Integrated Keyboard Controller (IKC) DIY Project

State Machine · Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2010 5:00 pm Post subject:

Wow, George, great work. Very good to see an IKC controller based keyboard come to life. The panels, and the MOD section, are great to! Dan and I worked many weeks on this project. The funny thing is that some folks have been requesting complete IKC kits in the past two weeks (PCB and PARTS). Funny how something can be around for a couple years then suddenly people want to build them.

Would love to see more pictures as things progress.

BTW, controlling a 4 octave span (both over analog CV and MIDI NOTE NUMBERS) using analog LFO's is one of the more unique features of the IKC and one you don't see that much of in other designs.

Thanks for posting the pictures.

Bill

slo · Posted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 7:29 am Post subject:

New pic of my finished IKC controller

More over on the Appendage thread

http://www.electro-music.com/forum/post-307768.html#307768

George

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Dan Lavin · Posted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 3:42 pm Post subject:

javascript:emoticon(' Shocked

')javascript:emoticon(' Very Happy

')

Slo,

Dang! That turned out even better than your early pictures indicated! I think this is what Bill and I envisioned when putting this thing together. Thanks for sharing your picture!

slo · Posted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 5:54 pm Post subject:

Thanks Dan and thanks for yours and Bill's effort, your controller was a big inspiration to me, and the build doc's made it a lot easier. I don't think I'd do anything different with mine, it feels and operates just right with a ton of modulation possiblities in front of me.

George

State Machine · Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2010 5:52 am Post subject:

Oh my Slo !!!!!!!!! What can I say but wow!

!!!

I agree with Dan, this is certainly what he and I envisioned. I wish more folks saw the value in the project. We always believed it ranked as one of the top DIY controllers out there Wink

You have made my day sir !!!! Thanks so much for posing that.

Would love to see some pictures of how you mounted things inside your case.

Bill

slo · Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2010 8:16 am Post subject:

Thanks Bill and for all your help and parts for this project. The IKC I've built is divided at the rear of the keys into 3 sections. I don't have real good shots of the insides but these should give you some idea of how I built it. The left section holds the power supply, the bend circuit and the Choice PCB. The center section holds the IKC PCB, a power distibution bar and the rear panel. The right section holds the Appendage PCB. There was suprisingly lots of room and nothing is cramped back there. I was hoping I could get the geometry right to make the front panel pivot, but it didn't work out that way. The front panel are mounted to 2 long aluminum .5 inch angle, with movable separators.

George

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State Machine · Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2010 9:49 am Post subject:

Slo, thanks. If you were striving for a "vintage" analog keyboard look, you certainly met your goal. I am looking at the details of the cabinet. I am not very good at doing wood working and probably the reason why I have procrastinated in making the enclosure for my Appendage/IKC. I have some really nice GOLD anodized front panels I designed and had manufactured for it. I want to have it ready for EM 2011.

Which keybed is that one? A Fatar? Is it mounted on standoffs? Some details would be appreciated. Wink

Thanks for the pictures

Bill

slo · Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2010 12:16 pm Post subject:

The keyboard is out of a Yamaha keyboard, I rewired it to the needed matrix (this was the worst part), so no need for convertor board. No standoff's used, the keyboard had 5 mounting holes and I just made a bracket for the corner with no mount. I studied your gold Appendage panel a lot to get all the controls right for the Appendage, it's nice. As for woodworking skills, I'm no craftsman, I just used pressboard, covered it with vinyl and used some scrap oak from the delete bin at my local hardwood store. A good table saw comes in handy.

George

robinkle · Joined: Jul 06, 2011 Posts: 8 Location: Norway

Is this project still going on? I tried to contact the e-mail address in the pricelist. 24 hours no answer yet. Smile

State Machine · Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2011 7:17 am Post subject:

Yup, still active. I have plenty of boards, programmed chips, display boards, etc, on hand. It's vacation time for me, and for many here in the states, so i been away from computers for a while. I do believe I saw your mail and will respond next week. Thanks for your interest.

One question, had you downloaded the build manual? It will answer most of your questions but there are maybe some that may need clarification.

Thanks
Bill

robinkle · Joined: Jul 06, 2011 Posts: 8 Location: Norway

Argitoth · Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2011 1:31 am Post subject:

Is it possible to add an after touch to a DIY keyboard?

State Machine · Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2011 6:51 pm Post subject:

robinkle · Joined: Jul 06, 2011 Posts: 8 Location: Norway

I've been looking for a controler for a while now. I was hoping keyparts.co.uk
would give me a release date on the controller they are working on, it would be perfect for my DIY project.

The controller needs:
CV outputs that work with eurorack modular modules.
MIDI IN/OUT
Support for Fatar Keybeds, in my case a 37 key synth keybed.
Support for Mod wheels from fatar or other.

About my project:
I've made a Synth case with Room for a 37 key, keybed. And room for modwheels on the front panel plate, (left side of keybed area).
What I will do next is to buy Eurorack modules, remove their front plate,
and attach them all onto the frontpanel of the synth case, and then make
a nice frontpanel design with corel draw. It might look a bit like a Modular version of Prophet 5.

But I won't do anything more untill I can get my hands on a controller.
I know that Keyparts are making the controller with the exact features I need, but I they won't give me any reliable answer. It could be in 1 month or 5 years, before it's finished.

Hope anyone knows of any alternative out there.
One thing though, I don't know much about electronics.
But I managed to put together a MIDIBox FM synth with my soldering Iron.
So with a nice Build guide and parts in one package, I might be able to put it together myself if needed.

Smile

Robin

Argitoth · Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2012 8:54 pm Post subject:

I have a question about the possibilities of a DIY keyboard and just where these things stand in terms of level of difficulty or if even anyone has attempted it or not. I am going to assume that voltage is what the DIY keyboard is mainly for and midi is a secondary add on... Is it possible (realistically feasible for the average DIYer) to have a midi keyboard that outputs MIDI note OFF velocity aka release velocity?