*Buildlog* Midi foot controller from gamepad!

**rudeez** · 06-02-2011, 05:39 AM

Hi!

New to the forums and i hope that im welcome here!
Im planning on building a midi foot controller from a old gamepad.
The gamepad is the Saitek P480 shown below.

The goal is to achive 6 buttons and 2 knobs with pots.
it's very simble design and could be made very easy BUT, i am who i am and ofc that means i have to do it a bit extra complicated.

The purpose of this controller is actually to use it live with my guitarrig which uses a Line6 POD X3 normally, but i also recently invested in a 10" atom dualcore netbook which will act as a VST host and here's where the controller comes in.

I bought 6 footswitch buttons called "3PDT" and looks like this:

And the pots are 10K, i might nee 100K who knows?

The functions im after is to have LED's to both the buttons and the knobs.
To get the LED's light up when pressing a button isen't that hard, but i need it to light constantly when pressing the button and light of when hitting the button again when the midinote is deactivated.
For the knobs i need them to be brighter the more you turn the knob up, get my point? So that i have an idication of how much the knobs are turned.

Yesterday i went to a local metalshop which custom made me a metalbox for this. 24 x 24 cm big and 5 - 3 cm slanted.

Hope you can help me out with this since all i can find on the net is without leds.

PS. this will also be the buildlog for this project. DS.

Cheers, Jimmie

**fullenglishpint** · 06-02-2011, 05:45 AM

nice project!

How are you planning to operate pots with your feet? I believe you'll need 10k linear pots, but I'm no expert on these matters. I'm sure MiL0 and Archies'bald will turn up here with advice soon enough.

**rudeez** · 06-02-2011, 05:52 AM

Thanks man!

Haha, they will not. Im giggling alot with the pedals and stuff live so im sitting on the floor alot aswell. Im kind of a effects / FX guitarist.
Im doing all the layers and atmospheres in my band and some chugg chugg riffing aswell. My band is vildhjarta. I could go and buy a cheap Behringer foot controller but they're way to big, i need something handy and custom built for my needs so. I thought this could be a fun solution.
Im making the box a bit to big just to have space to add buttons/knobs/sliders later if i need them.

**MiL0** · 06-02-2011, 06:04 AM

a pre-made foot pedal potentiometer would be pretty sweet... I wonder if such a thing exists? You could probably make one yourself actually...

and yeah, pretty sure you'll need 10k pots for that usb gamepad.

edit: here's quite an advanced guide on building your own midi foot pedal:

http://www.maxmidi.com/diy/foot/index.html

there are some useful hints in there

**BradCee** · 06-02-2011, 06:24 AM

twiddling knobs with your feet...? hmmm... jokes are too easy...

but cool idea, gonna watch this

**fullenglishpint** · 06-02-2011, 06:30 AM

If you hadn't already started building I'd be recommending a McMillen softstep.

**rudeez** · 06-02-2011, 07:43 AM

Jeah, i should probably gone with a diffrent setup for the controller but for now i wanna continue this way.

Anyone has a clue about the led lightning im after?

**BradCee** · 06-02-2011, 07:45 AM

think that would need a midi brain and some bomes work or something....

**Archies'bald** · 06-02-2011, 08:44 AM

Originally Posted by fullenglishpint

nice project!

How are you planning to operate pots with your feet? I believe you'll need 10k linear pots, but I'm no expert on these matters. I'm sure MiL0 and Archies'bald will turn up here with advice soon enough.

My beeper just went .....

**zestoi** · 06-02-2011, 08:50 AM

Originally Posted by BradCee

think that would need a midi brain and some bomes work or something....

yep - surely the led feedback in a kind of 'toggle mode' would need a brain that can handle incoming messages or at least more electronics than what a gamepad can give you.