Behringer BCF-2000 Innards (WARNING: LOTS OF PICS)

[robinboston]

Hi Folks,

I've been toying with the idea of creating a custom enclosure/mixing desk for two BCF2000s. Today I decided to take one apart to see what the components might look like.

First I started with the side panel screws (2 per side). Unknown to me, there was a little plastic catch inside each side that I ended up breaking off, but it really caused no problems.



Here you can see the little plastic tab that I broke off.



Next on each side are two screws set in what looks like a copper connector. Remove these to take off the pushbuttons and encoders.



With these removed, the entire encoder unit will lift free.



Here's the main processor and the power supply.



On the back of the unit are 7 screws which will allow you to remove the fader board.



Two more screws on the front of the unit and the fader board lifts out.



Here's what you get, and to remove the faceplate, you'll need to remove the 16 screws above and below each channel.







I wasn't able to get a lot of info off the chips in the unit. On the main board, the large chip appears to me a flash chip controller SST 395F040, and there was nothing on the faders other than the motor part number RF-310T-11400. I could also identify a few numbers on some ICs HC273.

As far as the intent of the dissambly, it might be easier to just remove one side of each unit, and butt them together rather than building a custom desk...we'll see.

Rob

-------------------------------
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[owel]

Thanks for sharing.

[singintomymic]

Hey Rob! I was thinking about doing the same thing, and am actually wondering if it's possible to take it apart and enclose it in a customized enclosure, then adding the necessary recessions to a desk and fitting them in.

Keep us posted on how this turns out great work!

[fully funktional]

ok thats taking it a few steps further than what i was going to do: i just want to take the side panels off two and stick them together so they look like one unit. also, i know its not the most important aspect of a control surfaces functionality, but is it possible to get the nice silver fader heads like on the mackies and replace the cheap behringer ones that look like jelly babies ? i think that might give it a much nicer feel.

[babkubwa]

Had a very similar idea - thinking of building this poor mans icon. What do you think, would it work?

[Rick Levine]

Did you figure out, after the fact, how to get the sides off without breaking the tab? Would removing the bottom plate first have helped?

[Twiggy]

On a quick side topic: How do people like these control surfaces? Any problems with Cubase or anything like that? Would it compare to some of the more expensive CS's on the market?

(if this is too much of a hijack tell me and i'll shift to a new topic).

[Whatnobeer]

Had a very similar idea - thinking of building this poor mans icon. What do you think, would it work?

How did you draw that up? Photochop, Google Sketch? Inquiring minds want to know. That's a neat idea.
The only question I would have is what about ventilation? Would you need to throw some fans in the bad
boy to keep it cool? Nice drawing.

[Tweak]

Had a very similar idea - thinking of building this poor mans icon. What do you think, would it work?

That's a cool idea!

[EnlightenedHand]

You know what's funny is that I actually started using one of these at a friend's house and I really though it, (the BCF), was just fine. It lack's a lot of extra functionality of my controller but it's waaay cheaper and if all you need is a few motorized faders and a few pots and buttons, (very few buttons), then for $200, it's absolutely killer. My friend bought one and paired it with a Frontier Design Alpha track and it was perfect. The two worked perfectly. I helped him set it up and we had a blast with it. It's actually because of this experience that I feel that control surfaces are still way too overpriced. The BCF has a few quirks with set up and it could stand to have a little more controller functionality, but it does the main things right at such a ridiculously low cost. How dare these other companies charge so much?

Liz

[Phil (Diddy) Combs]

VERY COOL!