DJ controller

3 Articles

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Standalone DJ System Runs On ESP32

September 24, 2026 by 19 Comments

There are plenty of ways to DJ with a laptop and various controller setups. However, if you find hauling around an entire computer can be a bit much, you might like this lighter system from [Daniel Vučinović].

It’s called Pajoniiir, and it’s intended to replace a laptop in the DJ booth. In its place stands an ESP32-P4 microcontroller, hooked up to a 4.3-inch touchscreen display in an off-the-shelf combo from Guition. The ESP32’s twin USB interfaces are hooked up in turn to a Pioneer DDJ-FLX4 controller, and a USB stick carrying a Rekordbox music library. The microcontroller is then also hooked up to a PCM5102A DAC module for audio output.

The ESP32 reads and plays tracks in MP3, WAV, and FLAC formats, responds to commands from the DJ controller, and displays the waveforms and other controls on the touchscreen. It’s doing most of what a laptop would do in this case, only it costs $50 and won’t get stuck in a bootloop for a Windows update 10 minutes before you’re due to go on.

We’ve featured a few good DJ controller hacks over the years, like this Hercules rig that was modded for better scratching.

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DJ Controller Modded For Better Scratching

April 18, 2026 by 4 Comments

[Jeremy Bell] loves scratching, but he had a problem. His Hercules DJ controller wasn’t really doing a great job at emulating the kind of action one would get with a real turntable. The solution was both mechanical and electronic in nature!

As stock, the Hercules MIDI rig lets you scratch in a relatively simplistic way. When it detects a finger touching the rotary control, it lets you scratch back and forth with great motion tracking. However, when you let go, playback resumes at regular speed instantaneously, which creates a somewhat inorganic sound.

The fix was to make some mechanical mods to the MIDI controller. [Jeremy] tried out a variety of different methods of using a motor to spin the rotary control continuously, from geared rigs to belt-driven setups. It was then possible to scratch on the controller, and then let it return to normal rotational speed, creating much smoother  auditory transitions. However, this was imperfect, as for whatever reason, the Hercules rig would stop tracking the rotary control accurately unless it detected a finger was touching it. [Jeremy] worked around this by whipping up a slip-ring-like setup to keep his body permanently in contact with the rotary control even while spinning.

The results are pretty great—they’re both mechanically janky and fantastically satisfying to listen to. We’ve featured some other great DJ controller hacks over the years, like this sweet Pioneer UI upgrade.

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Why Buy The Newer Model, When You Can Just Replicate Its User Interface?

August 8, 2020 by 9 Comments

Every now and then, along comes an awesome hack from years past that we missed at the time. We kick ourselves for somehow missing such amazing work, and since it’s that good, we share it with you with apologies. Such is the case with [Andrei Anatska]’s faithful replication of the Pioneer CDJ-2000 user interface as an upgrade to the earlier CDJ-1000 DJ controller, a piece of work of such quality that you could almost mistake it for being a commercial product.

At its heart is the STM32F746G Discovery board, which for some reason it pleases us greatly in this context that he refers to as the Disco board. If you’re hazy on the details of the various STM dev boards, this is the all-singing all-dancing one with the fancy colour LCD display. Out comes the VFD on the CDJ-1000 and a set of wires are soldered to its main board, then the Disco board is hooked up with the project firmware installed. The piece de résistance is the case, for which he eschews 3D-printing and instead cuts out from black plastic. Full instructions can be found in this PDF, so should you happen to have a CDJ-1000 that’s seen better days, you can join in the fun. See it in action in the video below.

DJ controllers may be run-of-the-mill today, but to those of us whose DJing days were in the era of a pair of Technics SL1200s and a stack of vinyl to the sound of early ’90s house music they are still nothing short of miraculous. We’ve featured plenty of hacks involving them here but they don’t always involve professional kit. Even a game controller can be pressed into service.

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