Improving on a design and sharing the results with our users is always at the top of our list at Livid. The Block controller has been a great success and we have just made some minor design changes to make it even better. Originally milled from a solid block of wood, the square body with thin bottom has had its challenges, mostly warping and cupping. We have experienced a bit higher reject rate for bodies at the shop before they were built then we would like. Thus, the up and coming stash of rejected bodies in the Livid Graveyard that were never meant to be!

The other issue is that we have always wanted to eliminate most if not all of the screw heads showing from the top. The all milled body just is not stable and consistent enough to do that. We are very excited to show off our new body construction that addresses both issues and more. We now use a 4 piece side wall design with separate faceplate and bottom plate. The body side walls feature an interlocking joint for both strength and squareness. The beauty in the 4 piece framed construction is that there is almost no end grain showing, so the finish and grain are more consistent. Having 4 independent pieces interlocked makes for a great deal more stability against warping and cracking an us having to scrap bodies coming off the assembly line.

We are now also using a translucent frosted acrylic bottom plate. The acrylic also makes for a much more rigid platform to build off of and really helps to keep the Block square and flat even in adverse humidity. It also gives you a look into the insides of the controller.

Lastly, we have not inset the faceplate and it only uses 4 countersunk screws making for a much cleaner look. These changes not only make for a better built controller but make it more compact then ever.

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As you may have noticed, we have leaked our new Ohm64. It is such a relief to be able to finally show the world what we have been working very hard on over the last year. We just couldn’t resist.

My job as hardware designer is to not only design and build the controllers but to build and run the machines that make our parts. Our philosophy at Livid is to keep as much of our parts fabrication in-house as possible. This allows us to have more quality control, reduce costs to the end user, and make parts fabrication virtually on demand.

When you get an Ohm controller you are getting a handmade instrument that we make from parts that are rough cut by machines that we make. That is a lot of making and it is exhausting!

In the coming months we will be talking a lot about how and why we do what we do. We are not a big corporate company who gets everything made over seas, is completely proprietary and secretive. We want to open the doors and let you have a look around.

Let’s talk faceplates

As you may have noticed our faceplate requires a lot of cutouts. There are generally 3 methods for cutting a faceplate out of sheet metal:

Waterjet – This is a $200k to $500k machine that cuts through metal with a high powered concentrated abrasive water stream. The waterjet cuts very clean and precise. It can also cut about 5 at a time. Since it is cutting with water, you don’t have to worry about heat and deformation. But it is expensive. Really hard to build as the base of the machine holds all the water and re-circulates it under very controlled conditions. I wish we could afford one of these.

Laser cutting – It turns out that you need a VERY powerful laser to cut sheet metal. This can easily be a $200k machine new or maybe $50 – $100k to build if you can find a laser head. The good thing is that once you get a good laser head the gantry (X,Y,Z movement) does not have to be very sturdy just very precise. The down side to lasers are that they get the metal very hot and you have to worry about deformation. For our faceplates with so many cutouts it is doubtful that they can be effeciently produced with a laser. Plus it is expensive.

Milling machine – These machines use a mill head and a bit to cut the metal. They are much more economical, you can buy a decent machine for $10k. It is also very possible to build your own. That’s what we did! It does create heat but it is easy to control with a $200 flood coolant system. The downside is that the gantry needs to be very sturdy and minimal wobble or what is called backlash.

Now with our new metalbot we are cutting 6061 aluminum in .063″ thickness all day. Just to break the misconception about Livid having some crazy mass production, a faceplate takes about an hour to make. Yes that’s right: 8 to 10 a day. If orders get out of hand I will just have to build more robots!  

One of the big downsides to the machine is that it is very particular about what alloy of aluminum it cuts. Alloys such as 5052 and 3003 are very gummy and melt when you cut, leaving a very messy edge. When we were designing the Ohm64 we really wanted to go with pre-finished anodized aluminum. Anodizing is like a clear coat. It has to be pre-finished because we have not found a consistent or cost effective way to put a nice texture on raw aluminum before going to the anodizer. Unfortunately, we have been unable to find the very good machining 6061 in pre-finished sheets. Perhaps someday we will have our own waterjet and use the readily available pre-finished 5005 or 5052. Until then we have found some very cool metallic powder coatings that will be just as nice and durable.

Next week – Ohm 64 circuit board design and assembly using our pick and place robot.

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