Custom Buttons

Design Concepts
1

Hi all,

Still thinking on Mackie HUI style controller, and want to make cool buttons like on it and mackie control.

What I want is the inset led which imo looks much better than a backlit clear button (I don’t want seperate led’s as I don’t find them as clear and will use up more of facia).

I want the buttons to look like this:

I assume they will need to be like this to acheive this:

Does anyone know if/where it is possible to buy such a button?

Could I construct these by creating a mold and melting plastic/rubber into it around the LED?

If above possible would heat damage the LED?

If above possible any idea how I could get a uniform LED placement?

Has anyone made custom buttons before could offer advice?

If doing it myself I know it would probably take forever but it may take me longer than forever to afford all the other components so time aint an issue.

cheers for any help.

Sid

2

i want custom button too!!!

but square one is maybe hard to make… I have the idea of making a mold!!!

I’m going to look how the Mackie HUI buttons look! :wink:

3

Hey Guys…

I’m trying to find out about getting some clear/frosted plexiglass caps made up for these pushbuttons:

http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?item=PB-125

They feature an internal 3mm LED which should diffuse nice through the plexiglass :)…

Inspiration from Axels LC buttons :smiley:

Nice

Dan

4

You could also paint over some of the clear frosted Plexi, Leaving only a little area exposed for the LED.  Like the mouth of this puckered guy  :-*

5

I’ve thought about painting out but I am worried about wearability with constant pressing, I don’t want to repaint buttons every few months.

Backlit clear buttons also has the downside of bleed from neighbouring buttons.

6

My thoughts were that if you…

A.  Painted out your buttons so that only the LED in and out points were exposed, and

B.   Used point-source LEDs, instead of diffused LEDs, and

C.  Covered the whole painted button (even icons and words) with 3-4 coats of clear topcoat

then…

The button would stay looking sharp and minimize bleed into other LEDs

7

I have 6 button caps like the ones on the Mackie HUI and Logic Control.  They are just caps, and you have to figure out how to mount them in your casing, and have them make contact with your switch.  

I got the caps from a crestron system installer.  Maybe you can call up/ email crestron and ask them where they get them.  www.crestron.com

Actually, isn’t someone affiliated with Mackie New Zealand?  They should be able to tell you where to get the button caps directly.  Who was that?

It will be a huge pain in the ass, getting the cases made to fit these.