I have been dj’ing for about 8 months now digital and vinyl. i am using a vestax vci 100 that i am about to arcade mod but am looking at making a stand alone effects box. The 2 options i have are
Using a play-station 2 arcade and joystick controller which i have a adapter to turn it into USB-HID, using a HID to Midi converter as found in the forum here, i am hoping this will be able to control tracktor. Anyone done a USB-HID controller box or something similar. Any ideas.
I was also thinking for a cheap effects controller y not mod a xbox controller. These things have 2 joysticks and a up/down left right pad and also 8 buttons could you pull it apart and do a major soldering/rework job on it. This controllers are basically usb with some simple mods. This would also provide USB-HID which can be converted to MIDI. i am in the early stages or planning and design and any help would be appreciated.
Probably want to talk to the guy who made the “Midi Fighter” or “Midi Fiddler” … (would have to look it up, but it’s a recent article on DJTT and also a thread can be found with pictures on the forums)
yeah i have allready looked at them. I was thinking of using midipipe to convert HID to MIDI. So doesnt that mean you can use any HID device. Doesnt this mean that any HID device could be used to control traktor. The whole idea of the project is to use part from home as anything using a MIDI controller in them have to be ordered from US with current currency rates works out to be quite expensive. I lost the bid on ebay for the part i wanted. Do you think it will work.
Yes that would work. I have a Playstation → USB adapter that converts it to a HID device. This can then be used to control a midi based program using GlovePie or any number of programs.
ok probably should say i am running one of those new apple aluminum so does glovepie work on macs. i have been looking around and am using midipipe opened it today looks quite complicated.
So if those playstation to usb things work y not just use all the boards from the ps2 controller inside a different box and use arcade instead of the controllers buttons. havnt pulled 1 apart yet looking around home for my old one. could you just solder your own connections for buttons where the existing switches for the buttons are. Cheap HID device.
Sadly Glovepie doesnt work with mac and i own a pc, so a mac user is going to have to fill in here and tell you whats a good progam for converting the HID to Midi in this instance.
My next project using gamepads is using two ‘XBOX’ type controllers where I am removing the analog joysticks and replacing with potentiometers. Soldering can be a pain on these boards. Try to use any solder points you can find, otherwise scrape off the plastic coating that covers the PCB traces.
X Box controllers seem like a pain to mod but they’re not to bad, all you have to do is use a really sharp blade eg scalpel, and remove the black coating off the pads where the button contacts would contact, strip those contacts right back till the copper underneath is shiny, X Box controllers allow for 6 analog and 14 digital controlls. Trying to solder to the tracks or PTH’s is a nightmare and usually leads to weak solder joints.
