Build Instructions ... Control Surface

And so, on to the control surface! You will notice the the underside of the control surface board contains two pre-soldered surface-mount ICs and two small surface-mount capacitors. If these are missing or damaged let me know!

Turn the board over and start by inserting the sixteen 6x3mm tactile switches

Turn over the board and solder a single pin of each switch. Ensure that each switch is completely flat against the board before soldering the second pin. Re-heat and press down with a thumb if you need to re-seat a crooked switch.

Now insert the 6x6mm tactile switches in their holes

Turn the board over and solder two opposite corners of each switch. Again the idea is to hold the component to the board while still giving us an opportunity to adjust it before we solder the other two pins and commit ourselves. Getting components totally flat to the board gives them mechanical stability and just looks a hell of a lot better!

After switches are completely soldered, use side cutters to trim the legs nice and short

Now insert the blue LEDs in the holes. PLEASE remember to check the polarity carefully. The longer LED leg is the (+) terminal and should pass through the hole in the board labelled +

I suggest that you bend the cathode LED flat to the back of the board while you solder the anode

Then trim the anode leg. Before you solder the cathode leg check the LEDs are flat to the board. WARNING: Getting the blue LEDs aligned consistently and flush to the board is probably the most important thing for making your ARPIE look cool vs it looking a bit of a mess! It is really worth spending time on this part. Believe me I speak from experience :-

When the blue LEDs are soldered, add the four red indicator LEDs (or green if you took that road)

Now the exciting bit.. start the drum roll... insert the 20 way long pin header strip into the socket on the base board. Orient it so the plastic support strip is at the bottom and push it down as far as it will go.

Place the control surface board on top of the standoff pillars so that the 20 way pin header emerges through the set of holes in the lower right of the control surface

Insert two of the M3 bolts to hold the board in the correct orientation

Solder the pins from the top and trim the excess legs with side-cutters (Wear eye protection - those bits of legs fly off like bullets!)

Turn on the power - after a couple of seconds boot-up time, the blue LEDs should light up. This is a good time to ensure the LEDs are straight. If not you might still be able to reseat them with patience and care, but be careful of overheating the LEDs.

And finally - we are done. Get some MIDI gear plugged in an make some sounds!