I was searching on instructables.com to see if they had any neat ideas for MIDI controllers and I stumbled upon this (it’s not MIDI but I can see how it could work for me).
They basically ripped out the heart from a USB PC keyboard and remapped the keys they needed to new buttons. I’m using Serato Scratch with a Rane 57sl. I wanted to have an additional controller for cues and loops, so I can dedicate the controls on my mixer for effects.
Anyway, I went to the local Oxfam and bought an old Packard Bell USB keyboard for 2 EUR. Then I ripped out all the keys I don’t need and put stickers on the remaining ones to easily recognize what is what.
I’m really happy with how it works but it looks super crap!
The next stage is to put this in a new housing and get my hands on some sweet buttons to replace the keys. Obviously, arcade buttons i the way to go on this
I’ve sourced the buttons and box but I wonder if anyone has any tips for hooking them up to the brains of the USB keyboard? Seems it’s just a case of tracing the circuit back for each key - I’m hoping I can apply multi-key presses to one button.
Obviously, I’m not having nice things like knobs and sliders as it ain’t MIDI but you can’t beat the price!
“Mapping the keyboard can be done easily with a digital camera and a paint program. Just take a picture of both pieces with a contrasting background. Open it in a pain program of some kind, I use Graphic Converter on my mac. Use the fill tool to fill in the trace for the particular key you want to map. Because they don’t cross each other it will fill in just that one all the way back to the circuit board. Use a different fill color for any other keys you want to follow back.”
Should help with mapping the buttons to the correct place without being too much of a headache.
I appreciate you are trying to do it on $2 but have you looked at these…
I’ve used them for mapping keys and arcade controls when building arcade machines. I’ve traced back on usb & PS2 controllers in the past, solderered in the diodes to avoid ghosting etc and its long winded and tedious.
Thanks Stace, these look great for me. I’ve not much experience with soldering (in fact I think it is about 18 years since I last attempted such a thing. Thing is I’m hooking this up to my MacBook and I don’t have a PS2 port.
I’ve got to admit, I’m quite interested in this now !! If you look around the site you’ll see you can get components and Ice buttons that will change colour and stuff depending on state!
Just ordered a mountain of nice buttons from Japan, hopefully, they will be here in a week. That’ll give me time to figure out where I need to stick 'em. Mmmm my 2 EUR controller has just turned into a 67 EUR controller and it doesn’t have a box yet. This thing is gonna look bonkers with its 36 buttons in different colors, shapes and sizes!!!
Stace, thanks for the shopping tip. I’ve decided to try my hand at soldering to the original encoder first - if I balls it up it’s no great loss. If I pull it off then I save a fair wad
I’ll hang on to these links tho for plan B
The craziest thing happened yesterday. I was practising at a local DJ academy and a representative from Rane was there talking to the boss. To cut a medium story short, the guy liked what I was doin on my Rane 57 and asked if I would mind doing some demos on the Rane stand at a Music Expo in Brussels! I’m hoping I get all the parts I ordered before then so I can bring along my sweet new controller! It hasn’t quite sunk in yet but this is f#cking awesome
I was messing about with my cus yesterday, He has a arcade controller and I told him what I was thinking, assigned the buttons and joystick to different beats.
Was using the joystick to move up and down octaves!
Was crazy, think I’m going to build one specifically for this at some point.
DJ Academy? I’d love to spin at a place like that haha!
EDIT:
To add to the conversation, ever since I got a laptop I’ve mapped a lot of functions to its keyboard. My setup works so that my VCI is in front of me, and in front of that is my laptop. All the keys are within reach so it works great.
For example I use the 1-2-3-4 number keys to switch my layout (i.e. hit 1 for a basic view of decks A/B, 2 for a minimized view of the decks so I can browse better through tracks, etc.). Not sure what else I’ll add onto it.
I Really like the idea of the USB keyboard controller, cause its a really cheap solution. Now the only problem is i really need pots for my controller so has someone found a cheap solution for pots and faders??? What would be the cheapest midi or HID thing to build to use pots? I dont mind combine two tipes of controls so… Any ideas?
If you look around the site you’ll see you can get components and Ice buttons that will change colour and stuff depending on state!