Update 08 Mar 09: Have posted about the completed 10h here.
Long time, no blag!
Time to do some catch-up posts, but first, my latest project, which is always cooler and more interesting than whatever I did beforehand (to me anyway).
I've been planning on a DIY Monome for a while, since I found some nice panel-mount pushbuttons with separately controlled LED at Jaycar. Jaycar charge a bit of a premium though, so I suggest you shop around.
First up, I drilled 16 holes (16mm) in a piece of scrap metal I grabbed from a neighbours dumpster across the street who where moving out. I got most of the way with a stepped unibit, but I don't have one that goes up to 16mm, so I had to take it the rest of the way with a hand reamer. If I decide to build a 8x8, I'll definitely get a bigger unibit. I thought about getting a a faceplate done up by Machinecollective but since I'm using these great switches that are designed to be easily mounted, I figure I should just stick with the DIY ethic for this one.
While playing around with a cardboard faceplate, I realised that if I rotated all the switches 45 degrees it would be a lot easier to connect all the buses together.
The anti-ghosting/masking diodes have just enough lead length to run together nicely.
I'm no Peter Vogel, but I do like the aesthetic produced by the bus wiring. I used plan old solid core Cat5 for the wire - cheap and easily obtained.
When I was finally finished I hooked up the switches to a battery pack that I hot-glued a couple of LEDs to (I was playing with these) via a breadboard. I discovered that the buttons are nice and sensitive - the LED would light up when the button was only depressed about 1/4 to 1/3 of it's full travel - it makes for a good tactile experience, even suspended precariously in the PCB holder.
One of the reasons I went with a 4x4 to start with was that I wasn't sure about how good the buttons would be to use. Having a cute little 4x4 to indulge in MPC beat-making shenanigans is pretty good too.
I'm planning to use an iDuino for the controller, since it's small, cheap and has FT232RL based USB, so it can be flashed with the Arduinome naming protocol (a40h-xxx).
For now, it's breadboard time, since my order of the chips required (MAX7219, 74HC165, 74HC164) has arrived but I haven't bought or built an Arduinome Shield yet.
Long time, no blag!
Time to do some catch-up posts, but first, my latest project, which is always cooler and more interesting than whatever I did beforehand (to me anyway).
I've been planning on a DIY Monome for a while, since I found some nice panel-mount pushbuttons with separately controlled LED at Jaycar. Jaycar charge a bit of a premium though, so I suggest you shop around.
First up, I drilled 16 holes (16mm) in a piece of scrap metal I grabbed from a neighbours dumpster across the street who where moving out. I got most of the way with a stepped unibit, but I don't have one that goes up to 16mm, so I had to take it the rest of the way with a hand reamer. If I decide to build a 8x8, I'll definitely get a bigger unibit. I thought about getting a a faceplate done up by Machinecollective but since I'm using these great switches that are designed to be easily mounted, I figure I should just stick with the DIY ethic for this one.
When I was finally finished I hooked up the switches to a battery pack that I hot-glued a couple of LEDs to (I was playing with these) via a breadboard. I discovered that the buttons are nice and sensitive - the LED would light up when the button was only depressed about 1/4 to 1/3 of it's full travel - it makes for a good tactile experience, even suspended precariously in the PCB holder.
One of the reasons I went with a 4x4 to start with was that I wasn't sure about how good the buttons would be to use. Having a cute little 4x4 to indulge in MPC beat-making shenanigans is pretty good too.
I'm planning to use an iDuino for the controller, since it's small, cheap and has FT232RL based USB, so it can be flashed with the Arduinome naming protocol (a40h-xxx).
For now, it's breadboard time, since my order of the chips required (MAX7219, 74HC165, 74HC164) has arrived but I haven't bought or built an Arduinome Shield yet.
Excellent to see you are doing the Arudinome thing! As soon as I heard about it, I knew it was going to be my next major project, and I'll be very pleased to hear compare experiences.
However, I really should finish my xoxbox first!
Posted by: Strangedave | 09/15/2008 at 07:01 PM
Hello!
Great project which looks very good.
Do you have some movies of this controller "in action" ?
Emilien
Posted by: Emilien | 11/14/2008 at 01:56 AM
Emilien - not yet, I plan to make a video when I get it up and running though.
Posted by: Evil Paul | 11/24/2008 at 04:09 AM
[this is good] Would love to see it in action, love your work, imigintive to say the least!
Posted by: International Man of Mystery | 08/12/2010 at 08:22 AM