Category: Advanced

MiniDexed TX816 – Part 5 – Mechanical Assembly

Having now built the required PCBs and obtained a panel, this post starts to think about the actual mechanical assembly of the MiniDexed TX816. Posts in this series: Part 1: Introduction, context, and high-level design. Part 2: PCB design. Part 3: Panel design. Part 4: PCB assembly. Part 5: Mechanical assembly. Part 6: Pico MIDI … Continue reading MiniDexed TX816 – Part 5 – Mechanical Assembly →

MiniDexed TX816 – Part 4b – PCB Build Guide – IO Board

This is the second build guide, this time for the IO board.  The build guide for the Raspberry Pi Interface Board can be found here. Posts in this series: Part 1: Introduction, context, and high-level design. Part 2: PCB design. Part 3: Panel design. Part 4: PCB assembly. Part 5: Mechanical assembly. Part 6: Pico … Continue reading MiniDexed TX816 – Part 4b – PCB Build Guide – IO Board →

MiniDexed TX816 – Part 4a – PCB Build Guide – RPi Interface Board

I'm not going to do full build guides for the PCBs for this, but I will be documenting in high level terms how they are put together. There are two build guides, this one for the Raspberry Pi Interface board and a second one (4b) for the IO board. Posts in this series: Part 1: … Continue reading MiniDexed TX816 – Part 4a – PCB Build Guide – RPi Interface Board →

MiniDexed TX816 – Part 3 – Panel Design

One the things I really wanted to pay attention to for my MiniDexed TX816 was the panel itself.  Usually, my panels are a very "DIY, it'll do" affair but I want this one to at least make an attempt to capture some of the style of the original TX816. I looked at a range of options … Continue reading MiniDexed TX816 – Part 3 – Panel Design →

MiniDexed TX816 – Part 2 – PCB Design

As I mentioned in my introduction, I soon gave up trying to prototype a Raspberry Pi Pico based TX816 styled user interface for my MiniDexed using solderless breadboard.  It was just too unweildy, unreliable, and generally impractical.  Consequently, I've took a bit of a risk and jumped straight into designing some circuit boards for my … Continue reading MiniDexed TX816 – Part 2 – PCB Design →

Pico, Nano, Micro Keyboard Matrix PCB – Part 2

Here are the build notes for my Pico, Nano, Micro Keyboard Matrix PCB. https://youtu.be/AwFH8FZMkNE Warning! I strongly recommend using old or second hand equipment for your experiments.  I am not responsible for any damage to expensive instruments! These are the key Arduino tutorials for the main concepts used in this project: Keyboard Matrix Decode Toy Keyboard … Continue reading Pico, Nano, Micro Keyboard Matrix PCB – Part 2 →

Pico, Nano, Micro Keyboard Matrix PCB

A number of my projects have involved using a microcontroller (usually an Arduino Nano or a Raspberry Pi Pico) to decode a music keyboard matrix and take some action.  This is the basis of all of my "toy keyboard" MIDI controllers for example. This board is a "helper" PCB that makes the job a little … Continue reading Pico, Nano, Micro Keyboard Matrix PCB →