Those of you that missed out on the VCI-100SE should not feel left out, just make your own! psychoguru, a member of our brand new forum posted these stunning photos of a black VCI-100 that he basically created himself. Well technically he converted a silver VCI-100 into the black version by getting creative and leveraging his local suppliers. The process was a simple one that can be broken into 3 stages depending on how deep you want to get.
Step one: Change Color
First you need to have the case sandblasted, brushed and then anodized by a local shop
Cost: 32euros
Then the plates need to be sanded, phosphatised and blackened
Cost: 35euros
afterwards he had the plates superscribed with a yag laser
Cost: 50euros
Total time for job: approx 1 week and about 2 hours to dismantle the VCI-100
Step two: Change The LED’s
This is the more time intensive part of the project and from what I could gather it took psycho guru at least 5-8 hours to do. the upside is that you can use any combination of LED colors you want to offer a true personal customization of your vci-100.
Cost: 30€ for the LED`s
Total time for job approx 5-8 hour
Step three: Emulate the firmware
This is an optional step if you want to basically duplicate the VCI-100SE’s internal hardware functions. Its also the easiest part as we are working on a tool that will allow both Mac and PC users the ability to emulate all the firmware changes without actually updating the unit! Stay tuned as that will be available in the coming months. In the mean time, you can learn how to use Bome’s midi translator or Midi pipe and start midi-mod-ing!
Plan B:
The above method is the most expensive and certainly the most professional way of getting a clean black look without buying a new VCI-100. You can also do it the Ghetto way (aka Ean Golden’s method) and buy spray on car paint. With a bit of sanding and a good paint product you can get the black look for $20 and about 2 hours in time. I know my personal VCi-100 looks like it went through world war 2 but thats because I didn’t sand it first! Later on this month we will have the optional black upgrade plates with the VCI-100SE labeling available for purchase. Paired with the firmware emulation software you will be there- sans white LEDS for about $80.
