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How To Make Your Own DIY MIDI Controller
POSTED BY KYLE MOHR ON AUGUST 25, 2015 141 Comments

Short on cash, got lots of time, and want/need a new piece of DJ gear custom to your
needs? It’s time to go DIY! For about $100 you can build your own MIDI controller.
Watch the full how to video from guest contributor Kyle Mohr and read the full
construction guide inside.

How To Build A DIY MIDI Controller (2015 Edition)

DIY MIDI Controller Shopping List

First you’ll need to purchase all of your tools and materials. I’ve found the best prices
and parts are usually sold on eBay from retailers based in China, but they tend to DJ TechTools
sellout fast and shipping to the States takes 2-3 weeks (this will, however, give you Like Page

plenty of time to get your enclosure ready and board programmed). But, to make
things easier I’ve provided many links for Amazon and US retailers.

Click the below sections to expand the lists:

@djtechtools
Parts San Francisco, CA | We love DJ
Teensy 2.0 Board Technology, read the latest
exciting stu韚� from us here:
Teensy to USB Adapter/Mount
Jumper Wires
Fader Mounting Screws (M2 – 0.4 x 6mm) Mouser or Home Depot
5mm LEDs or LEDs with Resistors
220 OHM 1/4W 1% Metal Film Resistor
24mm Sanwa Arcade Buttons  
DJTT Chroma Caps
B10k D-Shaft Potentiometers
B10k Faders (Linear Potentiometers)

Enclosure
Wood Box 
Rubber Feet

Enclosure Finishes
*Note: These are not necessary, but if you have a wood enclosure they help make
things look a lot nicer
Load More...  Follow on Instagram
Pre-stain
Stain
Polyurethane
Rags
Gloves
Explore DJ TechTools
Paint brush

Tools

Note: It will put you way over the $100 budget if you need any of these tools, but if
you plan to do more projects in the future they certainly will come in handy and
you can always buy them really cheap on eBay and Amazon.

Soldering Iron What All-In-One Pioneer DJ

Rosincore Solder  *Any Rosin-core solder should do, this is just what I used Controller Is Right For You?
Soldering Flux
Drill
Hobby Files
Drill Bit set
24mm or 1in Spade Bit
Liquid Electric Tape
Gorilla Glue
Wire Cutters How To: Create a Professional DJ
Plier set Booth from IKEA Parts.
Small Screw Driver Set
Hot Glue Gun
Hot Glue Sticks
Mini Hack saw
Box Cutter
Dremmel with wood cutting bit
Sandpaper
 BONUS: here’s a great video on tools you need for electronics projects Mad Zach Gets Hands-On With
Maschine Jam
DESIGN

Denon DJ: SC5000, VL12 Turntable,

X1800 Mixer, Engine Prime

This is my awful drawing on a post-it note, but it suퟙ�ces as an ideal layout and
sketch. I followed it up using Adobe Illustrator to make a to-scale blueprint. Download
the PDF and EPS ퟌ�les here. This was designed for 4 potentiometers, 4 faders and
4 arcade buttons, but you can certainly swap them out for other components.
5 Mistakes Every Beginner Producer
For the buttons, you’ll need a 1 inch or 24mm spade bit and you should aim for using Makes (And How To Avoid Them)
a 5/16 bit for the potentiometers. Make sure to leave plenty of space between your
components and do not overcrowd the layout. This will result in broken enclosures
and tight areas for soldering. You don’t always have to be this exact, you can always DJTT COMMUNITY FORUM
just take a marker and ruler, measure distance between components and make sure
to keep the distance the same, and mark up the back or inside of your enclosure with Rekordbox doesn't show 'Release Date' tag
Hey all, For some reason Rekordbox is having
drill/cut spots.
a diퟙ�cult time showing the Release Date tag
that I'd like to sort my tracks by. When I
Case Building purchase...
JackalJyve

Once you’ve ퟌ�nalized your layout its time to “build” or make room for your Akai AMX / Traktor Help!!!
components. You can use anything for an enclosure: an old VHS tape; plastic I just got an Akai AMX because i'm traveling
this summer to Dj in Greece and I don't want
lunchbox; retro video game cartridge; a wooden box; or even 3D print your own. The
to bring my S5. I got the midi mapping for it
main point of DIY besides saving some money and learning what is really inside your and when I...
gear, is to customize it to be truly original. DjYianni25

MP3 (320kb/s) or WAV

Before you start drilling holes be sure to measure all components and their
The title says it all. what are your thoughts?
clearance!  Sanny

When drilling holes for components in the enclosure, especially with thin wood and Mixtrack (Party Mix) - Help needed.
Hi guys, I purchessed VDJ8 licence for this
plastic, to keep it from cracking when drilling, make sure to choose about 6-7 drill bits controller. Everything works BUT......... this
from very small to your ퟌ�nal size. controller doesn't have a mid range knob. I
want to...
For LEDs I always use this guide (look under “Making holes if needed”). This will help Warren79

you slowly get to your desired size without putting too much tension on the material [House] Snippets of upcoming releases
causing it to crack, chip or break. The key is to drill at slow speeds, and gradually go Heres a few snippets of up coming releases of
mine, all vocal house
up to the size you need. If something starts to crack or chip, quickly stop and put your
https://soundcloud.com/djchriswoods/sets/20
drill direction in reverse. Try using it in reverse for a bit to clean up the cut. 17-tracks-so-far
djchriswoods.co.uk
Once you’ve drilled, cut and punched your way through the enclosure its time to
clean it up. Don’t worry, it always looks like a hack job. The key is to take your time.
Try to drill and mark up the inside (spots people won’t see) and even place a spare
board under your enclosure that you can drill into. This also helps to reduce tension
on the enclosure.

Now if you used plastic, you’re in luck! You’ve just saved yourself days, seriously! For
plastic you can simply use the hobby ퟌ�les to ퟌ�le o韚� any jagged edges, or frayed pieces
of plastic, which are blocking the holes.

Want to make an awesome wood enclosure?

If you used wood, get ready to go all Ron Swanson on your project. Most cheap wood
like we’re using here looks, well, cheap! So how do we class up that piece of junk to
look like a custom cut piece of expensive furniture?…Stain!

I highly recommend pre-stain. It will help the stain spread evenly, especially on
cheap/thin wood and prevents spots.
After 5-15 minutes it’s time to add that stain. Just take a rag, dip in stain and
apply to your enclosure. I like to use Dark Walnut. Apply and then immediately
remove, and repeat this process a few times. This will give it a more
rustic/steampunk look, but if you want something more solid, don’t wipe the
stain away, just apply a lot and leave it to dry.
After a day of drying, apply polyurethane with a brush. Fully coat all sides to
protect your enclosure from scratches, and protect, and even strengthen the
wood. I suggest brushing it in the direction of the wood grain.
Let dry for 24hrs, then repeat to your liking. I recommend 3 coats, 24hrs between
each coat.
 After the ퟌ�nal coat, let dry for 72hrs before adding component parts! This
avoids putting my components into a sticky polyurethane mess.

COMPONENTS

Now that you’ve ퟌ�nished your DIY MIDI controller layout and enclosure, it’s time to
add your components to the faceplate. Buttons usually just pop in, but some will
require a fastener or nut to be placed on the back to secure it (if there is a little
resistance, don’t force it, just take your hobby ퟌ�les to it a few times then try again).

Potentiometer knobs will then be placed in with washers and nuts. These should
cover any jagged edges you may have from drilling. Tighten with pliers. For linear
potentiometers (aka faders) make sure you have the number 1 (power) on the top.
This may vary depending on make and model (feel free to test using a breadboard). 2
is usually your signal, and 3 should be ground. Then secure to the faceplate with your
M2 screws.

To protect the components, add your Chroma Caps to faders and pots now (or any
o韚�-the-shelf caps as well, we just like those the best).

To add the LED, 埌�ip over the faceplate or top of enclosure and put your LED into the
hole(s) you drilled for it. You may need to use your hobby ퟌ�le again for this to make
sure the LED ퟌ�ts just right. Afterwards, push it through just enough to see the tip on
the other side. Using a toothpick as an applicator line the circumference of the LED
with Gorilla Glue. Once hardened it will ensure your LED doesn’t fall back into the
enclosure. Don’t use hot glue, it may melt the LED’s plastic.

Soldering Your Components

Once the glue on the LED is dry, start the soldering process. This make all of the
connections from your components to the circuit board, which will then relay the
message to your computer or iOS device (oh yeah, this will also work with your
iPhone/iPad)!

First you’ll need your Rosin-core solder (way safer than lead-based solder) – I use and
recommend .050”-Diameter 63/37 Rosin-Core Solder.

If you haven’t soldered before there is a wealth of tutorials on YouTube. Here are a
few of my favorites. Trust me, its not complicated at all, anyone can do it. Just take
your time and pay close attention to what you’re doing.
Turn on your soldering iron and let it heat up for a few minutes. Grab your jumper
wires. I use these instead of your average spools of wire because they have a single
pin at the end instead of braided wire that is quite diퟙ�cult to push through a hole.
They are much more eퟙ�cient since with normal wire you have to cut, strip, and heat
shrink it every time. I also tend to pre-bend them all at 90 degree angles and trim
about ¼ o韚� of them to make sure they ퟌ�t in any enclosure and the Teensy board.

Let’s start from the top and work our way down. First make sure each of your jumper
wires will reach from each component to the next, and matching colors is always
helpful. I like to use dark colors (black or blue) for the ground line and bright colors
(red, orange, yellow) for power while using mild colors (green or white) for the signal
line. For D-Shaft potentiometers you want to be certain your pins are on the bottom,
this will ensure your knobs ퟌ�t and that once wired they will be going in the proper
direction.

For potentiometers you have 3 lines, ground, active (your analog signal which
identiퟌ�es where the position of your potentiometer is) and your power. They also
usually go in that order when looking at the pins, a 4th pin is usually just a dummy
pin and will not be used for our project.

Since we only have 1 power and 1 ground point to solder on the Teensy board we
need to chain all of our grounds together then all of our power together. Once
complete, we need to run that power and ground from the last pot to the ퟌ�rst fader,
which is soldered and treated as if it was a potentiometer. Follow the guide below.
Once that is complete, run the ground only from your last fader to your buttons. The
other point on buttons is your active/signal line.

Solder the active line from each component, 1 single wire from each button, knob,
and fader. The Teensy board has built in pull-up resistors that we will access using
the Sketch we upload when programming the board so we do not need resistors
soldered to the buttons active line.

Next, solder a 220 ohm resistor to the (+) powered pin of the LED, this is to ensure it
doesn’t blow out from too much power. Then connect the other side of the resistor to
a positive pin on the closest pot. We will then solder the short LED pin (ground) to the
closest pots ground pin.

For the last bit of soldering, run the active line from every pot and slider to Analog
pins A0 – A7. Where as the active line of each button will be soldered to the Digital
pins on the other side of the board B0-B3.
Programming Your DIY MIDI Controller

Setting Up Teensyduino (Arduino + Teensy)

Teensyduino is an add-on for Arduino Uploading Software that enables the Teensy
board to be used in the Arduino programming environment. Before we get started
you will need to:

Download Arduino Software *Certain versions of Teensyduino are only

compatible with certain versions of the Arduino Software. On the Teensyduino
download page this is speciퟌ�ed. As of August 2015, “Teensyduino 1.24 supports
only Arduino version 1.0.6 and 1.6.1 and 1.6.3 and 1.6.4 and 1.6.5”.
Download Teensyduino + follow the install instructions on this page (be sure to
install all the libraries!)

Download Teensy Loader

STEP 1: Plug your Teensy board into the USB port on your computer. After plugged in
an orange light on the Teensy should be 埌�ashing on and o韚� every second. This is
called the ‘blink’ sketch – The Teensy board comes pre-loaded with it.

STEP 2: In the menubar, select Tools->Board->Teensy 2.0.

STEP 3: Also in the menubar, Tools->USB Type->MIDI

STEP 4: Open a sketch ퟌ�le (download mine here). This sketch is set to 8 analog pots
(the faders are treated as a knob/pot when it comes to the code) and 4 digital
buttons. If you have more knobs or faders, simply change the number here:
If you wish to add more buttons, there is a little more work, but it isn’t too
complicated to ퟌ�x.

STEP 5: Click the upload button (right arrow) to upload the new code to the Teensy.
Since this is the ퟌ�rst sketch you uploaded, Arduino will ask you to click the reset
button on the Teensy. Click it (see image). After clicked, the sketch should
immediately upload.

This code is based o韚� a sketch I was given from fellow DIY MIDI engineer/Musician
Otem Rellik. Click the button below to expand the code – it’s long!

The Code

#include

// deퟌ�ne how many pots are active up to number of available analog inputs
#deퟌ�ne analogInputs 8
// make arrays for input values and lagged input values
int inputAnalog[analogInputs];
int iAlag[analogInputs];
// make array of cc values
int ccValue[analogInputs];
// index variable for loop
int i;

// cc values for buttons

int cc_o韚� = 0;
int cc_on = 65;
int cc_super = 127;

// map buttons to cc for button

int cc0 = 51;
int cc1 = 52;
int cc2 = 53;
int cc3 = 54;

Bounce button0 = Bounce(0, 3);

Bounce button1 = Bounce(1, 3);
Bounce button2 = Bounce(2, 3);
Bounce button3 = Bounce(3, 3);

void setup() {
// MIDI rate
Serial.begin(31250);
pinMode(0, INPUT_PULLUP);
pinMode(1, INPUT_PULLUP);
pinMode(2, INPUT_PULLUP);
pinMode(3, INPUT_PULLUP);
pinMode(4, INPUT_PULLUP);
pinMode(5, INPUT_PULLUP);
pinMode(6, INPUT_PULLUP);
pinMode(7, INPUT_PULLUP);
pinMode(8, INPUT_PULLUP);
pinMode(9, INPUT_PULLUP);
pinMode(10, INPUT_PULLUP);
pinMode(11, INPUT_PULLUP);
}

void loop() {
// loop trough active inputs for knobs
for (i=0;i<analoginputs;i++){ // read current value at i-th input inputAnalog[i] =
analogRead(i); // if magnitude of di韚�erence is 8 or more… if (abs(inputAnalog[i] –
iAlag[i]) > 7){
// calc the CC value based on the raw value
ccValue[i] = inputAnalog[i]/8;
// send the MIDI
usbMIDI.sendControlChange(i, ccValue[i], 3);
// set raw reading to lagged array for next comparison
iAlag[i] = inputAnalog[i];
}
delay(5); // limits MIDI messages to reasonable number
}

// Push Button code

button0.update();
button1.update();
button2.update();
button3.update();

if (button0.fallingEdge())
{
usbMIDI.sendControlChange(cc0, cc_on, 3);
}
if (button1.fallingEdge())
{
usbMIDI.sendControlChange(cc1, cc_on, 3);
}
if (button2.fallingEdge())
{
usbMIDI.sendControlChange(cc2, cc_on, 3);
}
if (button3.fallingEdge())
{
usbMIDI.sendControlChange(cc3, cc_on, 3);
}
 if (button0.risingEdge())
{
usbMIDI.sendControlChange(cc0, cc_o韚�, 3);
}
if (button1.risingEdge())
{
usbMIDI.sendControlChange(cc1, cc_o韚�, 3);
}
if (button2.risingEdge())
{
usbMIDI.sendControlChange(cc2, cc_o韚�, 3);
}
if (button3.risingEdge())
{
usbMIDI.sendControlChange(cc3, cc_o韚�, 3);
}

FINISHING TOUCHES

Before we test our creation, we ퟌ�rst need to clean up 埌�ux residue with a paper towel
and/or Q-tip (for hard to reach areas) and rubbing alcohol. This will remove any
materials which could overtime corrode your board and connections.

After that dries it’s time to cover your connections that could potentially touch
another and cause a short. You have a few options here: simply tape up any loose
connections of bare wire that could touch another or even a metal component part;
cover them with hot glue so nothing moves or touches at all; use heat shrink tubing
(which doesn’t always ퟌ�t perfectly); or try liquid electrical tape which comes in a
rubber cement style bottle and brush on (which makes covering tight areas a little
easier). *If using liquid tape please do so in a well ventilated area.

When the bare wires are covered, plug in your fully-soldered and connected circuit
board. The LED should light up and not burn out! Boot up your DAW of choice and
make sure you see the Teensy recognized as a MIDI device. Try mapping each
component to your DAW and see if a MIDI signal is sent, once you’ve veriퟌ�ed, you
know you have achieved success!

Lastly, it’s time to close up your MIDI controller so it looks less like Frankenstein’s
monster. You can use many things to mount the board in your enclosure but I
recommend a generous glob of hot glue on the bottom. After it is mounted, plug in
your adapter which is mounted to the enclosure, close the lid and seal it up.

Final Product
You are now the proud creator of your very ퟌ�rst DIY MIDI Controller. Go show it o韚� to
the world, and be sure to post pictures of your MIDI controllers in the comments
below or tag @DJTechTools on your preferred social network.

This DIY MIDI Controller is loosely a based on the DJ TechTools Midi Fighter 3D and
DJTT Midi Fighter Twister.

Guide and design by Kyle Mohr

All video and editing by Alex Medvick


944

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POSTED IN CONTROLLERISM, DIY PROJECT TUTORIALS, HOW-TO VIDEO TUTORIALS | TAGGED MIDI
CONTROLLER, SOLDERING, ARDUINO, TEENSY++, DIY MIDI CONTROLLER, CUSTOM MIDI CONTROLLERS,
TEENSYDUINO
141 Comments DJ Techtools 
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Join the discussion…

Tarekith • a year ago
Before you drill the holes in the wood, place what will be the topside of the board
against another piece of wood. Think of it like a two piece wood sandwich with the
topside of your controller board in the middle. Drill from the backside of your good
wood. That way the drill bit won't break off the edges of the holes leaving that chipped
ghetto look.
9 △   ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Spacecamp / Dan  DJTT Staff   > Tarekith  •  a year ago

Great pro tip!
1 △   ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Tarekith > Spacecamp / Dan • a year ago
I make a lot of my own studio furniture and cases. :)
4 △   ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Fayek Helmi > Tarekith • a year ago
Tarekith you always amaze...
2 △   ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Oddie O'Phyle > Tarekith • a year ago
ITK blades also give a more finished edge than regular rip
blades. Did millwork for a few years then ran a dual stage rip
and crosscut Holzma.
△   ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Kyle Mohr > Spacecamp / Dan • a year ago
Agreed, great tip! I've only done that with plastic. Will be sure to use on
wood as well from now on.
△   ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Tarekith > Kyle Mohr • a year ago
Didn't mean to imply your case looked ghetto either, that's just
what my old shop teacher called it. :)
1 △   ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Kyle Mohr > Tarekith • a year ago
haha, none taken. I think I even say in the video "this will always
look crappy." Its a great tip! I always banked on the washers
and button rings to cover up the ugliness.
△   ▽ • Reply • Share ›

mczanetti > Tarekith • a year ago
WOW, PRO TIP HERE haha
△   ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Dr Beatz > mczanetti • a year ago
Also worth looking into: Adobe Photoshop CC has an option to export
3D files to Shapeways (a service which will 3D print objects and mail
them right to you.) Its really not that hard or expensive. If you own/know
Photoshop (or someone who does) this is a really attractive option for
many reasons. https://helpx.adobe.com/photos...
△   ▽ • Reply • Share ›

QCube • a year ago
QCube • a year ago
I just mad a controller about a month or two ago. Its still not completely finished
because of sold out parts but this is what i made. I think its pretty obvious its oriented
on the Traktor F1 but with the 30mm Arcade Buttons its much bigger and also is
capable of better finger drumming. Its fun to use and works with an arduino. Still have
some Problems with the Lighting of the buttons. Something with the currency of the
in/outputs. But as you see it looks pretty neat and can be Powered by USB only or by
an aditional powerchord. I made this due to an educational project. This article comes
a little bit later, i oriented on the earlier article and used an instruction on instructables.
The aluminiumplate at the top is CNC cut and the case is made by hand and glued
together. I think about getting some chroma caps for this controller, it would look
awesome with them on :)

⛺
2 △   ▽ • Reply • Share ›

QCube > QCube • a year ago
By the way its an Arduinomega because it has more I/Os than many other
hardware or the uno.
1 △   ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Kyle Mohr > QCube • a month ago
Great work! This is so Pro!
△   ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Alejandro Cardone > QCube • 10 months ago
Did you solve the led issue? I'm planning to use led arcade buttons with a
Teensy 3.2 but nit sure if it would be a problem. Thanks!
△   ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Pete Spaker • a year ago
Thanks guys for a great guide. I've had a Teensy 2++ for a minute now, waiting for me
to finish some other projects. I want to make a midi controller that (I hope to be) uber­
simple. I want to make a five button (actually guitar pedal stomp switch) midi controller
for a very specific action during my Ableton sets­ to activate and deactivate effects. I
can handle making the sturdy enclosure and wiring the stomp switches, but I want to
make sure that I can use the method you've got here to make it a bonefide MIDI
controller that should work while I use my traditional desktop controller (the Livid
CNTRL:R.) Seems like it should be no big deal... I'd just have to make it, and map it
manually, with the effect on/off, one per switch.... right? I'm not being presumptive or
ultra stupid here, am I?
2 △   ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Kyle Mohr > Pete Spaker • a year ago
Thanks Pete! Not a stupid question at all. You're correct. Just make sure when
you setup the board in the arduino app to select MIDI and then it should come
up in ableton just like any other MIDI controller would, but will probably say
 up in ableton just like any other MIDI controller would, but will probably say
teensy MIDI. When mapping just click what you want to map and click the
button you wish to use. If you're using the same code from this project all you
should have to do is add code for 1 button, mark it 4 of 4, and change the
analog inputs section at the top to 0.
△   ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Stewe • a year ago
Good job Kyle on walking trough the entire process and Alex for putting everything
together in the video! Really enjoyed the tame watching it ­ cool stuff!

Here is my first and only DIY controller for Traktor ;­)

[img]

see more

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Kyle Mohr > Stewe • a year ago
Thanks Stewe! Appreciate it.
That's a pretty sweet MF clone!
What board did you use?
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Stewe > Kyle Mohr • a year ago
Oh, it's nothing fancy really. I used a cheap USB gamepad and then
converted signals from HID to MIDI with the freeware software called
Rejoice. It was meant to control the Instant Gratification effects with the
buttons and the free space was dedicated for four rotary pots but I
never actually made the to work properly out of the joystick analogs... I
planned to instal one of Livid Brain Jr's to make pots functional.
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Kyle Mohr > Stewe • a year ago
AH. Nice! I've seen that done before with the gamepad, I think
the knobs would be a great addition to this!
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Fayek Helmi • a year ago
THIS ARTICLE! RES­PECT.

DJtechtools i salute you on an exellent article and video. and for Kyle Mohr, really
sweet controller dude. i like to built small analog lo fi synths and effects and ive been
really interested in getting into controller building but i haven't yet. i already have an old
arduino and a teensy2++, just can never decide on the design of it.... haha.
Realy clean work, and thanks for showing me the potential of cheap softwood boxes...
enclosures have always been my weak point!
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David De Garie­Lamanque > Fayek Helmi • a year ago
it's just what we were talking about a few weeks ago!!! props to DJTT for this
amazing article!
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Kyle Mohr > Fayek Helmi • a year ago
Thanks!! Enclosures are the fun part for me. I got into this because I wanted to
turn an NES cartridge into a controller. As for arduino vs teensy both are great
but I found teensy easier to program as MIDI.
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Fayek Helmi > Kyle Mohr • a year ago
yeah teensy can handle midi over usb waaay better than arduino!
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Nik Howard > Kyle Mohr • a year ago
Hi Kyle, can you enhance on why teensy is easier to program as MIDI
please? Is it just down to faster processor power? Thought that the only
main difference was size? Many thanks, Nik
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Kyle Mohr > Nik Howard • a year ago
Hey Nik,

Yes, with arduino you have to do a little song and dance to trick
your arduino into thinking its a native USB MIDI device, see
here: https://learn.adafruit.com/unt.... The teensy on the other
hand is only the click of a drop down menu to make a MIDI
device, no 10 second rush to fool it.
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Nik Howard > Kyle Mohr • 10 months ago
Thanks, realised I never replied months ago sorry, cheers, Nik
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Nik Howard > Kyle Mohr • a year ago
Thanks mate
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Graham Thorne • a year ago
This is amaze­balls.
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Kyle Mohr > Graham Thorne • a year ago
Thanks Graham!
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Dane 'dArKmAn' Henry • 5 months ago
Here's my latest incarnation!!!!

Thanks for the Insipiration....

⛺
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Kyle Mohr > Dane 'dArKmAn' Henry • 5 months ago
Great job!! This looks amazing. What does the screen do? Show values or
mirror the DAW?
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Dane 'dArKmAn' Henry > Kyle Mohr • 5 months ago
Thanks!!!, Still work­in­progress... It's a touch screen so endless
possibilities... Right now its just wired to the pitch bend (Khaos pad
 like), but I'm working on the code to remap the faders, buttons ETC &
maybe DAW info!!!!
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Kyle Mohr > Dane 'dArKmAn' Henry • 5 months ago
Nice! I like it as a Kaoss pad feature. Send me a link for that,
I've been meaning to mess with touch screens. Let me know
how this turns out in the end. A demo video would be awesome.
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Dane 'dArKmAn' Henry > Kyle Mohr • 3 months ago
Just a short video of my controller in action!! 

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Dane 'dArKmAn' Henry > Kyle Mohr • 4 months ago
Cool.. Will do!
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Kyle Mohr > Dane 'dArKmAn' Henry • a month ago
This is amazing! Great work.
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Long Haired Gaming • 7 months ago
Thank you! This was really useful, i always wanted to make a MIDI controller, and
after reading this I know how to.
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Nik Howard • a year ago
Thanks Kyle, awesome article, very inspirational. Also of all the recent guest
contributors this is the best. Well done. Just need to decide on a design.....
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Kyle Mohr > Nik Howard • a year ago
Thanks Nik! Much appreciated. Be sure to post your project here! We'd love to
see what cool MIDI device you create.
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Robert 'Robb Sonykc' K • a year ago
nice write up, quick Q.. the resistors isnt needed if were not using the LED correct? i
wanna do one with 12 rotary encoders like these.. http://au.mouser.com/ProductDe... 
anything else i should know?
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Kyle Mohr > Robert 'Robb Sonykc' K • a year ago
Correct. No resistor needed if you aren't using LEDs. If you plan to use a
 Correct. No resistor needed if you aren't using LEDs. If you plan to use a
potentiometer with built­in LEDs like the one in link, I would just double check
to see if it has a built­in resistor or requires one. Should have a data sheet on
the page for reference, but Mouser customer service is usually pretty helpful
too.
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Kyle Mohr > Guest • a year ago
That's awesome! Thanks for sharing.
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noxxi • a year ago
Also, I love the collection of random stuff in the top photo that has been turned into midi
controllers! so much creativity!
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Kyle Mohr > noxxi • a year ago
Thanks! Those were the first batch of controllers I made.
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noxxi • a year ago
Man, I wanted to do this article a while back, but this is far better than anything I would
have done. Excellent article, this is exactly what got me into DJTT back in the day,
this is like a return to roots!

Anyway for those Interested, this is the code I wrote for my custom controller, its for
the Arduino Mega 2560, connected to the Mayhew Labs Mux Sheild (original) (uses
cd74hc406 multiplexers, any 16 channel 4067 will work)

The code is very basic and unrefined, but easy to understand with instructions posted
throughout it, its for my controller, so trim it back and adjust it to suit yours. This is on
you though, I will not write the code for you, you should have a basic knowledge and
an ability to deduce how to set up the code for your application. Its not that difficult
really, just READ the pointers throughout the code.

Download Here:

Basic Arduino Midi Code, Debounced buttons, Leds and Pots/Faders
http://jmp.sh/v/7lnoASiJdmQlPS...
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Kyle Mohr > noxxi • a year ago
Thanks Noxxi!
Awesome of you to share the code you wrote. This is exactly what its about,
sharing our knowledge to make a better resource center and DJ community.
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noxxi > Kyle Mohr • a year ago
Thanks dude, love the variety of controllers you've made, I'm just about
to google you for more awesomeness!

Your 
right, though. I spent a good few years trawling the internet looking 
at pictures and sifting through code examples before I understood
enough
to give it a bash myself. It can be very off putting, especially for  
someone with limited time or someone who doesn't think they are smart
enough to learn it (even though they probably are). I for one would love
to see more home made creations, especially awesome looking ones.

So
here's mine, I couldn't resist showing it off! :D theres TONS more  
build pics as well, I was totally intending to make a build log for 
 build pics as well, I was totally intending to make a build log for 
either here or instructables or something.

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