I finally ordered all the external bits needed and they look amazing! Initially I was going to have some custom buttons made from perspex/acrylic on a laser cutter, but after finding these buttons from Sparkfun I decided to use them instead. They also carried potentiometers, knobs and the Playstation thumbsticks that were needed, so I just ordered everything in one go. I am pretty happy with everything, the prices were reasonable and they had good international shipping which came quite quick.

The buttons themselves are ingenious, based on the ones used for the Monome. They are made of Silicone rubber that is moulded thinner at the bottom so they collapse in on themselves when pushed (which feels really nice). On the underside it has a conductive circular strip that completes the circuit when it hits the PCB, which consists of two circles, one for positive and one for negative with inter-locking “cogs” to make sure wherever you hit, it’ll make the connection.

The circuit boards from sparkfun only come in 4×4 squares, so I’ll have to make my own boards in the different sizes needed, but they have kindly given away the Eagle files which make it a lot easier to do.

The thumbsticks are just like the ones used in the Playstation controllers which I’ll be using to kick off multiple effects at once. They consist of two regular potentiometers on their sides at 90 degrees to each other as well as a regular button, so they’re compatible with the MIDIbox64 and easy to wire. I bought the breakout boards as well to make things even easier and make sure they’ll put up with some punishment.

Now I’ll have to get the case and faceplates made up and finish off the MIDIbox circuit boards so I can get these working!