 16.10.2010 | nice work man! |
| Diamond Mellberg 16.10.2010 | Got the last of my parts in, so I spent the majority of the day working on the project! I did, however, realize one thing: to say that my soldering skills are horrible is an understatement. But, I managed to struggle through it. It's almost done! The only thing I have left to do is mount the A-Pac, and hook everything up. A few pics I managed to snag during the process: |
| Wava Egizi 08.10.2010 | I like how basic it looks! Will be fun to see it in action! |
| Ninfa Larranaga 08.10.2010 | good job! |
| Diamond Mellberg 07.10.2010 | Yeah, I checked out the Livid route, but that's a hell of a lot more than I wanted to spend. I already spent more than I had planned. Thanks for the support. I can't wait to keep going with it. |
| Vernie Beharry 07.10.2010 | Yeah. . .I was considering going Arduino becuase of it's size and expandability. I wanted to go Illuminated, Low Profile Sanwa's, but the power is a different issue altogether. Then I looked at Livid Brain for the programming, but that's a ISH load of soldering I'd have to do for it, and it cost buco bucks for just that unit. Seriously. . .good luck with that bro. . .I'll be keeping an eye out! |
| Diamond Mellberg 07.10.2010 | I got them from arcadespareparts.com, should be a link in the original post. I thought about going the arduino route as well, but really didn't want to deal with the programming that goes along with it. Haven't heard anything about midi compatibility. Funny thing, I was talking with a buddy of mine when I started gathering all the parts for this project, and mentioned what I was trying to do, his response: "Oh, that's cool. I've got an arduino sitting around in my basement. It's yours if you want it." Maybe someday I'll snag that from him and try and come up with something. I mainly went this route because there's not a whole lot that I want it to do at the moment. I just wanted to do a basic 2 deck, 4 cue points/deck, loop controls, play/pause, and a few knobs to play with. Figured I could get away with the arcade stick pcb. We'll see how well it goes. |
| Vernie Beharry 07.10.2010 | Keep it up. . . I thought about using an arcade stick PCB too. . .but I wanted the flexibility of adding more when I needed to, and wanted more of a plug an play system, whcih is why I though AdruinoMega. . .but I keep hearing Arduino's being "not-Midi" friendly. And where did you buy the 30's from? LizardLick? |
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