Our new dj tech tools mantra for this week is:
“we go through the annoying stuff so you dont have to”
That certainly applies to my current attempt to offer a simple, inexpensive midi controller that most people could find useful. In the end I succeeded, but it required some serious investigation and re-thinking the fundamental concepts. This design is not meant to be sold or duplicated but rather to show the basic steps required in building your own midi accessory or moding an existing controller.
While there are many, many different ways to boil this particular egg- i was shooting for the most straight forward method that could be tried out by anyone with access to just a few house hold tools. This meant it had to fit the following:
- 8 controls or less
- be useful as a single deck control
- cost under $100 in parts
- not take more than a few hours to assemble
- plug and play USB connectivity with cross platform support
- not require any coding
It was a frustrating experience because there really are no fantastic plug and play midi systems out there for a low price. In the end the best solution was to abandon MIDI all together and instead go with an HID interface. These interfaces boast lower costs, easy setup, high resolution and universal plug and play compatibility.
Step 1: Read this post
Step 2: Check out the video for more on HID and a step by step guide to building your own dj-101
cheers this is great…
As you say you had to ditch the MIDI and go with HID.
What are some of the disadvantages with using HID > MIDI? More overhead on the system?
Maybe you know how to wire stereo pots with six pins instead of three?
Hi Ean, great project. Will there be a followup on how to set everything up in the software?
The only Midi package that fit my criteria was the USB micro dig by IcubeX.
Unfortunately, after 2 weeks- I just could not get it to work. Their third party drivers, faulty editors, poor directions and lack of documentation was a very frustrating experience. In the end I could not possibly recommend going that route and instead fell back on plan B- HID. Using a DIY MIDI interface like Doepfer has would be just as good but its more expensive and not usb powered.
The software setup request is a good one but it would be hard as their are so many different options. This tutorial was more of a hardware one.
Hi Ean! The project sounds interesting, even if it costes waaay too much.
I made a MIDI 1.0 controller for less than €200, with support for 32 knobs (12-bits ADC truncated to 7-bits for MIDI translation) and up to 128 normally-open buttons. The bad thing is that it was purely MIDI, so you had to buy a MIDI->USB translator (I found ESI Midi Mate for €35) to make it work as “Plug & Play”.
The project documentation (unfortunately for you is in Italian) can be downloaded from:
http://www.geocities.com/gnegno88/gpmc.zip
I’ve developed it more than one year ago, so there are some things which could be made better.
I’m trying to move to HID, but I haven’t much time because of University. I just need a HID->MIDI translator…
Give also a look to MIDIBox, it’s the most professional “open-source” modular MIDI project I’ve ever seen.
Okay, presuming we’re up and running with midi-cc messages being generated somehow by our Dj-101, how would you use the functions you outlined in this video - beat juggling, loop activation, loop length etc? I guess what I’m after is a beat juggling 101 :)
having trouble deciding which HID board to use….
to joel, you may want to try and look at this post for beat juggling basics
http://www.djtechtools.com/2008/01/03/controllerism-basics-cue-point-juggling/
Ean, what is the link to the HID that you used, i think i would like to get that one since you used it already…. Thanks!
Thanks for the link Ean, that’s perfect! Only found the site recently, didn’t look back far enough through the archives, sorry!
If you want to look how HID works, just take a game pad. Here is a vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9f-rM7mXC0
@Justas
When using stereo pots just wire one of the groups of three pins as if it was a ‘mono’ pot. Generally speaking that is VCC to one of the outside pins, GND to the other outside pin, and the ADC to the middle pin.
100 USD to build something like this (that anybody can put together ina couple of hours) is very cheap.
When building a homebrew controller the real cost is in you own spare time.
200 Euro however to recreate the mighty BCR 2000 (which costs a little over 100 euro) ….
Midifidler is right, I need to re-calculate the totals but with old school knobs and a inexpensive HID device like U-HID then it could be as little as 60-$80. Thats a steal!
OR….for the 101controller number of controls, you really can scavange a joystick that has enough analogue inputs and buttons.
It is easier, only difference I cant support it with a nice steb-by-step video. Good job Ean.
Thats a good point Tos
Must be plenty of those lying aroung waiting to be recycled
wow, never thought of that… will any USB joystick work? I have an old USB joystick here that i can take apart. I only want to put 6 knobs on this thing anyhow….
I think you probably can only put 2 analogue knobs on a standard joystick, most would just use a pot on each axis (x/y)
great Idea TOS-
that should work well depending on which device you scavange.
so u don’t think I can use an old USB joystick to incorporate knobs cause the connections won’t be there? Well not enough for 6 your tellin me.
So I am still stuck not knowing what HID piece to get. I took apart my old vestax mixed and the knobs etc will come off the board very easily. I am gonna try that tomorrow. I would like to get an HID soon. Any help of guidance would be great. Thanks.
I like the idea of recycling parts from dead electronics, it gives home midi making a green edge.
Peace K
Well I have been thinking about HID controller since I found that video I posted before. Now I am doing a little experiment. I Dissamsembled my saitek p580 game pad and an old gemeni mixer for knobs and faders. The only thing you should know is that the gamepad must have an analog inputs to connect a fader or pot. Here is a little tutorial http://www.cycling74.com/story/2007/3/12/113645/135 PS2 type gamepads have only 4 analog inputs, while windows supports 8 as maximum. I think it is not very much, so Im planning to mod a game pad into a cdj style controller only with 4 buttons, 2 pitch faders and two jog wheels, and for other controls I am thinking to buy Evoliution uc33. Of course it depends on how I will manage to wire stereo faders. Midifidler, thanks for a help. I will post my results here :)
@ TacoPimp
Yes- you can use an old usb joystick. They are just saying that there will need to be a lot more controls on the joystick so you can have multiple input. Just a single joystick with no extra sliders or buttons will only offer 2 inputs (x and Y) but some may have rotation as well.
http://www.cycling74.com/story/2007/3/12/113645/135
Thats a great guide. If you decide to use the guts from an old play station type controller then you have 4 analogue controls (knobs and sliders) and 14 buttons.
ok… So what part of the pc playstation style controller let’s me add knobs to the guts? I went to target today and found one controller for $9 but it did not have the dual thumb knobs things, hope that makes sense. Thanx for being patient with all my questions guys. I bought a soldring iron today and I am going to take the knobs off of my old mixer. I couldn’t find a soldering pump though… So hopefully I will be able to remove the knobs. I found some tutorials on how to remove stuff off of a board.
@tacopimp
You need the type with the analogue thumbsticks. Once you pull it apart you will see each stick has two rows of three pins each. Each of these rows are the three connections of the pots used for x and y. So once you have pulled the joy sticks out you can just wire your pots to these pads.
If you get really stuck start a thread on the forum….
I ended up going with the Doepfer PE cause I just wanted straight forward midi. The whole thing is going to cost upwards of around $200 (shipping kills me) but the point is that I making it my self. I have no problem paying a bit more for diy it the end result is awesome.
http://www.flightsim.com/cgi/kds?=main/howto/mind.htm
I too want buttons and knobs and for little or no money down. The above device allows 6 analogue inputs (knobs/sliders/etc etc) and 24 (i think) buttons, and is recognised on win/mac/linux as an HID joystick.
I’m still making mine (adding more buttons/knobs/enclosure), but have built the guts and seen it working on all platforms.
The other exciting possibility is hooking up old ball-mouse rotary encoders to some of button inputs, so as to have rotary (endless) knobs as well, great for pitch nudging and softsynth tweaking.
Anyway the ATMega16 microcontroller can be persuaded to do USB-HID and is very cheap compared to the prebuilt solutions.
(note this was my first electronics project)
Thanks for sharing that info haszari
“In the end I could not possibly recommend going that route and instead fell back on plan B- HID.”
do the midi controls function? ,or do i have to control traktor or whatever with the Hid-commands?
greetings
is it possible to use a on/off switch as a midi control with the BU0836X?
this can be done with a arduino usb board, and you can add easily six faders and use like twelve buttons too
oh, and direct usb cable output
…
Hi community,
this is my first post.
If you check at leobodnar forum you will found my works to do more useful before versions (which are more cheap).
Also could check Controllerism.com, sparkfun and Machinecollective forums to enjoy a Biggest comunmunity involving little communities.
Please search my post around internet… you will found a lot of info about this an other DIY projects.
For the video tuto a big THANKS men, my electronic skills are truly bad…
;)
…