Maker Project · Open Hardware
A standalone DJ player, designed and built end to end — from blank schematic to an injection-ready enclosure.
What it is
I designed and built every layer myself: the electronics, the mechanics, the enclosure and the firmware. It runs Mixxx on a Raspberry Pi 5, with a custom controller mapping and a homemade bridge that turns the hardware into MIDI the software understands.
The feel
The heart of the deck is a 360 pulse-per-revolution encoder under a weighted platter. Touch-search, pitch bend and scratch are read in real time and streamed to Mixxx — the tactile core of a CDJ, rebuilt from open parts.
End to end
No off-the-shelf shortcut — every stage was designed, prototyped and iterated by hand.
Full schematic capture for the control surface, encoder front-end, power and the Raspberry Pi interface.
Routing the board around the jog, screen and button matrix — component placement driven by the mechanical layout.
Part sourcing and board fabrication, with assembly iterations to refine fit, footprints and the bill of materials.
Modelling the full assembly to solve the mechanical constraints between the jog wheel, the screen and the board stack.
A case designed with manufacturing in mind — draft angles, ribs and bosses ready for plastic injection moulding.
A custom Mixxx controller mapping plus a homemade Python bridge running on the Pi, translating the hardware into MIDI for Mixxx.
Control surface
The layout mirrors a pro deck — performance pads, loops and transport laid out for muscle memory.
Under the hood
A Raspberry Pi 5, the custom interface board and the control surface stack into one slim chassis — modelled together so nothing fights for space.
Firmware
The 5″ capacitive touchscreen puts the whole interface under your fingers — browse, loop and needle-search by touch. Under the hood, a custom controller mapping and a homemade Python bridge turn every control into MIDI Mixxx understands, running live on the Raspberry Pi 5.
The numbers