I put together a Midi Controller over the last few days using the 4 Trellis button pads I ordered from Adafruit. I decided to add 4 knobs, four buttons, an lcd, a joystick, midi, and power led to the four pads and went to work making a panel that I could laser cut at the Dallas Makerspace.
I haven’t been using any guides or anything, just making it up as I go along. I started with just a few pieces on a breadboard and that worked well, so I thought I would make it more permanent; it is a lot easier to move this way. This does have the unfortunate side effect of creating a big mess of wires behind that front panel. Maybe on the next version I’ll take the time to design a real PCB. I was looking at parts online, and it could be a lot smaller and easier to build using all through-hole knobs, buttons, and connectors instead of panel mount. At least this way, I got something to work with a lot faster and was able to use what I had.
I laser cut just three parts for this build. I didn’t go with a complete box, instead I just cut front and rear panels, and a piece that backs up on to the buttons to hold them securely against the panel. It is about 2.5″ tall, but I spaced the boards apart using bolts and extra nuts. I will probably try and figure out something better for any future versions.
Amanda came up with a great name for it, baxboard. I think I’ll use that.
I have also began to put some code on Github. I have quite a bit of code I always intended to put up online, but never really got around to it. I made an account last year when working on the RFID Interlock and uploaded that code to the DMS repo, but never put any of my own up. I have used SVN for several years and it’s been great running my own server, but it is not too conducive to public sharing, Github makes this easier.
I posted all the code for my Led Table Coffee Table; Arduino sketch, php script, mysql script, and Raspberry Pi Java app. I usually mark everything as GPLv2 in case anyone is interested in using it.
I will be putting the source code and laser cut images for baxboard up on Github as I go along and get to functional places.
