<p>I got this Novation Launchpad Mini on eBay a while ago and have just got around to getting it apart to see whats wrong. The item was marked as not working so I messaged the seller to find out what is wrong with it. Ends up the USB had just come loose. Knowing that I&nbsp;could probably fix it I and use it, I&nbsp;brought it a lot cheaper than a new or even a used one.<br>
The problem with the controller was that the USB had become ripped off the PCB. If it was any other type of USB it would have been easier but since it was a micro USB it was very hard to trace back the tracks and soldering a new USB to the board. I tried a few times and could not get it to connect. I used a different type of USB to find it the controller it self-was working and it was. Then went back on to soldering the micro USB. After a while of&nbsp;procrastination from studying for my exams, I got it working. I mounted it back into place and reassembled it and now works very well.<br>
I hope that it does not fail again. If it does&nbsp;I&nbsp;will probably convert the controller into something else. I would like to find out what the gold pin tabs do.</p>
<p><strong>do you have a Launchpad?</strong><br>
I get a lot of questions about this repair and if I would walk through how I did it. I want to get another Launchpad or other broken equipment to make a video and teach you how to fix them. If you have broken Launchpad or other equipment <a href="https://tinkersprojects.com/about/#contact">contact me here</a>.</p>

Novation Launchpad Mini Repair

<p>I have always&nbsp;wanted&nbsp;to have a look at the inside of the S4 controller to see what it is like. Other people online&nbsp;have to open them before but&nbsp;it's&nbsp;not the same. Originally the S4 is about $700 but I had found a broken one on eBay and got it to try and fix it. Scratches were all over the controller. For about 2 months it was living under my bed, waiting to be fixed.<br>
The other day&nbsp;I&nbsp;had enough time to look at it and open it up. Before&nbsp;opening, I&nbsp;powered it up to&nbsp;test&nbsp;it to see what would happen. When&nbsp;I&nbsp;put USB cable in, it just pushed straight through. The USB connector had pushed part and snapped the pins. There was no way of powering it and finding other problems without this. As&nbsp;I&nbsp;was unscrewing,&nbsp;I&nbsp;noticed there&nbsp;were&nbsp;a few screws missing and when&nbsp;I&nbsp;opened it there was a bit of crap inside but was pretty clean. It&nbsp;looks&nbsp;like someone tried to fix it but was overwhelmed when they opened it.<br>
It took me a while to unsolder the USB from the board and replaced it but when I finished it and powered it, it connected to the computer after a while but did not turn on. After looking for more damage on the boards and testing voltage and signals, it seemed to be still on some&nbsp;type of standby mod. Looking a the repair I had done, I found what looked like a missing resistor behind the USB connector. When the USB broke, it slid back and must have snapped the component off. I started looking for images online of the USB and the missing resistor. I found one which showed a 2.2K resistor and lucky I had some. After replacing it the controller powered up straight away and is not working well. There&nbsp;are&nbsp;not many other problems with the controller except missing knobs and the top of the jog wheel. all there is to do now is to give it a clean and then it will be as good as new.<br>
After contacting Native Instruments, they sent me a new top for the deck and now works well.</p>

Traktor S4 Controller Repair

A&nbsp;while&nbsp;a go,&nbsp;I&nbsp;had bought a $20 MIDI controller which&nbsp;I&nbsp;was going to transform into a wireless controller. Recently&nbsp;I&nbsp;need a smaller and more portable controller then the&nbsp;Traktor&nbsp;S4. As expected as&nbsp;I&nbsp;took it apart, it was lots of smaller PCBs in a case and not one big PCB.&nbsp;They&nbsp;made it easier to customise it. The Central board had everything&nbsp;I&nbsp;need; all controls, processor and USB interface. The board had everything but was the wrong shape, there&nbsp;were&nbsp;two extra parts coming out from either side of the board which need to be cut off. Some tracks&nbsp;were&nbsp;on the part then need to be cut off which meant&nbsp;I&nbsp;need to solder new tracks to the board. After the board had been modified, it was time to design the new case to house the board. The case design was similar to the original case but a lot smaller. This project did not take long to complete, only a few hours.

Customising a MIDI Controller

This board was made as an interface board which can be programmed to control almost anything. On the board, there are 16 buttons which 8 of which&nbsp;are encoders. Each button has 2 LED. The outputs can be to&nbsp;an LCD&nbsp;and control board. The control board is how the interface board interest with the world. A MIDI control board can make the interface board&nbsp;into&nbsp;a musical instrument and a keyboard control board can make it into a custom keyboard. The control board can have 2 buttons with 4 LED on each or 1 encoder with 2 LED. These controls control the interface, making the board have 16 inputs (8 encoders and 16 buttons) but 1-16 different configuration. The will give 256 different inputs (256 buttons and 128 encodes) which only 16 shown.
<h4>hardware&nbsp;specifications</h4>
<ul>
 	<li>ATMEGA2560</li>
 	<li>8 push buttons</li>
 	<li>8 encoders</li>
 	<li>32 LEDs</li>
</ul>
<h4>software specifications</h4>
<ul>
 	<li>Arduino platform</li>
</ul>
<h4>Inputs and outputs&nbsp;specifications</h4>
<ul>
 	<li>LCD</li>
 	<li>Data in and out</li>
 	<li>button, encoders and/or LEDs</li>
</ul>
<h4>Control boards</h4>
MIDI: This board turns the interface into a MIDI&nbsp;musical&nbsp;instrument.

2.4GHz Wireless: This board turns the interface into a wireless device.

Bluetooth: This board turns the interface into a wireless Bluetooth device.

DMX: This board turns the interface to control different lights.

Keyboard:&nbsp;This board turns the interface into a custom keyboard.

serial/Programer: This can program the board and have USB serial input/output.
<h4>Further development</h4>
<ul>
 	<li>Fully programmable.</li>
 	<li>Programmable names.</li>
 	<li>SD to save and load data.</li>
 	<li>Quick and easy replacement of the control board</li>
 	<li>RGB LEDs</li>
</ul>

Tinkers Projects

Tag: midi

Novation Launchpad Mini Repair

Traktor S4 Controller Repair

Customising a MIDI Controller

Universal interface board V1