I’ve been a little quite recently, but things have been slowly happening behind closed doors. Patience and preperation is the key, so I’ve been biding my time and making sure everything is right before rushing ahead and making silly mistakes! Here’s a few small things that have been done, which are actually quite large achievments in my world:

Complete Set

Complete MidiBox Modules

I got a new set of modules from SmashTV (the last pack were from Mikes MidiShop) and build them all up. I must say I love these ones as you don’t have to make your own bridges or solder capacitors onto the bottom due to them being double sided!

All the ICs are now packed and the core is talking to the wonderful new MIOS Studio 2 which gets around the problem of the Java Midi thing (Thanks TK).

I have attached these boards to a bit of perspex that SHOULD fit inside the boxes, but I’m going to have to make room for the GM5, PSU and the ports, so recon I’ll have to stack these vertically.

Machined Boxes

Machined Boxes!

I got this picture back straight from the factory the other day and nearly wet myself! It’s really exciting to finally see something more than circuit boards and cables.

So all thats left on the case side is for them to powder-coat it black and apparently the perspex faceplates will be done this week!

Click for Layout of all PCBs

Custom PCBs

I have been designing my own PCBs in Illustrator and doing test boards using the Toner Method (more on that in another article).

I have now designed all the boards for the first box, needing only slight modification for the second.

In the coming weeks I should be able to finish all of them off and have a fully working prototype waiting for when the boxes arrive!

LEDs in the Light

LEDs & Buttons!

The first board has been etched and hooked up to the DIN/DOUT modules and I’m happy to confirm it’s all working!

The CORE is currently running MIDIO128 as a test program, which turns on corresponding LEDs when a button is pressed. I’ve also done some quick tests in Traktor and can map the MIDI command to trigger que points or whatever I want. Haven’t tested sending MIDI OUT back to the controller yet, but it’s on my To-Do list.

Whats Next?

There is still a lot of work ahead to get this up and running, but I’m happy with the progress so far! Next I have to etch the rest of the boards, hook up all the LEDs/Cables and then get down to buisness with MIDI Mappings.

Once the boxes come I’ll be able to start planning out the layout of the “Modules” inside and hook them up properly. Then I should be able to work out how much space is in the for the PSU and IEC ports as well as finding room for the GM5 USB module.