Latest DIY Controllerism on a $10 budget
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  1. #1
    Tech Wizard
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    Default Latest DIY Controllerism on a $10 budget

    Hey This is my latest DYI cost me $10 to make and lets me put
    my cue point buttons in a much more ergonomic position
    instead of bashing on my laptop keyboard.
    plus adds a few buttons for shortening and lengthening loops
    that the VCI dosn't have controls for.

  2. #2
    Mr. Golden EanGolden's Avatar
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    nice one- tell us more about it. Like what spray paint did you use and where did you find that keypad?

  3. #3
    DJTT Dominator JesC's Avatar
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    That 10key looks dope, how did you get that texture fx?
    Controllerist: Think different | SoundCloud | MixCloud | Twitter |

  4. #4
    Tech Wizard
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    Ok, got the USB keypad from a computer swap meet for $10, and i already had the paint at home from a previous art attack i did.
    The texture is pretty easy to do, what you need is enamel paint and a water spray bottle (There is a good Video at www.airbrushtricks.com on how to do it). Paint your piece the backing color you like, in my case i had black and white paint, and let it dry.
    Then lightly spray the keypad with the water spay just lightly so you get some decent sized beads forming on it.
    Then take a darker color (in my case black) and spay across the drops at a really low angle so one side of the drops gets painted and the other doesn't then just let it dry naturally.
    I had a bot of trouble getting the paint to stick to the plastic so rough it up with some fine sandpaper first.
    You can get similar Keypads of ebay for only a few $ + postage.
    BTW that nasty looking black key is the numlock i have assigned controls with numlock on so in Traktor the show up as Num8,Num5 ect.
    so if you wanted to you could then turn it off and assign 9 more controls to the center 9 buttons because now they will show up as pgup, pgdn ect and the arrow keys instead of numbers so you effectivly have 2 modes you can use.

    Anyway I'm happy with my $10 purchase, added some loop controls i was missing out on with my VCI and also i know have 12 cue point buttons i can smash really fast without worrying about wrecking my laptop keyboard.
    Hope i made sense.
    ,Brendan
    Last edited by psyanide; 12-15-2008 at 11:28 PM.

  5. #5
    Dr. Bento BentoSan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by psyanide View Post
    The texture is pretty easy to do, what you need is enamel paint and a water spray bottle (There is a good Video at www.airbrushtricks.com on how to do it). Paint your piece the backing color you like, in my case i had black and white paint, and let it dry.
    I thought thats what you did, ive actually seen that video before, its a really good resource you linked too - nice job dude

  6. #6
    Tech Guru charo's Avatar
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    looking at it, i'm wondering why you didn't put the black button above the loop start button so the green buttons would be lined up nice....

    nice diy project.

  7. #7
    Tech Wizard
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    That was the plan to start with but the black key is actually the numlock key, so even though I could assign it in Traktor if it was turned off and then i wanted to use the other keys they wouldn't work because the keys send different messages depending on weather numlock is on or off.

  8. #8
    Tech Mentor
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    Nice. How long did that project take?

  9. #9
    Tech Wizard
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    hhhmm, not long could probably do it in 20 mins if i didnt have to wait for the water to dry for the drops effect

  10. #10
    Tech Guru Patch's Avatar
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    I love these little numpad mods! There was a sweet one over at ALDJ, but it was done with a rubber numpad. I really like the idea of rubber keys - you can bash on 'em good and proper!!! BUT - painting rubber is out of the question, and I like the idea of adding a custom paint job to controllers (I painted a DM2 to match my Vestax Samurai (Silver and Cherry Red) mixer - looks sweet).

    Talking of finishes - has anyone tried to decal their controller with heat shrink vinyl? I've been looking for ages for a heat shrink sheet that I could cover my UC-33e with...

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