Hello guys, I am Gulshan Seetohul from Mauritius Island and in this instructable will show you how to make a diy midi controller for virtual dj.
I decided to make this as midi (via usb and converter software) controllers for virtual dj are too expensive.

It is very important for you to know that this instructable will be built from a cheap $10 gamepad that has at least 2 axes(x,y) and multiple buttons.

Step 1: You Will Need the Following...

You will need

1) A cheap gamepad
2) An electric solder
3) A glue gun
4) Push buttons
5) Potentiometers (depends how many axes your gamepad has). The value i used is 10Kohm as my gamepad originally had 10Kohm ones,it was written on the circuit board.
6) A project box (i used an ice cream box as prototype)
7) Good Soldering skills

Step 2: Opening the Gamepad

Its very easy to open the gamepad, just unscrew the screws and expose the printed circuit board.

Step 3: Find the Right Point of Connections.

Ok, heres the tricky part of the project...
It all depends on your gamepad, once you have the circuit board in hand, you must refer to the layout of the buttons of the gamepad and try to identify where the buttons make contact.

Simply take a piece of wire(about 4 cm in length) and splice the ends, now try different contacts on the pcb and try to determine where are the grounds and where are the positives.

To easily know what buttons are being activated, got to control panel,then to game controllers,it will show you what buttons of the gamepad are being pressed(or activated through the short circuit you are making using the small wire).

Step 4: Solder the Push Buttons

Now that you know where are the contacts that you need, use your skill and solder each contacts to wires,

note that colour coding makes it very easy!!

Step 5: Solder the Potentiometers

Now you have to solder the potentiometers.

To know what are the connections of the potentiometer,simple
refer to the pictures below!

i colour coded mine as below:
signal=white
black=ground
red=+5volts

Step 6: Put It in a BOx.

Finally,when you complete soldering all the needed wires, find a box and put all in :)

Mine was only a prototype (I didnt even rename the buttons) and i will improve it by putting leds and linear potentiometer (crossfader type).
I will also use a nice and large project box.

To be able to use it as as virtual dj controller, download a software called ''rejoice'' , it is free.
Then you just need to assign the buttons as you want in virtual dj.
For e.g play/pause or sync or effects or whatever function you need.
Do the same for the potentiometers (use as crossfader or equalizer or even volume).