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DJ Controller with loads of buttons and RGB leds


Velaskin

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Hi there,

 

it has been quite a while since my last post. A couple of years ago I had planned a DJ/Traktor box. The project kinda drowned due to lack of time and eventually some other "real life issues" ;)

Anyway I did a raincheck on the uCapps/Midibox development these days and found it's still alive and kicking :D

Now I'm in the planning process of a DJ controller which is going to be used to control Traktor Pro.
I've attached a preview/mockup of the actual layout. It's in a way the 10th iteration ("rev. D") and I might think, I got all my needed controls crammed on the panel :)
BTW the panel will be black instead of grey as in the preview.

What I'm gonna use:

  • Buttons will be arcade style buttons (Sanwa OBSC24 with clear casing). The idea comes from the Midifighter Spectra controller by DJTechTools.
  • Again inspired by the Midifighter Spectra, the buttons will be indirectly illuminated by RGB leds. 4 leds per button, which will be controlled pair-wise. That means, you can have the whole ring lit up, or just a half of it (left or right side).
  • No pots but encoders only. That counts for the channel faders and crossfader as well. I'm a huge fan of rotary mixers and I don't need cuts in my music styles.
  • Due to the huge amount of leds (using RGB leds actully tripples the amount as we all know), the leds are going to be in a matrix. Actually 7 matrixes with 4 rows each to get the 8 brightness levels.
  • The core will be the STM32F4. Very nice piece of hardware btw ;)
  • There will be a 2x40 LCD, so that the SCS will be available (you never know ;)). Other than that some infos on the layer/bank or whatever comes to mind can be displayed to complement the color coding of the buttons. The SCS buttons will be emulated, and activated by the button aside of the LCD.
  • The front panel will be manufactured by Schaeffer AG. It took me a while to accomodate that idea due to the price. But I think it's worth it.

The panel will be around 50 x 33 cm. It's big, but well ;)
 

As far as I see it I can use the already existing hardware concepts and schematics you guys already came up with. Except for one change:

 

Usually you would use the 74HC595 for the DOUTs along with some ULN2003s the get the current delivered. But what about using a shift register which is already capable of higher currents without additional support? From reading some datasheets inspired by other forums I stumbled across the TPIC6C595. It's actually cheaper than the combo 74HC595/ULN2003 and it would spare quite some space on the PCBs :)

From the datasheets I might think the core should be able to deal with the TPIC6C595 in the same way as with the 74HC595. Has anybody tried that already?

So what do you think?

Cheers,

John

 

 

post-4204-0-28652100-1404041730_thumb.jp

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Thank you, novski :)


For the PCBs in general:

I will use the core board along with the midi breakout board from the midibox-shop. It's already ordered, and I'm looking forward to its arrival :)

Whether or not I'm building the DINs and DOUTs just on bread boards is not yet finally decided. On the other hand, the layout for a PCBs ist probably rather simple. And the overall mechanical stability would probably benefit. Not to mention the more professional approach ;)

Cheers,

John
 

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Well if you are building one piece and its not ment to be rebuilt, then i wold recomend to build it on veroboard. Thats stable enough and you will get faster to a working solution... The 8Enc board took me 3 Prototypes to make it work compleetly... ðŸ˜

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