building a midi controller body of knowledge - inside

nuperspective · Post by **nuperspective** » Fri May 26, 2006 12:00 pm

im serious about building my own midi controller. ive been inspired by other users on this forum. however, some of the info im missing. such as:

how do i get 48 sliders, pots and buttons working?

will one unit / board do the above or do i need more than one?

if you do how do you connect them?

will any old pots and faders work or are specific types / voltages needed?

if anybody else is in the same boat, lets try and pull all these other threads on the forum together into a body of knowledge.

rustdub · Post by **rustdub** » Fri May 26, 2006 3:06 pm

To be truthful, if you are asking these questions they you are at the beginning of a long road.

One place to get started is:

http://www.doepfer.de/home_e.htm

Look at their OEM / DIY products near the bottom of the page...

IMHO, most of the "fancy" ableton controllers are just these OEM products inside "fancy" cases.

R

jerry123 · Post by **jerry123** » Fri May 26, 2006 7:34 pm

A long road for sure.
Have you ever soldered a pot or fader? Rather, how much electronics experience do you have?
I've built distortion pedals and other simple analog circuits but have not yet dabbled in DIY MIDI.
I'm very curious as well.

Silverfish · Post by **Silverfish** » Fri May 26, 2006 8:27 pm

www.ucapps.de has everything you need to turn yourself into a DIY MIDI freakshow. They have a very knowledgeable and friendly user forum and a lot of information to offer. I've been working on my own controller for some time now, and I'm finding it's really quite easy to build your own controller.

nuperspective · Post by **nuperspective** » Sat May 27, 2006 1:39 am

been to all of the above and started the research. ive done a bit of electronics on my degree and work as an aerospace engineer so making the case isnt a problem.

the main aim of this thread to pull all the other diy controller threads on the forum together in one location.

Ribo · Post by **Ribo** » Wed May 31, 2006 5:48 pm

i've been trying to find a good knowledge base for building custom midi controllers -- without success .. so i would be interested in a neat little topic like this too

nuperspective · Post by **nuperspective** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 2:49 am

im on with the CAD drawings now for the front panel and im waiting for the quotes to come back for the kit [board, switches, pot, sliders]. looks like there will be around 48 controls on the surface. ive source the knobs etc, i just need to find the right looking switches.

it will basically boil down to the easiest set up at this stage.

Meef Chaloin · Post by **Meef Chaloin** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 8:39 am

good to hear its taking shape nuperspective, post a pic when you get nearer a finished design.

Ribo · Post by **Ribo** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 1:23 pm

nuperspective wrote:im on with the CAD drawings now for the front panel and im waiting for the quotes to come back for the kit [board, switches, pot, sliders]. looks like there will be around 48 controls on the surface. ive source the knobs etc, i just need to find the right looking switches.

it will basically boil down to the easiest set up at this stage.

could you please list your components and explain shortly what each of them basicly do?

Meef Chaloin · Post by **Meef Chaloin** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 2:26 pm

Ribo wrote:
nuperspective wrote:im on with the CAD drawings now for the front panel and im waiting for the quotes to come back for the kit [board, switches, pot, sliders]. looks like there will be around 48 controls on the surface. ive source the knobs etc, i just need to find the right looking switches.

it will basically boil down to the easiest set up at this stage.
could you please list your components and explain shortly what each of them basicly do?

go to www.ucapps.de, there's a wealth of information there.

Ribo · Post by **Ribo** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 3:06 pm

i've been there several times... terrible site if you're a newbie or just dont know what all these abbreviations mean or where to start, etc ..

Meef Chaloin · Post by **Meef Chaloin** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 3:58 pm

how much more detail do you want? They break each one down in to what modules you need & they further break down all the modules. Plus there's tutorials & walkthroughs. What abbreviations do you mean?

nuperspective · Post by **nuperspective** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 12:59 am

Meef Chaloin wrote:
Ribo wrote:
nuperspective wrote:im on with the CAD drawings now for the front panel and im waiting for the quotes to come back for the kit [board, switches, pot, sliders]. looks like there will be around 48 controls on the surface. ive source the knobs etc, i just need to find the right looking switches.

it will basically boil down to the easiest set up at this stage.
could you please list your components and explain shortly what each of them basicly do?
go to www.ucapps.de, there's a wealth of information there.

dont bother with that shit. get yourself over to the doepfer website the kits look far simpler. check out the pocket electronic for starters and they do a potentiometer kit as well. thats the way im going.

nuperspective · Post by **nuperspective** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 6:10 am

just to follow on. the pocket electronic, rotary potentiometer kit [includes 16 rotaries] and psu will set you back about 170 euros. from the looks of the kit, its a case of connect the ribbon cables and away you go. the potentiometer connections look like push on versions.

last week i didnt know any thing. this week it looks viable. next week will be even nearer. thats just from reading the doepfer website and the PDFs. it might not be plug and play but with other witness testimony on this forum for the ease of setting up it cant be the nightmare most people think.

dont forget is not a bespoke midi unit like sashas maven. its a generic board that allows the connection of 16 controllers. thats it. its basically the same set up as a doepfer pocket dial. about as technical as a knife and fork compared to most contollers.

nuperspective · Post by **nuperspective** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 10:29 am

heres the prelim design

[img]

http://www.scien-radio.com/full_assm.jpg

[/img]