After some compromising due to budget (I suppose this plagues a lot of us DIY folks, at times), the flood panels have been put on hold. However, this resulted in forcing me to re-think how I was approaching this project and relatively simplify the mechanics of it a bit more, ideally reducing future headaches. The Synth-Station, previously running off the RPi/Arduino duo, now uses only the Arduino and simply listens for commands over serial. The Synth-Station will later be able to be controlled from the main system, for off-stage management and to allow the synth player to focus on what they're playing, rather than selecting the proper lighting routine for x-song). So now, said Arduino is commanded by a Python script that sniffs the messages coming from the MIDI controller (being used by FL Studio for live synth generation) and reacts accordingly as the script determines if each note is to trigger a light or sequence.

Once I had colored the "Back-Bone" channel LED strips black (Yay for Sharpie ghetto-art!), I then changed the shelves' connector out from tedious terminal blocks to relatively convenient D-SUB 9 connectors for improved modular functionality and connection flexibility/stability. Yea, having to unscrew 4 terminal blocks from each shelf just to allow the shelves to be removed for easier storage and transport was quite cumbersome, time-consuming and annoying. For the needs of this component, terminal blocks were clearly not the great idea I thought they were. However, D-SUB casings filled with hot glue have proven to be much more reliable for making a secure and easily-removable connection.

Now, with the guts all nicely glued (at least as well as they can be) into the container, this component only needs some more automation routine programming and it will be the first finished piece of this new system... Yay!