Here is wow I illuminated the pannel of the controller for Ableton Live I am building for my friend.
The idea was to illuminate the pot outer groves on panel similar to the original Ableton Live but coloured white. For illumination are used 2 superbright LEDs per pot. The panel is made of steel - waterjet cut, but you can have same results using regular CNC mill. Under the panel is 1st white acrylic subpanel which carries all pot (2nd) subpanels and button PCBs. This is just trieout. I need to finish all the boards and start asembling it, and then I am going to publish the results. For now here is few pics.
What can I do… he knows shit about electronics, and I am always in the mood to help people with same interests as myself. And he made for me the panel on picture, so he is also good friend too.
And I must say something about that knobs… These are best knobs I`ve ever seen. They are from Sibalco and cost 1EUR/piece. They are very well made, soft touch, pretty narrow which is good for dense packing on panel. Really good ones, but bit expensive if you need much. He gave 80 EUR just for this controller. :
I thought about doing this for my push buttons, mayby I still will do, this is looking real slick!
About the knobs: I spent about 60 euro’s on roughly 70 spare knobs for my project. Since I am attaching my controller to my DJ mixer I wanted the same ones. The deal was 1,20 per knobs, the bill I received, was 0,80 per knobs. Allways a pleasure A litlle discount for high numbers? :
About the knobs… it is really strange that plastic knobs are often more expensive than pots itself. Plastic and rubber is very cheap and making knobs are not so hi-tech. Pots are much more complex to make. Here in Serbia, I can buy almost 3 pots for a price of good plastic knob. ???
I like the way you guys are helping each other out, it’s nice to see people being pleasant to each other (so rare these days it seems) , and the end result is a pair of super slick midiboxes
Yes, it would be cool. Some people from comunity already done some RGB LED customisation for their boxes. Also, the Robert Hanke`s (Monolake) Monodeck II has RGB LEDs. Monodeck 2 is actually midibox based. Monodeck 1 was Doepher.
I’m working on something that’s sort of the ghetto version of this.;D I basically have a clear plastic case for my SID. I made some reverse stensels for the knob/button labels so when I spray paint the box, the lettering will still be see-through but the rest will be black. That way the light only comes through the labels and lettering.
I had that same idea a while back… Where are you gonna get the lettering to use as a stencil for labels? There’s no way you could cut lettering that small practically… What kind of paint are you going to use? Most spraypaint is kinda translucent, so it won’t block the backlighting. Of course you can do a few layers of paint but then you need very thick stencil material…
I’d be interested to see how you’re planning on getting around this stuff!
your work looks amazing as usual sasha really nice touch for an abelton controller
i look forward to seeing it finished
he is a really good friend if he can cut panels for you like that im still waiting to hear from a friend of a friend about laser cutting my latest panel (its frustrating but waiting can be good sometimes)
Where are you gonna get the lettering to use as a stencil for labels?
I have some sticky back printer paper that I’m going to test. I was thinking of printing out the lettering and then cutting along the lines. Then I would stick the letters on to the box and paint it. I’m worried that the paint will bleed or soak through the paper (there’s a pretty big chance that it will, but that’s what testing is for). If luck is on my side, then I would be able to peel/scrape off the sticky letters. and expose the clear, unpainted plastic. If it does bleed a little, I was thinking of sanding off the parts that bleed.
There’s no way you could cut lettering that small practically
I’m planning on making the letters pretty big. I’m only making a step A CS. The main design that I’m shooting for would have a couple of large (as in 50pt font or more) logos that said “MIDIbox SID” on the side of the case. Then I wanted to have lines going from each button to the LCD to indicate which button went with which parameter. I was planning on using large symbols rather than letters. I also wanted rings around the buttons.
What kind of paint are you going to use? Most spraypaint is kinda translucent, so it won’t block the backlighting.
The paint type is still undecided. I’ve been wondering how make the paint less see-through, and haven’t come up with much. I was thinking of trying a layer on the surface and on the inside. What I really want to find is somthing that is waterproof that has a sticky back on it. I’m thinking of contact paper, but I don’t think I can print my stencel on that.
I only half-expect it to work. I acually kinda like how it looks clear with the lights in it, so if the test run doesn’t work I’m just going to leav it clear.
Actually, I just posted a question in the SID section regarding a problem with the Step A CS. Once I get that squared away I’m going to start the painting.
your work looks amazing as usual sasha really nice touch for an abelton controller
i look forward to seeing it finished
Thank you kris, controller is almost finished. All electronics mechanics, few subpannels, but big job left to do is panel LED illumination. The problem is mounting so many LEDs for illumination. It takes 2 LEDs per pot window, and so little space to position it. Also, I make one error designing the acrylic subpanel and place the hole too close to the window, so we are pretty much stucked now, but we will sort it up somehow.
he is a really good friend if he can cut panels for you like that im still waiting to hear from a friend of a friend about laser cutting my latest panel (its frustrating but waiting can be good sometimes)
Hey, I am making this controller for him! He don`t own waterjet machine, but his father have friend who made us small favor. It is really not big deal for them. While they are cutting some big job they added 2 more panels.
I’ve been wondering how make the paint less see-through, and haven’t come up with much.
NeurDis, Ive done some thinking and experimenting with backlit illumination and it is not so complicated or hard to achieve. First, I dont think you can make it using handcut paper stancils. You can if your letters are pretty big but still not out of paper. For making proper stencils use PVC sheets cutted on PVC cutter. Those cutters are not so hard to find, all sign making service have one of those. You just give them a vector drawing and that is it. Bare in mind that you cannot have super small letters with this technique. Here is the picture of the coaster Ive made using PVC masking. I tried to cut it by hand but I wasnt satisfied at all.
…back to your question. Once you mask your panel you can spray it black in two layers and it will block the paint perfectly. If you want to use lets say white paint, paint your panel white in two layers and after it paint it black. This is only useful if you are painting transparent panel from back side.
I always force people to try laser for this kind of job, because it is cheap, quick and very precise.
Again… all express stamp making service own laser cutter/engraver!
Having your lettering or signs illuminated is very easy and quick. You just spray your transparent acrylic panel with few coats of paint and give to the engraving service to engrave it. It will burn it just slightly to take away the paint and make it transparent. I will post an image of experimental piece of board I`ve done it some time ago when I get back home.
You really are quite the craftsman hey sasha! I love the coaster artwork I feel like I’ve seen it before somewhere, weird.
Again… all express stamp making service own laser cutter/engraver!
Thanks for the tip mate. I know that you have mentioned a few times that there is a type of store that all have an engraver… But I can’t seem to find any stores by those names… For example, I googled “express stamp making service” but just found lots of unusual stuff that didn’t seem right. Do you know if they go by another name?
You really are quite the craftsman hey sasha! I love the coaster artwork Cheesy I feel like I’ve seen it before somewhere, weird.
Thank you stryd. Sure you have seen it before. It is well known Richie Hawtin aka Plastikman logo. It is designed by his friend from high school or something. Maybe you have seen it on his covers or in one of his videos (Plastikman - Plastique) I just love the design, just right for that name.
Thanks for the tip mate. I know that you have mentioned a few times that there is a type of store that all have an engraver… But I can’t seem to find any stores by those names… For example, I googled “express stamp making service” but just found lots of unusual stuff that didn’t seem right. Do you know if they go by another name?
I advise you not to google, rather take a walk in some shopping mall or wherever you have shops like copier services, photo stores stamp service or such. Don`t look for sign laser engraving. Just look for engraving service and ask about techniques they are using. Mechanical, laser, etching… Ask them, they know about they competition so they probably can direct you to somebody.
I maybe confused you when I said express stamp service. I tried to google it and I mostly get post stamps. I had in mind this kind of stamp:
Maybe they are comming by other name, but my english is very limited. I can tell you again. In fucked up serbia there is alot of engravers, stamp services sign makers, and most economical way is to use laser cutters. Try to find a company that can make you acrylic illuminated panel for your business. Only acceptable way for them to make it is using laser. Mechanical CNC cutting would be slow and thus expensive and it is reserved mostly for metal. Sorry I cannot help you enough, but I personally didn`t know they exists until friend pointed mi out, so now I can find and chose the cheapest one. Price and quality have nothing in common for cutting, when it comes to engraving the bigger resolution the better. I engrave in resolution 700lpi.
A litlle discount for high numbers? :