About the Project
Monome vs. Arduinome
The Monome (pictured below) is a grid of 8×8 LED lit buttons. The device communicates with a computer and has to in-built function or purpose. Monomes, thus far, have primarily been used for music composition and performance. There is, however, no reason to limit the Monome to music. Monomes are commercially available products that are produced in limited quantities.
Arduinomes came about because of high demand and low availability of actual Monomes. An Arduinome is a device that mirror’s the functionality of a Monome but is run by an Arduino micro controller. The software side of the Monome is open source and the hardware side of the Arduinome is open source, so the Arduinome is fully open source.
Why Design an Enclosure?
The Arduinome and Monome communities have documented software for the devices as well as internal hardware quite extensively, but there is no standard case design that is as open source as the device itself. People have generally built whatever they could design and build. Some people are better designers or have access to better fabrication equipment so there are all sorts of cases out there. Fabrication is less of a problem with mail-order laser cutting from sites like Ponoko being an option. With this in mind we seek to design a case that could be made by any individual with the knowledge and facilities to make the internal components.
Goals of the AXCase
- Design a case that can be made by any potential Arduinome builder simply by submitting our schematics to a Ponoko or a similar laser cutting business.
- Design the case in such a way that it can be easily opened to tinker with internal components.
- Design the case so attachments like handles and stands can be used.
- Design the case so mutliple cases can be attached together.