I love my octatrack. I hate desks. I play on the sofa, in bed, in a hammock. But sometimes you need things plugged in! So my octatrack is increasingly absurd. It’s covered in velcro. This attaches a usb battery, with a myvolts PSU adaptor. And a tiny dictaphone with stereo line in that can record long jams, or function as a microphone, attached with a very short cable. I also have an h-pi synth attached to the midi out!
Obviously I love my ridiculously cumbersome solution.
But what I’d really love is a little shelf that sits at an angle at the back of the octatrack, attached by the screws on the sides that are used for rack kit etc. I’ve sort of drawn it below in pink. Then I can attach mini synths, battery, dictaphone etc to that (dark blue in my stupid picture). Probably with velcro because it turns out I am the velcro man. But I can attach more and bigger things in a less unwieldy location than the side (blue battery in pic) or the tiny gap top right (dictaphone in pic, hidden by drawing).
It could be a nice project to learn woodworking. That’s also how I started
With just one sheet of for example 12mm or 15mm plywood, a fine saw (japanese pull saw is my fav), a thin pencil and some patience you might pull it off. Just two sides and a part that connects between the two. Something like this:
Two parts of wood are pretty easy to connect at 90 degree angle onto eachother, with a couple of thin screws. Best to pre-drill with a thin pre-drill that’s a little bit thinner than the screws, so the wood doesn’t split. (To have enough room for the screw, approx 15mm plywood is easier than 10-12mm). Most difficult, by the way, might be aligning the screw holes for the screws that go into the existing holes in the side of the OT…
Sorry, in case you just want to buy something, can’t help you:)
A lot of stuff like that on Etsy, not sure if this is using the rack mount holes, only see the screwheads in the pic but probably. You could compromise with something like this if it isn’t too bulky for you:
Or email one of the vendors who has styles that are closest to what you like and tell them what you want, a lot will take on custom work. I just searched “stand for 2 elektrons”
Thanks Shiggin, that’s the right ballpark (but huge for my needs) and I’ve seen many like it, didn’t occur to me to email and ask for a special but it’s a good idea, I’ll try that if nothing else comes up…
I can’t be doing with woodwork - work, kids, life - and I can’t CAD, but if anyone else had I think I’m capable of driving an online 3d print ordering website!
Maybe like… 6-8cm? Then it’s not bulky, but with my beloved velcro it could hold… A volca… a Tula mic… An m8… An op1… Something lemondrop sized… That kind of thing
oh that’s a really interesting approach, permitting use of only one screw hole!
yes that’s right i think, and when the shelf goes in (you’re thinking flexibility on size, and it’s glued or screwed on?) the shelf might (for some users) benefit from a small lip at the bottom (take a bit of responsibility away from the velcro!).
not sure about lift at the back from the foot sticking out below the line of the Octatrack. it doesn’t add much, adds to height in ways that not all might appreciate, and i think it might slip around (scratchy slippy plastic)?
It does not stick out, all weight is on the OT’s 3mm rubber feet still.
about distributing the weight on the rack and fixing: of course there need to be features that support this.
thought about having it flexible in width, so also usable with DT/DN/ST, but I just checked that they do not have the taps anymore. Only OT/MD/MnM/A4/AR have these ;-(
Works a charm. Will continue on this.
Did not know I’d need this, but… I like the idea. You have your OT battery-modded already? If not - I do highly recommend that.
And it makes me think about tapping holes in the smaller units…
As most users happen to have “small” 3D-printers if they own one, I’m not going to print the shelf itself but make it of a simple geometry that can be done of wood, aluminium, cryptonite, whatever.
the 350x75mm won’t fit on the most printbeds and other mataerials are way cheaper and stiffer.
Nice work !
But imho it should be higher, further, because of OT knobs tweaking + potential knobs on above gear. Not sure of angle too. It can be wider than OT, with open sides for wider stuff…
I made a wooden stand and already had this thoughts, but it was for this :
Btw I’ve also thought about something similar for smaller boxes as @Flymo’s idea.
Micromonsta 2, Nanoboxes, Blackbox, HX Stomp, Perform VE…so I may modify my stand again !
Augenadler, this is absolutely magnificent. Bang on.
I suspect there might be some finessing in use (avoiding clashes with knobs on top, or jacks below) but amazing, amazing, bravo, thanks man.
Are you thinking of sharing the printer files already or noodling with them still? I’ll need to remind myself of how printing services work… I download something, upload it somewhere, and select a material at random informed by my zero-level knowledge in this domain? Screws for the shelf will just self tap into 3d printer material?
I must carve out time to do the battery mod on OT, last time I looked there were detailed pics and instructions for DT, and slightly sparser advice on how to adapt that for OT.
In this thread, we covered OT(2) and DT(2)
I may have heard of some who did it to their ST, as well
If one is used to soldering and tinkerning, it does take 5-10 Minutes. If not so experienced, I’d go for an external battery, as you could easily velcro it do the bottom of the board.
I’m still tinkering a bit on the files. Usually, I’d do the screws with threaded inserts, but having pretapped holes should also to the trick. Will check out.
Yes, more or less like that. Material recommendation: If you only plan to use it inhouse, use PLA. Top for that usecase, but absolutely hates UV light. You can use PETG in that case, but it has a little more of a flex in it, but that does not really matter in this construction. ASA would be perfect, but should and mostly cannot be printed at home bc nasty fumes.
