The mini µmixctrlr plan

the mini µmixctrlr is taking shape. by lack of a project box at hand.. roll your own box. keep it simple was a given to use discarded tech is a must in this age of resource shortages. to the chagrin of the maker community and even large companies that have been experiencing this low supply of resources for years. thus, i got to it. a quick working proto type is almost finished, just the 5 potholes need to be drilled and the two mouse button knobs extended to the top of the board by extending the buttons with some piece of plastic tube to switch them. a nice overlay with markings in a dxf file to cover the top. the faders and extra control pots are multiplexed spi or i2c and connect to the mouse usb sensor and hid device next week. the mini is all part of the touch screen bigger one i designed in freecad. double fader blocks easily integrated by adding an extra connection board in between them. thus making the two fader blocks extendable to how many you could need for your own midi ctrl mixerboard. this version fits nicely on any ones home studio desk. the design of the sides is such that a one cm block extends inward with a some sort of plastic ribbon strong enough to withstand a day in the gig bag and keep moisture out. the blocks inside hold the pcb down in place and support the entire construction. thus saving on materials like fasteners etc. rollin on a budget should spark invention and smarter design. this project is meant to be easily build by other #diymusicians and #opensourcehardware is at the core of my ideas and plans going forward. all will be put in github hackaday.io with docs and code. demo of the daw controller will go onto the aliendnatronics youtube channel. but for now.... a happy holiday weekend all.

Description : Serial usb mouse pcb inbetween 2 faders with three buttons and scroll for midi ctrl assigning. For use with any DAW

BOM:

2 faders

2 fader knobs

1 usb serial Mouse

2 proto boards to fasten and run xtra wires to and from

1 avr attiny85

2 top and bottom plates 86 mm x 139 mm of any sturdy material pvc wood metal

4 fasteners

8 nuts and washers

form: fader to fader clearance +470mm depending on the stripped mouse pcb.

functions : scroll wheel+ButM ButL ButR

pro’s : easy to find a discarded USB mouse at home adds a private address to be connected through i2c

cons :

This two fader mini version controller is a pre to the full daw controller designed in freecad and described in this project

a touch screen is part of the bigger project for this project screen "add-on" 

The MIO GPS convertion plan

Converting an old car GPS system as a touch screen controller seemed like a great idea. The growing shortage of source materials and the growing chip shortages. Up-scaling old hardware to usable new ones.

Together with an extra stm32 Bluepill or attiny  and i2c or spi for faster io functions to the knobs and faders. my home studio needed a Midi controller board. True, many store bought options are available, at not too steep prices. Although making one yourself is not an impossible task.

An old year 2000 model Mio 200 ns206 touchscreen GPS adapted to Android Pie OS serves the job at hand. Donated by a friend the GPS system falls just nicely into the 33x25 cm mixing console top setup.  android studio ide can be downloaded for this purpose.

Yakumo Mio DigiWalker Sync in # lsusb

mio_getRegionData(): KernelIoControl(IOCT
L_MIO_SYS_GET_REGION_DATA) returned 456
mio_getRegionData(): Region: HW Type = Cobia_300_32
mio_getRegionData(): Region: Display = Mio
mio_getRegionData(): Region: Project code = N206
mio_getRegionData(): Region: SKU ID = 9601
mio_getRegionData(): Region: Map version =
mio_getRegionData(): Region: Map region =
mio_getRegionData(): Region: LCID = 0x809
mio_getRegionData(): Region: Version = 0x2
sys_getHardwareVersion(): KernelIoControl(IOCTL_HAL_READ_HW_VERSION) returned 100

updating from WinCE5 to android Pie

+Insert Pic layout of the board+

Android studio was installed on an Arch based 64bit OS. The IDE program will give debug and other ease of use functions eg. profiling the system and touchscreen GUI . Storage on the GPS device is around 1 gb and further expansion is possible through an onboard mmc slot . Currently the MMC card of 32 mb is for mixer setup templates in txt format xml, the smallish storage for this task will suffice.

The faders and knobs are recycled from an old heavy 80s out of use broken 16x4x2 soundmixer board. 10 K ohm resistance is always best when working with controller chips like atmega368p or STM32F series dev boards.

The 24 Potentiometers are 10 K ohm each. 3 Led s over each fader channel give notification of channel switches or different mixer modes. These modes are selected on the control center adapted MIO by touchscreen. In menu mode you can select separate fader groups to make mixing a song through your DAW a breeze. First the thought to use switches or buttons for mode switching occurred. Soon this idea got dismissed because it adds to hardware cost and pin IO complexity.

One potentiometer of each fader channel can be selected left right panning. One encoder is used for jog shuttle mode or fast selecting modes. Multi function buttons on most controllers or fx pedals give a sort of unhealthy detachment or abstraction distraction while creating sounds. A punch in, play, rec buttons are included on screen in full daw mode.