Modding DJ mixers
Hey ppls. Have an idea and wanted some insight to whether its possible. I want to install a MIDI PCB inside my mixer and tap the faders for video mixing controls. I’ve purchased a Stanton M.203 (which is perfect to gut and make a full MIDI mixer) and planning to order a livid instruments board. Any thoughts, technical inputs ideas would help. Thanx.
Buy a hale UMC32+
I looked at that one too. I guess my real question is what terminals do I tap to get it work without frying either. I tried testing the faders to find which ones to tie into the board. Faders have 6 terminals on them.
if ur an electronics noob, ur in way over your head, but if u have a fair idea you should be grand. more than likely 2 of the terminals on the faders will be purely for secure fitting to the pcb…then the other 4 will relate to the poles…i.e. two for resistence sliding up, the other two for down…
Cool. Thanx
Why? I would say this is perfect for a beginner?
If you want to connect same those faders fro stanton mixer to PCB make sure first that those are 10K linear pots which I’m not sure they are when it comes with audio mixer.
Actually you can get away only three connections, pin 2 is usually duplicated to help fixing / build.
I am in the middle of adding an ADJ4, Teensy 2++ and a host of other bits to an old Berry VMX300. The first thing i did though was clean up all the audio circuits in the Berry. They used consumer grade components, so I replaced them all with Audio grade …what a difference !
One bit of advice, draw out what you think you want, look at the layout options and take your time. It’s very easy to rush and drop unfiltered power onto a sensitive IC and POP! black smoke …no sound. …
It’s a 50k audio taper. And the rotory pots have 6 terminals. Not sure about taping those yet.
On the left is a regular potentiometer (rotary pot), on the right is a 20 point rotary encoder with momentary push button.
As you can see, it’s not normal to have 6 connections, unless someone corrects me, i think they must have some “pins” soldered to hold the encoder/pot to the circuit board.
To get things right, you’ll need a multi-meter, connect across pairs, and write down the results when you move the rotary.
A bit of patience will bode well at this point, once you have correctly identified the connections, de-soldering them and adding flycables to them and to the pot will be easy.
If you are going to solder directly to the board invest in a good soldering iron, temperature controlled if you can and with a fine tip for when you need to get close to SMD’s.
Yeah I think they are just to hold it. Now what about the 5v.
The UMC is quite expensive, i’m using the teensy Teensy USB Development Board which has MIDI over USB support built in, making the whole thing smaller, cheaper and I guess a little bit faster. If it doesn’t have enough inputs, you can add multiplexors, which turn 3 connections into 8 connections …
you should be able to get some basic results without power, put your meter onto Ohms and check the resistance change …
you’ll end up with something looking like this for a while … https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3090405339458.2122761.1243717172&type=3
my third conversion, nano-kontrol into an F1.
I’ve tested the terminals for the faders, was just unsure of what terminals to use. I will be ordering the Teensy board. Didn’t know of it til now, thanx. I’m not a Noob, but not an expert (just fyi). The ? of power is pertaining to operating power once connections are made. I don’t think sending power from the MIDI board to the mixer components are wise.
as long as you isolate the two sides, there shouldn’t be a problem.
The Teensy is USB 5v powered, the mixer is ? … my Berry has 5V, 12V and 19v rails inside, fortunately the faders and rotaries are on the 5V rail.
Can you get a schematic of the mixer? Normally if you ask the manufacturer they will have one for servicing the units. That’ll help so much.
What you are doing isn’t hard, but you just have to be careful. In all things, preparation is key. DO NOT START THE PROJECT until you have all the components needed. I’ve been caught short twice, and never again.
BTW check out the youtube vids on the teensy++ and the controllers already built with it like this one
(cool)
or this one (very cool)
or this one (cooler still)
Thanx for all the info. Those controllers are cool.
