Making my own MIDIFighter Pro

[eduardobeattie]

So I decided to follow this tutorial on making custom MIDI controllers, and decided to do one myself as a summer project. My idea is to make a replica of the MIDIFighter Pro (Either BeatMasher or Cue Master) using the Teensy++ Microcontroller. I have found appropriate suppliers for all of the components, and I think I will be able to do it for around 150€ ($190) including all taxes and shipping of components. Before I buy them, though, I would like to ask you guys if you can help me choose between the BeatMasher and Cue Master designs (Pros and Cons of each) and help me get a MIDI Table, showing all the MIDI messages that the different controls give out, so that I can implement the DJTT mapping. I contacted support and they told me to ask the forums, so don't tell me to ask them. Finally, would 3/4 chroma caps be cost-effective and worthwhile (inc. shipping it's about 13€/$16).

Thanks in advance!

[gonekrazy3000]

You're a bit late to the party actually. Tomash already made the excellent ARCADE WARRIOR

Its basically the Cue master with extra controls. and it too was made
with the Teensy++. More info on his site:- http://tomashg.com/?p=621
Tomash has made some amazing things like the midifighter pro simulator
available here:- http://forum.djtechtools.com/showthread.php?t=54515

as for the midi signals. i help Tomash out. here's the ones from the cue master's
knobs and faders:-
For the buttons just reference the mf3d manual. all the buttons are pretty well documented there.
Trust me. the only difference between the two is the cuemaster
has one extra knob. as for the layout. you're building your own. why not
build a beatmasher with extra controls ?

[ghztomash]

Thanks gonekrazy3000 for the introduction, really appreciated!

As gonekrazy3000 already pointed out, since you are doing your own build, why not add more controls? Teensy++ can accept up to 8 Analog inputs without any multiplexing you can easily utilize them, make the Cue Masher monster! Also I would suggest printing out a couple of designs on a piece of paper first, in 1:1 scale, and see how it all fits and feels before building/cutting anything. As for the MIDI signals that is what I used for mine and it works fine with the mappings I tried so far. The Arcade buttons send note ons on chanel 3, or 2 if you start from 0. and the lower left button sends note 36, next to it to the right 37 and etc until the top right which is 51. The next banks start from 52, 68 and 84.

Chroma caps are super cool! if you get your arcade Sanwa buttons (which everyone would highly recommend) from DJTT why not get the caps as well? What I would also suggest to be aware of, is the orientation of the D shaft. Some caps are rotated 90 degrees and you have to place your potentiometers with the pints oriented to the right, but with Chroma aps they have to be facing down.