How Do I Add a Fader (liner pot) to a Kontrol F1? I really like the f1 but wish that it had a crossfader to round out the package. I have popped open the case and have found room to put the fader at the bottom. How would I go about adding a fader to the current PCB? I have looked through the forums and searched the web but haven’t found anything relevant. I have found a location that is very similar to the MF expansion ports but the labeling is unclear. The label underneath the PCB holes is “XSYS_HEADER1” and I assume this is an expansion left on the PCB for mods, or greater use of the PCB by NI in the future. Has anyone modded an F1 or have any ideas as to how this can be done? Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks!
I know this isn’t the solution your looking for, but I devised a mapping that I find works quite well as a basic crossfader. It consists of the reverse, type and size buttons. Type, the middle button is a toggle modifier that switches the “crossfader” between snap and hold. When type is off the reverse and size buttons will send the crossfader to the left or right as long as they are held, when released the crossfader jumps back to the middle. When type is on reverse and size send the crossfader left or right where it is held until either the opposite is pressed, or type is pressed and the fader is reset to center. you could even add a third state where size and reverse auto repeat to create a smoother fade.
Im really not sure how feasible it is to add a crossfader to the original pcb, but right off the bat I notice the front (vertical) face is the largest free space on the unit. not sure how it function ergonomically, but it would certainly be unique.
I have access to a CNC machine so putting this in really isnt a headache at all. I want to keep the 4 vertical faders because I am using this F1 in ableton not traktor and want to have 4 volume faders and a crossfader. Because of this a Z1 just wont fill the void and I want to customize this controller. I simply need to know where to solder in the connections to be able to send a new midi message that doesn’t interfere with the current midi messages. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
To be honest, instead of trying to augment the Z1, you’d be better of getting a 2nd controller, either build one using an arduino or buy one,
It’s incredibly likely, given that you’re not sure how to do it, that it would be too difficult a task for you to achieve and that’s even IF anyone could actually achieve it, I’m not trying to belittle you at all, it really is a lot of different things that you’d have to achieve before your CNC machine even became relevant.
You’d have to examine the circuit boards for relevant chips, guess (educated) at what the chips are doing, from there decide which ones are likely to have code on them that you can access (arm chips, if you’re lucky), if you can access them, you’ll need to be able to reverse engineer any ‘executables’ that you find, once you can reverse those binaries, you’ll then have to update the code to include your extra fader. If it’s a bunch of 8bit micro controllers, you’re screwed. Kind of screwed If you could dump the descriptors from the Z1 you could use an arduino to emulate a Z1 and then add whatever you like to it.
There may be a scenario where the Z1 mainboard is used for other devices, to find that out, you’d really need to see and study the other traktor devices too, it may be that there is an expansion port but you’d need to know how that expansion port worked to utilise it, this would involve having an expansion board so that you could study it and reverse engineer the circuit design along with reversing the boards and chips it’s attached to, kind of ok on 2 layer boards, starts to get a bit stinky above that, got an x-ray machine?
If you could dump the descriptors from the Z1 you could use an arduino to emulate a Z1 and then add whatever you like to it.