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Originally Posted by tdc
Hey Siniarch,
Great to see you starting this project, timely and needed!
I have had some experience in the past few years with product development, and this had me thinking about a controller for Reaper. Now, after a few months of a COVID inspired side project, I am somewhat back and keen to help out to explore your idea. I must say that I am NOT a hardware guy, and barely a software guy, but have been working along side some very seasoned professionals so have some understanding of the processes and pitfalls.
The biggest challenge will be price vs quality I reckon. Case in point would be the OLED's that I think you have chosen ( based on the drawing outline, is it the SSD1306?) Whilst these are indeed attractive for size / colour options and price, they are notoriously inconsistent, and prone to burn in - which for a controller that could be on 24/7 isn't good :-) A number of controllers employ a time-out screen saver mode to get around this though.
Its a great time to explore this sort of project, as you can dive into prototyping really easily, with parts costing relatively little. I would suggest that you have a look at some Teensy based projects as this board has a whole bunch of Audio / Midi based frameworks built in. I built a little teensy-based device last week that allowed me to use an analogue expression pedal, and convert it to USB Midi, so I could control some software live on air.
With this rapid prototyping approach, you could begin looking at encoders and displays and begin to assess each's merits, whilst learning important lessons along the way. Websites like Mouser, Digikey and JLCPCB are fascinating to see what's possible and are great product resources.
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Hi TDC,
That sounds awesome. A long time ago I build a project myself that was competing with top of the line Panasonic device. Basically I didn't want to pay the exorbitant price Panasonic was charging, so I headed to a large LCD convention and sourced out most if not all the parts there. Had an enclosure made and build my own. I even had the LCD manufacturer apply and extra coating on my screen so it was brighter and looked better than the panasonic one. What I was missing was the money for a programmer to do custom code into the graphics controller. But it was a pretty good product if I do say so myself. I mean, I just went out and got the best parts available.
So we might be on a very similar path, except you might know more how to program than me.
If you are working with seasoned professionals, let me know if we can tap into them. I'd be willing to pay for some of their time provided it was reasonable costs wise. I'll take a look at the Teensy-based projects you suggest, but I'm also inclined to get someone who knows what they are doing rather than me get some half ass solution that could have been simpler and more robust.
Let's talk. Feel free to send me a PM and I'll give you my number if you want to discuss further.