Clearing out all v2.0 boards to make room for the soon to be available v2.1 boards!

MIDI Controller

• 2 octave polyphonic keyboard
• 8 drum buttons (programmable to transmit a MIDI CC or Note Number)
• 7 high quality Bourns conductive plastic potentiometers
• 7 slide potentiometers (Bourns PTA series)
• on-board thumbstick for pitch bend, modulation or assignable to any midi control change number
• 2 external ports for a full sized joystick or any other type of resistive (voltage divider) input
• octave up/down buttons
• modifier button to transpose by semitone when pressing octave up/down
• LCD with rotary encoder to navigate the user interface
• 4 digit seven segment display for the continuous controller values, octave +/- or transpose by semitone
• An actual 5 pin DIN connector to plug into synths or VSTs on PC with a USB to MIDI adapter
• powered by an inexpensive switch mode adapter
• "Advanced keyboard modes" which are basically a lot of music theory programmed into the microcontroller's firmware that make playing in a key, automatically generating chords, scales and modes easy

Specifications (V2.0 PCB):

• MIDI over USB (works in Windows, MacOS, Linux)
• USB power (no 5V adapter needed)

Why did you make it?

While learning music theory and researching a few different DAWs, I decided I needed to get a MIDI controller.

I took a look at some basic 2-4 octave controllers on the local music store's website. Seemed useful enough, until the challenge of making my own overwhelmed the convenience of buying and unboxing a store-bought one.

I made a one octave controller on a breadboard and started developing a firmware. I realized I could program into the firmware a lot of the chord/scale/key signature stuff I was learning.

Switching over to EasyEDA, now I was able to design a larger card than was possible on the free version of Eagle. The CAD and firmware are complete!

The "Advanced Keyboard Modes" automatically generate keys, scales, modes and chords including diatonic triads and seventh chords.