supernoob diy build thread

DJ Gear & Hardware Hardware: Controllers, Mods and Gear
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supernoob diy build thread

Hi guys, i’ve been checking out DJTT forums and website for quite a while whilst i should have been revising during exams, and drooling over the thought of a MF. Just want to shout that the site is a constant source of interesting information that i’m going to try to put to practise.

I’m looking to hopefully create a 4x4 set of arcade buttons, that will either eventually be mapped with sampler, fx, loops, cue points control.

However being a student has it’s comebacks. I wouldn’t have the time to do a DIY build normally, however i’m taking a course called the baccalaureate (or how ever you spell it) and in this course I have to create art, poems or projects and evaluate it at the end of the course in a presentation.

Being a music tech and physics student, (and a rubbish DJ), i thought i’d give this a go. I have to create a build log for the course, and the final product needs feedback, so this site is ideal to help me get both those two things.

Excuse if i go into too much pedantic detail; i’m probably going to end up more or less copy and pasting this build log into my coursework folder!
I’m looking to keep it budget and simple.

I’m sorry for the grainy pics - the iPod’s camera is rubbish!

At the moment the case will probably be made out of lego (it just looks cool!):

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I’ve robbed led’s and wire from the science department:
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got a few thousand resistors from my dad incase i need them:
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Got a numpad available or old usb ps2 Buzz! controllers:
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also of course got my 16 cheap as chips arcade buttons:
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I’m leaning towards the numpad at the moment due to the simplicity of it, I’m a mac user and fear the use of controller mate like program for setting up buzz, but let me know if you think that it’s fairly straight forward.

I’ll get a template out asap, then i’ve got to find my dad’s soldering kit!

Cheers guys! :slight_smile:

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nice idea :slight_smile:

I would say that the numpad will be easier to use with Traktor as you won’t need any intermediary software. However, the “Buzz” controller will be easier to solder as you won’t need to worry about button matrix’s and working out the circuit.

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cheers man, yeah my hardware skills (if any) are probably better than my software skills (i really don’t want to set up buzz as it would mean i’d have to be dependant on interediary software). I’ve looked at a few numpad builds on here, and i think i understand how to solder my buttons to the board correctly after i’ve worked out the circuit.

I’ve got a couple of questions that i’ll try to find out but if anyone’s got a answer then that would be great!

  1. is there anyway to make a perminant driver for buzz or any other controll that would mean i wouldn’t have to run something like glovepie or controller mate when using traktor
  2. is there a definitive guide to working out the circuit on a numpad lying around somewhere?

I better get googling! :wink:

cheers guys
peace

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actually i think i’ve found something for the numpad - Hacking a USB Keyboard : 6 Steps (with Pictures) - Instructables and this http://http://www.instructables.com/id/Toddler-video-remote-for-PC-Video-Player/step4/Modifying-the-Numerical-Keypad/

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small update

hi guys, small minor update, after a bit of research and a bit of spare time, i have had an attempt at working out the circuit board, although the workings are a bit rough, if someone who knows about this could clarify that i seem to be on the right track by looking at the photo’s that i’ll upload then that would be great :slight_smile: cheers

sorry in advance for the ipod camera crappyness. i don’t know if these photo’s will be readable so i may just have to retake them at somepoint! :stuck_out_tongue:

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The above looks good to me.
I’ve also done a budget numpad mod, only 4 buttons so far but a grand total of £5.50 to build can’t be bad! Plus I’ve never soldered anything like this before.

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that looks sweet man, what are the buttons mapped to?

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Just quickly mapped to cue points and gater fx.
Was mainly a test project to practice before pulling my keyboard apart.
It’s gonna be rebuilt with 16 buttons first though, 4 is nowhere near enough.

Also forgot to mention before that with the numlock on you can assign twice as many functions as the actual buttons.

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yeah i really should of realised that! :open_mouth:

ok yeah so what i’m looking at is with one button assigned to shift, i have 30 assignable controls to the remainder 15 buttons. So potentially something like: 6 cues, 8 sample deck plays, 6 loops and 10 fx. or do you think i should map to other things?

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Sounds good, that would be all you need, if you wanted more you can just switch the numlock off (making number ‘2’ = ‘down’ cursor etc) and you have another 16 buttons to play with unless you assign 1 of those as a second shift key (I think you can have 2 different shift keys?), in which case you get another 30!
Obviously though you would need another small button for ‘Numlock’, not an arcade button just any old small thing.

Numpads are pretty good, only problem is latency, but I’m not sure if it’s my specs causing that.
My first ever youtube video:

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I’ll let you know about latencey issues when i’ve made it, whats your setup at the moment? and i don’t think i’ll need more than 30 controls to map to my buttons! cheers for all the feedback mate

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P4, 1gb, XP, Korg zero4, vestax 2300mk2’s running coded vinyl.
The latency is weird because if the track is already playing then there’s very little delay in jumping to cue points. If the track isn’t running and I hit a cue it misses the very first millisecond of the cue point, so claps and kicks don’t sound right.
I got to figure out how to use the sample player on decks c&d to see if they have the same problem.

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nice man, i’m looking to sort my dvs out. what sound card have you got? you could always borrow a mates numpad or try a keyboard and map it in the same way and see if the latency issue is still there. what speed is your processor? your computer could be holding you back but i really don’t know that much about traktor and windows systems.

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i’m sure someone mentioned the other day that cue points don’t work as expected with TSP unless the timecode signal is active. something like that anyway…