Velaskin

That's what I thought as well. The controller is not really meant to be rebuild. Ok, that might change over time, especially if someone else is interested to build it ;) But then, I might assume, that the design is probably somewhat special :D

Thank you, novski :) For the PCBs in general: I will use the core board along with the midi breakout board from the midibox-shop. It's already ordered, and I'm looking forward to its arrival :) Whether or not I'm building the DINs and DOUTs just on bread boards is not yet finally decided. On the other hand, the layout for a PCBs ist probably rather simple. And the overall mechanical stability would probably benefit. Not to mention the more professional approach ;) Cheers, John

Hi there, it has been quite a while since my last post. A couple of years ago I had planned a DJ/Traktor box. The project kinda drowned due to lack of time and eventually some other "real life issues" ;) Anyway I did a raincheck on the uCapps/Midibox development these days and found it's still alive and kicking :D Now I'm in the planning process of a DJ controller which is going to be used to control Traktor Pro. I've attached a preview/mockup of the actual layout. It's in a way the 10th iteration ("rev. D") and I might think, I got all my needed controls crammed on the panel :) BTW the panel will be black instead of grey as in the preview. What I'm gonna use: Buttons will be arcade style buttons (Sanwa OBSC24 with clear casing). The idea comes from the Midifighter Spectra controller by DJTechTools. Again inspired by the Midifighter Spectra, the buttons will be indirectly illuminated by RGB leds. 4 leds per button, which will be controlled pair-wise. That means, you can have the whole ring lit up, or just a half of it (left or right side). No pots but encoders only. That counts for the channel faders and crossfader as well. I'm a huge fan of rotary mixers and I don't need cuts in my music styles. Due to the huge amount of leds (using RGB leds actully tripples the amount as we all know), the leds are going to be in a matrix. Actually 7 matrixes with 4 rows each to get the 8 brightness levels. The core will be the STM32F4. Very nice piece of hardware btw ;) There will be a 2x40 LCD, so that the SCS will be available (you never know ;)). Other than that some infos on the layer/bank or whatever comes to mind can be displayed to complement the color coding of the buttons. The SCS buttons will be emulated, and activated by the button aside of the LCD. The front panel will be manufactured by Schaeffer AG. It took me a while to accomodate that idea due to the price. But I think it's worth it. The panel will be around 50 x 33 cm. It's big, but well ;) As far as I see it I can use the already existing hardware concepts and schematics you guys already came up with. Except for one change: Usually you would use the 74HC595 for the DOUTs along with some ULN2003s the get the current delivered. But what about using a shift register which is already capable of higher currents without additional support? From reading some datasheets inspired by other forums I stumbled across the TPIC6C595. It's actually cheaper than the combo 74HC595/ULN2003 and it would spare quite some space on the PCBs :) From the datasheets I might think the core should be able to deal with the TPIC6C595 in the same way as with the 74HC595. Has anybody tried that already? So what do you think? Cheers, John

... and a small "redesign" of the panel. Due to the fact that 5 control parts are getting to wide to fit all easily onto a 19" panel, I decided to go with 4 control parts. Along with that the displays for each part can now have 2x16 characters, which gives you some more space for usefull information on these displays ;-) cheers, John

@Mr modnaR: ... fat fingers... ;D Well, my fingers are fine, thank you ;D But I'm not a big fan of "micro-DJ'ing". Sure, I respect the works of folks like Faderfox. But to be honest, and that's not a matter of fat fingers, I like to have more "real size" controls ;-) @Sinnsyk: I've had that thought too. But then the whole setup is getting to big. At least for me. That means transport wise and space wise in the very venue. Venue space is always a big problem. At least if you bring some sort of own equipment, which a computer DJ appearently does. At least transport wise I would be fine: I have a 4UH "L-rackcase. The case itself contains my "outboard"/audio-interface and a harddisk. The laptop sits on top of it. The controller gets to be mounted into the front cover. I'll post some pics of this case soon. Tonight and tomorrow I'm having a gig and so I won't have time to do some photos before sunday ;-) Cheers, John

nope. No Faders. It's basically a matter of space on this panel size. Then, I don't really need dedicated faders. I'm used to have rotaries ;-) And finally... well, all of those 5 control parts are gonna be used for various things. At some point you might just miss a rotary if you need control over an effect section or whatever. Keep additionally in mind, that with a fader you might lose some sort of convenience due to parameter jumps. For traktor as example you will have app. 8 (!) layers per control part... If you have to watch out for parameter jumps, you might just not use the fader anyway. Or you keep it on the channel volume. Which, on the other hand might leave you with one control option less available. Ok, all of this could be solved with motorized faders. But still you would have the space problem ;-) BTW: The X-fader could actually be a fader instead of a rotary (encoder). For that the space would be there. I'm not finally decided on that ;-) Cheers, John

...hmmm... nobody has some comments on that? :-\

Hi again ;) I just made a "quick&dirty rendering" of my design. The colorish blobs aside of each button and knob are the mentioned RGB-LEDs... Cheers, John

Hi there ;-) Once again I'm thinking, that I've come up with the very perfect layout/design for my needs. By now I'm using Ableton Live for DJ'ing as well (aside from Traktor). So I thought, if I finally gonna take the plunge for building a midibox, it should be close to be perfect for both softwares ;) Anyway, since I don't have any pictures yet, I try to explain, what my layout/design is all about: The goal was and is to come up with something, that isn't limited to a very special software related layout. Still there are always some things, you might need: a basic track/deck/channel related layout might come to mind. So imagine a 19"/5 UH (225mm) panel. There you have a master section on the left. A couple of encoders and buttons for the main/master functions (master volume, master BPM, a crossfader, and such things). There's also the MIOS-Interface as in a 2x20 LCD and couple of buttons underneath. The rest of the panel is populated by 5 identical parts: Each of them consists of 5 encoders and 5 buttons. Above them there'll be a 2x8 LCD and 2 more encoders. These encoders will be used to access the layers for one of these "channel strips". One for channel/deck selection and the other for function selection (EQ, filter, track editing, etc.). So, what do think so far? ;) First off I was about to implement some sort of "night design". Basically the buttons should be lit from underneath... But then, after seeing Monolake's Monodeck II, I thought "wow, that IS cool!" ;) You would have some sort of night design still, but adding some usefull function to the lighting too. Remember what I said before about my design: 5 "channel related" Parts with many layers to each of them. Sure, the LCD will tell you, where you are. But with colored LEDs you will even more easily remember, what particular functions you have asigned to each encoder and button ;) (Like in : RED -> don't hit/turn the button/knob at the wrong time! ;D ) Let's recap: All in all there'll be 32 encoders and 38 buttons. Each of them should be accompanied by a RGB-LED. Since each and every RGB-LED carries 3-4 LEDs inside (depending on type), you'll have not less than 210 LEDs to handle! And well, a software controlled dimming would be handy too. While reading about similar solutions and designs concerning LED-matrixes, especially those with RGB-LEDs, I still think, it can be done. So, here's a question to those, who have already played with either really many LED rings and/or LED matrixes: What I'm not sure about yet is, in how many rows and collumns I should actually arrange them. As example I could use the LED ring feature of MIOS. But as far as I see it, the code is somewhat limited to 16 rings, right? Ok, the code could be changed. But then: how many LED rings can be realized anyway without putting to much stress to the core? As another example, would it be asked too much to have let's say 40 LED rings (with 12 LEDs each) controlled by one core module? Or to put it more simple: What's better? Having less columns with more LEDs in a row? Or the other way aound? Or doesn't that matter at all? The reason I'm asking is, that it would be a "real pain in the a***" to rewire that many LEDs in case just a different wiring would have been better ;D ;) Cheers, John

ah ok. So basically it's like I understood it. Anything else can be done "by hand" ;D

hi there, ... this might be a stupid question. But I didn't find anything about it so far... I know, that it's possible to work with multiple layers for buttons/encoders, so that you can have multiple functions on one button/encoder by switching the layer. As far as I understood it, these layers work for the whole button/encoder layout, right? So, if you switch the layer, the whole panel switches. What I would need, would be a way to have multiple independant layers for certain areas of the panel. In (hopefully) better words: Let's say, you have 8 buttons with two layers. And then you have another 8 buttons with two layers. Is it possible to switch layers independantly for those two button-groups? cheers, John

Nice work drin :) I would miss something tho: - the buttons for Cue-Set and Cue-Delete (or did I oversee them?) - a dial/slider for tempo and key (in case you need to change it quickly) - buttons for Snap and Lock on Looping and Cueing - some buttons on the effect section. Some effects need some buttons along with the dials/encoders. I think, my preliminary panel layout doesn't quite explain itself... ;D So here's a version with some text on the buttons: The buttons below the LCD are the ones for handling the MIOS. 4 for the MIOS itself and 4 more for some special functions which are MIOS related (like turning the encoder acceleration on and off). This is just in case you need to change some settings "quick and dirty". The buttons below the encoders in the top right... well, they cannot really be named, because their very function changes along with the bank-select buttons left to them. Then, in the Loop-Section: M = loop move L = loop length . = loop length (no snap) Loop = "go to loop" Loop count = sets the count of a loop to be played M, L, Loop and Loop count are "shift-keys" for the encoder in the middle (or the main-dial. That I haven't decided yet). In the Temp-Section: Pitch is a "shift-key" for the main-dial (the big one on the right). Here you can quickly dial in another key/tempo. The "+" and "-" button right to the Sync-button are the pitch/key benders. In the CUE-Section: CUE-DIAL is a "shift-key" for the main dial (once again). Here you can quickly jump to a cue-point. This is basicly for editing. For playing you have the numbered buttons below, where you can jump directly to a certain point. That's for "life re-arranging" ;D Cheers, John

Hiyas ;D Well, I was a bit busy, but here are my actual thoughts on the Traktor 3 controler design: I took a closer look at the Xone 92 mixer which is virtually included in Traktor 3. I can only say "WOW!!!" ;D Anyways I'm kinda like back to my first design, but with different thoughts about it: One panel will be 3 HE in height and 19" wide. That should make sure, that the whole thingy fits into almost all cases (even in mine ;D). This panel will have one core under the hood and controls for one deck (drive controls, tempo/key, cueing, looping, a "jog dial"), a fader, which is an encoder along with the 2 auto-fade buttons, and finally the deck's level and a couple of controls (encoders and buttons) for the stuff like the EQ, filter, effects. The latter part consists of 5 enoders and some buttons which take care of all the functions of one unit (EQ or a filter or an effect). With some bank-change-buttons you can decide, which part of the mixer you'd like to control. With some other bank-change-buttons you can switch the whole panel to deck A, B, C, or D. With this design the controler is somewhat small and more or less reasonable in matters of costs. And you can control the whole Traktor 3 with it... But: if you build up two of those controlers you can do anything! Keep in mind that a "standard issue human being" has two hands. So you might want to control two different parts of your decks at the same time. Let's say you would like to tweak the EQ and the delay of deck A: You would switch both panels to deck A. The first will be set for EQ and the second to control the delay. Or you would like to have the deck controls for C and D: well than make it so ;D How does that sound? And well, you can have even four panels hooked up at once and have all the deck-controls at hand and up to four sets of controls for EQ, filter, effects, etc. Here's is a picture of the raw panel design: Cheers, John

@drin: Sorry, I didn't mean to be "teacheous" ;) I'm in Germany btw. And yes, I know that I can connect pots and faders along with encoders and all. I don't really see it as a limit tho to implement the x-fader as an encoder. As I said, I don't do any scratching. Then again, during testing it might come down to put in a real fader. We will see 8) @kris: I will post the layout as soon as I think it's kinda finished. I still catch myself moving things around ;D @n0ne: Yes, you're right. But then: wouldn't the information get lost during bank change? Even if I don't touch the virtual dials on screen with the mouse in between? Or to phrase it better: If I have an encoder with a led ring. With a bank change I can control let's say the filter amount and the trebles on the EQ. If I have the filter amount on 0%, the led ring will reflect that. Than I change to the EQ treble and dial in a +3dB. More than half of the leds will light up. Would the bank change back to the filter amount really switch the led ring off (due to the 0% amount)? Greetings, John

@drin: I do some industrial/noise. That's basicly something you might also know as "dark techno". For that I need simultaneous (play)control over the 4 decks. I often work with loops and cues. To keep the controls on the panel as less as possible (costs, panel size (see above) and the "128-DIN-limit") I had to decide which controls I need most. So it came down to the "deck's drive contols" to be very important. Than the controls for looping, tempo and cueing and finally the controls for the EQ and the filters. Traktor 2 his this "soft takeover" feature for the pots and sliders... but for some stupid reason this "soft takeover" has its probs when the controler number changes along with the position of the controlled item. It woks brilliant tho if you just have to take care of an occasional change of a control with the mouse. But well, I found this feature not very helpfull for me. I don't know if NI has improved this feature in Traktor 3 but anyway, all the pots will actually be encoders. Unfortunately the x-fader has to be an encoder too... but on the other hand, I don't scratch. So the x-fader being a real slider isn't that important to me ;) Since Traktor doesn't return any midi-commands, I don't see much use in LED-rings. Tho they do look cool ;) Greetings, John

Hi drin ;) Your approach sounds nice. Especially when I imagine that you might try to mimic the xone:92 layout ;D What kind of music are you playing? And will you post images of your progress? Greetings, John

... just thinking... if those touchpads are so expensive to get, why not try a completely different approach: By now you can get reasonably priced digitizer tablets and well I've seen touch pads as a mouse replacement too. For the latter I've to check my bookmarks again. Anyway, these things work via USB. I've no idea how much effort the programming would be, but maybe a USB interface might do the trick? ... as I said: just thinking. Greetings, John

Hi there, here's an update to my thoughts: ;) For the ones who haven't read my earlier longish post: I'm planning a Traktor 3.x controller. Traktor 3 will have 4 (!) decks and aside of the EQ 4 different filters/effects ... so the controller for this would be either big and expensive if one would try to mimic the software's layout, or too spartanic to be really usefull. Additionally I need to fit all dials and buttons on a plate of 483 x 160 mm (19" wide and a bit shorter than 4 HE). This is to have it fitting into my existing case in front of the laptop. Right now I'm with the following: The very deck controls are there for all of the 4 decks (play, cue-play, etc.) Then there's a section with the controls for tempo/key, looping and cueing. And finally there's a section with 5 dials and some buttons for the filters/effects and EQs. The deck controls don't need to be switched. They are just there. Then you have 4 buttons for the decks, which control the tempo/looping/cueing section. These buttons work addtionally as some sort of "group selection" for the filters/EQs. Whith some more selection buttons you decide which filter/effect/EQ you are going to tweak. That should be intuitive and fast enough to really play with the decks. Furthermore you stay below the 128 DIN "limit". So the box is more affordable and you don't need two cores. Right now even a LCD along with 8 menu buttons fits on the plate ;D So... now anyone having some comments on this? ;) BTW: I'll post a drawing of the design when I'm done with moving things around and thinking about all this ;D Greetings, John

Hi there, I'm a DJ with "musical tendencies" ... which actually means, that I do life remixing to the extend, that the remix is almost a new song. I'm running Traktor and for now I control it with a midi-keyboard. This is of course not a very good solution. I need access to almost all misc functions of Traktor concerning looping (with the ability of jumping to a loop/cue point directly) and general track control. The optimum would be, to play with Traktor and the tracks kinda like playing an intrument. (Yep, I know how that sounds ;)) Right now I'm planning to build a decent midi-controller. I know that some of you have already done some really nice controllers. But well, almost all of them try to mimic the screen layout of Traktor (2.x). I was almost there with my design, but then realized, that the whole thing would get way too big or the knobs and buttons too small. And well, Traktor 3 is coming and stuffing all the controls for 4 (!) decks into a reasonable sized box would be pretty hard. Not to mention the cost for all those encoders/pots and buttons. Maybe I should add, that I use a notebook along with a flight case. The latter is a modified turntable case. It contains all the electric stuff (audio interface, power adapters, a 2nd harddrive, etc.) completely wired up. When I start, I just have to set my laptop on this thing, attach a couple of cables and I'm ready to go. I think the box is already pretty big for some situations, so I wouldn't want to build a second box containing the midi-controls. To make long story short, the available space for the controller would be 19" wide and about 16 cm in height. For that I would have to modify my current flight case, but that's a different story. ;D Anyways I found myself playing with a cover plate design program, moving all the controls around, just to get a pretty stuffed thingy. And that's for only 2 decks. With that I wouldn't have a clue, what to do with the controls for 2 more decks... So I came to a new idea: How about a controller for just one deck, along with the main controls (master volume, master bpm, headphone controls, etc.). And this one deck is accompanied by four buttons, which give immediate access to four patches/banks. With that one could switch the controls to the deck you want ;D But that's not all: If you would press let's say button 1 & 2 you would control deck 1 & 2 at the same time (for starting up two tracks at once a.e.). My questions for you now: 1) what do you think of this idea? 2) the patch/bank switching should be really fast. Real time so to say. Can this be done with the core? Or do I need one or more banksticks for that? If that's the case, are those banksticks fast enough for that? I've read, that those banksticks are rather slow due to the data protocol they're interfaced with... 3) For the last part of my idea, the core/MIOS would have to be able to output more than one midi command. Let's say, you're controling deck 1 & 2. "Play" from deck 1 is midi event #81 (just an example) and "play" from deck 2 is midi event #82. In case of having both patches active (due to patch buttons 1 & 2 are pressed), the MIOS would have to output 2 midi events in a row by pressing just one button (#81 AND #82). I assume, that this is not a standard function available? How much effort would you think it to program that feature? My own assembler skills are pretty old. I've done some 6809 and 68000 programming ages ago ... ::) Greetings, John