At first I wasn’t going to modify the case much, but only a few hours deep into the project I decided to cut up the case and completely re-house the drum machine. The new case is and old desktop pc case that was given to me by my girlfriend’s dad for just this sort of thing. (I still have another too :cheers: ) First I gutted the case of everything and even cut away the housing for the power supply. Then I cut two rectangular holes in the top of the pc case. I cut 9 additional holes in the pc case for 8 distortion switches and an overall level boost that I found using Burnkit’s instructions.

For the new control panel I got some thick plexiglass from Home Depot and painted one side bright pink so it really pops. I also bought an atari controller from a used bookstore called Bookmans, they have a huge selection of oldschool video game stuff. To replace the navigation buttons I used some spring loaded normally open toggle switches from mouser. I had a few other various switches and knobs lying around from other projects also. Finally to replace the drum pads I chose to go with arcade cabinet buttons.

In my mind the main new feature on the 505 is the 25 point patch bay. Each point is routed to a pin on the main sound chip. I used some inexpensive jacks from mouser for the patchbay.

Next to the patchbay is the Atari controller. I also connected a two way toggle switch connecting a dual pole 6 point rotary knob for a total of 12 connections to the black wire in the joystick. Without additional connections this makes for 48 bends that can be controlled by the jokstick. I also added one patch point connected to each direction and one patch point to the orange button on the joystick. Combine that with the 25 point patch bay for nearly limitless bends.

I also wired up 4 bends to pushbutton switches that create effects like harsh distortion, flange, and delay. When some of the bends are activated these switches can do some really fun things!

I will upload samples recorded from my 505 at some point in the future, so look out for those.