Custom Controllers
Custom Controllers Posted on: 04.04.2008 by Adolf Hit *UPDATE* 1/10/10The midifighter is now a commercially available controller. For more info please visit http://www.midifighter.com/ Is anybody else working on any custom controllers? This is a controller I have been working on for the last few months called the "Midifighter". Obviously inspired by Eans arcade button mod each arcade button sends a midi note, and has an LED which can controlled using the midi out put on your software. The group of four buttons on the top right of the box are bank select buttons, each button maps the arcade buttons to a new range of notes. This effectively gives you quick access to 64 notes. The joysticks are raxed from a ps2 controller and send a different CC value on each axis. Eventually I want to tweak this so that it can be configured to send a different pair of CC values in each quadrant turning them into "super-sticks". | |
| Adolf Hit 26.06.2008 |
Originally Posted by Fatlimey
I laugh at anything untill .3 mm pitch, then I go and see the guys who operate the surface mount placer in our factory. Im pretty sure they are robots themselves, maybe they know Daft Punk... |
| robert chanda 26.06.2008 |
Originally Posted by midifidler
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| robert chanda 26.06.2008 |
Originally Posted by midifidler
I soldered together my breadboard power supply, and replaced my lead-free solder for 60-40 lead/tin, and it made the world of difference. I also got some sample switches through from NKK, so Inow know where everyone is getting those subminiature square illuminated switches from! Still searching for better big switches, want something a little less clicky with shorter travel. Making progress. |
| Xavier Emanuels 26.06.2008 |
Originally Posted by midifidler
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| Virginia Ortiz 27.05.2008 |
Originally Posted by BentoSan
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| Random X 22.05.2008 | @FatLimey Mawzer is great, but too expensive too my liking... What I wanted to build will set me back for |
| Virginia Ortiz 21.05.2008 |
Originally Posted by Wallsy
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| robert chanda 21.05.2008 |
Originally Posted by midifidler
http://www.mawzer.com/Pictures/thumbnails.php?album=2 http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/2007...ontroller.html http://www.musicgadgets.net/2007/06/...ar-controller/ Great design that never saw the light of day. It's pretty much what you describe. My guess is that each module had a microcontroller that communicated with the base unit using something like the I2C serial protocol, making each module plug'n'play but also quite expensive! |
| Karolis Petrauskas 22.07.2009 | Agreed...did you ever sell any? I'd like one. |
| Jene Martley 21.07.2009 | HOLY CRAP :O THIS IS SICK!!!! i need one.... i need two.... god i hope your still making these bad boys i would buy them in a sec haha |
| Glynis Mangona 20.05.2009 | slick little controller! i really like the add of the joysticks...multi-axis is where it's at. and i dig how you kept it simple...great design. |
| Erlond Everaert 23.04.2009 | Hey man these controllers look mad. you still got any for sale. i live in aus so cheap postage and good exchange rate. let me know. If you have 1 spare for sale very keen. BRad |
| Random X 27.06.2008 | Daft Punk uses Lemurs and BCR2000s. |
| Adolf Hit 26.06.2008 |
Originally Posted by Fatlimey
I laugh at anything untill .3 mm pitch, then I go and see the guys who operate the surface mount placer in our factory. Im pretty sure they are robots themselves, maybe they know Daft Punk... |
| robert chanda 26.06.2008 |
Originally Posted by midifidler
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| robert chanda 26.06.2008 |
Originally Posted by midifidler
I soldered together my breadboard power supply, and replaced my lead-free solder for 60-40 lead/tin, and it made the world of difference. I also got some sample switches through from NKK, so Inow know where everyone is getting those subminiature square illuminated switches from! Still searching for better big switches, want something a little less clicky with shorter travel. Making progress. |
| Xavier Emanuels 26.06.2008 |
Originally Posted by midifidler
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| Adolf Hit 26.06.2008 | Hi everyone, Here are some more pics of the final prototype midi-fighter. I just nutted out the last of the software bugs and I'm about half way through the building of the final 6 units. |
| Virginia Ortiz 27.05.2008 |
Originally Posted by BentoSan
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| Xavier Emanuels 22.05.2008 | Yeah modular would be the future if it were up to me haha. This even makes alot of sense for producers who want create hardware units for their favorite software VST. Another thing about modular units is that in the end when all the quality is up to par there will be no more complaining about layout designs This topped off with a touchscreen interface would totally rock my world. |
| Random X 22.05.2008 | @FatLimey Mawzer is great, but too expensive too my liking... What I wanted to build will set me back for |
| Adolf Hit 22.05.2008 | @fatlimey Cheers for the link, yup pretty much was my vision of the ultimate in midi control, must be surfing teh tubes in my dreams now lol . Shame this never came out. Though one day one of the big companies will latch on to the idea and give it the required amount of design attention. The micro required to go in each module would only need to cost 70 - 80 c or less so there is no reason that something like this could not be produced at a price comparable to any other mid range mixer/controller out there, when taking into account economy of scale. Something like this would sell big time when done right. |
| Virginia Ortiz 21.05.2008 |
Originally Posted by Wallsy
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| robert chanda 21.05.2008 |
Originally Posted by midifidler
http://www.mawzer.com/Pictures/thumbnails.php?album=2 http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/2007...ontroller.html http://www.musicgadgets.net/2007/06/...ar-controller/ Great design that never saw the light of day. It's pretty much what you describe. My guess is that each module had a microcontroller that communicated with the base unit using something like the I2C serial protocol, making each module plug'n'play but also quite expensive! |
| Adolf Hit 21.05.2008 | TECHNICAL NOTE: The Midi-fighter while being box like in form, and inherently dedicated to the generation of MIDI data, is in no way related to, or derived from the great MIDIBOX platform & community. |
| DJ MENSAH 21.05.2008 | LEGAL NOTE: Noone is allowed to sell the Midibox based controllers as finished units. You can check it on www.midibox.org ONLY selling that is allowed is midibox in kits (pcb, ICs, components...) Thorstein Klose intended this project to be a DIY teach-yourself electronics. [sorry 4 bad grammar, hope you untherstand] |
| John DeGeorge 12.05.2008 | Does anybody else see midifidler going on to be a bad ass big time midi control designer or what?? haha Keep going mate... "you can do it...." |
| Adolf Hit 05.05.2008 | Hey Dan, The back lit arcade buttons was what I wanted to begin with but the only ones I could find after hours of searching where built for arcade cabinets and all at least 55 mm deep, and generally twice the cost. But with that said, they would look totally dope. I have designed it to be as easy to manufacture as possible (in terms of labour), the main issue remaining is the cast aluminum enclosure. The raw unit comes in at 55 mm tall so I have to mill each one down to 35 mm, and re-tap the screw holes, this takes me about an hour. I'm not a mechie so I dont have too much of an idea how much this would cost per unit if say 100 units where being processed but machine work gets expensive fast. Other than that if the boards arrived pre-populated it would probably only take 20 minutes to assemble the unit so labour costs would be low. A profitable price point of < 200 USD could be achieved if I was to build at least 100 units. For my next project I have been believeing about something which Bento San touched on in another thread. In my mind one of the main limiting factor with midi controllers is the fact while on the soft ware side of things everything is totally customizable the hard ware is defined by some companies best attempt to accommodate every one with one box. Hence you see mods like Moldovers SL, Ean's VCI etc, but this is not acheivable for many people. What I see a big future in is controllers which are custom by nature. How awesome would it be if you brought a controller with a few basic controls, ie cross fader, channel levels, eq, things virtually every body wants to use, then you could choose from a range of other modules which can cover every particular interface people want, from indented pitch faders to endless encoders, touch sliders and arcade buttons, the list goes on. With a bit of clever architecture this could be made so even the most screw driver phobic user could add/remove modules at a whim. If you programmed each module with a ID then the controller would know what type of control is plugged in where, and what format the midi data should be sent in. And importantly it needs to use open source firmware to further drive innovation. |
| Jason Hamilton 05.05.2008 | While M-Audio has the velocity sensitive Trigger finger for $250 USD, you could be sitting pretty if you could market these for less than $200. So now, you have a pro product that appeals to both the beginner crowd AND the Expert crowd. Here's an idea; get clear arcade buttons and place the LED's below them to flash upon striking (or to stay lit in a toggle fashion) for a really cool effect. Know the competition: the TF as sliders and knobs, as well as being velocity sensitive. you'd have to market this for either lightning fast cueing in Traktor, Live, etc, or as a great way to control the main functions of four decks in Traktor (play, cue points, etc) hmm, what other ideas do you have? your main strength could be to mass produce these for the lowest cost possible |
| Adolf Hit 05.05.2008 | @Tos, Chur bro You should post some pics up, its not that red one I've seen around? |
| DJ MENSAH 05.05.2008 | Slick surface....nice color contrast. The price of mine was ~200eur. Casing is from a Commodore128D, hand drilled and milled. |
| Adolf Hit 05.05.2008 | Here is a pic of the new slim enclosure, sans joysticks, for the midifighter. It is now the same height as the vci. The top plate is now laser-cut clear acrylic painted on the inside so that the paint doesn't scratch off with time. |
| Ryan Morales 27.04.2008 | ^ Thats a pretty sweet idea. For DJing tho, how often would be pressure sensitivity reaaally be that useful.? |
| DJ MENSAH 26.04.2008 | midifidler, you can crank some piezo under that button array of yours and add velocity sensitivity. Some manufacturers use 4 piezos for a 4x4 button arrays, clearly one piezo measures 4 buttons simultainiously. Not precise enough but works. |
| Random X 10.04.2008 | Jus' lean back... lean back... lean back... |
| Ryan Morales 09.04.2008 |
Originally Posted by midifidler
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| Adolf Hit 09.04.2008 | @obsidiance lol sweet then you'll now just what a amazing party scene we have here...:eek: |
| Dj Daxsen 07.04.2008 | hey hey my folks are from the Waikato area! Ive been to Hamilton a few times, all my relo's live over there! Im an aussy born and bread thou haha! (born syd, live newcastle) |
| Adolf Hit 07.04.2008 | Hey Tekki, BOM cost so far is 115 for the electronics(buttons LEDs chips etc) whatever the PCB costs per unit, which is 300 / however many I end up making (up to 10). The enclosure is 25 as I have a mill I can use at work and Im just waiting for a final quote on having the face plates laser cut. Overall it should be under 250 NZD. At this stage the major cost is the professional PCB's required to make this unit reliable as it breaks pretty much every time I open it right now, too many wires as you can see in the pic. @Duelist Using the slice to midi is awesome but I cant find a way to get it to continue playing through the track from the sample I just triggered, can any one help out here? @kaon Whats up bro see your a fellow H-town boy roll over and I can give you a demo, send me an email... @Ean + BentoSan Cheers for the props, def keen for a modding + custom design community , would be cool to use it to generate ideas for new methods of control & controllers. Many of the users on this community already have vci's/25sl's etc which can do the majority of tasks at a far lower cost than trying to build something like a vci from scratch because of the time it takes and economy of scale required. But novel methods of control are always fairly simple to implement at a functional level and can lead to totally new techniques not offered by anything on the market, all we need is fresh ideas from people who don't necessarily have the skills to design & implement them, knowledge can be a limiting factor in creativity |
| Xavier Emanuels 06.04.2008 | Can we please have a thread to modding/from scratch all onto its own ? that would be awesome! I believe it would help promote this sort of stuff too |
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