Post by svart on Dec 20, 2022 8:58:20 GMT -6
So it's been a long time since I've done any projects. I had a few things happen in my life the last half of the year that kinda put a damper on a lot of things, namely my desire to do any kind of creative projects.
But recently I was watching a video of a guy who mixed all ITB but used a midi controller with a fader to do all his automation via latch/learn instead of using a mouse to draw points. This dawned on me as a great idea.
The problem is that I don't need anything fancy. I don't need 8 faders and a dozen buttons and pots. I just really need perhaps one fader, a button and maybe a pot since I really only want to use it for drawing automation.
However, it didn't seem very practical to have a device with only one fader, so I decided on two faders, two buttons and the option of two pots if needed (and a couple LEDs just in case).
I also decided to use Arduino as the basis for the control since it has MIDI libraries and the development module I found already has USB HID built in so no drivers are needed.
After finding the case I thought would be good, I drew up a schematic and a PCB and finally received the parts the other day.
I also found a few arduino projects around the internet that had pieces of what I needed and I hacked it all together for testing.
So far it works OK. It has some quirks that I'm working through. Sensitivity is fine, but since the A/D inputs on the micro are 10 bit, I only get 1024 steps which should work out to be about 0.15dB per step but I'm seeing 0.3dB per step and I don't know why. I think it might be part of the MIDI translation library only being able to send a certain number of steps but I haven't opened it up to take a look. It also doesn't go completely full scale in Reaper and I don't know why. I also think it might be part of the MIDI library. I need to get some kind of app that can output MIDI control values so I can see what the computer is actually receiving.
Physical design wise, I intended to have square buttons to fit the overall linear look of the device but during cutting a test chassis I found them to be impossible to do by hand. I found a 1/2"(12.7mm) mortisse drill bit that could punch the plastic, but I found that it had a habit of deforming the plastic no matter how I supported it. I succeeded for the prototype but if I produce any future boxes, they'll have round holes for the buttons.
PIC:
drive.google.com/file/d/1Hg6XxfJ8N5-wlYoLo5BDbiIRAHXNSx8T/view?usp=share_link
But recently I was watching a video of a guy who mixed all ITB but used a midi controller with a fader to do all his automation via latch/learn instead of using a mouse to draw points. This dawned on me as a great idea.
The problem is that I don't need anything fancy. I don't need 8 faders and a dozen buttons and pots. I just really need perhaps one fader, a button and maybe a pot since I really only want to use it for drawing automation.
However, it didn't seem very practical to have a device with only one fader, so I decided on two faders, two buttons and the option of two pots if needed (and a couple LEDs just in case).
I also decided to use Arduino as the basis for the control since it has MIDI libraries and the development module I found already has USB HID built in so no drivers are needed.
After finding the case I thought would be good, I drew up a schematic and a PCB and finally received the parts the other day.
I also found a few arduino projects around the internet that had pieces of what I needed and I hacked it all together for testing.
So far it works OK. It has some quirks that I'm working through. Sensitivity is fine, but since the A/D inputs on the micro are 10 bit, I only get 1024 steps which should work out to be about 0.15dB per step but I'm seeing 0.3dB per step and I don't know why. I think it might be part of the MIDI translation library only being able to send a certain number of steps but I haven't opened it up to take a look. It also doesn't go completely full scale in Reaper and I don't know why. I also think it might be part of the MIDI library. I need to get some kind of app that can output MIDI control values so I can see what the computer is actually receiving.
Physical design wise, I intended to have square buttons to fit the overall linear look of the device but during cutting a test chassis I found them to be impossible to do by hand. I found a 1/2"(12.7mm) mortisse drill bit that could punch the plastic, but I found that it had a habit of deforming the plastic no matter how I supported it. I succeeded for the prototype but if I produce any future boxes, they'll have round holes for the buttons.
drive.google.com/file/d/1Hg6XxfJ8N5-wlYoLo5BDbiIRAHXNSx8T/view?usp=share_link
