#849

thank you! will try tomorrow

#850

They are. I actually resoldered mine to match the current standard so this wouldn’t keep happening, just haven’t updated the code yet.

1 Like
#851

20201213_011910
20201213_0119103024×3024 1.49 MB

it’s alive! gonna be honest the wiring on this kicked my ass. especially the wiring between the breakout and the teensy, was hard getting the wires the right length as not to bulge the case.

if anyone is curious, i ordered the case from ponoko with the order i posted earlier in the thread. it was around 70 dollars with the slowest shipping option which took about 3 weeks to get here. case fits together perfectly with 8mm standoffs.

still a little skeptical of my wiring so we will see how everything fares after extended use. overall tho super happy! excited to dive in to a whole new universe of scripts.

2 Likes
#852

finally bit the bullet and ordered parts for this. haven’t decided on/can’t afford an enclosure solution yet though…

for those who’ve built, how usable is the bare build without a case? i.e. I guess it works for testing, but would it be alright for a few weeks without a case… are the joined boards alone sturdy enough to move around? …or am I asking for trouble?

#853

The boards do stay flat and joined together if you do the soldering well. You can always put eg. a thick piece of thick cardboard underneath to protect the bottom of the PCBs.

So durability / basic functionality wise, there’s nothing stopping you from using the build without a case in a tidy home desk environment for a while.

The obvious issue / nuisance is, that as long as you don’t have any kind of front panel, all the 4x4 silicone button grids on top will be loose - even though they slot into the key holes in the PCBs. They’re going to be much less precise and fun to use without a proper “shim” or a thick front panel, as they are quite high and wobble around a bit when pressed (and bleed light to adjacent buttons somewhat). Plus when you forget they aren’t really attached and move the unit around, they drop off and have to you’ll curse a bit and put them back again. (Happened to me a couple of times when I was thinking of something else)

So while it’s not ideal, it’ll definitely work and you can use the DIY grid until you can get the funds together for a case of some sort.

(Edit: with the disclaimer that I’m not very OCD at all, if you find yourself often getting frustrated about details and things being a bit clunky and working in much less than ideal way, then it could be a problem…)

1 Like
#854

if we decide to use this USB type C breakout board https://www.adafruit.com/product/4090
do we only use the 4 connections as for the micro usb?
I mean:
GND -> GND
D+ -> D+
D- -> D-
5V -> VBUS
?

Or should we use anything else?

#855

it was this and is working perfectly, thank you :wink:

#856

that’s a good question, if it works with usb c i’m changing my port right now

#857

That should be correct. I’ve not tried it as yet.

1 Like
#858

@okyeron man, sorry to bother you again but my ability to visualize space is not my strongest skill:

If we want to flip the USB from one side of the enclosure to the other, do we have to flip any part of the enclosure designs (the ai files on the repo) or we just flip the acrylic pieces after cutting?

I mean, the design as it is, allows to mount the USB to any of the side? :thinking:

#859

Depends on if the acrylic has a “surface” (like the matte finish stuff I use). If so usually only the top plate matters and that does not have “orientation” so no problem. Bottom plate you’d want to flip/mirror-horizontal in illustrator.

If not I think you can probably just flip the physical pieces.

1 Like
#860

(assuming the same finish for both faces)

I was trying to measure and the STEMMA socket is not equally distant from each edge of the board.

I think it means I have to flip some parts of the design in illustrator.

I’ll probably spend a little more time to get my head around this and post if I come to a better conclusion :slight_smile:

Thanks!

#861

Oh yeah - maybe it’s not that simple.

If you have illustrator I could probably send you a work file with the board component positions.

2 Likes
#862

Yes, I have illustrator so that would be super awesome !

#863

Finally i can play cheat codes properly!
This duo is magic :wink:

IMG_20201220_154131
IMG_20201220_1541315312×2988 1.59 MB

7 Likes
#864

NeoMonome all working happy with Norns and on OS X… but nothing showing up (on Max) in Windows 10 with latest serialosc :frowning:

#865

“a solution i (sortof) like is a 2hp module that is a usb host and communicates to tt/etc via ii. this way you could just stack up more modules.”

I just created a little box, connected via TxB II-bus expander, to use my DIY Grid with the Teletype at the same time. It is actually quite simple, and works with the stock Grid as well:

2 Likes
#866

has anyone else experienced inadvertent key activation with their NeoTrellis?

after seeing this thread i got excited about the prospect of using the NeoTrellis for a mini-grid or at least an interesting midi controller. i got one a couple months ago but i finally hooked everything up last night. after putting on some basic code (no monome-code or norns attachment yet) i found that i’m getting a weird problem: pressing a single key will randomly activate a bunch of other keys in the same “row”.

here’s a video of what i mean:

and here’s the code that i’m running for that video:

import time
from board import SCL, SDA
import busio
from adafruit_neotrellis.neotrellis import NeoTrellis

# create the i2c object for the trellis
i2c_bus = busio.I2C(SCL, SDA)
# create the trellis
trellis = NeoTrellis(i2c_bus)
# color definitions
ORANGE = (30, 20, 0)
WHITE = (5, 5, 6)

# this will be called when button events are received
def trigger(event):
    if event.edge == NeoTrellis.EDGE_RISING:
        trellis.pixels[event.number] = ORANGE
    elif event.edge == NeoTrellis.EDGE_FALLING:
        trellis.pixels[event.number] = WHITE

# startup
for i in range(16):
    trellis.activate_key(i, NeoTrellis.EDGE_RISING)
    trellis.activate_key(i, NeoTrellis.EDGE_FALLING)
    trellis.callbacks[i] = trigger
    trellis.pixels[i] = WHITE
    time.sleep(.02)

while True:
    # call the sync function call any triggered callbacks
    trellis.sync()
    # the trellis can only be read every 17 milliseconds or so
    time.sleep(.02)

i thought maybe the lid was too tight, but i get the same problem when i take off the enclosure. any advice would be greatly appreciated.

#867

I think it was mentioned in some other discussion here - having the silicone buttons protrude a lot makes it easy to press the buttons in slight angle, which causes (I assume!) the whole 4x4 pad to move (or stretch?) a bit and cause mistriggers like that. In any case, you’re not the only one with that problem.

The solution seems to use a thicker / multi-layer front panel (like in Okyeron’s case design) and everything sandwiched tight, so that when you press the button, the 4x4 silicone pad assembly doesn’t move, and the button you press gets pressed straight down with minimum lateral wobble.

1 Like
#868

I had a similar problem with my diy grid. I carefully isolated the problem and came to the conclusion @kbra mentioned. Since the button contacts are relatively close to the surface of the pcbs, force on a single button with a faceplate on top can be distributed across the entire silicon piece causing unwanted triggers. my solution was more clearance between the base of the buttons and the panel, but different configurations would definitely require different solutions.

1 Like