The making of a Midibox64

MIDIbox HUIs
21

I got a lot done today. So much so that I don’t yet have time to take a look at and post the pics of what I did (it’s 1:30am and I need to go to bed :-). I finished most of the remaining prototype pcb’s including…

  1. pcb x 9 for each fader

  2. pcb for the dual illuminated buttons (ones that go lower left)

  3. pcb for the illuminated dial

  4. pcb for the bottom row of 12 switches that have the black square caps on them

  5. pcb for the up and down switches (the red square buttons)

  6. pcb’s for the last two rows of pots, leds, and switches

The only pcb’s I have left to do are the one for the 16 mec switches and the one for the 4 mec switches below the LCD.

The reason I did all these pcb’s was that it makes it MUCH easier to hook everything up once I’m ready to plug in and go. Simply put, each component (or section of components) resides on a pcb along with a connector which will simply interface with the midibox modules by plugging them in. This will be easier to see once I get to that part.

I got home at 1:00am tonight and got a surprise. The MEC switches and caps came in :slight_smile: I was expecting them mext Tuesday.

This is what they look like…

Image removed due to possibly malicious content. Download at your own risk, it contains a strange script. - stryd_one

http://www.alphazone1.com/midibox/mec-switch-real.jpg

These feel perfect for the application I wanted. The are more of a tact switch with LED and cap type of a thing. Very nice. I also confirmed today the panel is delayed until after the weekend. It’s coming Monday. The Chassis should be coming tomorrow. Once those parts come in all I really have left is to get the panel done up (painted and silkscreened) and finish up the rest of the wiring..

bye for now,

Brian

22

It’s been a couple days since I posted. I’ve been busy and didn’t want to stop to take the time to do an update - shame on me.

The panel and chassis are coming tommorrow and I still have a lot of wiring to do. Just the crazy number of connections takes a lot of time and effort. I’m working slow deliberately so I don’t make mistakes. A few interesting things have come about.

  • The first is the power supply. I realized that with potentially 54 led’s and the backlight for the LCD being on at the same time I need at least 1.0A. I calculated the current draw would be less than 1.5A max at any time. I also realized (and more on this below) I’ve got a blue backlight LCD with white/yellow characters so it has a negative contrast voltage, so I need -5V as well as +5V. Considering all this I scrapped the 7805 voltage regulator on the Core Module . I built a basic linear power supply using the higher current TO-93 packaged 7805 and 7905 regulators. If you want a more efficient power supply or have limited space you might want to consider a switching power supply for this job, although I decided on an old-school linear supply. The layout and finished piece look like this:

Image removed due to possibly malicious content. Download at your own risk, it contains a strange script. - stryd_one

http://www.alphazone1.com/midibox/power-supply-pcb.jpg

Image removed due to possibly malicious content. Download at your own risk, it contains a strange script. - stryd_one

http://www.alphazone1.com/midibox/power-supply.jpg

  • The second problem I’ve been having is that LCD. Since it needs -5v for the contrast voltage I had to tap this from my power supply. The problem I came accross is that the 5V available on the core module travels along in a more serial fashion, so when I cut in to disrupt the +5V going to Vd of the LCD I realized I had to place a lot of jumpers around to make sure everything else that is still supposed to get +5V still get’s it! Also variable resistor P2 on the core module needs to be referenced to -5V and not +5V when using a negative contrast LCD. It actually turned out to be a time consuming task and my core module doesn’t look so pretty from the bottom anymore.

I have finished all but (2) pcb’s to this point - I thought I would do a rundown of each part.

  1. 4-pot and 4-switch pcb. Here you can see I finally got around to assembling these ones where the switch board piggybacks on the pot board:

Image removed due to possibly malicious content. Download at your own risk, it contains a strange script. - stryd_one

http://www.alphazone1.com/midibox/piggyback1.jpg

Image removed due to possibly malicious content. Download at your own risk, it contains a strange script. - stryd_one

http://www.alphazone1.com/midibox/piggyback2.jpg

  1. Here are the little pcb’s I made for the faders to make hook-up a lot easier.

Image removed due to possibly malicious content. Download at your own risk, it contains a strange script. - stryd_one

http://www.alphazone1.com/midibox/fader-pcb.jpg

  1. Here is the dual illuminated switches that go in the bottom left position of the panel

Image removed due to possibly malicious content. Download at your own risk, it contains a strange script. - stryd_one

]http://www.alphazone1.com/midibox/dual-illuminated-pushbuttons.jpg

  1. This is the illuminated dial that goes in the bottom right area of the panel.

Image removed due to possibly malicious content. Download at your own risk, it contains a strange script. - stryd_one

http://www.alphazone1.com/midibox/illuminated-dial.jpg

  1. These are the square buttons that go below each fader.

Image removed due to possibly malicious content. Download at your own risk, it contains a strange script. - stryd_one

http://www.alphazone1.com/midibox/square-buttons.jpg

  1. These are some of the boards with the led buttons.

Image removed due to possibly malicious content. Download at your own risk, it contains a strange script. - stryd_one

http://www.alphazone1.com/midibox/led-buttons.jpg

Here is a pic of all the control stuff, the pots, sliders, buttons, and led’s layed out somewhat in the arrangement they will be in in the final panel.

Image removed due to possibly malicious content. Download at your own risk, it contains a strange script. - stryd_one

http://www.alphazone1.com/midibox/layout2.jpg

I still have alot of work to do before I retire for the night so I’m going to get back to it :wink:

23

The panel just came in. It looks great. I am still researching exaclty what kind of primer and paint I need to use on the aluminum.

I have decided I will be sending out for screens and doing my own silkscreening when the times comes. Right now there’s still a lot of wiring and testing to do. Here’s the panel, it’s 2.5mm aluminum.

Image removed due to possibly malicious content. Download at your own risk, it contains a strange script. - stryd_one

http://www.alphazone1.com/midibox/panel1.jpg

[sorry, can’t find this image - will upload in future if I can locate]

Please don’t - stryd_one

24
  • The second problem I’ve been having is that LCD. Since it needs -5v for the contrast voltage I had to tap this from my power supply. The problem I came accross is that the 5V available on the core module travels along in a more serial fashion, so when I cut in to disrupt the +5V going to Vd of the LCD I realized I had to place a lot of jumpers around to make sure everything else that is still supposed to get +5V still get’s it! Also variable resistor P2 on the core module needs to be referenced to -5V and not +5V when using a negative contrast LCD. It actually turned out to be a time consuming task and my core module doesn’t look so pretty from the bottom anymore.

My LCD also required a negative contrast voltage but it wasn’ t nearly that complicated or un-pretty to deal with. Maybe the way I did it may be asking for trouble but it was based on other postings here so I suspect it should be fine (and so far after several hours of playing with my MBSID it’s been working fine.)

I used the circuit recomended elsewhere on the BBS/Wiki with an IC-7660 and just pulled P2 (VR2 as labled on Smashes boards) and wired it through those three connections. The 10uF caps were even freebies since there are tons of them on the sound cards I’m scavanging for OPL3 chips :smiley:   Here it was test wired:

Image removed due to possibly malicious content. Download at your own risk, it contains a strange script. - stryd_one

http://www.yumaduners.com/albums/album80/voltconvert.sized.jpg

That was my first test of the circuit - I later re-wired it and managed to make it MUCH cleaner and all wrapped up in heat shrink . I kind of like having the pots not mounted to the board anyway as I want to mount them off the back of my box so they can be adjusted to meet the needs of the room it’s being used in when it’s finished.

Which reminds me…I really need to stop slacking and finish my control surface and box for this thing!

25

Nice. Thanks for the response! What happened with me is I was impatient with it. I quickly did the fix that I thought was necessary and then I realized I did the wrong thing…then I had to patch up the change and do the correct thing. Then I did the wrong thing again  ::slight_smile: The 3rd time I got it right, and my core board has 4 or 5 scars on it when it should have just one!

Nice pic.

26

Oh yeah, I fogot to mention how much I’ve been enjoying watching your build!

BTW, I’m also wondering what kind of price you ended up getting on the LED buttons from MEK if you don’t mind sharing.  I’m still trying to figure out what I want to do on the physical side for my projects :smiley:

27

Not too much to update here. I have been doing a lot of research on painting anodized aluminum - so I can paint up and finish the panel. I guess aluminum is a very hard material to paint or powdercoat without proper pretreatment. The consensus appears to be to clean the anodized aluminum part with an aluminum cleanser followed by a light sanding with 220 grit wet sandin. Next is a second wiping with the metal clenaser and then apply an acrylic polyurethane paint. That’s were I’m heading. I’m trying to get this done asap becuase I’m pretty much ready to attachment parts to the panel.

…about those MEC switches I quoted them at many of the distributors in the US and I got prices anywhere from $2.39 to $3.20 each for small quantities. Most places had a lead time on the part of 3-4 weeks. I ended up getting them from Target Electronics because they had them on hand. I paid $2.88 for each switch/cap.

The fader caps are coming in tommorrow (Monday). I sampled a couple different variations of a standard black fader cap with white line. One is the typical hard plastic variety and the second is a soft touch type. I’ll post some pics tommorrow …heading to bed now (I’m recovering from a late night last night - I didn’t get anything done today  :-\ unless a load of laundry counts ;D) I’m looking to have a productive week this week, including a bunch of hours on the midibox…so I’ll keep posting.

28

I’ve done a bunch of stuff the past few days. There’s a lot of work to do when doing a full featured Midibox64! I’m still working on putting on all the connectors for each part/module . There’s a couple pcb’s I have to remake because of bad fit - not a huge deal but time consuming. I painted the panel today. It’s sort of a metal silver color with a glossy overcoat - it’s hard to see in the horrible picture I took (I couldn’t get a good pic with all the lighting and stuff). The paint came out great. I still think what I might do is when I’m completely done with the design and testing I might sand it down and re-paint the panel again - I have a feeling it might get beat up while I’m fitting and testing everything. Also I want it to be perfect for when I attempt to silkscreen it.

Today I was working on fitting some of the modules and making sure they fit properly. I also tested some of the lighting stuff to make sure all the wiring is correct and everything is ready to just be plugged in.

Here’s a couple pics below of the backside and the frontside of the panel. Keep in mind all the main modules, the Core module, AIN, DIN, DOUT are all in the chassis and aren’t connected or seen in the pic. The second pics shows the panel from front with some of the stuff lit up..

Image removed due to possibly malicious content. Download at your own risk, it contains a strange script. - stryd_one

http://www.alphazone1.com/midibox/back1.jpg

Image removed due to possibly malicious content. Download at your own risk, it contains a strange script. - stryd_one

http://www.alphazone1.com/midibox/front1.jpg

29

it’s been a few days since the last update. The final parts have finally come in and I am finally finishing this thing and testing it. I’ve put a lot of hours into it - it takes quite a bit more time than it looks! I had to redesign a couple PCB’s as I mentioned in my last post because there was some problems with everything fitting together properly. There are still a few minor details to figure out. I will be posting some specific stuff about what’s been going on with the build this past week, but for now I’ll sign off with a shot of the back of the panel stuffed and a shot of the complete unit during the ‘light that thing up’ test ;D

Image removed due to possibly malicious content. Download at your own risk, it contains a strange script. - stryd_one

http://www.alphazone1.com/midibox/midibox-jun23-2.jpg

[sorry, can’t find this image - will upload in future if I can find]

Please don’t - stryd_one

Image removed due to possibly malicious content. Download at your own risk, it contains a strange script. - stryd_one

http://www.alphazone1.com/midibox/midibox-jun23-1.jpg

30

Congratulations!

Nice box, nice blog.

31

Wow, great work!!! :slight_smile:

32

Man that thing looks sweeeeet so far! I’m curious to read about the challenges you faced.

Looks like you made the dimensions to fit an old xone mixer. Just curious, what was the fate of that xone 92?

33

yeah, I planned things out really well ahead of time but there were some challenges. When I get all the pictures cropped and stuff I’ll a bunch more info on each part. Right now I’m actually still stesting and assembling minor parts of it.

The Xone:92 chassis came from allen & heath - I bough it from the parts department. It took a while to get becuase they didn’t stock it in the US but it just came in 3 days ago. They really don’t even have records of serial numbers in the US - they’re all at the UK location - so they really didn’t even ask any questions (even though I actually do own a Xone:32 and a I have a Xone:62 at a friends club I set up). I also had to order the knobs from Allen & Heath. I know they are made by Rean and I tried to get them from Rean in the US but the color combo was strictly and allen & heath choice and not off the shelf so I couldn’t get them. I needed 55 of them and I paid right about $2 each so that wasn’t the most economical decision I made…but I wasn’t going to compromise on the design I wanted so I went ahead and did it.

34

Wow man, it looks excellent  :o Very professional, looks like it would be great to use

Nice work. Hope my SID turns out half as good as this one…  ;D

35

I am still in the prcoesses of building and testing and as mentioned I plan on poitning out many of the pitfalls I found, as well as some time saving stuff.

I took a pic of both the back of the panel and also the inside of the chassis so you could piece together what is going on here. The chassis houses the power supply, all the midibox modules, including the core module, 2xAINX, 2xDIN and 1xDOUT modules. The chassis also houses an M-Audio audio/midi interface. The midi connections between the M-Audio Firewire and the Midibox take place right inside the box. Also the audio record input and outputs are wired to Rca jacks on the rear of the unit. Other revelent connection from the M-Audio Car, including the level enclode pot is also placed at the rear of the chassis. The only connector from the M-Audio Firewire that needs to be plugged in is the Firewire jack. I am currently installin a firewaire jack to the rear of the chassis. Lastly I have installed a BNC jack at the upper right-rear of the chasis for a 12V lamp.

Image removed due to possibly malicious content. Download at your own risk, it contains a strange script. - stryd_one

http://www.alphazone1.com/midibox/inside-1.jpg

The panel looks a mess on the back. It’s actually not. Everything is organized. I terminated all the wires from all the panel mount section to terminal heads so they just plug into terminal housing on the midibox AIN, DIN, DOUT modules. This was so I could easily take the panel on and off if needed…

Image removed due to possibly malicious content. Download at your own risk, it contains a strange script. - stryd_one

http://www.alphazone1.com/midibox/backside1.jpg

36

I’m in the process of building a box along similar lines with an audiophile fw in it - are you using the headphone out straight out? I’m in 2 minds as to whether to put a headphone amp in mine too as I don’t the the fw output is going to be strong enough in some situations.

37

I have the headphone output hooked up straight to the back of the unit - but I don’t actually plan to use it. I actually don’t use the headphone out from the m-audio when using ableton. The cue level is software controlled and is assigned to the knob in the lower right corner of the box.

BTW I’m not done with this thing yet…I’m still doing some things. I just painted the panel (again). It took some time but I finally got the exact color and texture I was looking for. It was a pain in the ass…it ended up a mix of 5 colors and a couple metallic powders. It looks really good now. I just got back from a week long road trip so I’m back to working on it. There will still be many pictures and comments to come!

38

:slight_smile: Sounding great. Can’t wait to see it painted up. I see you’ve screwed your pot sliders top the board - did you manage to get ones that were at the correct height for your fader knobs or did you have to cut them down?

39

I see you’ve screwed your pot sliders top the board - did you manage to get ones that were at the correct height for your fader knobs or did you have to cut them down?

good question! the shaft was too high by about 0.2" I figured this out way ahead of time so I designed the fader pcb’s to work with 0.2" spacers, so there is a plastic spacer between each slide pot and the back surface of the panel. I thought about cutting them down and decided it was too risky. In the end it worked out perfect.

40

Nice move  :slight_smile: