Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Simple LSDJ Keyboard Guide















There is a lot of information out there about making an LSDJ keyboard, but I found most of it rather confusing (as im sure a lot of you have). With the help of my friend Capcomposer, we figure out how to make one. Once we were done using a digital multimeter to finish out first one, I created 3 more with nothing but memory. So now im gong to show you how to do the same thing.

As of now, I have created 4 keyboards by just remembering the 4 color combinations you need to connect. Im sure there is some PS2 keyboards out there that are different, but I have not yet found one this didnt work with (granted I have only done 4)

Shall we begin? (you can probably start heating up your soldering iron now, this wont take long at all) For this guide we will be using a DMG-07 cable (4 player link box) because it carries the 5v power source needed top power the keyboard with no extra modding. I am also told that the official DMG-04 (2 player link cable) will also work the exact same way. ( I have not used one yet, so I can not conform this)

The first thing we are going to do is open your DMG-07 and cut the cable off near the PCB (so that the cable is as long as it can be). You can remove the metal weight from the wire, but you can optionally leave on the little rubber cable guide (you'll see later). You will now see 5 wires, brown, blue, green, yellow and red. Next you will strip the wires, all of them but red, you can just clip the red wire off as seen in the pic below. Your DMG-07 should be left with 4 wires.






















Next open your keyboard to get access to the PS2 cable, you will cutting this cable leaving about 5 inches running off the small PCB inside (length may differ from keyboard to keyboard depending on where you cable exits the keyboard casing, just make it short enough to where you DMG-07 cable will run into the keyboard casing once connected)

Your keyboard may have 5 or 6 wires in the the cable depending on the pin type of the PS2, but you will only be using 4 wires, and the colors have been the same for me in all keyboards. Look for the grey, brown, red and yellow wires. These are the only 4 wires you will need, all others can be cut off as seen below.






















At this point, you have 4 wires from your DMG-07 cable, and 4 wires from your keyboard PS2 cable. Tin the wire tips with your soldering iron and connect them as follows:

DMG yellow to PS2 red
DMG green to PS2 yellow
DMG brown to PS2 Brown
DMG blue to PS2 grey























Now with your wires connected you can start closing up. First wrap each solder point in electric tape individually (no need to be over concerned with looks, this part will be inside your keyboard)






















Now you can tape up the whole mess of wires and not worry about cross talk. Once all taped up, you can lead the cable back out of the keyboard, and is you decided to keep the rubber cable guide on the DMG-07 cable, you can use it in your keyboard case (different keyboard cases may require a lager hole to it to fit, nothing a little dremeling cant do)






















Now you can close it all up and ENJOY!!! Hope you enjoyed my guide, let me know if it helps.




















Stay tuned for a guide on painting this sucker!



48 comments:

  1. hey thretris great tutorial man i gotta say haha i saw this and i tried to make my own just an hour ago lol and it didnt have the same wires as yours but the tutorial still helped me alot and bam i got my own runnin right now lol thanks alot bro!

    -jetskiee

    ReplyDelete
  2. great to hear Jett. And yeah, like I said, I im sure there is some that don't have these colors, but the 4 I've done, and the 5 I bought today, all have them. I guess just lucked out.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Just tore apart a keyboard I picked up from goodwiil and it has red, yellow, greet, white, and a heap of thin twisted uncovered wire that looks like it could just be a ground or something.

    Any clues what I should do?

    ReplyDelete
  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hey you guys, I have a gameboy to gameboy connector that I'm trying to figure out how to use...My keyboard has the correct wires (brown, grey, red, and yellow), but my connector has white, brown, uncovered wire, blue, green, black, and orange...Any ideas? I don't have a copy of LSDJ, so I can't test out the splicing myself until I purchase one. Btw, Thretris, Great tutorial!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Just cut up my DMG-04 cable. No 5v to be found...

    ReplyDelete
  7. like I said, "I could not confirm this" I was only told that. But now you and trash80 said it is not, so I guess we can confirm it to not have it. I will update the tutorial.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh, I know. Wasn't blaming you. Just thought I'd say that for anyone that wants to use an 04 cable.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Alright, so I did this with an old Dell keyboard using the second color layout found in the update. It seems to work OK, but I found that I can only play when a phrase is full. It only plays on steps that already have a note there...just changing them to the note I play with the instrument I have selected. Is that how it's supposed to be? Sorry if that doesn't make any sense.

    ReplyDelete
  10. OK, so I think I got it. I filled a phrase with an instrument, with the note column blank. Is that normal? Am I supposed to be able to play on a channel regardless of whether or not it has instruments in the instrument column in the phrase screen? Also, I can't seems to get it to play kit/WAV or NOI channel. Thanks for the tut, man!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I have not extensivly used these suckers... so im no pro when it comes to all the clicks and wistles they offer. but yes, you play with the note column blank

    I have a save file called keyboard just for playing my keyboard.

    • song screen = 00, 00, 00, 00
    • all chains set to 00
    • tempo set to max
    • instrument 00

    press start on DMg before you start playing keys.

    thats about it it. check the LSDJ manual for more info

    ReplyDelete
  12. Nice writeup! :)
    I wonder..
    If i dont have a link cabel with no 5v cant i just use a battery?

    ReplyDelete
  13. yeah, you can add a battery.

    ReplyDelete
  14. nice! can i use a 4,5v 0r 6v battery? dont find any 5v battery!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Probably a dumb question... Will a dell SK-8100 work for this project? I know it's slightly different, but I thought I'd give it a try. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  16. @Turtle413 if it is the same colors as one of the above, then yes, otherwise it will still work, but not with my images :( if it is the same colors, let me know so I can add the model number to the guide :)

    ReplyDelete
  17. Hi Thretris! nice tutorial! :)
    I have a fujitsu siemens keyboard who matches color chart 1
    model number: KDW-205
    I succeeded to mod a non 5v link cabel to a 5v link cabel.
    i opened up the the link socket and switched place with pin 1 and 2.
    it dont look great but it works :)
    / Dr Freaky Pants

    ReplyDelete
  18. @8-bit stuff... Did you check for cross talk? the wires might be touching one another.

    and yeah, you can just cut off anything not being used (like the DMG red wire and the bare grounds)

    ReplyDelete
  19. Dell Model RT7D20 color code:

    DMG O7-----------Keyboard
    Brown--------------Pink
    Blue----------------Green
    Yellow--------------White
    Green--------------Brown

    ReplyDelete
  20. Hi!
    I wonder when a prea a key on the keyboard and then relese it should the tunes still be playing?
    Have i set up my LSDJ wrong?

    ReplyDelete
  21. does a dmg-04 cable works?

    ReplyDelete
  22. if it makes sounds, then it works... the rest is just learning how to use it. the note seems to just be sustained, there is keys to change the envelope, but I dont remember off the top my head.

    ReplyDelete
  23. I successfully hacked up 2 more Dell: RT7D20's. I found TWO different key color wire codes... Both haven't failed me..hehe ;)

    DMG O7-----------Keyboard
    Brown--------------Pink
    Blue----------------Green
    Yellow--------------White
    Green--------------Brown

    and...

    DMG O7-----------Keyboard
    Brown--------------Red
    Blue----------------Black
    Yellow--------------White
    Green--------------Brown

    (NOTE: Same exact keyboard models, with different wire set-up. Also using official DMG-07 cables on all my keyboards.)

    ReplyDelete
  24. Hi can i use a keyboard with usb?

    ReplyDelete
  25. Don't think that would be easy...stick to the ps/2 keyboards IMO.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Why, do we have to get to the cables inside the keyboard? Can't we just cut the end piece off the keyboard and strip it? I don't understand!
    please help, I want to make one..

    ReplyDelete
  27. Anonymous said...
    March 2, 2010 3:31 PM
    Hi can i use a keyboard with usb?

    don't u try to use usb-to-ps/2 adapter?

    ReplyDelete
  28. mine has a really annoying delay any idea why?

    ReplyDelete
  29. @thekingofcodes

    Bad Keyboard maybe?

    ReplyDelete
  30. i tried two so far ill try and get another its weird
    is there a way i should set the groove or tempo ?

    ReplyDelete
  31. AH! , tempo should be set all the to the max, this is what I do. Someone told me this back in the day, I forget who, but it helps

    ReplyDelete
  32. this is so weird theres still a delay even with the tempo set all the way up
    accept for if the length of the instrument is set to UNLIM, is that normal?

    ReplyDelete
  33. HI !
    i do the same things as "Dr Freaky Pants"
    ---> mod a non 5v link cabel to a 5v link cabel by opening up the link socket and switching place with pin 1 and 2. Very easy !
    And if you do it properly it could be working fine AND looking great !
    I haven't got enough time to do picture yet but i could do it soon if anyone would like to see.
    (sorry for my poor english...)
    And thx a lot thretris for this tutorial !

    ReplyDelete
  34. this tutorial can use to gameboy color???

    because i have a gameboy color not gameboy DMG

    thank you,..,

    ReplyDelete
  35. I've just completed a keyboard mod, but as with 'thekingofcodes' have the annoying delay issue. Was just wondering if any of you guys new how to solve?

    ReplyDelete
  36. (@ Dale Perkins)
    I've read on thefontvir.us' blog that it happens if you press two keys at once wich can easily happen by accident if you're give a shot at Gameboy solos lol, anyway, that's all i can tell you.

    ReplyDelete
  37. By the way, i mistakenly bought a cord that has GBC and DMG plugs on both ends instead of a 4player adapter, and they neither have the power line nor the right color code.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Thanks for the info Gegueure. I'll check it out. I used the 4 player adapter.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Is it possible to connect a gba to the keyboard?

    ReplyDelete
  40. Hey I'm pretty new to this stuff so,I have this one keyboard and when I opened it up it had 5 wires connecting to a PCB with some LED's.Now,am I supposed to get a Gameboy link cable and some how solder the link cable to the keyboard?I don't really understand some of this stuff and I was thinking someone might help me.By the way my its says PS/2 keyboard,can I use a USB keyboard or one that doesn't have the purple but the green or doesn't have have the green but has the purple? :)

    ReplyDelete
  41. Hi, Nice work, This is the type of information I have been in search of. Thank you for another essential article.

    ReplyDelete
  42. I am wondering... have you tried using an Ergonomic keyboard? If so, is there one you would recommend? I have a Dell SK-6000 and a Microsoft "Natural Keyboard." I believe the MS may very well be the first ergonomic keyboard manufactured. Please help!

    ReplyDelete
  43. thanks for sharing the information about how to connect the network through the electronic wire Thanks for sharing
    Generic Viagra buy
    Generic Viagra
    Tadalis SX

    ReplyDelete
  44. nice article… simple and useful :).... Plz visit my site...! Thanks
    Technical Support Engineering Services in Delhi,

    ReplyDelete
  45. Great stuff, thanks, really appreciate it!

    I got some stuff online aswell.
    http://byoungh.com/

    there is some chip stuff if you look carefully ;)

    ReplyDelete