I use an X-Touch Mini in my music studio rack. I decided to do this by using metal rack spacers cut with the X-Touch Mini sitting in the center. By using screws screwed into the sides of the X-Touch Mini’s plastic housing (in front of the rack spacers), it will make it so that pressing the buttons or moving the fader will prevent the device from falling backwards.

Here’s how I modified the X-Touch Mini to mount into the rack.

Process

I started by taking two “1U” rack spacers and used a dremmel to cut the metal into a size that matches the X-Touch Mini. Cutting the rack spacers is the hardest part.

I then took the X-Touch Mini apart, which was easily done by unscrewing six screws on the back and simply pulling up on the silver fader. The buttons are gel-like plastic that simply slips out of the plastic shell.

I then drilled holes into the sides of the X-Touch Mini’s plastic shell. I had to redo the holes (drill new holes) to make slight adjustments. (I knew I’d have to make an adjustment head-of-time and that it wouldn’t matter because the first drill holes would either work the first time or wouldn’t be visible once mounted.)

I used four tiny screws I happened to have on hand and screwed them into the sides of the X-Touch Mini.

I then reassembled everything. Even though the X-Touch Mini is USB hub-powered, I created a relay so I could use one of my ADJ PC-100A’s to turn the X-Touch Mini on and off from one of the switches

The micro-USB cable helps to keep the X-Touch Mini from falling forward, while the rack spacers are tightened to keep the device tight from the sides, and the screws make it so no matter how hard you push buttons it stays in place.

Reliability and durability?

Yeah, it works perfectly. It feels mounted like any other device. The X-Touch Mini isn’t exactly a “2U” device in size, as you can see. But I use this for my advantage because I need slight space to run cables for the Behringer FCA1616 audio interface below it. That slight empty space allows the cables to emerge at exactly the right spot so that none of the rack’s controls, lights or labels are blocked from cables running across them.

The bottom buttons are transport controls, which I use whenever I’m kneeling down at the rack so I don’t have to stand up to control Reason (as the desk is a standing desk). I had it secured in the rack well-enough before the screw modification, but there always was a fear of knocking the X-Touch Mini backwards into the rack… and sometimes my knee hits part of the rack when using a standing desk-height chair. Adding these screws and fully securing the X-Touch Mini makes all parts of the rack secure, solid and professional-feeling.

Later. – MJ