Thumb Pistons Wired to a Launchpad?

Hi Group,
Has anyone ever opened up a Novation Lauchpad and circumvented the switches and lamps so they could wire lightable pistons to it. If this would work, it seems like I could save a lot of money and still have lightable pistons below each of my manuals? The following link is for a lightable pushbutton (thumb piston) that is $3.69 each.

http://www.midi-hardware.com/index.php? ... onSwitch15

I ordered one of these pushbutton units and its little brother also to see if they might work. I can say that the lamps within these units, work very well. I wish the plastic cap was a bit larger and it would bend inward like a real piston. The push button isn't too deep. That is good. I could print a number (like 1, 2, 3, etc) on a clear film paper and insert the printed number inside it before attaching the clear plastic cap. I believe the really tight area inside the unit would probably hold the printed number in place and I assume the printed number would not shift or spin around over time (although I have not verified the spinning part).

Does anyone out there have any comments about my hair-brained idea??? I don't know anything about power output of the Launchpad LEDs and how that would work with the lamp within one of these push button units.

Any ideas are welcome!!

Thanks,
Ted Williamson

Talk about making life difficult for yourself!
Why not just use the LITSW board from MIDI hardware?

For what it's worth, I don't much like the look of those switches. And I think they click when operated. I suspect there are better available, and probably for less.

Hi Ted,

Check out Syndyne's lighted thumb pistons.

http://www.syndyne.com/products.php?id=34

Andrew

Andrew - THANKS for that thumb piston link. Will put it to use in a few months. Is there anything in the forum describing how to hook these gems up with Hauptwerk?....

Saving my money up,
Mark

Hi Mark,

For pistons to work with Hauptwerk they need to generate a MIDI signal. I set mine up some years ago before I knew about ready-made MIDI encoders. I described how I did it in this thread.

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=9958

My console project is documented here. There are pictures of piston wiring in this thread.

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=11506

There are now various suppliers of MIDI hardware to choose from - for example ...

http://www.midi-hardware.com/

http://www.midiboutique.com/

There's a comprehensive list of third-party suppliers on the Hauptwerk website.

https://www.hauptwerk.com/support/midi-hardware/

Good luck with your project!

Andrew