Midi Composer

[predue]

Hey guys, long time no see

I am currently working on a project (as a present) for my brother in law. (My last present for him was the N64 Infinite)
He composes music on the PC and I once saw a very cool project that I believe he would really like to own
Sadly this was a project from a student and is not on sale... So I decided to build my own one. With a bit of tuning.

This composer will have an Arduino inside, that uses a Midi-to-USB adapter for communicating with a PC.
It will feature eight rolls with 16 magnetic points, one volume fader and pitch control each. There are also eight drumpads as an enhancement.

Here is my progress so far:

Lets keep everything nice and tight

First tests with the Arduino

A hall-sensor and a trimmed LED

This looks good for the most part, but I actually messed things up because I sprayed a layer of clear coating on the rolls... Very bad idea (luckily I have no pics of this mess )

I did the design by myself. It might look messy, but I wanted to have enough space to fit the actual hardware inside and not loose too much stability at the same time. Dimensions are 355 x 183 x 25mm (13.97 x 7.2 x 0.98 inches)

My printing order will be from left top - left bottom, middle top....

The ports from left to right: PC (USB type b), Arduino (micro USB), power

First ideas for the drumpads. But I will have to come up with a better idea.

The first part does not look very good... I might end up printing it again

I try not to work with glue so much... Most parts are screwed together.

Part two is printing with slightly modified settings

As you can see I have to print the ground plate in segments, because my printer is too small >.< ...
But I try my best to hide the slits.
The printing takes rather long... The first part took about 26 hours. The second part (that I am printing right now) will take about 8 hours.

Thats it so far. I will post new pics from time to time

Greetings

 

[samjc3]

The build quality so far is top notch, this has serious potential. Kinda wish I was your brother.

 

[Joeyjoe9876]

Long time no see!
Looking great! I was into music production for a little bit and thought about building my own synths and such, but never really got around to it.

Can't wait to see how this progresses

 

[predue]

Thanks for your comments
Here is an update for the day:

Btw: Is the picture size too big?

 

[samjc3]

Nah, the pictures are fine, and the pictures are fine, hot Dang.

 

[predue]

Update of the day:

(color-difference is because of poorer build-quality of the first part)

Well... The gap between the two parts is VERY noticable. Thats because they don't fit together that well :/. The left and right side are pointing a tiny bit upwards, which is nice for the gap on the top but not on the bottom/side.
It is late and I have to wake up early, so I'll leave it as it is atm. I am printing the third top part now (approx 29 hours).
Will keep you updated

 

[predue]

Small update:

Unfortunately the quality of the third part was worse than the first... So no detailed pics atm
I will start to print part 1 and 3 again, but I wanted to show you a small glimpse of the whole thing

 

[predue]

Another small update: The reason that the print quality was really bad, was because my printer was broken :/
I got a new one and started printing again. Approx 100 hours left for the main part >.<
Next post will have pictures

 

[predue]

Hey guys (and girls?),
I was rather busy the last few days, sorry for the late update. The main body is finished more or less. The quality is not extemely good, but I will work with this now (I am no professional ). The new printer does its job.
I started printing the black parts today in the morning. And here is a first result:

They fit in perfectly tight. No need for glue or something.
On top of the black part are some strings. No problem though because I will sand it down later.
I am very happy with the looks by now. Finally the black adds some contrast to the whole part .
You can see the gap on the front side between the two parts? This will remain there. I think its ok as the whole thing is printed in parts.

What do you think?
I'll upload a new picture when all three black parts are printed.

 

[predue]

Update

All I need to do now is sanding...

 

[Joeyjoe9876]

ooooooooooooo this is looking nice

 

[predue]

Thank You

I told you guys that I messed up the rolls pretty bad... So I printed them completely new (with new settings) and finished the last of them today. Here are the results:

First: a comparison >.<

As you can see, there are some rather deep gaps between the three black parts on the top of the case... I don't really know what I should do with them . As I am short on time (9 days to go), I think I'll just leave them be.

Hope you like my work so far.

 

[samjc3]

It's a testament to your workmanship that you're complaining about those gaps. I hadn't even noticed them until you pointed em out because I was busy drooling.

 

[predue]

The faders are in.

Simple hotglue does the job.

 

[predue]

Update:

Still a lot of work to do. The caps for the faders are in the wrong color... I ordered some new filament, that'll arrive on tuesday.
Also the drumpads are not final atm. But I'll have to deal with it for the time being.
Howsoever... My pal and I went for a first test

The next week will be full of work :/
Hopefully I can post some pictures

 

[predue]

Update:

Got most of the work done now... Some things that are left are the bar for the hall sensors and LEDs and the right drumpad-cover. Also the MIDI-USB adapter needs to be installed.

Hopefully everything works as expected >.<

 

[predue]

I redesigned the hall-sensor-bar. This way the leds and sensors fit inside properly.

And one picture from the (almost) finished composer:

A short video from the first test of the digits:

Unfortunately the project does not work up until now >.<
There is a problem with the motor driver and also with the hall sensors. We need to figure out why they don't work...

Hope you like this work so far