My midification of my 70's Baldwin 210

[tonyn]

Well everything is figured out for my hopeful placements:

In the top area of the organ there are the stops, but also a metal enclosure for some electronics from the stops.

Unless there are any leslie motor control circuits there, or reverb(although I do have a nice virtual one),

Most of those electronics can be stripped out.

That, hopefully, will at least leave space for the computer motherboard,

and some or all stop midi circuits

(I also have the area behind the keyboards for the stop midi circuits).

On the sides of the keyboards can be power plugs, the power adaptors for my midi circuits, and hopefully, the power supply for the computer motherboard.

To the left and right of the keyboards, in front, under the Solo,

I will cut out the wood, and insert the front panel usb, card reader, and DVD drives.

In the speaker area will go amps and speakers, or any power circuits, etc..

I also just figure out how to mount the computer keyboard and mouse:

I will switch keyboards over to one that has a touch pad.

Then I will just put it on a swing arm, like the touch sreen, that can be swung in and out as needed.

Right now I am consentrating on designing some nice virtual organ skins and dispositions for Jorgan to mimic my Baldwin 210.

I want to work on that end to get it all figured out so I know how to send mesages out,

and also to configure my instruments right.

Between the Baldwin 48H disposition, and the hammond(I like the hammond reverb), etc.,

Plus I'll photoshop some things too, I have all of the parts for a nice virtual console.

I also have various sound font files to use from Bruce Miles and others, etc.

I may use some from the Wurlitzer, etc.

Fortunetely I have the old owner manual as a reference as to how the ranks are configured, and sent out to the speakers, etc.

This is important if you want nice sound.

By loading sound fonts into various fluidsynth channels, hopefully this can be sent out those channels to the 3 organ channels/speakers.

I want to share this info with you, but that would require a lot of typing from the info from the manual.

But if you have a simular Baldwin(i.e. RVBottomly), and you have a question on something

that I may have in my manual, that may help you, feel free to ask and I'll look it up for you.

BTW I am working on turning this all into a blog now too for good documentation for me!

But I'll keep updating this thread too, so you can always go here for refference too.

I hope I am helping some guys out there with this thread.

It's meant as documentation for me, as a reference for me, and to share with others too.

Edited January 16, 2010 by tonyn

[tonyn]

Just an update.

I won't be doing any more physical modifications now

until I have the software side worked out and figure out

wether I want the stops non momentary or momentary.

I don't want to go an make them all momentary and then decide not to,

since the springs, once they are moved, maybe hard to get back right.

So, I have been working on a Baldwin Disposition and skin in Jorgan.

I took someone elses Baldwin 48H skin, disposition, and sound fonts.

First thing I did was the graphics for the skin

I am heavily into nice graphics too, plus I am an artist.

So I wanted to make that look good too.

I wanted the stop tabs to look more like mine, so I made my own.

Plus I didn't want the virtual screen to scroll,

wanted the tabs big enough to activate with your finger,

but small enough to fit nicely onto my 1024x768 non wide screen 15 inch touch screen.

My continuious pots are better than continuious sliders,

since they take up less room, and look like mine on the organ.

I have designed tons of modern style stop tabs in my skin in all of these colors:

White, Black, Red, dark red, green, dark green.

There are 2 types, some are flat topped(like mine), and the others not flat(also like mine)

There are 3 or 4 versions of each color and type,

that are used for different text lignments on them.

They can use red, green, or black true type fonts aligned as per text for taht stop tab,

and the type of stop tab!

Then I made some nice continious 20 step pots, and a power switch to look and work like mine.

This wasn't easy to get the alginment for the line around the pot right, it's not perfect but close.

I then took a picture of my swell pedal that is fully functional in Jorgan with my swell pedal!

It looks real nice when it moves!

I also have a continuious LED meter that also works when you move the swell pedal.

I also have red,yellow, and green LEDs for indicators in the sklin to use,

plus a transparent light bar on top that lights up the top of the console

like my organ lights mine!

Next I will be making keyboards and keys, and a pedalboard that work on the skin,

just like Miditzer!

But they will be from real pictures from my organ!

I only took pictures of the top octive keys pressed and not pressed,

then I can use those across the keyboards to animate them, etc.

This virtual organ isn't complete, but It's a start, and does work well with my organ.

I still need to add more instruments that are like mine , and get the Re-It,

Vibrato depth and Recorder to work better.

But it does have panoramic Tone, Vibrato, and Brightness working.

The Brightness was taken from the Baldwin 48H disposition and I don't know if it's Reverb or what.

Since it does work, and I may use it's settings for soemthign else, I just left it as is.

The main pistons(I still need to add one more) work simular to mine too!

The extra pistons are from the Baldwin 48H disposition.

They work, and I may leave them or remove them.

The recorder works, but not perfectly and to need to change to window mode to load midi files, etc.

I couldn't find any Baldwin 210 sound fonts, so I will have to grab some from other organs

(i.e. like Bruce Miles Wurlitzer 260, which has everything), and just map them to my stops.

My skin.xml file is huge(many lines of code) with a lot of code for all of my neat graphics.

There is more in the skin than you see, so I can pick more things later to put on the virtual console

(like yellow LED indicators for stop tabs, etc.).

Here's a couple of screen prints of my Virtual organ as it is right now.

Everything you see works except Re-it speed, Vibrato depth,

and Tremolo(it will control the real leslie motor instead)!

The power switch even adds a noise filter!

If anyone wants a copy of my Jorgan disposition and skin(wait until you see the keyboards!)

files when I have it all working, let me know.

Edited January 18, 2010 by tonyn

[tonyn]

Like I said:

I am also an artist and like graphics to look right.

The old piston graphics from the skin I had,

didn't have piston graphics that visually showed a piston pushed out or in.

They had pistons that light up, but that's hard to see, and didn't look right to me.

So I made the piston graphics to look better, and show wether they are pressed in or out,

so you know when they are pressed or not!

This Baldwin dispositon actually will work with my real pistons that lock in place too!

Here is screen shot of my virtual console with the #1 virtual organ piston pushed in.

What is neat about this dispositon is that it works EXACTLY like my organ without making anything momentary!

When you push a piston it sets the right combinations without reseting the manually pushed stop tabs,

nor changing the stop tab settings.

It just overides those manual settings with the pre-programmed combination settings instead.

When you cancel those pistons, the stop settings go back to what they were.

Just like my organ physically did!

So this mimics my organ pretty close!

Here take a look(#1 piston is pressed),

you should see that it is pushed in, and the others are out.

Edited January 18, 2010 by tonyn

[tonyn]

Well I was able to load 3 sound font files into Jorgan:

Baldwin 48HC

Wurlitzer 260

And a FX file

The Baldwin 48H has 50% of the stops, instruments, etc. of my Baldwin.

What I don't have with the Baldwin 48HC sound fonts,

I an use the Wurlitzer 260, which will put me at about 99% of what I have.

My Baldwin has some 1' flutes, etc., that neither sound font file has.

So I can jsut pick another instrument to replace those.

The fx file has some neat stuff too that I may use.

I have some stops that I need to figure out what they do and how they work, like:

Percusion Attack 2,2 2/3, and 2". What is Percusion Attack?

Flute and Reed String Accent. What is this?

What is Re-it, and Re-it speed? Is it "Reverb"?

The rest I have or can figure out.

I'll post a screen print of my new skin with all of

Edited January 18, 2010 by tonyn

[tonyn]

I couldn't wait to post this!

I just added a Midtizer, etc., type keyboard/pedalboard to my Jorgan Skin!

It took a bit of graphic work(made from real pictures from my organ).

Then I made some pedals to push and they do work in Jorgan!

Right now I only have 3 pedals added, and havn't done the keys yet.

When you press a pedal on the physical organ it pushes it on the screen too!

You can push a pedal on the touch screen or via mouse, but it only shows it being pressed,

no notes are played that way.

But even so, it is a nice indicator.

Besides, who wants to use a mouse or touch the screen to play.

But I'll see if I can get it working that way too, later.

I just want to finish the graphic work before I tackle the rest,

so you will see the stops all over the place as I configure them.

But I jsut wanted to give you a peak at what I have planned for the virtual part.

Here's a screen print:

[RVBottomly]

By loading sound fonts into various fluidsynth channels, hopefully this can be sent out those channels to the 3 organ channels/speakers.

I want to share this info with you, but that would require a lot of typing from the info from the manual.

But if you have a simular Baldwin(i.e. RVBottomly), and you have a question on something

that I may have in my manual, that may help you, feel free to ask and I'll look it up for you.

Thanks for the kind offer, Tony. Happily, my old organ came with the owner's manual and a service manual with complete schematics. It's been quite helpful in identifying the circuits. The service manual was also very interesting to read because it provides fairly detailed description of the various theories of operation.

[tonyn]

Thanks for the kind offer, Tony. Happily, my old organ came with the owner's manual and a service manual with complete schematics. It's been quite helpful in identifying the circuits. The service manual was also very interesting to read because it provides fairly detailed description of the various theories of operation.

You are luckier than I am having compelte schematics!

I only have the owners manual.

As far as the electroncis I am tracing and guessing.

My organ guy was supposed to send me the main ones I wanted, but he didn't.

I may want the parnoramic box and circuit, etc.

I can buy compelte scehmatics for $40 but I am short right now.

BTW here's an update on my Jorgan Disposition:

I DO have working animated keyboards and pedalboard on the skin almost like Miditzer.

They play from the organ's keyboards and pedalboard,

and even from the touch screen.

The tocuh screen only animates.

I did have them playing with the touch screen too.

But I got a loop, and it didn't wok right, so I disabled playing notes from the touch screen.

But who wants to play ti that wau anyway?

It even animates from a midi recording

(althoguh the recorder isn't perfect yet,

maybe in the next version of Jorgan he will, or I will get it completed).

I worked hard on the keyboard and pedalboard graphics.

I wanted as few graphics as possible for the keyboards and pedalboard.

Therefore they are not persepctive.

If I had them in perspective, then I would have to make 2 notes(one up , one down), for every key and pedal!

By having them not in perspective, I only have to make 2 for one octive.

I took pictures of the keyboards, and then through my artistice talents,

cut the keys apart and made an up and down graphic for each key and pedal.

The black keys and pedals only have 2 graphics since they are all the same.

I also designed rail sfor the keyboards, and stops, to put the keys and stops onto.

As you can see, I only have one octave built so far.

It takes time and it's like building a keyboard, note by note, virtually.

But it's nice to see it work, etc.

So far I haven't seen anyone else do a keyboard in Jorgan.

Here's a couple of screen prints showing my playing some keys and a black pedal.

See if you can see what notes they are.

Edited January 20, 2010 by tonyn

[tonyn]

Well my animated graphical keyboards and pedalboard are finished in Jorgan!

I took real pictures of my organ's keybaords and pedalboard to make them with!

So they look pretty much like real,ones!

Then, through graphical editing in photoshop, I turned them into non perspective pictures.

Perspective is what you see with your eyes or a camera.

Objects get smaller at the top.

To keep this would make each key different since each would get smaller differently.

Then, in photoshop, I cut the keys and pedals off, using only one octive of white keys, one black key, and the last C key,

one white pedal and one black pedal.

This makes for less skin code and less files.

I could have kept perspective, as Miditizer, but that would have meant a key picture for every note.

I cleaned up the keys in photoshop to also look good and sharp, editing them down to the pixel level(I am a perfectionist).

They are just big enough to play with the touch screen, but small enough to fit, and allow the pistons to be pushed from the touch screen too.

So they are a little out of proportion as to my organ too.

But to allow the touch screen to be used, this had to be done.

Only so much can fit nicely on the screen without scrolling it, so I wanted it just right.

I think they look good.

Almost as good as Miditzer's.

Programming them in took a bit of work.

To save myself some time I edited the xml disposition directly(I like to use PSpad and Notepad for this type of editing).

That way I could do whole octives at a time by just copy and paste, and changing a couple of values.

Besides, knowing me, I like neat and organised code too,

so my areas in the disposition for this are neatly organised

so I can easily reference or change them later in code.

The keys and pedals are also aligned perfectly to x and y corordinates, in line, etc.

As you can see my virtual console has good alignment.

I used a couple of tricks to do that.

One was by having a grid graphic in my skin to call up for my console background.

The other was assigning exact x and y corordinates in code.

Like I said, I am some what of a perfectionist, and like my graphics perfectly aligned and looking perfect too.

The graphic work took me a couple of days to get it perfect.

There is more involved to this than you may think, if you not only want it to look good, but work good.

This was edited in photoshop at the pixel level too!

When a key is pressed it has to have a bit of a black key showing(bottom half), align right with a black and white key, etc.

The orginional pictures had to be adjusted for this.

This is where my artistic talent came into play,

since the key and pedal down press pictures were artistically done!

I didn't take pictures of keys or pedals beign pressed,

it would have been hard to physically do and take pictures of,

and not worked well for comptuer animation.

So the down press pictures were computer made from the up press pictures.

I also had to add black lines on each side fo a key so you could see the keys better,

and cut some of them off on each side too, etc.

When a key is up, there is also a shadow under it, when down it moves down into this shadow area, etc.

The end result is what you see, and is close to what Jim Henry did, in a way, I think, for Miditzer.

I may still make them look better!

But at least they look good and work well as is for now.

These keyboards and pedalboard work well.

They are assigned as keyers, or notes.

They take midi messages from the cores, and animate.

I can assign them pitches to play notes from the touch screen,

but if I do it iterfears with the Jorgan internal keyboard channel settings.

So they are assigned a pitch above hearing for now(127), so you don't hear double notes.

It's an either or setting that Jorgan doesn't have in code, so this is my go around for it, for now.

But they do animate and play tones , etc., when you play the organ's keyboards,

and can be recorded and played back.

They will animate from the computer keyboard or touch screen, but won't play any tone that way, that's all.

Else they are fully fuctional every other way.

I wanted this feature, like Miditzer, to help teach my son to play,

by recording pieces, and the playing them back for him to follow.

Besides, it's just neat, and I like neat things.

So far I don't know of anyone else with this in Jorgan.

If you want a copy of this, let me know.

Now that that's all done, I can now consentrate on adding more stops and instruments and filters.

Nice thing about my setup, with the touch screen,

is that my physical stop part can wait until I have the virtual done.

In the meantime my organ is completely playable by setting stops, etc., with the touch screen.

I just to have to add more stops, instruments, and filters, that's all.

The virtual console will also has a bit more than my physical organ has, like the led meter,

main Accent adjustment, extra pistons, a set piston, general cancel piston, recorder, and memory settings.

Here's a screen shot of some keys and pedals being played:

Edited January 22, 2010 by tonyn

[tonyn]

Just an update.

I am starting my spring classes this next week so I will only have spare time to work on the organ.

I had to reconfigure my animated keyboards and pedal board in Jorgan as activators instead of notes or keyers,

since as notes they were trying to double play notes, etc.

This caused a lot of latency, so bad that you had to play like a snail!

But now that they are activators, they work great!

You see them animate as you play the organ,

and they are recordable so that when you play back a midi file they animate too, just like Miditzer!

My son loves this part, as he likes to record his playing and watch it play back on the keyboards, etc..

To me , it's a good teaching thing to show him how to play(he can follow along from a recording, etc.).

The alignment of the keys is crucial to have them look and work right.

This is why I did it in PSpad for exact cordinates.

The Jorgan disposition xml files are pretty simple.

You have new referances ids for elements, that you can just add in sequence.

Those ids are referanced for console locations.

This will align the keyboards and pedalboard onto a disposition that is zoomed at 55%.

This sizing I found to be just right to be able to get enough stops on a virtual console,

but yet be able to push them from a touch screen, and see the text on them,

and also be able to have room for the keyboards, swell pedal, and pedalboard on the bottom.

The text is true font type and can be aligned nicely on the tabs.

The keys are a bit too small to push from a touch screen,

but who wants that anyway when you have real keyboards!

They are just indicators on the screen, that's all!

My code is saved in text file to insert into any disposition!

It is preconfigured to take midi note presses for channels 1,2 from the keyboards,

and channel 13 for the pedalboard.

All that needs to be changed is where the reffernce ids start at.

I can take a wurlitzer disposition and add keyboards and a pedalboard to it too, easily!

In the skin I made the png graphics of course, and in the skin xml they are configured like pistons.

You can put writing on them too, if you want.

It's also orderly in the skin's xml code too.

If you want me to show you the code and post the graphics for the skin, etc., let me know.

While I was at remaking thimgs I decided to finish up with my stop placements and alignments too.

So now I have to work on sound font files.

I am trying to figure how the Vibrato, Panoramic Tone,

and Re-it work in Fluid Synth and Jorgan so I can load sound font files in and filter them as my organ origionally did.

This is where it is taking me time.

Right now Vibrato stops, and Panoramic Tone stops work, but Vibrato Depth, and the Re-it stops and knob do not.

Tremolo is to control the real leslie, so it doesn't work on the virtual console(but the stop will control the real leslie stop on the real organ).

What is Re-it, I need to know the differences between these filters.

I want my disposition to act EXACTLY like my organ did,

but with better sounds form real instruments

(synthisized of course, since Jorgan only changes picth frok one sound,

as what midi is about, but this is better than my old organ's electronics anyway),etc.

I may move up to real sound later, once I am farther into java programming.

But that would be like re-writng a whole jorgan clone, etc.

Which would be quite a bit of work.

For now I'll work with what someone else has done, instead of reinventing the whole wheel,

so to speak.

I need to spearate ranks and where they are sent out to the channels using fluid synth, etc.

This will take time.

Anyone know who to do this in Jorgan and fluid synth?

As far as physical construction, well..

I am happy with the virtual for now and need to get it mimicing my organ, exactly,

before I decide on mapping the virtual stops to physical.

I also have to decide on wether I want to make my stops momentary, which will be nicer than non momentary.

But that would require douts and leds for indicators.

Either way my dispotions will work with the physical stops, I hope.

I'll breadboard them first to test.

Here's my new console.

All of the stop tabs are in the right numbers colors, and styles as on my real physical organ.

I custom made these in photoshop to look like my organ's.

But there are a couple of extra tabs on my virtual consoel right now,

that came with my example Baldwin 48H disposition I used as a start.

Once I figure out how they work, they will be deleted.

I also need to resize my stop rails to be longer

(the black pieces that go behind the stop tabs to make them look right).

This I'll do in photoshop(they are already in the skins, I have one for each rail).

As you can see my top light is neater too, since it is from a real picture of my organ's light,

and it does cast a light onto the virtual console when the power knob is turned on.

The stop tabs with X's on them are not activated yet, but all others work.

Edited January 25, 2010 by tonyn

[tonyn]

I wasn't quite happy with my virtul organ console so I fixed it.

This one uses the whole background to put the organ onto it.

The organ isn't proportional,

since I needed to make it fit right and allow nice sized pistons

that can be pressed on the touch screen to be put on top of it.

But I think it looks good now.

Take a look:

[tonyn]

OK.

Here's the final tweek of my animated keyboards and organ console.

I added a bit of perspective by making the first and last C keys narrower towards the top.

This gives a bit of perspective without adding more than one graphic to the skin.

What do you think guys?

I can easily insert this into ANY disposition to add animated keybaords and pedalboard, etc.

The way I have it configured too is that I can make ANY length keyboard, any number of keyboards, and any length pedalboard, etc.

[RVBottomly]

You are flying along, Tony. I can't keep up with your posts.

You asked about "reit." On the Baldwin it is a control for how fast some percussive features repeat. For example, the marimba stop sounds like repeated mallet blows are hitting the blocks. Reit controls the rate of the repetition (or reiteration). Same thing for some other percussion effects. On my Cinema II, turning the reit clockwise increased the rate.

I hardly used it, myself, but that's what it is.

Edited January 25, 2010 by RVBottomly

[tonyn]

You are flying along, Tony. I can't keep up with your posts.

You asked about "reit." On the Baldwin it is a control for how fast some percussive features repeat. For example, the marimba stop sounds like repeated mallet blows are hitting the blocks. Reit controls the rate of the repetition (or reiteration). Same thing for some other percussion effects. On my Cinema II, turning the reit clockwise increased the rate.

I hardly used it, myself, but that's what it is.

Thanks.

I understand what it is, but how to do it in Jorgan, etc., is the hard part.

This is what I am having problems understanding right now and is hampering my continuation with the virtual part.

I picked Jorgan as my virtual organ since it seamed to be the most customizable.

The idea for me is to get a virtual clone of the way my organ performed, exactly!

Jorgan is not too hard as far as getting the graphics, and asigning stops to sound fonts, etc.

But to add the filters is the hard part, for me.

Tremolo can be done with filters in fluid synth, Jorgan, etc., or in my case I want to use the leslie.

Panoramic Tone also could use the box in the organ, which filters the output of the sound before the amp, but can also be done with adding reverb? to the sound in Jorgan, etc..?

But then there is the reit, which I did look up as reiteration.

This would have to be done virtually, since the circuits in the organ are gone.

But trying to uderstand the differences between Panoramic Tone, or echo, Reverb, and Reiteration and how to add those filters to sound fonts, Jorgan, etc., is the hard part.

Is it done to the sound font and then the sound font added to a sound font file, or is it done in Jorgan with Fluid Synth, etc.?

If so, how would you do it and what is the differances between how you would do Panoramic Tone, Reverb, and Reiteration?

My example disposition that I started with was from someone else that had done a Baldwin 48H.

It has all of those filters except Reiteration and Termolo.

I have been trying to figure out how he did those filters and can't easily seem to find it out.

I have a feeling that he did it to the sound font directly, which means I will have to have sound font editor and make my own sound font files?

Too bad I wsn't able to record my organ when it worked else I could have made sound fonts from it.

But now I have to find sound fonts from other organs, and apply filters to them.

I like Bruce Miles Wurlitzer sound fonts, since they sound great.

But how do I apply these filters to them?

Once I understand how to apply these fitlers and work with sound fonts, then I can do others organs' using them too!

The default one will be mapped to my physical stops, exactly.

But others may or may not, but use the touch screen instead for stops.

I want to start with a defult organ that mimic's mine, but then pull up others organ styles to play too.

Like a Baldwin210-Wurlitzer, etc.!

Edited January 26, 2010 by tonyn

[tonyn]

Here's another update on my keyboard pedalboard graphics.

Yes it needs to look good to me!

So I am putting a little time into graphic design.

I removed the darker bottom so that more stuff can be put on the sides of the organ and look fine.

Like I could do a Theater style organ with it's style and number of stops,

using my organ's keyboard and pedalboard console and just surround it,

like a theater organ does, with more stop tabs, etc.!

Right now I just have the recorder, extra pistons, a combination memory incrementor,

and brightness adjustment on each side,

since all of my organ's stop tabs fit onto the top area.

This Jorgan disposition and console is completely functional,

except not all features or stops are active, that's all.

It is setup with Baldwin 48h sounds, etc.

But it is completely playable and recordable!

Here is how I made my keyboard and pedalboard:

The graphics for the keyboards consist of 2 png type graphic files for the white keys C,D,E,F,G,A,B.

One for an up and one for down.

These are non perspective.

The black keys only have 2 files for an up and down, non perspective.

To add a bit of perspective without making tons of key graphics,

the first White C of the keyboard is narrowed and slanted to the right.

The last B, and C are kind of together where one maps onto the other,

and narrow and slant to the left

(with just the last C slanted it didn't look right next to a non slanted B, so I had to do the B too).

Then to build the keyboards I start with the Right slanted C,

then use the normal White keys D-B,

and repeat Octives with Normal White Keys C-B, and end the last Octive with the Left Slanted B, C.

The pixel width and height(including the down graphics)

are the same for all white keys and they are just put side by side.

The black keys are half the size of the white keys and fit inbetween them

(png graphics allow transparrent backgrounds, so where the black keys go, the white keys are transparent).

The Solo and Accompaniment keyboards mimic each other except for the channel messages

(Channel 1 for Solo, Channel 2 for Accompaniment), and y corodinates.

The midi messages either activate or deactivate Activators,

and the animation graphics to Equal 127 or 0(Note On/Off Midibox messages).

Status = "equal 144"(Channel 1), or "equal 145"(Channel 2),

Data 1 = "equal 36" for first C, and go up for each note,

But once I figured this out I just inserted the note up sequence into code.

Data 2 = "equal 127" for Activate, or "equal 0" for Deactivate.

Activate or Deactivate messages are recordable in Jorgan.

So initially I recorded the Activate and deactivate messages by pressing a key,

and I then just changed the Data 2 value to "equal 0" instead of "equal 127" for note off

(you can't record a 0 for note off, so you record note on, and change it to 0).

This way when you press a key with a note on message it activates the down press animation,

and when it is released with a note off message, it deactivates and brings it back to the non pressed state.

These activators also have to be set to non locking.

These elements can be made individually in Jorgan, but that is a lot of work.

Once I figured out the code, it was easier to build the whole keyboards directly

in the xml code by just copy and paste and changing a few values.

Once the Solo keyboard was built, the ACC keyboard was just a matter changing channels,

and y cordinates, etc., and pasting it into code.

I will share some of this code with you later..

The Pedalboard only has 2 graphics for a white pedal and a black pedal.

These are non perspective, since it looks fine to me that way, and are built simular to the keyboards,

and are set to channel 13.

Same thing as the keyboards:

Midibox Note on/off messages either activate or deactivate for equal 127/0

Except there is space between some white pedals, as in my real organ, where there is a black part.

The swell Pedal uses 9 graphics since it is a continuious filter.

This was a bit hard to calculate, but it is close.

This is set to channel 14 and takes the anolog out codes from midibox.

There is a little math involved here and the threshold is set at .05 so Jorgan doesn't lock up.

But this is posted with Jorgan documentation elsewhere, so I don't have to go into this part.

These are all mapped onto a custom background graphic

that fills the whole screen and is used as the main console,

but has an organ in the right place to put the keyboards,

pedalboard, and swell on top of.

I have a multiple layer PSD(Photoshop) file saved that I can edit and change this around, etc.

But the skin graphic is png.

The stop areas and the rest of the main console is blank(just have a wood tone graphic)

to allow stops to be rearranged or changed

I have black rails to insert behind my stop tabs,

and of course my stop tabs are custom graphics,

I made to look like my mordern style on my organ, that also go on top of the main console.

But I could easily put Theater Organ style stop tabs on top of this too, etc.

Although I didn't do everything in perspective,

I did just enough things in perspective to trick your mind

into the illusion that it is all in perspective, I hope.

Yes the odd stop tabs are back!

Until I figure out what to do with them they are just put on the console next to the rails they go with.

A still picture really doesn't do this justice,

since the real neat part is watching these keyboards,

Pedalboard, and Swell Pedal animate when you play the organ,

or play back a recording that you recorded.

But here you are:

Edited January 27, 2010 by tonyn

[tonyn]

If anyone wants me to share my code and graphics with you so you can easily insert these animated keyboards

and pedalboard into your Jorgan Dispositions and skins, please post an interest.

Else I won't post them.

Other than that I need help with Panoramic Tone, Reverb, Reiteration, Vibrato depth, Percussion Attack,

Accent, Sustain, settings and filters for sound fonts and or Jorgan or fluid Synth.

Termolo too, in case I want to do it virtually for some dispositions.

Plus info on how to make or edit sound font files for Jorgan.

Today I start Classes.

So I need to change gears a bit and take my mind off of this so I can consentrate on my classes

(at least for the first couple of weeks where it's the hardest to figure out what the instructors want, etc.).

But I'll continue this "fun" stuff as I have time.

I'll also try to check this thread out daily if I can.

So please post if you want, I'll read it and respond back with apppreciation if you can help me.

Edited January 27, 2010 by tonyn

[tonyn]

Just a short update.

I am heavily into my first week of school for the semester,

so I do not have much time for the organ.

Plus my organ computer is now doing double duty as my school computer too,

since it is the most powerful one I have at my disposal right now.

I need a powerful computer for my programming software for school:

Java compiler, Visual Studio 2008, multiple operating systems, etc.

Next month I'll get another laptop for school work, etc.

(my old laptop crashed last semester).

I will also buy some computer parts, like a dual core motherboard with 4gb ram, etc.

Those will then be for the organ computer and have linux installed.

This is the weekend, and I had to take a break from my schooling,

so I did some reasearch for the organ.

I have a choice with the amplification of either trying to use

the old amps, or just get some new amp kits.

I think it would be better, and easier to just get new kits.

There are some good descrete amp kits available in the UK, but I wanted a USA source.

Plus I wanted 3 seperate amps to match my organ's old amp channels(3).

My old amps were 2 x 40w and 1 x 25w

I tried to get matching amps(same power 40wx2 and 25wx1), but found that doing more powerful amps would be a better deal, and all channels would have the same powers, etc..

So I found these 100w descrete amp kits

I can either get them fully assembled for $80ea, or I would have to get the kit+heatsink for about $50

All they would need is the 2x25v transformers at $50ea, and 3 x 47k log taper pots for volume control(my old amps had separate volume controls for each channel).

It would cost me $300(for kits), or $400(for assembled).

It's a bit more than I wanted to spend but:

Freq response is 3hz-200khz!

I will also order 4 dout kits from avishowtech.

I will also have to build a relay board for controling the leslie motors, etc..

On the programming side:

I need to play with sound font editing software to add reverb, etc., filters to sound fonts directly.

As far as outputing to separate channels:

I could do that by sending out to maybe Jack Audio which may be able to send out to different channels.

Or I can just load sound blaster cards, etc.

I played with Myorgan, and didn't like it

(not as customizable as Jorgan, and although it does have keyboards and pedalboards,

they aren't as nice s mine),

although with it you can send out to channels, and load real sound files.

But real sounds can also be done in the soundblaster or fluidsynth s2 format.

You can mix and match real with synthisized.

Anyway that is what I found out.

When I get farther along in my programming in school,

I will see about what I can do to maybe make my own virtual organ software.

I also plan to change over to linux for th virtual organ software,

which will improve things too.

Just to give you guys a picture to look at..

Here is a screen shot of a disposition of the Hauptwerk 3.0 sample organ

that was reconfigured for Myorgan(or actually the program is GrandOrgue).

GrandOrgue uses Hauptwerk 1.0 dispositions.

I also got the free version of Hauptwerk 3.0 to play with.

Didn't like either program, since they are not as customizable as Jorgan is.

I did look at the disposition code of GrandOrgue directly, and there isn't much you can customize.

It loads it's own keyboard versions, etc.

Plus Jorgan has more support and is being updated all of the time with new features.

But I'll look more into Myorgan to see if it is worth using it or not.

Edited January 31, 2010 by tonyn

[tonyn41]

OK I am back!

I had to reregister since I forgot my password and have since changed email accounts.

I am still "tonyn" Just my ID now is "tonyn41".

Bet you guys thought I was dead:)

It's been about 1 1/2 years since my last post here so I'll update you first.

I basically did not do any programing past my last post, and have done no hardware upgrades to the organ.

But I did change organ computers!

Now the organ software runs on a NEW dell inspiron 15r laptop with dual core, and 4gb ram, and 15 inch wide screen.

It has a fairly good sound card too(I can always add external sound and amps later, mounted in organ).

I wanted a smaller computer to install inside of the organ, but mini motherboards etc., added up to more than a new laptop.

The laptop only cost about $400.

I transfered all of the organ stuff over to it, and made it a dual boot system(Windows 7, and Utanbu linux).

This allows me to play with both operating systems for organ stuff.

The laptop right now sits on top of the organ, powering 2 small 10w speakers,

with the 15 inch touch screen sitting on top of the organ to the right.

My next plans are to install a touchscreen kit to the laptop and possibly use the 15 inch touch screen monitor as an extra.

There are good kits called "magic touch" that will install over a monitor(including laptops) to make them into touch screens.

For my 15 inch wide laptop it will cost about $160.

Be careful of cheap touch screen kits, some do not install on laptop screens!

Then I need to buy a decent articulated vesa monitor arm for the laptop,

making mods to hold the laptop instead of a monitor, since laptop arms are crap and $200 or more.

A good vesa arm costs about $100-$140.

So for a few bucks more and some hardboard and hardware I can convert a monitor arm into a laptop arm.

I also moved last year to a new home, and the movers damaged one of my keys. So I need to contact my organ guy to see about getting another plastic key.

That's it for now. I will be popping in here now over this winter to update.

Feel free to post again and I'll reply:)

EDIT: Yes, my organ is STILL completely playable with the touch screen monitor hooked up to the laptop and working well too.

I have "Jorgan" and "Miditzer 216 ver .881"(Damn I wish I could get his sourcecode!) setup for my organ software.

I'll see about posting a picture of the new setup for you later.

It's more compact now, since I don't have a big desktop computer sitting on the floor.

Edited October 28, 2011 by tonyn41

[tonyn41]

mmmm... just thinking...

To save about $200 or more buying articulated vesa arms, maybe I'll just go to the hardware store.

Get some galvanized pipe, 45 degree elbows, clamps and see if I can make my own arms for the laptop and touchscreen.

I don't need full articulation if I measure right and make it so that the laptop is on the left side of the organ,

and the touch screen to the right(or visa versa).

I want the screens to come down a bit just over the top keyboard to the right and left, so while playing, I can easily reach the touch screens

to change pistons, stops, etc., but be out of the way of my sheet music holder, and then just swing them out of the way if needed.

I want to clamp them them to the back of the organ with a pole to adjust height.

Then when I need to get into the organ I can unclamp them.

So vertical poles on back with pipes extended to front of organ with 45 degree elbows to bring them down to a decent access height.

I could possibly make 2 arms for both sides of the organ for both laptop and touch screen monitor for less than $50?

So this is first on my agenda over the next week or so.

I'll see what is possible with hardware from the hardware store.

Then all I need to buy that is over $100 is the $160 touch screen kit(this I have to buy, since this can't be DIYed) for my laptop.

I have a limited budget so hopefully this will make it possible to have something to decently hold my laptop and monitor for now.

I will post my DIY of it for you too:)

Edited October 29, 2011 by tonyn41

[tonyn41]

Well I made my own arms out of galvanized 1/2 inch pipe and fittings!

I spent almost $100(haven't taken full inventory yet, since I have to make some returns of unused parts).

This included all of the lockwashers, nuts bolts, wingnuts, etc.

The hardware added up.

But both arms are sturdy, have a bit of articualtion(from the varous threaded elbows, I was able to position them EXACTLY how I wanted them).

The monitor mount was easy to do, but the laptop mount required a bit more, since I wanted a back and bottom mount that hinged.

I'll explain this later.

Both arms do swing out of the way, and can still be connected while out of the way while I open the organ top.

If I were to go with sturdy decent articulating commercial arms , that would been 2x $140, plus extra hardware to still make the laptop mods.

So instead of spending $300 I spent less than $100 and have the mounts the way I like them

(no cheezy clamp on, they are bolted to the back sides of organ with 2 inch lag bolts!).

I will try to explain how I made them, but I didn' t take pictures as I made them since I just wanted to DO IT.

But I'll take a lot of pictures of the results and list the parts and how I did it.

I need some sleep now. Been at this for over 24 hours. Tomarrow I'll take pictures, etc., for you.

Edited October 30, 2011 by tonyn41

[tonyn41]

OK, I promised you couple of pictures so here you are.

This is of my arms for my monitor and laptop.

I haven't re-connected my laptop nor touch screen monitor up yet, since I want to do a bit of a breakdown of my arms and such for a FULL DIY,

to take more and better pictures of each part for you.

But when done with the DIY, I will re-connect my laptop and monitor using cable ties to route the cables along the pipes to the back of the organ and into it.

Trust me everything will still work!

I will do a full DIY for you this week with better and more pictures.

I just don't have the time today, since I have house work to do with with putting out Halloween decorations.

I bought a fixer upper house, so most of my time now involves things with the house.

But you can get an idea from these 2 pictures as to how they are made...

EDIT: I'll give you a short breakdown here.

I'll do more of breakdown in a full DIY post this week, but this is something for you for now:

The arms are indentical up until the monitor and laptop mounts.

Each arm uses a 5 inch 1/2 inch galvanized pipe nipple(a precut piece of pipe that is threaded on each end),

for the mount to the organ.

These pieces required a drill press and pipe clamp to hold and aline them while drilling the holes through.

I drilled 2, 1/4 inch, holes(space determined on where the other internal organ bolts were,read warning below).

I already had a cheap drill press with a clamp that uses a hand drill. Did the job just fine.

WARNING: The placement of these holes need to NOT be at the same place as the bolts inside of the organ that run perpendicular into the side pieces of the organ.

So, first I determined that I wanted the threaded end above the top of organ.

Then from there I measured 1 inch down, where no bolts were for the top hole.

The second hole is 3 inches down, just in between where 2 internal perpendicular organ bolts were.

Fortunately I had thought of this before drilling any holes, so I MADE NO MISTAKES AND GOT IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME.

My prototype was also my final finished product, with no extra holes, etc.

This was because I thoroughly think things out before committing.

The sides of the organ have nice 1 1/2 inch solid wood to mount to, so I used it, with only driling 2 holes, each side, into the back, where they are not seen,

just in case I had to remove these arms.

So the integrety of my organ is still intact(remember in the beginning, that this organ means something to me as an inheritance, and I do not want to destroy it).

Make sure you drill pilot holes first, and only do one hole at a time, mounting pipe to organ,

aline pipe to be square and plumb, and then drill other hole and screw in other lag bolt.

If you wait for my full DIY, I will give you ALL of my tricks to do it right the first time, without mistakes:)

Once those pieces were mounted, the rest is just screwing pipe fittings together.

First a threaded connection,

then a 12 inch galvanized nipple,

90 degree threaded connector,

another 12 inch galvanized nipple,

a 45 degree threaded connector,

.a 4 inch galvanized nipple,

a street 45 degree(male to female) threaded connector,

and finally a pipe flange.

These parts are all found in the plumbing Ile of Home Depot(one of my favorite hardware stores).

DO NOT GET GALVANIZED PIPE FROM THE ELECTRICAL CONDUIT ILE, TOO FLIMSY!

Although the monitor and laptop are not heavy, they are at the end of long arms.

So you want good solid pipe that will not flex.

All of the arm parts are made from premade pipe parts from the hardware store.

15 minutes to assemble the arms.

The only modification is for the drilling of the holes for the organ mount pieces.

But once I had it all figured out, it was pretty simple to do.

Then I made the monitor and laptop mounts out of 1/4 inch hardboard(had this laying around the house),

screws, nuts, wing nuts, washers, lock washers, hinges, angle pieces, and nylon spacers(these hold the laptop in from falling out).

There is a bit of measurement with the hardboard, vesa monitor mount, laptop mount, and the placement of the hardware pieces on them.

I'll go into more detail on how these are made in my FULL DIY post, later this week.

Cosmetically they may need a bit of tweeking to make them look decent with paint, etc.

But they look pretty good, for now, to me at least, considering that this is mostly made out of plumbing parts,

made in less than one day, and fully functional for having the touch screen and laptop within easy reach when playing the organ.

I love the plumbing dept!

I have made a lot of things out of PVC pipe and plumbing parts.

Plus where can you buy nice sturdy, not so bad looking, arms like this, without spending a lot?

Edited October 30, 2011 by tonyn41

[tonyn41]

OK I am going to start the FULL DIY now!

Since I wrote out quite a bit on my last post

(recheck it out, I edited a few times, adding more and more, as I usually do),

I'll just cover a few details in this FULL DIY to break it down a bit more.

So in this first DIY post I'll list the tools needed, and parts to make the arms.

Along with the costs, so you get an idea as to how much it will cost per arm.

Some of you may only want or need one arm for a monitor or laptop.

The arms are identical up to the monitor and laptop mounts, so let's start with the arms first :

Tools:

Drill press with a clamp to hold pipe.

Hand drill to drill holes in organ.

7/16" open end wrench to tighten lag bolts( if you get 2 inch, 1/4 inch lag bolts, the heads use 7/16" wrench).

1/4 " drill bit for the holes through the pipe.

1/8", or 9/64" drill bit for the pilot holes into the wood of the organ(I forgot what I used, but read note below).

Note: Whenever you screw into wood, it is always important to first drill pilot holes, so you do not split the wood,

they make screwing easier, and allow you to aline the pilot holes so that the bolts go in streight.

For pilot hole drill bits, I look at the screw or bolt, and pick a size that is smaller than the inside non threaded part of the screw or bolt,

then go a bit smaller.

You DO NOT WANT YOUR PILOT HOLES TO BE TOO BIG, ELSE YOU WILL NOT HAVE THE THREAD OF THE BOLT BITE INTO THE WOOD,

AND NOW YOU HAVE DESTROYED THE WOOD FOR SCREWING INTO.

You can alwsys start smaller, then go larger if bolt is too tight to turn in.

You are drilling into a fine piece of furniture, and you do not want to detroy it!

There maybe recommended sizes listed somewhere, but this is how I determine the sizes.

Pilot holes are just there to remove a bit of wood so the bolts do not split the wood, etc.

So they need not be that big.

Just make sure the pilot holes are not too big else you will not have a thread in the wood to secure the bolts!

Parts:

2x 2 inch long, 1/4 inch wide lag bolts $0.50 (Home Depot)

1x 1/2inchx5inch Galvanized nipple $1.75 (Home Depot)

1x 1/2inch Galvanzed Coupling $1.76 (Home Depot)

2x 1/2inchx12inch Galvanized nipples $7.32 (Home Depot)

1x 1/2inch black pipe(normally gas pipe) 90 degree elbow $1.37 (Home Depot)

1x 1/2inch black pipe(normally gas pipe) 45 degree elbow $1.59 (Home Depot)

1x 1/2inchx4inch Galvanized nipple $1.49 (Home Depot)

1x 1/2inch black pipe(normally gas pipe) 45 degree street elbow $2.32 (Home Depot)

1x 1/2inch Pipe Flange $5.60 (Home Depot)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Total parts cost: $23.70

Lag bolts are found in the hardware section with screws, etc.

The rest are all found in the plumbing Ile, even the black gas pipe fittings.

The galvanized parts are cheaper than the black pipe parts(and look a bit better, I think).

So try to buy as many galvanized parts as possible.

But for some fittings I had to get black gas pipe fittings, since there were non in galvanized.

So for less than $25 each, you have arms!

In my next post I'll post a few pictures of the tools, parts, and touch on the drilling and assembly.

This is pretty much streight forward, so this is not too involved.

But wait until my next post before you drill or assemble the arms,

since there is a sequence in which to drill and screw them together right.

Edited October 31, 2011 by tonyn41

[tonyn41]

Don't worry I'll continue the DIY of my visa arms for my laptop and touch screen monitor .

I just wanted to take a break to think things out a bit before I continue, since I decided,

that while I was at it, and before I ran my cables, that I would upgrade my system to a

USB external sound card!

So right now I am awaiting delivery of that.

Here is the sound blaster I am getting(I am getting a used one for only $40):

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00030099O

This is an older unit, but it was the one that was reccomended on the miditzer site.

It should be better than the internal sound of the laptop, and offer me 3 channels of audio out.

The idea is to use an external decent sound card that I will either mount inside of the organ, or under the laptop.

Then from the sound card the audio out would go into 3 discrete amps, which would power the 3 huge speakers in the organ.

There are 3 speakers:

One on the left side of the organ, one in the center and the leslie to the right.

According to the organ manual, the original amps had 2x 40w, to power the left and center, and a 1x 25w to power the leslie.

So I wanted to try to match that with either a 3 channel 50w amp, or 3 discrete amps, 50,50,25.

I have been searching all over the place to see about what I could use for amps that would have good sound.

I want class AB amps for low distortion, else it doesn't pay.

Most cheap amps seem to be Class T, which has distortion, etc.

So I keep coming back to these 200w kits:

http://www.electronics123.com/s.nl/it.A/id.1900/.f

They do offer 50w amps, and 25 w amps, but these have all of the parts available for them including heat sinks, and cost less.

I will need to build 3, one for each channel/speaker

They will cost about $100 per amp to build, but they have EXCELENT SPECS!

They may also be overkill with providing 200w music power per 4 ohm speaker, 100wrms per 4 ohm, and 70wrms per 8 ohm speaker.

My speakers are 8 ohm, so that means I should be able to get up to 70wrms to each speaker.

But the distortion is 0.02% @ 1KHz/10W, and the frequency response is 3Hz to 200KHz (-3dB)!

I will add pots and resisters to adjust and limit the volume so as not to blow my speakers.

But then I have the ability to add more speakers too, and not worry about not having enough power!

The purchase of those amp kits will have to wait until next week.

In the meantime I do have 2 powered computer speakers to use, that can be temporarily set inside of the organ, to have some sound.

Once I have the amps, I will then wire up the leslie motors to work too.

Then it's on to the stops to finish up the organ hardware midifications.

As I stated earlier in this thread, since I have a touch screen, the stop and piston wiring has been delayed until I figure it out completely.

I can still play with using the touch screen!

Edited November 3, 2011 by tonyn41

[tonyn41]

Since I openly advertized the amps that I am going to use, and the supply is low:

I ordered 2 complete kits!

I ordered 2 kits, 2 heat sinks, 2 transformers,2 fuse holders, and 2 22k log pots.

Log(or audio) pots are hard to get ahold, or expensive, so I ordered them right away from the same source(to also cut down on shipping costs).

Then I will add 50k linear pots to the 22k to pots to limit the volume for each amp.

The linear pots and the rest of the hardware to mount and enclose the amps, etc., I can easily get locally.

Total: $232.99 including shipping.

I didn't have enough for 3, besides, there isn't enough heat sinks from them to do 3.

So I may have to buy the assembled one for my third amp.

This is the only USA source for these amp kits I found.

Their supply is low, so I hope when I can order the third one that they still have it.

Edited November 3, 2011 by tonyn41

[tonyn41]

OK back to the DIY of the visa arms.

I posted a picture of the tools I used:

Hand drill, drill press with clamp for pipe, drill bit set,

and 7/16 inch open end wrench to tighten lag bolts.

First you need to open the organ to measure where,

there maybe any internal bolts that go into the side pieces of the organ.

There were no bolts at about 1 inch down

I found one at about 4 inches down.

So my bolts need to be 1 inch down and 3 inches down.

So, from the bottom of the top thread on the 5 inch nipple, I measured down on the pipe 1 inch.

Made a mark for my first hole through pipe, and another at 3 inches down from bottom of thread.

I then put the pipe against a streight edge to make a mark down the length.

Now that I had my marks, I adjusted the drill press pipe clamp so that the drill was centered on pipe.

Drilled my first holes, carefully moved the pipe down the clamp so as not to move it sideways, and drilled my second holes.

These were 1/4 inch holes to allow the 1/4 lag bolts to go through.

Then I alined the pipe to the organ, making sure it was square and plumb with the side piece of organ.

Put the drill bit into the top hole of the pipe to make a mark(just make mark with the bit) on the organ.

Removed the pipe, leveled the drill square and plumb, and drilled the top pilot hole.

First I screwed the top lag bolt through the pipe piece into the organ, tightening it up , making sure pipe was square and plumb.

Second I drilled the bottom pilot hole through the pipe into the organ, making sure the bit was square and plumb as I did so.

Last I screwed the bottom bolt in.

Repeat this for both sides if you want 2 arms.

Now I had my mounts!

The rest is just screwing the pipe pieces together, starting with the coupler on the mount.

Make sure you start on that end.

Tighten the pipe pieces as tight as you can get them and as close as possible to where you want them.

If you tighten them tight enough, backing up on the threads to adjust still leaves some thread and tension to hold the arm in place.

You could use loctite or epoxy on the threads when you are statisfied with the arms to lock them in place once set.

But make sure you do not put anything on the pivot point thread!

To swing arms to the sides to open organ for access(I wanted to be able to do this, to work inside of the organ,

without having to disconnect anything), I just use that elbow as the pivot point and unscrew it a bit to swing the arm.

Note: Let me clarify unscrewing. I do not dissassemble the arm by unscrewing the elbow to swing it.

Swinging the arm screws and unscrews it. So it is a swing arm!

Swinging it does not unscrew it enough for it to come apart either, and it is still solid.

Works well and is stable enough for a laptop or touch screen monitor, even with typing and pressing on screen(they do not move).

All of this for under $25 per arm(go back a couple of posts for the parts list)!

Next post will be on the mount for the touch screen monitor.

Here are some pictures:

Edited November 14, 2011 by tonyn41

[tonyn41]

This post will be on the touch screen visa mount.

Tools:

Skill saw or table saw to cut hardboard pieces.

Hand drill for holes.

1/8 inch drill bit for 4 mm screw holes in hardboard

(I found my screws for my visa mount to be 4 mm, yours maybe different)

1/4 inch drill bit for 1/4 inch bolts

1 inch hole saw bit for spacer holes.

7/16 inch open end wrench to tighen nuts.

Screwdrivers to screw 4 mm screws and 1/4 inch bolts.

C Clamps to clamp hardboard pieces together.

Parts:

4 4mm x 3/4 inch screws( original screws were 1/4 inch, so add 1/2 inch to allow for 2x 1/4 inch hardboard pieces)

4 #8 x 32 washers(I found these to work for 4mm screws, and cheaper than 4mm washers, a specialty item)

4 1/4 inch x 1 1/2 inch machine bolts.

12 1/4 inch washers for bolts.

4 1/4 inch lock washers for bolts.

4 1/4 nuts for bolts

4 1/4 wing nuts for bolts.

2 4 1/4 inch x 4 1/2 inch 1/4 inch thick pieces of hardboard.

Getting the right parts:

First I removed the screws that attached my old visa stand mount to my monitor.

Took those screws to my local True Value hardware store

(I go to True Value, or ACE for specialty parts, Home Depot or Menards for cheaper common bulk parts)

I had them measure and determine that the screws were 4mm, and 1/4 inch long.

Then I bought 4mm 3/4 inch long screws

(1/2 inch longer than the origional screws to compensate for the 2 pieces of 1/4 hardboard).

While I was there I got the 1/4 inch wing nuts, since they were specialty.

The wing nuts cost almost $1.00 each, so those were the expensive parts,

but make for attaching the monitor to the arm easy.

Hardboard and the rest of the hardware can be bought at Home Depot or Menards for cheap.

Making the mounts:

1. Remove pipe flange from arm to use for marking holes in hardboard.

2. I cut 2 pieces of 1/4 inch hardboard to be 4 1/2 inch square(the size of the plate for my old visa mount).

3. I used my old visa mount to get the holes marked for the 4 mm screws onto one piece of hardboard.

4. I centered my pipe flange in the middle of that hardboard piece and got those holes marked for the 1/4 bolts.

5. I clamped the 2 hardboard pieces together.

6. I drilled my 1/8 inch and 1/4 inch holes.

7. I unclamped the hardboard pieces, and used the 1 inch hole saw bit to drill out the 4 1/4 inch pipe flange holes to make them

1 inch wide, using the 1/4 inch holes as guides.

Assembling, in this order:

1. 1/4 inch bolts, to washers, hardboard, washers, lock washers, nuts.

Note: Before I put the pipe flange back onto the arm, I tried attaching the pipe flange to the bolts to make sure they alined right.

I had to ream out the 1/4 holes a bit to make sure pipe flange alined right,

so that when I came to mounting the monotor to the arm, it didn't give me any trouble.

2. 4 mm screws, along with #8 32 washers, through hardboard pieces into monitor.

3. Screw pipe flange back onto arm.

4. Now all you have to do is lift monitor, aline bolt ends onto pipe flange of arm, put a washer on each bolt, and tighen with wing nuts!

As you can see, the 1 inch holes were for the spacers and heads of bolts, and by using 2 pieces of hardboard,

one hardboard piece acts like a spacer for the head of bolt and washer,

so that the mount, mounts flat to the monitor.

I like to use washers for when I put screws/bolts into wood/hardboard,

since they help from screws/bolts coming through(inforces the hole).

Plus, if your holes are off, and you need to ream them out some( larger drill bits to ream holes bigger if holes are off),

the washers cover that.

I use lock washers to not only keep nuts tight, but allow nut to stay in place as you tighten bolts with screwdriver.

All done, that completes the the touch screen mount!

There is room for improvement and cosmetic work yet, but this gets you there for cheap, sturdy, and functional!

Next post will go into detail on the laptop mount.

Here are some pictures:

Edited November 4, 2011 by tonyn41