It just went together

[vandenmar]

Just finished my build and thought I'd share my experience. All in all it went together just fine, with a couple little mishaps here and there (Like soldering the volume pot on the other side  ) I used the 1590J enclosure and I cut the openings with a drill, a jeweler's coping saw and some flat files. Took a little elbow grease but I thought it went easier than I initially expected. The aluminum of the enclosure while being appropriately thick, it's soft enough to cut and drill quite easily.
For extra input (and extra fun) I added an expression pedal input. I got the Moog EP-3 (https://amzn.to/3CP2AQ5) expression pedal form Amazon. It has two different modes, and I ended up using it in Other mode to work the best. Took a bit of digging to figure out how it's wired, but to save you some time, here's what I needed to know about the jack's wiring: the tip is the fader, the ring is the + voltage and the sleeve is the ground. I measured the voltage and it's not quite like your plain pot, the voltage drops about to half, so you'll need to adjust the MIDI range - but it works just fine and it's mighty fun to have as an added way to modify the effects.
I used some Moog knobs (https://amzn.to/3odrzJ8) because if you ask me, no knob will ever look better than those!
Started playing around with the synths by hooking it up to a midi controller keyboard and it's really cool. There's a whole new world of possibilities to explore!

[Randall (Admin)]

Super Awesome Build!

Nice job also on your expression pedal sleuthing.  It is a shame there's no industry standard for expression pedals.  To save others some headaches, I just added some tips and suggestions to the Customization guide:

https://www.treefallsound.com/wiki/doku.php?id=customization_guide

One thing you might want to pay attention to is the suggestion to ground your tip-switch if your jack has one.  Otherwise that analog input will float when the expression jack has no pedal plugged into it.  You can see if you're wasting CPU cycles sending spurious MIDI messages, by running mod-ala-pi-stomp in debug mode:
ssh patch@patchbox.local
ps-stop
ps-run -l debug

That'll show the MIDI messages being sent.  If it's sending MIDI for that input with no exp pedal plugged in, you're wasting CPU.  Restart mod-ala-pi-stomp without debug with:
ps-restart

[vandenmar]

Thank you for these super useful tips and the doc expansions!

[vandenmar]

The expression input did indeed float around and sent 0-2 midi signals so the grounding solved it. Thank you for the suggestions!
I also went ahead and 3D printed a friction fit screen edge cover for a more polished look. I have to figure out labeling next...

[Randall (Admin)]

That's awesome!  I don't have a 3D printer so was considering contracting someone to create such a bezel.  Those would lower the precision bar for those less skilled at cutting a perfect rectangle.  If you'd be interested in making/selling those, let me know.

[vandenmar]

Made a couple first iteration labels on the 3d printer. Might go smaller for the next round.
Regarding the screen bezels, I don't think I'd have the capability to produce them, however I could upload my design to Thingiverse so anyone with a 3D printer can print it themselves. This current one is sized exactly to the already cut opening so it would fit without glue or anything on mine, but I will create a more standard version to be shared next. It's a super easy print, takes only like 10 minutes to print and uses a very small amount of filament.

[Randall (Admin)]

Love the labels too!  You keep making me think maybe I Should get a 3D printer.  That would be awesome if you would share your bezel design.  Myself and probably others would be quite grateful.  You probably had to oversize your enclosure cutout compared to the CAD drawings on the Wiki (47mm x 35.7mm), right? 

[vandenmar]

I couldn't recommend a 3D printer more! It opens up a whole new world of possibilities! I highly recommend the Prusa MK3S+, I had mine for years now and I couldn't be happier with it. There's also a bunch of cheaper ones around the $200 price range, which is also a good start, but the Prusa is just so much more reliable and easier to use. The kit version is a great way to understand the innards of the machine while also saving money.

I haven't really adjusted the cut because the inside of the bezel is only 0.4mm thick so it didn't really cover much of the screen at all. Will share the cad file and print files later today.

[vandenmar]

Here's the STL file for the screen bezel: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4982241

[Randall (Admin)]

That's awesome!  Thanks so much for creating that and sharing it!