The Simpletron

[Archies'bald]

It's alive.......!!!

The PC booted up first time. It's downloading updates, drivers, anti virus etc, etc as we speak. I may even get Traktor downloaded to it before the end of this Bank Holiday weekend.





All I have to do to this part of the project is get all the right programs downloaded on to it and then make it look better than it does now.




Erm, yes I really did need the glass of wine too.

[Archies'bald]

Ok, so the amplifier (the bid red thing) I bought was utter crap. You live and learn.

I've also been on holiday for a few weeks to a Spanish Island with my gorgeous wife and my cute baby girl, but I'm back now and I may have a few minutes spare to devote some time to this project again.

Having seen the price of the Otus XP5's & 10's, I'm seriously considering buying a couple of them to compliment my new portable set up. I have a question though. If I were to buy two Otus XP5 or 10's, would I still have to buy a separate sound card for a third channel, or could I route it through one of the XP sound cards?

I'm still building the midi controller, but work on that has come to a stand still until I figure out how I can play with 3 decks.

To recap, the photo's you see above are of basically, an oversized laptop, fitted in to a 1210 case. The other MIDI controller will be all buttons and faders.

[derjay]

the EKS Xp 5/10s only have one stereo out. If you`re using internal mixing anyway you could use one for cueing and one for the rest. However, they don't have a headphone output, so I guess you`de need an extra headphone amp.

[Archies'bald]

Right, I'm starting to look at getting the MIDI controller up to speed soon, but I have a few questions I'm hoping some of you good people can answer.

I'm looking at buying the Leo Bodnar controller as it has a lot of options on it. I'm also hoping to put some rotary encoders for selecting tunes, pitch bend/adjust and scanning through a whole song quickly.

My questions are : Will Glovepie support lots of switches and rotary encoders? And, has anyone used rotary encoders for this type of thing before, and what problems did you face.

Here are links to the controller and the encoders.

http://www.leobodnar.com/products/BU0836X/

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...tab%3DWatching


Once again, a big thanks to all who reply, your help is much appreciated.

[Archies'bald]

My Alps faders finally came through and so did a few other pieces. Still waiting on the encoders, but I'm in no hurry considering they only cost me a tenner. I'm a little drunk right now and I'm so, so happy.

I did manage to get more done today. Now I have the exact dimensions of the faders, I managed to cut out the spaces for them. This has been the hardest part of the build so far. I had bought milling drill bits which I assumed would cut through aluminium no bother; but unfortunately it proved to be really, really difficult. I ended up using an electric Jigsaw and drill bits, trying to make sure I got the dimensions correct to the best of my ability (it's all been done by hand).

I can't wait to get this thing up and running.







There have been more than a few design changes (mostly due to my own faults), but it's all been part of the learning curve. I've added leds, a joystick and extra buttons. Anyone planning on doing something along these lines needs to keep there plans fluid. Make your standard layout,but leave room to accept your mistakes.

I reckon I will be completely finished between January/February.

[LanceBlaise]

Wouldn't it be alot easier to carry a laptop around? Or is the point of this creation that you have an amp inside?

[janzak]

This is the most ghetto laptop I've ever seen!

[Archies'bald]

Wouldn't it be alot easier to carry a laptop around? Or is the point of this creation that you have an amp inside?

My wife wont let me buy a laptop. There's 4 PC's in the house already and she would crack up if I wasted money on one. Most of the parts for the computer I had lying around and it's a fairly powerful rig considering. It will only be used for house parties anyway, so if anything happens to it I can replace parts on my own rather than paying someone to repair a laptop.

I eventually got the amplifier working as it should and I can run 4 x 100 watt speakers off it. That should get the party started.

It's something I wanted to try out and see if I could do also. A personal challenge, if you like.

[Archies'bald]

Right, so this is how it will look when it's finished.



I've got the rotary encoders, rotary pots and all buttons working so far. I've just got to find time to wire the sliders, joystick and leds.

I might need some advice when it comes to mapping out the second function (shift) buttons, but I'm doing better than I'd hoped to be doing at this stage. At the moment I'm thinking of going along these lines...

Green buttons - Play/Cue
Red buttons - Load selected track on deck A, B, or C
Black buttons - Sync
Dark blue buttons (latching with leds) - Preview track
Light blue button - Second function (shift)
Small silver rotary encoders (middle) - pitch bend
Small silver rotary encoder (bottom) - Select track
Large silver pots - Bass/Treble
Joystick - effects
White arcades - Juggling etc. Five assigned for channel 1 & 3 each.

The LEDS under the sliders will illuminate when the fader is in use.

I would like peoples opinion on whether I should paint this. Personally I like the brushed aluminium, but it scratches very easily. All comments welcome, good or bad. I've got thick skin.

[doc country]

this is rad.. thanks for the inspiration... I'm in the middle of building a MIDI controller, but have been going back and forth over which micro-controller to use..