I’m working with two different stiffnesses of bendy plastic (exact specs when I remember to look them up…) with a very flexible bottom layer and stiffer hexagons. It’s done on an Ultimaker, with a stop after the first few layers to allow a material change. It’s a small section of the pad as there were only a few samples of the material in the workshop, and it’s a bit rough as the machine was configured wrong - but it plays quite nicely, even works with pitchbend.
The map is kind of what you’d expect - a harmonic hexagon setup.
This is really cool, Dave. We’ve played with Hex Keyboard mappings under the Innovator’s Overlay but hadn’t had the chance to make a 3D Overlay. This takes it to the next level. Thanks a ton for sharing your awesome work.
(Still learning the hex layout, but my fingers like it!)
The material is from Recreus - ‘FilaFlex’. We had a sample pack in the workshop, still figuring out what works well. Their site is here, the sample pack should just about get you a controller or two: https://recreus.com
That said, it’s a bit fiddly to work with - the Ultimaker 2+ was completely fine, the S5 can’t do it at all, it tries to be too clever.
The first test was with their “Original 82a” for the yellow base and the “Med-Flex 95a” for the black hexagons. The one below is the other way round - the stiffer 95a for the base and the softer for the orange hexagons. So far, I prefer the original way round - really flexible base, slightly solider hexagons.
The space between hexagons is just to avoid accidental triggers. It’s probably not needed on the 3d printed layer, really, although I think having at least a tiny gap between the pads will make sure that notes are triggered cleanly. The picture I have in my head for this one is that the bottom sheet is super flexible but the pads are quite stiff, so they spread the force nicely onto the morph.
Nicely done, thanks for sharing!
If you want to make an overlay of softer material I’d recommend to 3d-print a mold with normal filament, and then cast silicone rubber in it, like Wacker Elastosil Vario (shore A hardness between 15 and 40) or Smooth-on Dragonskin (various hardnesses). I use shore A 15 myself for nice squishy buttons.
Thanks, yes, definitely on my list of things to try, glad to know it works. Do you do any prep on the 3d print before using it as a mould? I had in mind that direct printing is good for prototypes, and then making a mould would be nice for running off a few copies.
I use the 3d print directly as mold, the silicone easily releases. Then I put the first color silicone in the mold, leave it to harden for a few hours, then fill the rest of the mold with another color, and use a 2mm acrylic sheet as mold cover. I bend the acrylic a bit, push it on the middle of the mold and flatten it out to the sides, pressing the excess silicone out.
I also cut molds out of foam, then I use polyvinyl alcohol as mold release.
Hello y’all!
Thought I’d throw in on this topic since my project is similar.
You may want to look at a layout that has been in very common use In the accordion world. Called CBA for Chromatic Button Accordion.
Its what I’m going to be using the Morph for… as a trigger mechanism under the keyboard as a midi converter.
The advantage of CBA is that its incredibly useful from a musical as opposed to ‘data input’ format.
Chromatic along one diagonal, whole tone along the other, and diminished along columns (including whole/half or half/whole along adjacent columns.
I’ll start a new thread as it progresses.
I’ve been playing more with this, and moved from 3d printing to silicone casting. It’s easier to be consistent when printing, and the silicone works out much more flexible than any filament that I’ve tried printing.
My latest version has about 64 keys - there’s a lot of doubling, so it’s just over 3 octaves the way I’m setting up the notes.
It turns out that even this density of pads works great with MPE! I can bend and wiggle individual notes quite happily.
So far, I’ve been using Wagnersil 22NF as it’s what I can get hold of easily. It’s nice to work with - dries well, nice and runny for getting in to corners, gives you just enough time to pour and then sets quickly. It is very pink, and also very squishy. My issues with it are:
it can tear, without trying too hard
it’s not very slidey. Totally fine for buttons and keys, but the faders are tricky. So far I’ve tried:
** Printing the mould in Coarse mode - makes a really nice texture on the silicone
** Putting ridges on the sliders - definitely helps
** putting talcum power on it - feels lovely, not sure how long it will last
The blue version is an experiment with Wagnersil 32N, which is a bit less squishy, and a bit stronger. I’m hoping it’s a bit easier to slide fingers across.
@Matt_from_Sensel - if there’s anything you can share about how you get such a lovely finish on your overlays that isn’t either trade secrets or sending it to be baked in a fluoride oven, I’d love to hear it!
If there’s interest, I’ll put up videos of MPE playing, and share all my fusion files.
This looks FANTASTIC and we’d definitely be interested in seeing any videos you’re willing to make. We’d be more than happy to promote any of your work on our social media profiles, as well.
Where are you getting / how you are creating the mold, by the way? Would love to learn more about that process.
To answer your question, the overlays are coated in a silicone finish and then baked in an industrial oven. I’m not exactly sure about the temperature or the thickness of the coating, but it might just take some trial and error to find out!
For the silicone, I’ve been playing with different hardnesses. I’ve been using Wagnersil, which has a very squidgy pink one (22 shore hardness) and a blue one which is a bit stiffer and less sticky (32 shore hardness). So I’m trying the blue one on the top:
silicone is still really sticky. The harder blue stuff is nicer for faders, but it still needs ridges in the direction of travel to make it work nicely. Talcum powder helps a bit.
putting blue all around the edge is a bad idea - it shrinks a bit, so the whole thing tends to bow, and loose contact with the Morph.
the magnets have a tendency to tear out - would be nice to use some stiffer silicone here.
Here’s a zip of the supporting files: SenselOverlaySupport.zip (1.2 MB)
I can’t upload the final file, as it’s too big for the forum (6.3MB), but there is the tank and magnet placement pieces, and a small set of controls, which shows extruding things from an SVG file.
BTW - if you want to do 3d printing, you can go to a service like https://www.treatstock.co.uk/ - here in the Netherlands, it would cost $40 (€35) to print the tank and the magnet parts in the zip attached.
You did great Dave! I am not expert. I ordered the E3Dv6 from Makerfarm along with the Birch mounting plate. got it all wired up, the configuration.h file changed and uploaded.
When I went to mount it though the fan rubs against the mount, or when I turned it around rubs against the heater block. Did that happen to anyone else using this E3Dv6? I am going to remove the fan and turn it around again so that it rubs against the mount. Maybe I will try to shave the edge down where is rubs.
