Sometimes you take the time and think of a simple solution like that and sometimes you just do stupid things. I’ve done a few stupid things on this project - I will get to explain them all with time but I’ll tell you one here. I burnt out the backlight on the LCD. I assumed the resistor was built into the PCB of the LCD itself and didn’t even look at the data sheet. Come to find these LCD’s never come with a current limiting (series) resistor installed for the backlight LED. I ended up buying a second LCD a week and a half back; after some calculations I found I needed a 69ohm on that sucker - probably 1/2W is good enough but I just went with a 1W resistor. All is fine now with the LCD!
It’s things like that which are good to hear about (although not good for you, money wise). Was it the current from your -ve contrast voltage that was too high as I thought the core board limits the current anyway via the resistor and transistor? I can see on your boards you’ve got current limiting resistors in there too for LEDs. Are the resistors in the Dout boards not large enough for your leds or have you got them there to alter the brightness, or another possibility, are they ground lifts?
I didn’t use power for the LCD backlight from the core module. I powered it straight from the power supply I designed.
The resistors on the DOUT board are there for current limiting. You probalby noticed the first 22 are different than the last 8. That’s because the first ones are for clear blue LED’s, which are very bright and don’t need much current. From the LED spec they should run brightest with about a 5K resistor. I tested them for brightness ahead of time and found I like them when used with about 8K, which is about what those resistors are. The remaining 8 resistors are 220ohm and are for standard brightness red LED’s.
…still finishing up the last details. I’m being very anal because I want everything to fit perfect and be reliable. I finished painting the panel last week and now I’m finishing up mounting the very last part to the panel. I will post more comments on the completed panel and chassis as soon as it’s completed. Once the everything is in place I will upload the firmware and start testing. I’ve already tested each block of componenets individually so hopefully I won’t have many problems.
I took pictures while I painted the panel. Here’s what I did…
After sanding and cleaning I primered the panel with krylon primer. I think a lot of people think krylon and spray paint in general are not good paints but I have used this stuff many many times and it’s great. Dries fast and sticks…
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The paint cures faster in the heat so I put it in the oven between layers. I put on 3 light layers of primer and let it dry for an hour in the oven before going on.
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The color I wanted I made with a combination of several colors including two metallic powders. I used acrylic enamel as I found it was a good paint for using on aluminum. This is actually that acrylic stuff they sell at hobby stores.
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Here it is after 3 layers of paint. You can see the metallic look. It’s a fairly rough texture at this point. The paint is applied with an airbrush. I got good results with a standard airbrush (not to mention I’m not qualified to use the big spraygun).
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After another hour I sanded it down with 800grit wet/dry paper to “flatten” the paint. This makes the surface very smooth and not textured.
After another 2 layers of acrylic clear glossy spray it starts to look good. I sanded it again lightly with 1200grit.
After a final 2 light layers the finish looks nice, a typical satin, slightly glossy finish. The acrylic paint dries hard but you have to give it some time. I let the panel sit for more than a day before touching it and installing any parts.
…still working on it. I’ve been wokring on debugging the core module. I’ve spent quite a few hours on it. In the end I found my PIC is bad. I really didn’t expect that but that’s exactly what it came down to. I when ahead and built a JDM programmer and check the PIC to verify - sure enough it’s bad. I ordered another pic and I’ll have it in my hands Tuesday. Since I’ve now explored every inch of the pcb’s I don’t foresee any more problems. I’ll update on Tuesday…
by the way, the bad PIC was my fault - I blew it up somewhere along the way. It worked when I first got it from SmashTV. Don’t want anyone to think I just got a bad one
I just got back from a short vacation yesterday afternoon. My new PIC arrived in the mail! After many long hours of testing and debugging I got the news I was hoping for…
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I’m now going to use some test programs to test my knobs and buttons and stuff. Then I can hopefully get the full midibox64 application going. While I was installing the PIC and cleaning up some other things I added bypass caps to my boards…
Here’s a pic of what the box looks like now on the inside. I moved things around from the way I had it set up before to try to decrease the changes of any noise or interference (I really tried to get everything away from that transformer too).
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I made alot of progress this weekend. I’ve got most of the wiring tested and working. I’m still getting some ranndom data because of some missing grounds or something - probably something related to one or more of the 64 pots. I have trouble shooted and fixed a number of small problems. I feel like I’m getting close. I was hoping to finish it this weekend becuase I wanted to use it for a show next week - but as of Saturday night I have decided to give it a break and come back next week. I’ve got a 4 hour show so I need to spend time working out some music and auditioning a bunch of new stuff this week - so no time for the midibox. At any rate I’ll leave this post with what else, another pic. This is the finished midibox, all plugged in and working. I do not have the DOUT module active yet - I’m taking the testing one step at a time - so you won’t see any DOUT related led’s lit up…
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Hi, the faders are in the middle. They are no where near those super light ones, like the ones on an allen & heath Xone92 or a typical crossfader. They aren’t stiff either by any means. They are in the middle somewhere.
Hi Bc. That is one mean controller. Like yourself i have realised that i am not going to find the controller i really wish for for ableton live. I’ve searched and searched and there’s just always something missing. I have now decided to build one myself, irrespective of how long it takes me and how much it costs.
I watched Sasha close up (very close up, i was in the box most of his set) using maven last week and was soooooooooooo unimpressed at how he’s using it. no loops, hardly any fx, just simple blending tracks.
the pitch function you have in there is excellent and one of the main things i’ve been looking for. can you actually get it to work pitching correctly like a cdj type digital pitch? if so, what’s the smallest increment you got it to go down to?
Also, your post here is pretty damn good to follow, and i guess i’ll be using it to build mine, my only problem is i am completely new to electronics (i’m a web man myself) but i’m willing to give it a go.
I have a favour to ask. If i send you a screenshot of what the final design is going to look like, can you help me by telling me what parts and bits i need, coz there’s a hell of a lot going on in here to get to grips with.You seem to know what you’re doing when it comes to ableton live controllers.
Hope you can help, oh and where can we hear what your mixes sound like using this controller . (the proof of the pudding they say…)
the pitch function you have in there is excellent and one of the main things i’ve been looking for. can you actually get it to work pitching correctly like a cdj type digital pitch? if so, what’s the smallest increment you got it to go down to?
The increment of the pitch changes depends on how you set up the midi controller in albeton. In 5 when you assign a controller you can set the high and low value, so can set it over a 5 BPM range and the increment will be small, or you can set over a larger BPM range and the increment will be large. It is possible to do the same thing in 4 but the set up is a little different.
I use this function over a 5 BPM range, assigned to one of the knobs on my Xone 92, and the increment is about .1 BPM. It works well when you want to adjust the tempo of ableton to a record.
I have a favour to ask. If i send you a screenshot of what the final design is going to look like, can you help me by telling me what parts and bits i need, coz there’s a hell of a lot going on in here to get to grips with.You seem to know what you’re doing when it comes to ableton live controllers.
why not upload it to imageshack and let us all have a look at it? In a separate thread? You’re likely to get a bit more help that way, I think…There are a bunch of Live users here.
