Monome 40h Kits

[Mesmer]

One Day, I'll have as many posts as Nebulae.
And I'll be as been-there-done-that as the Hoff2k
And i'll be invulnerable, except for kriptonite, like Machinate
And generous like the Phat Conductor
And all 180BPM, that's heartbeats per minute, like ToneDeft.
And tastefully latino sometimes like monosilabyk and aqua_tek

And all the other great poeple.
This is the thread that made me cross-over (no more lurking).
Hello World.
-h

[kabuki]

One Day, I'll have as many posts as Nebulae.
And I'll be as been-there-done-that as the Hoff2k
And i'll be invulnerable, except for kriptonite, like Machinate
And generous like the Phat Conductor
And all 180BPM, that's heartbeats per minute, like ToneDeft.
And tastefully latino sometimes like monosilabyk and aqua_tek

And all the other great poeple.
This is the thread that made me cross-over (no more lurking).
Hello World.
-h

Hola.

[Mesmer]

Regarding the Diodes:

These are going to be 64: one for each LED. It's a simple tiny component, most commonly like a Resistor in form, but slimmer and shorter. You'll need to solder one of it's legs to one of the legs of each LED. The Instructions should make that really clear. There's not much dificulty there, save maybe the size, and of course looking at some kind of visual marker that let's you know which way to plug it down.

Regarding the "swithces" for the button:

I had the same question. Even after my sparkfun buttons arrived. Had to double check with the site. Go to their site, now. http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/produc ... ts_id=7835
Each keypad pad (err, white rubber cube) in the array comes with a conductive black ring in their bottom face. This way the rubber cube can sit above, without touching, some sort of interruptor-like wired-on material. This is complicated wording to say that some conductive wiring has been drawn in the PCB such that they almost touch, but not quite. If they would touch, they would send the microcontroller an "ON", Here "1" signal. But they are not touching so they are almost always sending "0", "OFF". But then comes your big sweaty gordito finger and pushes the rubber cube directly above, which brings down the conductive ring. The ring makes contact with the "interruptor" stuff I was just describing, in effect "shorting" or making the almost-touching-but-not-therefore-open-sending-off-zero-signal Touch. Now that their path has been bridged momentaily like that, they'll go on to send your "ON" and you'll have those blinky lights and software interaction you're drooling over.


Best Regards

[John Sweet]

The idea that I could add 2 big optical jog wheels to a custom Monome is crazy.

Would there be any more mods required to build it using light-up arcade buttons?

[Tone Deft]

What does THIS mean?

From the Monome Site, regarding the kit...

"the keypad kit does require you to solder surface mount diodes. these diodes are included in the kit. orientation is very important, do not solder them on backwards."

I wonder how many they are talking about...

Yeah, that caught my attention too. I think they misworded it and were referring to the diodes to prevent 'ghosting', as opposed to the LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes.)
http://www.dribin.org/dave/keyboard/html/ghosting.html

The LEDs (light emitting diodes) are through hole and go in to holes in the PCB, but you can also put a surface mount LED between the holes if you're so inclined.

So, the diodes are included, the LEDs are not.

Diodes have positive and negative ends so you have to solder them the right way, good news is that unlike LEDs you will not break them my wiring them in backwards.

Would there be any more mods required to build it using light-up arcade buttons?

Completely possible and simple. There are 4 leftover connections to the microcontroller that are programmed to be inputs, wire a button to one of those connections. One side of the button goes to one of those leftover pins, put a 10k resistor (pullup resistor) at that connection to any 5V spot on the boards, put the other side of the button to ground. When you push the button you're grounding the connection in the uC, when you let go of the button it's not connected to ground but pulled up to 5V by the pullup resistor. If the resistor wasn't there it would be 'floating' IOW not ground, not 5V. There's also a connection for the light in the button, that's up to the button but it'll probably light up depending on the value of the 'pullup resistor'. We can mess with that when you get the button and a spec sheet for it.

Have you estimated now how much
it would cost to build an 8x8 now, assuming mono chromatic LEDs.
Any estimates on a top plate and enclosure? I am trying to pin down
what would be my actual cost.

I have no clue and this will cost different for everyone. Look around you in the next few days for anything that might be hacked into a case, look in your town for places that do plastics or sheet metal. This part is totally up to you, I can say that it will be under $750. If you have any doubts whether or not you can afford it, buy it before you talk yourself out of it.

As for the XY pad, 95% chance of success, find a spec sheet for one and I can help you decipher it or just buy the part and try it.

Can anyone tell if the Keypad kit includes the Buttons

Like Mesmer wrote, the buttons are the switches, each has a conductive piece of metal in them (the black circle) that you push on to short the copper in the PCB beneath them.

[kabuki]

Here's my Mod Idea


I think we are limited to the energy consumptiuon of the components, Mr.Sweet.

[John Sweet]

I was actually thinking of an 8x8 grid of light-up arcade buttons. Bummer.

The idea of throwing a Doepfer controller in the same enclosure really gets me thinking.

[hoffman2k]

Nifty illusion. Find the lightblue blue dots

[tjwett]

so now i don't know what to do. shell out $800 for the SE and get rockin right away or spend a month making my retarded brain trudge through the DIY kit? that accelerometer sounds TITS. definitely want the 8x8 for the size. are they offering the accelerometer in kit form?

[Tone Deft]

Crazy illusion...

John - it's still possible to put more buttons down. There are 4 connections to work with, but that doesn't mean only 4 buttons.

It means 2^4 = 16 buttons.

Put down 16 buttons, wire them into a chip that turns 16 inputs and codes the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6... 16 into
0001
0010
0011
0100
0101
etc.

There are 8 to 3 encoders like the 74LS348, if you want 16 you'll have to do some logic trickery. I can help with that in time.


I believe the 40h is mostly maxed out with power, I image there's enough margin leftover to power most things you can tie to those 4 left over pins.
It's really simple to make this powered from the wall.

Getting more power by plugging it into the wall is simple...
The 78L05 chip
http://www.national.com/pf/LM/LM78L05.html
Is super common and cheap. Solder its output to a 5V connection on the design and connect the input to a typical wall wart, up to like 40V. The 78L05 takes whatever DC input and converts it to 5V. You just need to add a few capacitors around it so it doesn't oscillate. USB bus power is maxed at 500mA so you'd want a wall wart larger than that, probably 1A, 12V. The voltage rating is irrelevant as long as it's more than 5V. The 78L05 spec sheet will tell you what input voltage is acceptable. **I'd want to search the web for tips on connecting external power to a USB bus first (I can do that.)** I'm sure there's tips out there, no biggie.

Again, more on this later as it becomes relevant.


This is great with all the ideas!!

[trip_out]

Getting more power by plugging it into the wall is simple...
The 78L05 chip
http://www.national.com/pf/LM/LM78L05.html
Is super common and cheap. Solder its output to a 5V connection on the design and connect the input to a typical wall wart, up to like 40V.

That'll be pretty hot!!

[Pantytec]

I don't have the time. Who could build a simple Sparkfun 4x4 = 16 rubber chicklet unit for me?

And how much?

[Mesmer]

No Tone Deft,
I think he means the arcade buttons instead of the normal nome keypads. If that's the case then you don't really need to be jumping through hoops to make it work... you'll have all the other inputs regularly used for the same purpose at your disposa. You'll get the same 4 free to make that joystick or whatever else you wan'na throw in there.

Am I right or what, John Sweet?

Maybe there'll be some issue with garnering enough for the powerup of the lighting device inside the arcade-pushbutton. That would be my biggest worry. Matter of fact, I am starting to beleive I purchased the wrong leds .. I became temporarily impaired by the emotions of this announcement and purchased a "superBright" brand.... I am going on to re read the recent write-up but I think it's bad. On the other hand, If you are already going for externally powered stuff, like the non-bus-powered tri-color LED thing of the Tone Deft, then maybe I'll be able to sell them to you, since power is not an issue.

Alls well!

See ya, kabuki cookie!

[apalomba]

This is what I have in mind...

[Mesmer]

Just an update:
"Super Bright" LED are okay:

From the write-up @ monome.org

Code: Select all

be cautious with your led purchase! some leds may not work with the circuitry because they require a high forward voltage ([b]the driver supports up to 3.5v[/b], take a moment to select an iset resistor according to your leds—see the max7221 datasheet, p11.)

From Sparkfun's SuperBright LEDs Description:

Code: Select all

Standard Size - T1 3/4 5mm 
3.4V forward drop
Max current 20mA 
Luminosity @ 20mA: 
Blue : 4000mcd 

I guess I am ok ... Barely!
formatting - edit =/