A Couple of quick questions re POTS and double use, and self lit buttons.

[The III Man]

Hi All,

I have previously built a midibox 64, most of which still works, I have learnt from my mistakes and plenty about the midibox setup but have a couple of queries regarding a new mini controller I want to build: (fyi ots going to be a basic little controller, aluminium front, wood sides, to be used live to control bass synths, predominantly the 303 vst emuliation phoscyon, whilst playing out live)

1, I only want 16 pots so is it possible, and if so how, to have a button that when pressed forces pots to send out midi on a different channel, thereby giving me the possibility of doubling up on pots as many grooveboxes do? ( I am no programmer so do please explain in newbie terms) For instance to have a FX1 controlled by 2 pots and when depressed the pots will cnahge parameters on FX2 leaving one untouched.

2, I dont want to use any DOUTs, but if I have buttons I would hope to use the buttons to give me visual feedback (ie via LED) as to whether something is ON/OFF, or simply if the button is down or up. For example If I have the FX1 & FX2 units and the answer to the above question of is yes (i.e. I can double up on pot functions), then I would want my button to be lit if it was pressed in and therefore in mode number 2.

My thought on this was to use some sort of SPST Latching switch (is that right?) with an inbuilt LED (presuming they exist) when the actual mechanics of the button cause it to become lit and don't rely on any processing. Is this a sensible way to go, if so what kind of button am I after?

Thanks in advance for your help as ever. (i have searched and read widely but didnt find the posts that could help me out)

Cheers

toby

[Screaming_Rabbit]

2, I dont want to use any DOUTs,

... why not? Switches described as below will be more expensive.

My thought on this was to use some sort of SPST Latching switch (is that right?) with an inbuilt LED (presuming they exist) when the actual mechanics of the button cause it to become lit and don't rely on any processing. Is this a sensible way to go, if so what kind of button am I after?

...it's probably the worst way to go and it contains higher risk of inconsistency. - I still don't see why you don't wanna use momentary switches with software controlled status feedback by LEDs.

1, I only want 16 pots so is it possible, and if so how, to have a button that when pressed forces pots to send out midi on a different channel, thereby giving me the possibility of doubling up on pots as many grooveboxes do? ( I am no programmer so do please explain in newbie terms) For instance to have a FX1 controlled by 2 pots and when depressed the pots will cnahge parameters on FX2 leaving one untouched.

... do you want to switch in layers or does every Pot shall have it's own function switch?

Greets, Roger

[The III Man]

Thanks for the quick reply Roger

I dont want to use any DOUTs,

... why not? Switches described as below will be more expensive.

The reason I didnt want DOUTs really is cos last time I set them up but never got the programming knowledge to get feedback from Ableton. for my first build I put in two LEDS for each of my 8 channels, I hoped to get these to display whether an Ableton tracks was playing or not, however after all the time it took me to get the controller up and running I fell short on the programming so have just settled for the fact they look nice!

"I still don't see why you don't wanna use momentary switches with software controlled status feedback by LEDs."

I am really limited in programming knowledge so want to stick to using Serges program if possible, so really that was why - not laziness, just knowing my limits! If it is unrealistic as you say then I would happily take advice, mechanics I can do, but programming is a new area for me. If you could give me a brief run down I woudl appreciate it (i have done much reading but am missing the basics I think)

... do you want to switch in layers or does every Pot shall have it's own function switch?

Layers I think. I was thinking of having 4 main sections of pots, two banks of 4 and two banks of 2, so in an ideal world I think I would have 1 button that changes the function of pots 1-4 , 1 that change 5-9, 1 for 10 & 11 and 1 for 12 & 13. Is this easy, doable? In fact if it is and I work out how to do the ableton feedback then I could really jazz up my current controller.

Thanks

Toby

[Screaming_Rabbit]

Layers I think. I was thinking of having 4 main sections of pots, two banks of 4 and two banks of 2, so in an ideal world I think I would have 1 button that changes the function of pots 1-4 , 1 that change 5-9, 1 for 10 & 11 and 1 for 12 & 13. Is this easy, doable? In fact if it is and I work out how to do the ableton feedback then I could really jazz up my current controller.

... I think this won't be possible without programming. But hey... what you don't know, you can learn  ;)

Switching whole layers wouöd be implemented in MidiBox 64 and can be edited without really having to program.

I don't see, why getting a feedback from Ableton should be a problem. I don't know Ableton at all but from what I read in this forum, this should work and configuring the DOUTs can't be called programming.

Greets, Roger

[Gioxannes]

I can tell you in a few weeks. I am currently building the same.

I have 16 switches with build in leds. The leds I want to be driven by the DOUT of the midibox as soon as it has processed the button switch.

As well I  have a bank of pots (16) which I want to switch offset off (not function). So pot 1 function 1, will become pot 17 function 1 when a certain switch is on.

Another bank of pots (16) I want to change function when a certain button is switched on. So Pot x function 2, becomes pot x function 3.

I am sure the code for this is already written somewhere for another midibox.If not I will write it myself and post it here.

About the buttons. If you have switches it is easy to lit them without DOUT. Connect the LED with a 220 Ohm resistor parallel to the DIN input (which has a 10KOhm resistor). Assuming the switch has seperate pins for the LED like "http://www1.conrad.nl/scripts/wgate/zcop_nl3/~flNlc3Npb249UDkwX05MX0IyQzpDX0FHQVRFMTA6MDAwMC4wMTUyLjkwYjM5NzZjJn5odHRwX2NvbnRlbnRfY2hhcnNldD1pc28tODg1OS0xJn5TdGF0ZT0yMzg5NzU5MTc1====?~template=PCAT_AREA_S_BROWSE&mfhelp=&p_selected_area=%24ROOT&p_selected_area_fh=&perform_special_action=&glb_user_js=Y&shop=NL2&vgl_artikel_in_index=&product_show_id=&p_page_to_display=DirektSearch&~cookies=1&zhmmh_lfo=&zhmmh_area_kz=&s_haupt_kategorie=&p_searchstring=701243&p_searchstring_artnr=701243&p_searchstring_manufac_artnr=&p_search_category=alle&fh_directcall=&r3_matn=&insert_kz=&gvlon=&area_s_url=&brand=&amount=&new_item_quantity=&area_url=&direkt_aufriss_area=&p_countdown=&p_80=&p_80_category=&p_80_article=&p_next_template_after_login=&mindestbestellwert=&login=&password=&bpemail=&bpid=&url=&show_wk=&use_search=3&p_back_template=&template=&kat_save=&updatestr=&vgl_artikel_in_vgl=&titel=&darsteller=&regisseur=&anbieter=&genre=&fsk=&jahr=&jahr2=&dvd_error=X&dvd_empty_error=X&dvd_year_error=&call_dvd=&kna_news=&p_status_scenario=&documentselector=&aktiv=&gewinnspiel=&p_load_area=$ROOT&p_artikelbilder_mode=&p_sortopt=&page=&p_catalog_max_results=20" (I hope that link works, it looks fuzzy). The switch has to be programmed with serge program as on/off.

Good luck!

[The III Man]

Thats great, it sounds like you want to do a very similar thing to me. Unfortunately I couldnt follow that link, didnt seem to work - interested to know which buttons you're talking about. But I think the first method you talk about is what I should do, power the LEDS from a DOUT.

I would really appreciate it if you'd let me know about the code, if you are going to write it etc. I want to get started soon so I might go ahead and start presuming the method is good and then hope that people can help me through the code side once I get there.

thanks

[SLP]

Folks, linking to Conrad articles doesn't work that way!

On every page there's a field saying "Link to this product".

e.g. http://www.conrad-international.com/?article=701224

(need to look for a better filehoster... :P)

[Gioxannes]

Thanks SLP, I noticed something went wrong.

Stryd_one suggested to have a look at banks. Now I am not so familiar with that, but I will look into it and let you know.

Gio.

[stryd_one]

Banking is just the word for the thing you guys are talking about... like say, you have a bank of 16 knobs, they control parameter 1-16... then you flip to the second bank, and the same physical knobs now control parameter 17-32. There are many variations to the theme....