*Build Log* DIY Controller From Scratch
*Build Log* DIY Controller From Scratch Posted on: 07.08.2010 by Lala Cortina Hello! I've been djing small house parties for a while now, nothing too crazy, mostly just friends. For the longest time i've used Winamp of all things along with a third party crossfader plugin. Well the bug has bitten and after doing some research and seeing Ean's AoTS bit, I got my hands on a copy of Traktor Pro and started looking at controllers.There are quite a few out there, to my surprise! After looking at a few, and actually getting to play with some, I was not satisfied by any one in particular. So I decided to go ahead a build my own. I am an avid DIY'er and this project will keep my occupied for some time. So, here we go! I really like the layout of the VCI-100, so I am purloining some of the design cues from that controller. I also had trouble locating a suitable enclosure, so I opted for a Midi-Fighter like open sided setup. I'll post updates here has I go Parts so far: $16 - Lowe's - 18x12 1/4 Inch Acrylic sheet for the top and bottom panels $5 - Ace Hardware - 3/8 Inch bolts with 1 1/2 Inch spacers to space the panels $16 - DJTT - 8 Arcade Buttons for Play/Pause, Cue1, Cue2, Cue3 on each deck $4 - DJTT - 2 Arcade Buttons, one on each side of the top panel for Shift functionality $39 - DJTT - Green knob pack from the DJTT store for Faders, EQ, Fx etc... $75 - UHID - UHID Board for interfacing it all to the laptop $20 - Wirecare - 1/8 Inch flex weave wire sleeve $8 - Sparkfun - Green LEDs $8 - Sparkfun - Blue LEDs $12 - Sparkfun - Rotary POTs $9 - Sparkfun - Jumper Wires $2 - Sparkfun - Heatshrink $4 - Sparkfun - 10 Segment LEDs -------- Total cost to date: ~$215 -------- Freebie - Micro-ATX power supply on board to provide 3.3v 5v and 12v for LED lighting, the USB interface, and some future parts that I have not acquired yet No longer being used: Griffin Powermates for the jog wheels And last but not least, a couple of old cannibalized hard drives -------- The assembled enclosure. protective film still covering the acrylic top and bottom. The controller is 18x12 and around 2 1/2 tall. Horray arcade buttons! The green buttons do not match the green knob pack nearly as close as I wish they did. I was going to use the green buttons for my Shift and Play/Pause. After speaking with Zach @ DJTT on the phone yesterday I will be using all Black buttons. Thanks again for your help yesterday sir! Knobs! Self explanitory here~ Eyeballing a potential layout for the controls. The two that are spaced wide at the top will be Master and Headphone vol/gain. They are spaced to provide a place for one of the components I have not gotten my hands on yet. You can also see the UHID board under the top panel, just below center. The UHID board that will make it all work. I will actually need to run a second 8 input board to handle a few more knobs. This thing is REALLY tiny. The first Powermate, still assembled, beneath the top panel. I will cut a hole in the top panel to allow access to the Powermate. Old'n'Busted hard drive. Time to gut it! Hard drive top cover removed. The platter, the only piece I wanted~ Scrap parts. Removed the top knob from the Powermate. You can see where I am going with this... Jog wheels Sitting on top of the top panel, just to get an idea. Removing the friction material from the Powermate so it can free-spin. And the platter is attached to the Powermate. I do not like the current screws I used, so they will be changed soon. It free-spins pretty good when I want it to, and the 'click' functionality of the Powermate is maintained. Nothing as sensitive or versatile as the Vestax wheels, but I am sure I will find a use for it. That's it for now. More to come! | |
| Lillia Doc 09.09.2010 | When I created an Monome 256 clone I contacted a guy who could do aluminum cuttings. You should maybe try that out if the acrylic fails. All I did was give him dimensions. GREAT build so far! |
| Irwin Ney 09.09.2010 |
Originally Posted by derschaich
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| Allene Manitta 09.09.2010 | looks really sweet by now. be careful not to drill too many holes 'n stuff, as the acrylic will leak durability sooner or later... |
| Arcelia Siebeneck 09.09.2010 | nice one - some good progress there why are you using 2 x Uhid Nano boards instead of just one regular board? Is 16 inputs gonna be enough? or do u have a regular board as well? regarding the OCR thing - I've got it working but its very temperamental... sometimes it doesn't detect anything and other times it gets a character wrong ("B" mixed up with "8" for example). I'll upload what I've done in the next few days and perhaps someone can improve it... |
| Maisie Marras 07.09.2010 | as usual, very awesome i would have screwed up the faders had i done it lol |
| Lala Cortina 07.09.2010 | First off, new parts! Futurelec, Sparkfun and U-HID/Ultimarc all delivered. I also picked up small parts from Radio shack. The second Powermate landed too, but I don't have a photo yet. Need to go pick it up. Small buttons from Futurelec: Faders from Futurelec: Jumpers from Sparkfun: Shiny LED holders from Radioshack: Panel mount headphone jacks from Radioshack: U-HID Nano boards: These are REALLY tiny, here's a comparison to one of the DJTT Arcade Buttons: -------------------- Ok so down to work. I started off by laying out the controls to figure out what kind of configuration I wanted. Began with the FX section. Moved on to the individual decks and misc controls. One possibility: Another, which is actually very close to what I ended up going with: -------------------- Once I was done brainstorming, I started in on the old panel that I broke for practicing cutting the slots for the faders. I suspected this would probably be the most difficult part of the project and I was NOT let down. It was a muthaf*cka to say the least. Got started by clamping down a straight edge and drilling a set of pilot holes. At this point it was total experimentation, so I just winged it at first. Pilot holes: I quickly discovered how horrible a series of pilot holes looked, rather than a single pilot, so I broke out my Unibit and cornholed the original set. The Jigsaw blade required a 5/16" pilot. Once that was drilled, I ran the Jigsaw up a few inches to test how well it would cut the acrylic. Turns out it was pretty easy and surprisingly clean. Clean cut! Zinged a couple of mounting holes on the outsides of the cut and attached a fader. This may not be so bad afterall! I removed the fader and cut a matching pilot hole at the other end to make it match. One test down, time to do another! Drilled another pilot hole. This time I just went right in with the Unibit on both ends to start with. Clamped down the straight edge and went at it! And good god was it a disaster... ... or so I thought. It actually ended up being the winner, I figured out how to compensate for the Jigsaw blades drift and also how to shave the cut to make it a little wider and also straight. Time to do it for real! Measuring the panel. Drilled the pilot holes for the cut and also the mounting holes. And one down! Fader mounted. Two down, faders mounted. Three down, crossfader mounted. Bwahahaha this is gonna be so awesome! -------------------- Getting started drilling the small controls and LEDs. Small buttons and an LED holder in place. Both deck corner controls drilled. Measured and drilled pilot holes in the FX section. Placing the other LED holders to check spacing and measurments. FX section LEDs ready to go. -------------------- That's it for now. Should have all the controls, LEDs and at least some wiring done tomorrow. More to come! |
| Lala Cortina 07.09.2010 |
Originally Posted by thugbear2005
Originally Posted by oscarjmg
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| Arcelia Siebeneck 06.09.2010 | Okay, so I've managed to write an AHK script that selects an area within the Traktor screen, runs an OCR script on any text it finds and finally dump the writing to a txt document. What this means is that by using this script, it's possible to output any writing from within Traktor as a text file, even if the writing appears as an image! The upshot is that it'd be very easy for someone to use this script for a load of different things: - Twitter / HTML output - MSN now playing - LCD screen will upload something when it's less buggy (the OCR isn't perfect) |
| Wava Egizi 07.09.2010 | Why wont none them LCDkits work with Mac? |
| Arcelia Siebeneck 06.09.2010 |
Originally Posted by slangemenneske
- use autohotkey to screengrab the 'now playing' section of Traktor when the track changes - use GOCR cli to convert the screengrab into text (http://www.autohotkey.com/community /topic4089.html) - use LCD Smartie to display the track name / artist - use autohotkey (with midi support - http://www.autohotkey.com/community /topic4089.html) to detect a toggle button so that you can switch the LCD screen from VU meter to artist/track information. bit hacky though innit! OP - would you be willing to upload the source for your LCD Smartie dll plugin you've wrote? (or at least just the dll) - I'm sure there are a lot of people who would like to use an LCD as a VU meter in Traktor =] |
| Babara Guyll 05.09.2010 | that thing looks so wicked so far!!! can't wait to see the finished product |
| Delila Vandommelen 05.09.2010 | @milo : that wouldn't be practical. From what I gathered by implementing my own Twitter relay, the delay before the currently playing track is updated is way too long. First I believe it has to play for the amount of time set to mark a track as played, then you have to wait for icecast's buffer, which typically can't be altered. |
| Arcelia Siebeneck 05.09.2010 |
Originally Posted by thelpb
I've been looking into the Twitter DJ application that allows you to tweet the track names from Traktor and wondering if it'd be possible to pull the track names from Traktor and display them on one of the LCD usb screens above? This would allow you to use the VU meters to display various bits of information... perhaps toggle'able by a midi hotkey? Would you be willing to share the LCDsmartie code you're using? |
| Leon Camphouse 03.09.2010 | That thing is looking cooler and cooler, keep it up. I would add a few things thou, if I may make a suggestion without being critical of corse. I am using TPro, I personally believe there should be a 5th pots in the EQ for the filter, besides that it looks good. Love those wires, looks clean. I also have an idea for your support problem, you can use a few more spacers up the center like the ones you have on the corners. And maybe see if you can install and wire a sound card in it. I believe that would be so cool, then your you in trouble, because your going to have to make me a price on making me one...lol Later, Tom |
| Irwin Ney 01.09.2010 | I love this thread! keep it up! feed us with pictures |
| Aurea Kager 01.09.2010 |
Originally Posted by thelpb
how |
| Latashia Muna 31.08.2010 | I can't wait to see this beast in action. Good work so far mate. |
| Lala Cortina 30.08.2010 | Ordered more jumpers from Sparkfun, found another Powermate on Ebay, and ordered the two other U-Hid Nano boards for the rest of the Pots and Faders. That's almost everything I will need to finish the controller outside of a few small parts. |
| Lala Cortina 29.08.2010 | Ok pictures of this past weekends work! Found a USB hub in one of my parts bins. Took it apart and ended up with this: I may or may not integrate it into the controller but for now its fine for testing. ------------------- Getting started wiring the 10k Pots for Master/Headphone Gain and FX. I started by soldering on power wires to feed the Pots with +5v from the U-HID board. I sleeved the power wires and then soldered on the center signal wires. Sleeved those... Then I soldered on ground wires and sleeved them as well. Once I had the wires attached to the Pots themselves, I started combining the Power and Ground wires together to conserve pins on the U-HID. Once everything was combined, I added the 5x2 header that connects the whole assembly to the U-HID. Basically went through the same process with the center EQ section. And it lives! Some things I have noticed though that need to be changed right away. Number one on the list is that having the U-HID board mounted to the bottom panel is not the way to go. I kept the wiring for the buttons and Pots as short as I could to try and prevent ending up with spaghetti. Unfortunately this makes it very difficult to connect everything to the U-HID. I will be moving the U-HID to the underside of the top panel first thing this weekend. This will allow me to use cable management and also make it easy to assemble the controller. Number two is that I will probably need to add some kind of support to the center of the controller between both panels. The panels bow slightly now and I don't like it. Number three is that my original plan to put all of the external connections on top of the top panel is probably not feasible. I am still going to try it, but I will likely need to add a small port panel to the front and back of the controller. I have an idea to do this that should work well and still look good so I am going to explore it this weekend. More to come! |
| Graham Frazier 29.08.2010 | Great idea to use lcd's as a VU. |
| Lala Cortina 29.08.2010 | Ordered two of these: One for a center VU/levels meter and the other for displaying information such as CPU utilization, free memory, or what ever else I want it to show. I will be using LCDSmartie to run both of the displays, along with a simple plugin I wrote in VB.NET 2010 Express for the VU/levels meter. As of right now, the controller is alive. I finished wiring all of the 10k Pots along with the arcade buttons. Played with it a bit and have already found a few things I want to change from my original plans. Also need more jumpers from Sparkfun, so i'll be placing an order with them tonite as well. I'll post pics of the wiring work later tonite. |
| Irwin Ney 27.08.2010 | I'm subscribing to check it latter Damn proxy server, can't see those pictures at work I guess I shouldn't hehehe |
| Lala Cortina 26.08.2010 |
Originally Posted by photojojo
Originally Posted by DJ mini
Originally Posted by Glen
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| Hang Postman 25.08.2010 | For the crossfader you should put in a pro x fade or a innofader. It would be sweettt |
| Yuriko Agusti 25.08.2010 | Wild man, it's going to look amazing once it is done |
| Leeanna Ayla 24.08.2010 |
Originally Posted by Fatlimey
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| Lala Cortina 24.08.2010 |
Originally Posted by Patch
Originally Posted by Fatlimey
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| robert chanda 24.08.2010 | I do hope you've watched the TappPlastics tutorials on how to bond acrylic to itself with no visible join (go visit Tapp Plastics for many more ideas and techniques) [youtube]hT6Ow_cBTps[/youtube] Judging by the display cases for our Oscar and other production detritus we have here, they've barely read the instructions on the side of a superglue packet. |
| Brunilda Kora 24.08.2010 | Keeping a close eye on this thread - looks like your building a beast!!! |
| Lala Cortina 23.08.2010 |
Originally Posted by PartyMcFly
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| Dj LsEx 23.08.2010 | Just thought you should know how epic this build is looking. Acrylic fabrication is a bitch, isn't it? Worth it though. You're awesome. |
| Lala Cortina 23.08.2010 |
Originally Posted by DennisHuiberts
Originally Posted by derschaich
Originally Posted by Mudo
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| Keli Vandenbergh 23.08.2010 | ... Good Job man! ... |
| Allene Manitta 23.08.2010 | already loving your project! |
| Neal Rayome 23.08.2010 | Cool! Would really like to see the end result . |
| Lala Cortina 23.08.2010 | Ordered Faders and Buttons from http://www.futurelec.com. Long 10k Faders for Volume: Short 10k Fader for the crossfade: Small buttons: More to come! |
| Lala Cortina 22.08.2010 |
Originally Posted by jennifer18
In order to use the buttons, I would have to etch my own circuit boards with the correct tracing to make it all work, which is beyond my ability right now. I believe I might have a winner though from a site I just found right now actually. |
| Erlinda Goffena 22.08.2010 |
Originally Posted by thelpb
Only thing is I don't know how they are mounted in the controller. Hell, you may even be able to use the rest of the controller as a brain for some of your other pots, buttons etc. |
| Lala Cortina 22.08.2010 |
Originally Posted by farhanashraf
Originally Posted by Str8upDrew
Originally Posted by extraclassic
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| Joan Kollmorgen 22.08.2010 | Nice work, keep it up. Do those rotary pots have a center detent for the eq section? If not might be worth looking for some that do. |
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