2020/11/14 19:23
13/15
MIDIbox Quad Genesis: Front Panel
MIDIbox - http://www.midibox.org/dokuwiki/
need lots of extras. For the LED pipes, because they are friction-fit, buy at least double the
number you will need; and for the buttons, at least 20 extra or so.
The total cost to have these items printed should be roughly $20-$30 plus shipping. If someone
is trying to charge you more than that, either there's an issue (like they got the scale wrong and
think you want giant-sized parts), or they're trying to gyp you. If you try to get these printed
by a commercial service (e.g. Ponoko), they will charge a minimum of $1 per part and
the result will be prohibitively expensive! Have them printed by a real person instead,
either a friend with a 3D printer or possibly someone from the RepRap forums.
Things You Need to Tell the Person Printing Them
The scale in the STL files is 1 INCH, not 1 mm. The buttons should be about 1/2“ or 12mm wide.
(This is not intended as an engineering dimension, just as a sanity check–use the actual
dimensions in the file.)
Either ABS or PLA transparent filament should work. I had the guy who made them for me do
tests with both, and I liked the light-up appearance of the ABS better but the “off” appearance
of the PLA better. But they were pretty similar.
I had the guy who made them for me do tests with different fill rates, and if I remember
correctly around 10% fill worked best. 100% fill would be needlessly expensive and would dim
the LEDs.
The buttons need to be printed with the flanges and the cutout down, and the beveled
rectangular surface up. The LED pipes need to be printed with the flat surface down and the
crown-shaped end up.
Downloads
(You must be logged in with your MIDIbox Forum account to access the downloads)
Assembly Guide
Once you have your front panel PCB, your aluminum front panel, and all the other parts, here's some
tips for the assembly process.
Begin by soldering all the SMD shift registers and resistor packs. The pads aren't very big (if I
1.
had known, I would have made them bigger…), and I had a lot of issues with bad connections
because a leg which looked soldered wasn't actually attached. If you have access to solder
paste and a heat gun, use that. If not, apply solder to two corner pads on the board, place the
chip on and melt those two legs into the solder to connect them. Adjust the position so that all
the pins line up correctly. Then solder the rest of the legs, making sure to press down firmly
with the iron on each leg just before applying the solder, in hopes that the leg will conduct heat
to the copper and then when you apply the solder it will flow across the two.
Solder the diodes, the two discrete resistors, the through-hole resistor packs, and the ceramic
2.
capacitors.
Solder all the tactile switches. Only solder two pins of each switch to start, and make
3.
