Atari CX-85 Numeric Keypad as First Midibox Project

[fhsueh]

Hi, this is my first post.  I started building guitar effects stompboxes last year, and am thrilled to see this community for MIDI projects.  My head is still spinning after trying to understand everything in the wiki and other docs, but I wanted to get started by building a basic transport controller for a DAW (I use Cubase, by the way), using the Atari CX-85 keypad as an enclosure.

I've read the other posts about basic transport projects (http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php?topic=7484.0 and http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php?topic=5956.0) but just need some help distilling the advice and information.

1) First of all, is this a good idea? I don't really need a lot of functions (just the basic transport buttons, and ARM, SOLO, MUTE, and some others).  Is this is a waste of a midibox project?

2) And is this something for MB64?  What are the minimum modules that I would need for this? I have no programming experience but understand that PIC can be pre-burned. 

3) How difficult would it be to add an LCD display? (assuming I can make a hole in the keypad - or maybe I would use some of the space currently taken up by buttons)  It would be nice to see CC#'s and other information.

4) I don't fully understand how the software works, but if I build something like this, I'm assuming that I can use the buttons to assign the controller to whichever keys I want, is that right?  And that the DAW will "see" the keypad connected as a generic remote controller, enabling me to assign the keys (using midi learn)?

Sorry for all the newb questions.  This is so exciting.

[Screaming_Rabbit]

1) First of all, is this a good idea? I don't really need a lot of functions (just the basic transport buttons, and ARM, SOLO, MUTE, and some others).  Is this is a waste of a midibox project?

Yep, you could say it's a waste. - Not of the MIDIbox project but of your work. On the other hand, many have taken the way of first designing and building a small project and then took the bigger challenge.

2) And is this something for MB64?  What are the minimum modules that I would need for this? I have no programming experience but understand that PIC can be pre-burned. 

I would go for MIDIbox64E (light) http://ucapps.de/mbhp/mbhp_midibox64e_lc.gif

For information about the Bootstraploader: http://ucapps.de/mios_bootstrap.html

3) How difficult would it be to add an LCD display? (assuming I can make a hole in the keypad - or maybe I would use some of the space currently taken up by buttons)  It would be nice to see CC#'s and other information

No problem to add a display

4) I don't fully understand how the software works, but if I build something like this, I'm assuming that I can use the buttons to assign the controller to whichever keys I want, is that right?  And that the DAW will "see" the keypad connected as a generic remote controller, enabling me to assign the keys (using midi learn)?

Yes, this is correct

Sorry for all the newb questions.  This is so exciting.

No problem, no need to apologize :)

Greets, Roger

[nuke]

oh you need to apologize to your girlfriend then... ;)

[fhsueh]

Funny guys! I'll probably apologize to my wife first :)  Turns out that I didn't get the keypad after all, so I'm actually going to attempt the MB Seq instead. No better day to break the news to her than on Father's Day!