midiMixerV1: Add writeup on the midiMixer v1.
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content/projects/midiMixerV1.md
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content/projects/midiMixerV1.md
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---
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title: "midiMixer - A simple Arduino powered MIDI potentiometer bank"
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date: "2020-05-06"
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author: "William Floyd"
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featured_image: "/images/reduced/midiMixer/v1/20200506_152408.jpg"
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categories: [
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"Hardware",
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"PCB",
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"Electronics"
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]
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tags: [
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"3D Printing",
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"SolidWorks",
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"KiCAD",
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"Hobby"
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]
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---
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This is nothing too special really - I wanted to try my hand at designing a custom PCB and assembling a device from scratch.
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[GitHub for this project.](https://github.com/W-Floyd/midiMixer)
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***
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This story actually starts a while ago (perhaps 2015), when I got the desire to build a DJ control panel (with no knowledge of how to get into it).
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This never really happened, but it did lead me to get to know some DAW software, and experiment with it off and on.
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But in the back of my head I still wanted to build some hardware to help with this.
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***
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This eventually came about in the summer of 2019, when I finally hand-wired a simple 8 knob control surface.
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Truth be told, I actually built two.
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The [first one](/images/reduces/midiMixer/handwired/20190811_005806.jpg) had some issues (I wonder why...?), and would sporadically jitter values.
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The [second one](/images/reduces/midiMixer/handwired/20190812_181606.jpg) worked correctly, having been [wired](/images/reduces/midiMixer/handwired/20190811_195900.jpg) much more [carefully](/images/reduces/midiMixer/handwired/20190811_200447.jpg).
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Still, it was lacing professionalism, polish, and most importantly, robustness.
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The sandwich of 22AWG wire, cardstock and PCB was less than sturdy, so I promptly packed it away and never used it.
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Around this time also, I tried very briefly to learn how to use KiCAD, but didn't get far at all.
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This would come to change, however, in April of 2020.
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***
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Fast forward close to a year, and things have changed - toilet paper is the currency of the quickly collapsing world, and I'm back with my grandparents for the remainder of my semester (which, as of writing, is all but concluded).
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Finding my lack of a social life leaving me with a little bit more free time, and being home yielding a *lot* more distractions, I learned the basics of KiCAD from YouTube, and set out to design a simple PCB.
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My old MIDI controller project came to mind, so I set myself to it, and within a few days had my first Gerber files sent off to JLCPCB.
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In reality, I should have waited a bit and done a couple more design iterations before committing, but I guess $7 is the price of impatience.
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So it was that my crisp PCBs showed up 3 weeks later - I had one assembled within the hour, and my old code dusted off and flashed within two hours.
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It's really as simple as it gets - a [Pro Micro](/images/reduces/midiMixer/v1/20200506_152023.jpg) hooked up to a [4051 analogue multiplexer](/images/reduces/midiMixer/v1/20200506_152016.jpg), hooked up to 8 potentiometers.
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The potentiometers I had on hand ended up being a bit different than the footprints I had used, so I ended up having to clip the mounting tabs off of them.
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This, as one might imagine, made them extraordinarily flimsy, so I designed and printed a couple clamps to [align](/images/reduces/midiMixer/v1/20200506_151947.jpg) and [hold solid](/images/reduces/midiMixer/v1/20200506_152003.jpg) the potentiometers.
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These also have the added benefit of keeping the soldered pins off of whatever surface the mixer is on.
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Should the correct potentiometers be used, these would not be needed, though some feet or a case for the PCB would still be best.
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***
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This being my first PCB design, I am quite happy it worked out so well - I am studying for Mechanical Engineering, not Electrical...
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However, I see room for improvement.
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The potentiometers are too close together, and the rows are too far apart.
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The knobs barely clear the Arduino, and the Arduino is mounted far higher off the PCB than I would like.
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I see myself making a v2 in due course - perhaps next time I will try JLCPCB's SMT assembly?
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I imagine adding indicator LEDs, improving the layout, and adding a button to switch between banks would make this much more useful.
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