synthwood.com backlit pitch/mod wheel modification
RGB Led provides red, blue, green, violet, aqua or white back light
Clear acrylic wheels with frosted edges
Works on the Fatar generic wheel box kit (DSI MEK shown)
Operates off of positive voltage/gnd of the pitch wheel
Colors shown here are blue and aqua
Instructions
Installation is fairly simple. You will need to drill two holes in the
wheel box large enough to insert the LEDs from the LED board. You will
also need to drill two small pilot holes for the mounting screws. Center
the new acrylic wheels so that they fit your MEK or Prophet '08 wheel slots
and then tighten the embedded set screw with an allen key. The pitch wheel
uses a centering spring which is mounted pot->plastic washer->spring->wheel.
You may need to remove the rubber cushion on the pitch wheel stop post in order
to have a 'firmer' center. The new felts on the pitch wheel provide the
cushion, the mod wheel can continue to use the original rubber cushion.
Power is available on the pitch pot. You will need to attach the black wire
from the LED board to ground and the colored wire to positive DC voltage.
You can use a voltage meter to determine which terminal has the voltage or
with the power on you can just touch the leads to the two outer terminals
on the pitch pot. If they light up, you've guessed correctly, if they do
not, swap them. Once you have figured out the arrangement, solder the leads
to the terminals.
Operation
There are two switch boxes with 3 switches each. This allows for 6 colors
or off per wheel. You can independently set the colors for each wheel using
the switches to turn portions of the RGB LED on or off.
Notes
The LEDs don't need to be precisely centered on the wheels to provide full
lighting. The wheels have a matte edge finish with a slight grain which
allows the LED light to diffuse and provide a pleasant but not blinding glow.