Hi everyone! At long last here’s an update on the status of the Kombine controller, designed exclusively for Traktor 3 running in Xone:92 emulation mode.
The unit is based on Thorsten’s amazing MBHP and MIOS, and has at its core SmashTV’s wonderful boards. It’s designed solely for Traktor use and optimized for that purpose. More on that later.
Please keep in mind as you read this that the unit as shown in this post is a PROTOTYPE - the final version will have a few changes, described below.
The case is fabricated from 1.5mm aluminum sheeting. I’m in Japan and don’t have easy access to a sheet metal bender so I opted to screw sheet metal together with corner brackets. The final version will have a proper case but this works for now.
This is the empty case seen from above. The front of the case is at the top of the picture. All standoffs for MBHP boards are in place. The case itself is 12" wide by 14" deep by 4" high.
Since the prototype is intended for our own use, we opted to include an M-Audio Quattro inside the case. It won’t be included in the final version because everyone has their own idea of what sound card is best. Can’t please everyone so we’ll leave it out entirely.
The back view of the case with Quattro installed. The power supply switch and jack are also visible. The Audio Out 3 jack has also been rerouted to a standard 6.35 mm (1/4") headphone jack on the front panel, allowing the DJ to plug in either on the front or the back.
The Quattro has six important front panel switches. These are 1/2 Input Level, 1/2 Output Level, 1/2 Direct Monitor, 3/4 Input Level, 3/4 Output Level, and 3/4 Direct Monitor. These have all been rerouted to small switches on the left side of the case. The Quattro power switch is left permanently on, since the unit power is supplied via the rear power switch.
The fully populated case. LOTS of room in here! The Quattro switch rerouting can be seen on the left, as can the perfboard power supply in the back right corner.
The front panel was decided on after no less than 14 design iterations. We worked long and hard to come up with a panel that suited our performance needs with as few controls as possible. For this reason a great deal of control sharing is implemented. If you look at the track gainfaders you’ll notice track 4’s cue and sync button holes are placed differently than all the other tracks. That’s what happens when you’re drilling holes after 14 hours of work on the unit. I drilled the ‘Effect Freeze’ button hold too high at 3am and had to move the track 4 cue and sync buttons as a result. Remember, boys and girls - PROTOTYPE! 
When fully populated this control sharing is visible. Two shift buttons are present on the panel (rectangular red buttons), allowing buttons to be unshifted or shifted as required. The transport controls for four decks are combined into a single transport panel, and the deck affected is chosen through selecting one of the four ring lit buttons at the bottom right. Each deck maintains its own cue, sync and effects controls as well as gainfader. The top right buttons control cue points and loop setting/moving.
While this last image shows the fully populated box, some of the components will change between now and the final version. We plan on changing the buttons used for the cue points and loop panel to be more flush with the front panel and more ring lit buttons will be used.
The box itself is running MIOS 1.8 with a custom C application on top of it. When we complete optimization and debugging of the code the source code will be released to the forums.
To make front panel swapping easier all panel components are wired to custom built daughter boards which are mounted on the back side of the panel. These daughter boards then connect to the MBHP boards via SIL ribbon cables. Front panels can be removed quickly and easily using this method. It also reduces the sheer number of wires running from the front panel to the MBHP boards (shared power and grounds for pots are one wire each per 32 pots, for example) and allows for much simpler implementation of Thorsten’s recommended star configuration for pots. I’ll be happy to post the Eagle schematics if anyone’s interested.
The entire unit is powered via a 9V AC 2A wall wart. I originally planned on a somewhat different scheme but after talking to Northern LightX (thanks Alex!) I opted for this unit. The Quattro requires 9V AC @ 1A so I simply run power into the Quattro and into the core. Yes, I made sure the 7805 was in place and put a HUGE heatsink on it. The 5V Dc available out of core:J2 I run to a Power LED and also to a USB 2.0 port I mounted on the right hand side of the case. It’s power only, no data lines. Why? Well, after years of working in dark DJ booths, looking at black mixer faceplates and getting tired of carrying a flashlight with me I finally decided to do something about it. The Kombine will allow a DJ to plug in a gooseneck LED light to illuminate the front panel! I looked at nine or ten different LED lights and it looks like none draw more than about 100mA, with most running in the 20mA range. This should be well within what’s available out of core:J2.
Still remaining are the code optimization and documenting, TKS template creation, front panel graphics and labels and testing. I’m using Press-n-Peel Wet to create the graphics and labels for the front panel.
So, that’s it to date! Any questions or comments are welcome. I expect to have the unit completed within about two weeks. Then it’ll be sent off to my partner in California who’ll test it out for a while. After that it’s off to a DJ buddy of ours who happens to be a beta tester for Native Instruments.
-drin
