If you’re interested in helping out and getting a dev kit or might be interested in a final unit (if they end up getting built) let me know.
Hi DJTT-ers!
It still happens to me (after almost a decade of owning S4’s) that I’m accidentally controlling the wrong deck (C/D instead of A/B) because I misread the deck switch button.
The “toggle” style button doesn’t allow you to build muscle memory and when things need to be done quickly this becomes a major pain in the ass (it should have been a big chunky flip-style toggle).
So after 8 years of thinking about it, I finally bought an extra S4. The MK1’s are really affordable second-hand these days, got mine for €80.
When I opened it up I was pretty happy to see they used a neatly panellised PCB design, I tend to waaaaaaay over-engineer things so now I could just leave the PCB on, cut the traces on it, and connect the components to my own PCB.
However, after disassembling it I saw they very neatly exposed the connectors to the panel, without any processing done on the boards itself. Even better, they exclusively used 74HC165 and 74HC595 chips to interface with the buttons and LED’s. The exact same thing every DIY builder was using 10 years ago. This design is super simple!
So after some relatively easy disassembly I sawed the thing in half. In hindsight I should have completely taken off the decks’ circuit boards too.
This is how I’m going to be using them, looks pretty slick eh?
Recycling bin (did some test cuts on it first), if you’re interested in a MK2 mixer section: I’ll probably will be doing a MK2 conversion in a couple of months, I could send you the mixer section, you would have to DIY it yourself though, the anatomy of the device makes this pretty easy though.
Edit: MK2’s lack the panelized design and thus are not moddable without a expensive custom PCB.
Very little soldering and I’d have some laser cut side panels for you since they will be the same as the S1 section. I’ll reply in this thread if/when I get around to cutting up an MK2 (might take much longer than I anticipate).
All the sections on the S4 are connected to the motherboard with two 10-pin connectors that send/set the state of the buttons&knobs/LEDs so 99% of the work is already done.
Thanks! “old school DJTT” that’s a big compliment for me haha.
I was really stuck on the communication with the buttons, after long hours I discovered I was accidentally using 5v instead of 3.3v to power the board which was messing with the 165 circuit. I might have damaged something permanently on the right S1 doing that .
Yesterday I tried using the left unit with the proper voltage, connections and code and tada:
I wouldn’t really know to be honest. I could do two things:
1. Provide a kit for people.
This would mean you’d still have to disassemble the S4 and cut the plastic body in half but apart from that it would be super simple, no soldering, foolproof.
2. Mod them for other people.
The nice thing about this is that the design is simple, stable and super error-proof. It would essentially mean no support to provide and the modding of the physical body gets easier and cleaner the more of them you do.
It eventually comes down to what I want the most, which would not be making money, but sparking DJ DIY enthusiasm and getting freaky DIY controllers back into the scene.
The main reason I’m even considering the last option of the two is that it literally took me years to find a place where I could pull the S4 trough a table saw, actually doing that, finding a place, buying and bringing the S4, IMO is the hardest part.
If I would sell them pre-made they would probably end up costing €150-250 per controller.
I don’t suppose, by some miracle, these single deck controllers have turned out be the same width as the F1/X1/Z1 and will fit nicely n the NI metal controller risers?
Yep, just a standard USB B female port on the back. They might even have audio out (16 bit, 44.1 kHz) and will also feature a monochrome display with track title, time, progress etc.
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