[TK.]

Julien has finished his great looking MIDIbox SEQ V3. It fits into a 2U case!

He wrote:

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thanks a lot for seq v3, it is pure craziness !

Here is the 2U rack design i did cause somebody gave me the enclosure.
Notice there is not a lot of spaghetti, obvious i did the panel on veroboard(!)

All PCB were produced by my little hands in the school lab last year, most of the compounds were offered too. The panel is Schaeffer (150€ !).
Total cost : 250€. But lots of reflexion before soldering or drilling or cuting with the dremel (very long and very crazy to cut all the enclosure)

I also join the schaefer panel if someone wants to copy it.

Frontpanel Layout: http://www.midibox.o..._CADv3.1.1a.fpd

[nILS]

That's one professional looking case ;D Great layout on such a "small" panel! Very clean inside as well, great job!

[ptitjes]

Félicitations Julien!!! The implantation is so clean and there is a lot of space to add modules ;) Impatient to see it in real!

Best regards, Didier.

[Wilba]

Excellent! Congratulations Julien!

Great panel layout... threaded blind holes on the reverse side is a great idea!

[julestriko]

Thanks guys.
next step is making a MB808 in a 1U rack ! i know i can do it, for sequencing my Drumstation.

By the way, the pic 18f4620 i used was EUSART bug free (revision 5 if i well remember) and thanks to the wonderful code of TK, you don't need to get a IIC module !!!! Just use Int. for output, it passes the Clock 0xF8 too !!

Something else about the LCD : as i am playing with the SEQ_2U since yesterday, i noticed that a shifting of the screen of 3mm on the right (and of course the holes on the back side of the panel ) is very recommended, in order to get the values better aligned with the buttons (especially this Note length gauge).

Yes there is still some place inside. The rack is the smallest i could find ; i hesitate to saw it, but 15cm depth is cool.
The hardest has been the drilling for the MIDI Jack : 16 mm !!! with a f*****ng low cost driller and some "huile de coupe" to avoid heating and my weak arms. The Dremel is the definitive tool to get, a friend let me his one.

Cheers

[moxi]

:) really pro look!

[Echopraxia]

Borat. "Very Nice" ;D

I know what a dremel is but could you explain what you used it for on your box.

About the midi jack hole I first drilled a small hole then bought a unibit which has like 10 differnt sizes of holes on it. The more you push into the case the bigger the hole gets. This extra tool made it very easy to do. I think it cost about $20 USD

I also had a question about your veroboard. How much did it cost and where did you get it? Because every where I look I find that longer boards are at least $30 USD each. I want to do pcb but it may be too time consuming and even more costly.

And about shifting the screens. Do you mean move both screens 3mm to the right in relation to the encoders? So the far right encoders below each screen are closer aligned to their screen position? So if this is the case then first align the screens to the encoders then move screens 3mm to the right yes?

And finally. The eusart bug. I am not looking at my pic right now but how can you tell what revision it is?  I got mine from smash back in sep 07.

Please let us know how bad ass it plays when you get a moment with your new best friend.

[stryd_one]

NICE layout. [me=stryd_one]deletes his layout attempt[/me]
I won't be needing that any more! Thanks Julien!

Echo: you should look at the chip first and then ask ;)

[Sasha]

Congratulations Julien. Well done! It looks very neat and comfortable inside :) Makes me wanna put something more in it. Maybe some IIC modules if you need to drive more than one synth. But, my greatest compliment goes on front panel... no visible screws! :D  I see from the back some threads. I supose those are blind threads wilba is talking about. Is front panel made out of 2 panels? I used to make threads myself but the both, 1 or 3 part threading tool needs to go all the way trough hole. How did you make those threads?  ???

[julienvoirin]

whaou lots of questions. I should have take a lot of pictures, but taking pictures while you are dremeling is not a good idea. I prefered not loosing a finger.
So :

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I know what a dremel is but could you explain what you used it for on your box.

a Dremel is a small driller. i used it to cut, through a cutting disc (in fact i used 6 marron, and 3 black, and i really reduced their original size, because of the roughness of the steel). At the begginning, the rack had edges that went where the LCD are now. So i had to cut. In the meantime, the size of the box is smaller than the size of the panel. So, the second line of buttons must go through the down panel ; i then have cut again with my friend dremel.
I also used the dremel to cut screws needed for fixing the spacers on the back of the frontpanel.

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a unibit which has like 10 differnt sizes of holes on it

i know this tool. But it is expensive (75€) and need a driller with a mechanical arm. For drilling, i only had my low cost driller (a Bosch at 20 € in Carrefour that don't even accept drill superior to 10mm in diameter) and a piece of wood to avoid making a hole in the ground.

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question about your veroboard.

it is 3 classical vero (maybe 3-5€ in shop) assembled together with soldering and leads of resistors (!!)thanks to the placement of the spacers, everything is super strong.
I also had to grind the Voti encoder, because they had a noze that was not compatible with the placement (the head of the encoder in the ass of the next)

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And about shifting the screens.

the screens are shifted because you shift the holes on the back of the frontpanel. the windows stay at their place.

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but how can you tell what revision it is

go in download and get it : http://www.ucapps.de...sion_id_v1a.zip

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no visible screws!

yes, an advice of reboot from the forum. i know him normally (i mean i already shacked his hand :D)
the frontpanel has a 3mm thickness, so you can use 2mm holes, placed on the back. Then you can ask to Schaeffer to format them for M3 screws.

[julienvoirin]

some medias :
http://4colors.free....x/demos/seq_2u/

[reboot]

great machine ...hope to play with :P

[ganchan]

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the frontpanel has a 3mm thickness, so you can use 2mm holes, placed on the back. Then you can ask to Schaeffer to format them for M3 screws.

i love this solution.
can i ask you  witch is the risk to brake the screw lines of panel turning the screw too much? aluminium it's not so strong in this way.

i like this photo too!
http://4colors.free....2U%20-%2017.jpg
seems like a good tekno console.

p.s. where you have bought that case?

[julienvoirin]

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witch

hmm ... je ne suis pas sorcier. should i understand "which" ?
there is no way to break the panel if your are tiny. and because you screw the cutted screw with your hand you can't have enough force to break. moreover, the screwhole isn't complete ; Schaeffer can't mill the all hole : they need at least 0,5 mm free.
So, on a 3mm thickness :
2mm milled
0,5mm free
0,5 mm of panel

The case was bought at Selectronic

[stryd_one]

I think these holes are only really suitable for light, shallow racks. Keeping in mind that the rack front panel supports it's entire weight, if your kit was a big deep heavy unit full of hefty analog like transformers, it's not a good idea...

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there is no way to break the panel if your are tiny. and because you screw the cutted screw with your hand you can't have enough force to break.

I dunno man, I've stripped a lot of threads with my hand in my time :( It's easily avoided, except when the screw must be tight, like this. There's also the risk of screwing the bolt in too far and going right through the panel - 0.5mm is not much metal.

But for this light box it's no problem and looks really pretty!

[Davo]

Mmmm....  I have half a mind to whip up a PCB for this once I acquire a front panel.  Who's interested in a PCB/front panel group buy?