The Audio Aficionado (Aaron Brown's Blog)

Don’t you just hate when you see a piece of gear in your studio just sitting around unused?  I recently admitted to myself that I don’t need my oxygen 8 anymore.   Instead of giving it up, and since I only paid $5o for it, I decided to try to make it into something useful.  The other day I started taking it apart to see what makes it tick and what I may be able to create using it’s parts.  While I don’t have a heavy background in electronics I do have a little experience with circuit bending.  I thought this would be a fun departure from my normal audio work.  Here are some pictures of its deconstruction.

Here you can see what it looks like with the main screws removed and most of the components still attached.

Oxygen 8 spring action keys. When pressed they put pressure on the gray rubber parts which in turn send the midi messages. Notice that the feel of the keys is simply a spring on the back of each key.

Once you remove the rubber under each key you can see that the messages are sent when the rubber is depressed and the two black dots come in contact with the circuit board. I'm assuming that they bridge the gap and send the electrical signal, but I'm curious to know how it detects velocities.

Oxygen 8 components removed and isolated.

Now that I have taken it all apart and marked where all the parts go I can begin planning what to create!  I’ve got a pretty good idea what I want to make out of it’s parts.  If you want to see what kind of contraption I build you’ll have to come back to my blog later and check out Part 2. Thanks for stopping by

BTW, I have more detailed photos of the process.  If you end up taking yours apart and can’t remember where each part connects just let me know and I’ll send you them in an email.