Hi everybody! I'm building a custom midi controller for NI Traktor Pro based on Arduino Mega. I need to have a front panel for my controller and i'm looking for the best an cheapest way to do it.
The front panel is about 254 x 305 mm, i still have to decide if i want to make it in alluminium or plastic, this also depends in part on the price. The panel will have about 150 holes (square holes and round holes) for buttons and pots and some engraving for text.
Do you guys have any suggestion who can make this work for me? I have this contact (http://www.schaeffer-ag.de) and the quality seems really high but looking to see if i can find something a little cheaper.
Ciao and thanks in advance for any suggestions. Ciao
Your project sounds interesting! The Arduino Mega is perfect for these types of projects.. Plenty of I/O, ram, program space and multiple serial ports!
We can cut sizes up to 300 x 600 mm in 3 or 5mm acrylic, so your custom panel won't be a problem. Schaeffer is very good at CNC machined frontpanels, but yeah.. they're quite expensive.. We came up with a dual layer faceplate design that will hide most fasteners from sight, but it's quite tricky to get everything right.. especially when using various types of components.
A custom panel of that size would cost about 30 ~ 35 euros for a single layer, 75 ~ 85 euros for a dual layer faceplate. Engraving is 10 euros extra per panel. Optionally I can also supply you with the required fasteners, spacers and we can countersink the top panel too..
Just send your drawings (EPS/PDF/AI/CDR/DWG/DXF) by e-mail so we can have a look: faceplates a.t. machinecollective d.o.t. org
