alekzander

Does anyone have experience using an LCD with an IST3020 driver? Googling Arduino and IST3020 does not come up with any hits. The chip is used in a EastRising 4.3" COG display with 192x64 pixels in a very slim frame. Two of those displays next to each other would be a nice, cheap ($9-$12 each depending on color) replacement for the very, very expensive 2x55 character displays used in the Logic/Mackie Control at the same width. Unfortunately, the connection is with a 36 Pins 0.50mm Pitch ZIF Connector but there are places which provide breakout boards with the ZIF connector. http://www.buy-display.com/default/192x64-dot-matrix-display.html

M-Audio uses the same type of display with 2x55 characters. I got a quote for the display as a spare part for $60 + $15 (handling) + $x for shipping from http://www.testtech.com/spareparts/. I had to call to get a price. I still balk at spending $80+ for the display. A cheap 10" tablet—even used first generation iPads go for less than $200, no-name Android are around $100—actually look quite attractive as an add-on display for a Behringer BCF2000 or a Midibox LC.

You might want to search some more. At http://octopart.com/ they list unauthorized vendors selling them for $13 per piece, $12 for > 100. I have no experience with the vendor or unauthorized distributors. A.

On Ebay US you can find such aluminum enclosures quite often. One US dealer (see http://cgi.ebay.com/Aluminum-Project-box-Enclosure-8-X-8-X-5-GK8-8-5-/230643326855#ht_606wt_952) states that he sells longer profiles, up to 72". Maybe that would work. Best, A.

Ordering from Mouser in the US, the cheapest DOGM 2x16 display is $11.41 and the backlight is $2.86. More if you want white, blue or RGB. The $65 was 4 displays and backlights including shipping within the US. Alex

I had that thought before, but then I am not sure if I could successfully extract the displays without breaking them and make them work with a Midibox. It would also feel wrong to break up a working piece of equipment for parts. Unfortunately, broken Mackie controls show up on Ebay quite rarely and at still quite high prices. Thanks for the info. EUR90 is quite steep, but not insanely so. The cheapest alternative I have found was to use 4 DOGM 2x16 displays at $65 (so about 45 EUR) which are also quite compact at 230mm width total. The downside is that the display is then 64 characters wide and the display code had to be changed. Best, Alex

The fader knobs look like http://www.m-audio.com/images/global/media_hqpics/ProjectMix_top.jpg but the color of the LCD is more yellow on the M-audio. This looks very pretty. Does anyone know whether the various 2x55 LCDs are have HD44780 controllers? The Mackie HUI schematic I found on the net did not specify the LCD. Veermaster, please let us know if you have found a source for the elusive LCDs ... Alex

I recently set-up my music stuff again and realized how much fun it is not to stare at a computer screen but rather have dedicated hardware for recording, mixing and playing. I am quite happy with my el-cheapo setup of a Tascam FireOne (Firewire audio, Scrub wheel, transport controls and function buttons) and Behringer BCF-2000, except that it drives me nuts trying to figure out what I actually control with the faders for lack of a dedicated display. Consequently, I am again contemplating building a display based on the MBLC. As the LCD modules used in the Mackie control (and a lot of other devices like the M-Audio Projectmix, Digidesign control surfaces, Yamaha 01x?) are pretty much unavailable on the market I am looking for a nice alternative which will display track name and parameters as close as possible to the encoders and faders of the BCF. Ideally, the display should be 228 mm wide. The obvious idea is to use several displays to cover this, but unfortunately most LCD assemblies have a quite large margin between the edge of the PCB and the start of the active area; 1-2 cm on each side are not uncommon. The closest solution I can find are four EA DOG modules side by side. They are 55mm wide and the active area is 48.31 mm leaving a ~7 mm gap between active areas of adjacent displays. EA sells a 2x16 character display or a 132x32 pixel graphic display In the same form factor; the price difference is only about US$ 2. With the right character set the graphic display should get close to 55 characters per line. The downer of course is the cost ($68 for four displays with backlights) and the increased complexity of building it compared to finding one display and hooking it up to the core. Does anybody know of any alternatives? Large 240x64 or 256x64 graphic displays, 2x27 character displays of the right dimensions. Am I missing anything obvious? Another question re DOG LCDs: I remember reading that hooking up four of the character modules should not be an issue. What about four of the graphic displays? Thanks. Alexander

I stumbled over two more interesting sources for LED ring assemblies. A complete assembly, SMD/through-hole, http://top-up.so-buy.com/front/bin/ptlist.phtml?Category=336089 They also have illuminated pots, encoders and switches. Small PCB with shift register SMD mounted LEDs and encoder for interfacing via SPI http://mayhewlabs.com/products/rotary-encoder-led-ring A.

What exactly is $75 dollars? The piece of wood? The whole assembly including the sensor? From where? Nord has a patent on their design, which explains everything in great detail http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5696345.html . I know very little about electronics, but it looked like in the end you would have a variable voltage you could feed into an analog input (AIN). Best, Alexander

I have seen those before, but thanks for pointing them out. Behringer actually has a Windows only software for the display. Tascam, remember the Tascam FW Firewire interfaces/control surfaces are also displayless, similarly provides software displays. However, I find that there is a "disconnect" between control and display if the physical distance between them is too large, hence the idea to built one. An alternative would be a second display hooked up to the computer and located just behind the BCF. One of these external 7-8" LCDs which are connected via USB might be nice for this. A.

Who is talking about a custom app? If I understand the comments in the very well documented Midibox LC code correctly, the code is pretty flexible with respect to hardware present; i.e., a core and one display would be the bare minimum. Switching off motor faders, setting the number of shift registers to 0, disable LED_RINGS, METERS, LEDDIGITS, insert ENC_EOT for all encoders can be done in setup_midibox_lc.asm. After reading the source and the logic control manual a little bit more intensively I figured out some of the additional questions I had: Adding some buttons for functions not available on the BCF 2000 would require adding a single DIN module. The mapping shift register/pin to function can be done arbitrarily in lc_io_table.inc. Ditto for LEDs. The initial connection with the host does include sending a logic control surface serial. But there is no device id in the midi message as there is only one logic control surface per MIDI port. Since the Behringer provides just one MIDI in and one MIDI out port over USB, the messages from the Behringer and the Midibox LC cannot be distinguished. If the DAW is really anal and gets upset about two host connection queries and comfirmations, one could comment out the LC_SYSEX_Action_HostReply etc. in lc_sysex.inc. Now I only need to find a 22cm wide 240 x 64 pixel graphic LCD 8) A.

Hi everyone, I recently got a Behringer BCF 2000 really cheap off Ebay after contemplating building a complete Midibox LC myself. In the end I realized I do neither have the experience nor the time for that. However, I miss the display and would really prefer to see what I am doing without looking at the computer screen. There have been quite a number of posts of people inquiring about building a BCF 2000 display as a cut-down Midibox LC. Hardware-wise I think it is quite clear how to proceed: build core, add LCD, add DOUT for LED digits and another (maybe) for VU meters or a DIN for some extra buttons. From what I understand the DIN/DOUT ports can be mapped in software, so that it not necessary to connect the full number of boards to just get the LEDs working. I got a couple of questions before I get started. Did anybody ever actually built a working BCF 2000 display unit? From reading TK's response in one of the threads, it seems that it should work. I would love to see pictures of finished products to see how people packaged up the whole thing. The main issue I see is to make the BCF 2000 and the Midibox look like one logic control as Shed pointed out (http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php/topic,2941.0.html). Afro88 writes that the BCF 2000 passes the sys-ex to control the display on the thru-port (http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php/topic,7020.0.html). Does the Midibox LC software rely on the initial hand-shaking with the DAW to start displaying things? Not hooking up the MIDI-Out from the Midibox LC to the Behringer would prevent the Midibox LC from beeing seen by any DAW software. What to do if I wanted to have a couple of extra buttons on the MIDIBox LC? Thanks, A. PS: For fellow BCF 2000 owners: Is the following normal? 1) The rotary encoders feel like potentiometers and you have to turn them quite a lot for example for adjusting pan position in Live. 2) The motor faders do not move very smoothly when replaying slow fades. PPS: The BCF 2000 threads I found http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php/topic,7020.0.html http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php/topic,12696.0.html http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php/topic,7520.0.html http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php/topic,2941.0.html