[BUILD LOG] - First DIY Build - Numpad Mod

[FLoer]

hi. I'm working on a numpad-mod myself at this time.

i plan on using a soldering board to keep the wiring to a minimum.

i want to solder every connection i need to the board, and then solder every button to their dedicated board-lanes.
this way every new button only needs 2 wires. in addition, it should give me some flexiblity. if i want to add or remove a "number" from my diy i dont need to rip of half of my mod

whats your opinion on this?

i added a little (messy) drawing

[extraclassic]

Yes you could do it that way if you want.

Just buy some stripboard like this (I use it in most of my projects)



It's good to see you on the forum my friend.

[brian_johnstone]

this is a brilliant thread, just what i was looking for, ive been weighing up the options, i have a spare gamepad, a number pad and some buzz controllers lying around. i just want a basic midi fighter style controller for now and build something else later on, my question is, will you be able to use the instant gratification mappings on this??

great work so far and i look forward to seeing it finished.

[extraclassic]

this is a brilliant thread, just what i was looking for, ive been weighing up the options, i have a spare gamepad, a number pad and some buzz controllers lying around. i just want a basic midi fighter style controller for now and build something else later on, my question is, will you be able to use the instant gratification mappings on this??

great work so far and i look forward to seeing it finished.

You would be better off using a buzz controller or gamepad to use the instant gratification mapping

[MiL0]

numpads don't require intermediary software to work with Traktor but as a midifighter clone, there's quite a limitation in the fact that you probably can't press more than two arcade buttons at the same time. Before you start the mod, it's probably worth mapping your numpad to Traktor cue points and testing it out to see if you can live with any limitations.

[Bunford]

I'm still working on this. Just having broadband issues with my ISP. BT are truly fucking shit!

[Rob]

Amazing, we have been doing the same things this week!
Here's mine so far.
Bought numpad from eBay £3.50 delivered!


I would advise making sure that the numpad has cursor arrows and home, insert, Del on top of the usual numbers and symbols, this way you can use the 'numlock' button to add another bunch of mappable keys!

Once open it looked like this:


This made mine a bit easier to understand, each half of the shiny circles is a + or - so just touching one half to the other makes the button work.
I want to point out here that I CAN press at least 6 buttons at the same time, and no reason to think I can't press and hold all of them!

So next step was to prepare for soldering, to do this I drill very small holes for wires to sit in:


This is where I discovered the daisy chain, when tracing the circuit lines to the chip, I notice that all of the buttons connect to one of three ground pins on the chip. This means in theory I only need 3 wires to be soldered for ground, then link them to whatever buttons were part of the original chain.

Hope this helps add a bit of clarity.

[extraclassic]

That Numberpad pcb will make it alot easier.

Nice find any chance of a link?

[Rob]

Can't do links that well from my iPhone, but search eBay for:
Commtel USB Numeric

Beware! I learnt my first lesson yesterday, the circuit board is double sided so be careful where you drill, there is at least 1 button that cannot be directly drilled through, but there is a way around it by linking from other buttons.

[extraclassic]

Thanks.

Here's the link for anyone interested
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Commtel-USB-Nu...item2a0d00d61c

To be honest i would'nt drill it anyway - just a quick rub with some wire wool then secure with hot glue.