Late 2021: Schematic & PCB Design

The project kicked off in September 2021. I started by mapping out every pin on the Teensy 3.5 and designing the schematic in Fusion 360's eCAD design tool. Each of the 24 buttons gets its own switch circuit with an LED driven through a current-limiting resistor, plus 16 analog inputs for the knobs and sliders. The Teensy sits on a pair of headers at the edge of the board. From there, I moved into PCB layout, routing all 64+ connections on a single board. Routing the bottom Teensy pins was the fun part. I went with a castellated hole approach so I could easily solder all the pins. 

October 2021 - December 2021: First Sprint, PCB, Firmware, Enclosure design

Once the schematic was done I started on firmware while waiting for boards from Seeed Studio. Got basic I/O working in late November but got distracted. I had also started designing the enclosure. I started with by designing a dummy/solid model so I could refine the industrial design, then moved on to some detail design. Although it's not a requirement for 3D printing, I've try to design enclosures as if they might be injection molded. I find it a bit of a challenge and I think it honestly looks pretty cool.

2023–2025: No Progress

Life happened and the project sat on a shelf for a while. I spent most of this time busy with home renovations so personal projects didn't really take priority. I had some loose ends to tie up with the enclosure and the firmware. My Voron had also been having issues and I didn't have the patience to troubleshoot it.

February 2026: Picking It Back Up

I've been motivated to finally finish this, using Claude Code to help wrap up the firmware. The Teensy 3.5 is pretty much deprecated at this point, but the code should port to a Teensy 4.1 without too much trouble, mostly pin remapping. For now the goal is to get the existing hardware fully functional and playing nicely with Ableton (and hopefully Logic too). I've also finally had the patience to calibrate my Voron (again thanks to troubleshooting help from AI). I've also had some aesthetic design reconsiderations after stumbling upon @Moonshake3d's renderings (check them out https://www.instagram.com/moonshake3d/?hl=en).

Febuary 11, 2026: At this moment, I'm currently 3D printing this new design in my Voron, wish me luck! I hope to wrap this up soon!