I got an idea
hey there im needing some help i got an old MIDI keyboard that i want to mod and add arcade buttons 25 lol
but i took the old MIDI keyboard apart and i found the circut bored to have black spots were the keys would hit and make the connection. so the question is what do a solder the buttons to???
P.S. its just a generic MIDI keyboard any help would be amazing
Take a picture of both sides of the circuit board then it will be easier to help you.
Pics
These are photos of my keyboard circut board right under the Black and White keys
Is that m-audio? I’m looking to do the same to mine in future.
Basically there are 4pads on the PCB, and 2 plungers underneath the keys to make connection. I think that’s because of touch sensitivity.
so how do we go about adding arcade buttons to my keyboard???
- trigger 1
- trigger 2
L R
My theory is that the velocity is calculated by the delay between trigger 1 and trigger 2.
So I think if you bridge the connection between both ‘L’ pads and also bridge both ‘R’ pads. It would convert the single connection ‘L’-‘R’ to a full velocity switch.
To get to the metal to solder onto I think we need to file the board to expose it.
This is all theory and I don’t really know what I’m doing, apart from building up post count. 
Edit: I see you already filed down to the contacts on the far left 4 pads?
What did you use?
I showed the idea to a friend and he told me to expose the copper on the board so that I have a better connection but I still don’t know what I’m doing
Well you’re a step further than me. I’m doing a basic numeric keypad mod first to teach myself the basics like soldering and stuff, but always with a goal of ripping my keyboard apart later.
Still don’t know how to wire up the buttons so if any has an idea let me know
you wanna ignore the black spots entirely trace the connects back to the solder points and de-solder each solder point, but you may have a problem with that as they are machine soldered so you need a very high heat to de solder not sure if you can get a commercial soldering iron, but i can see that there is a ground connection and a button connection so it is possible i will annotate your image if you can’t see it, the ground connects to one of the black spots and all of the black spots in the same position and the signal connects to the other.
I see that all bottom left black pads share the same connection and the same goes for the top left, but how do you convert the 4 velocity sensitive pads to 2 connections for a button switch?
EDIT: found this thread, looks like it’s easy:
so what you are saying is bypass the resistors then ???
are you saying that that is ground then???
i had a look a the thread and same again could not under stand it
Don’t hold me to ransom on this, but i think that this is the correct way to do it:
so i need to bridge over using wire and the add the switch
do you all think i should do like a build log or like a video???
Build log would certainly help me once I start mine.
Have you tried the wiring for a button yet? Personally I would try 1 button first to make sure it works before doing the rest.
So what’s your goal? How many buttons? Any knobs or faders? What are you thinking about housing it in?
cool i think ill need to buy all the stuff im thinking about using like arcade buttons and flex sensors
Yeh that’s where I decided to wait before pulling my keyboard apart. I realised it was going to cost alot just for arcade buttons and stuff, and because I’m a noob thought I’d better try something simple to start with.
My numpad mod has 4 50p cheapo 30mm arcade buttons, a £3.50 numberpad and a shoebox to house it lol! I hopefully get my first soldering lesson this weekend.
Once that’s done, I’ll start the keyboard mod. I got an old m-audio radium49, which has 9 faders & 8 knobs, pitch and mod wheels and obviously it could in theory take 49 buttons. So that’s going to be a major project for me.
