From benjamin.kuris@hp.com Mon Feb 09 07:51:49 2004
Subject:Re: Chopped controller project works!

I've gotten pretty far on this project, in fact I gave it a test
drive at rehersal yestereday-- I had to tweak a few keys which stuck
on but otherwise it worked flawlessly. Feel is great, but the
limitations of a lack of bus bars are apparant when it comes to
machinegun trills (I tested both w/my V5 and B4 as soundsource to
eliminate USB midi latency as a problem). I don't have a scale, but
it is light enough to carry under 1 arm-- 20-30lbs is my guess. That
was for keys+rails+frame+bottom wood (no real cabinet)

I decided on 61 keys, cut the metal rails to size and installed the
fatar contact boards under the keys on top of a plastic spacer. I
also had to drill some extra holes in the "hammond" nameplate. At
first I overtighted and shattered a few diodes (glass) on the fatar
PCB (which means certain keys didn't work) but it was easy enough to
replace those. Since the key assembly is quite rigid (wood + metal
rails) I went minimal for the bottom wood-- just 1/4" birch plywood.

Tonight I hope to make progress on the cabinetry-- I'm going to go
w/the approach of makeing a U-shapped wood assembly which will be the
top and sides. I'll mount the fatar electronics, and possibly a
power strip on that. I'll also figure out some way to make a
folding/removeable support shelf for my V5 drawbars.

With any luck I can debut the whole thing at a gig on the 18th.

-Ben