Reapinger Scribble-D

[Navelpluisje]

I started working on a open hardware project to create a midi device with only having scribble displays and an overview display. By this thread I will keep you updated.

Why?
---------------------------------
I own a BCF2000 which I use for mixing and really like. But it is pretty annoying not to know which channel of the controller is which track in Reaper. After looking around on the webs I could not really find something to fill this gap. So I decided to create one by myself.

What will it offer?
---------------------------------
The project started to be build upon a Teensy 3.2, but due to not being able to sync 2 devices, moving to the Teensy 4.0. This way Scribble-D can work as a USB-host for you controller and it can 'hi-jack' the midi messages.

• 8 128x64 oled displays

• 1 320x240 tft display for time and some statuses

• Be the host for your controller, so will not cost an extra usb-port

... Maybe more, let me hear your ideas

What I want it to look like
---------------------------------


Let me know if you have any questions, would like to contribute or just wanna say 'Hi'.

[mschnell]

Great !
This is really interesting for me !

In fact, I use a Behringer XTouch Compact. In fact I use it not for mixing, but for Live playing, Reaper being an "instrument" and the XTouch it's surface for changing patches and tweaking sound parameters.

I would like to add a display to this setup.

I think the necessary specs are slightly different from your normally intended purpose.

I would need a display that is easily readable "on stage", i.e. rather bright, readable from a wide angle and not too small font.

I suppose it should be an OLED in white or multi-color.

I need three lines for the patch names, either in an appropriately high panel (kind of square) or in three separate rectangular panels.

Graphics for parameter display would be nice but not necessary.

Thanks for any comment !
-Michael

[MalcolmG]

Very excited by this. I love my BCFs but have considered a few times trading them in for something with scribble strips. This way I can have both and I can scratch my soldering itch at the same time :-)


I hesitate to ask, but how far away do you think you are from having a working prototype we can see?

[Navelpluisje]

Originally Posted by MalcolmG

I hesitate to ask, but how far away do you think you are from having a working prototype we can see?

I was actually pretty close. I have the OLED's displaying the upper and lower display settings, the meter and the status of 'mute', 'solo', 'recarm' and 'selected'. The tft displays the timestamp, 'play', 'pause', 'stop', 'cycle' statuses and I abused a mcuxt display for showing the zone name.

The idea is to name zones. The name can be displayed, but also by giving it 'fixed' names I create an option for displaying different kind of layouts in the OLED's

But like I mentioned last week, I encountered issues having the Scribble-D showing 8 channels ahead. Today I ordered a Teensy 4, which will act as a usb-host for the BFC2000. Will probably arrive on Monday, so will focus then on make it act as a host and pass through the correct data between the computer and the BCF2000.

When I have this running I will make a small video of it.

Also the 3D-models are getting close now. Have to give the displays a bit more space and have to design the back panel.

Long story short, a lot of the basics are functioning but need to fix the hosting part.

Will update when I make any progress on it.

[Navelpluisje]

Originally Posted by mschnell

Great !
This is really interesting for me !

In fact, I use a Behringer XTouch Compact. In fact I use it not for mixing, but for Live playing, Reaper being an "instrument" and the XTouch it's surface for changing patches and tweaking sound parameters.

.........

Graphics for parameter display would be nice but not necessary.

Thanks for any comment !
-Michael

Hi Michael,

My first goal is make it work for mixing but I like the ideas you mentioned.
The displays I use are white OLED's and they are 126x64. It looks like it is possible to set 3 lines of text and still being readable.

Because it is build upon a Teensy and the code will be open-sourced you should be able to make modifications to it.

[mschnell]

I don't know the Teensy, but in my Job i am an embedded software engineer, hence I suppose I'll be able to tweak the code when appropriate.

At first I think I need to find an OLED type that that fits for that purpose.

Any ideas ?

I mostly am afraid of the hardware / case ...

-Michael

[Navelpluisje]

After some struggling with soldering usb-connectors and some anxiety breaking stuff, I managed it to make the Teensy work as a host.

Next step will be merging this with the display code. I'm glad making some progress again.

[Navelpluisje]

I managed it faster then I thought to make it work.

Current state:

• Can connect the BCF2000 to the Teensy

• Teensy passes data from the BCF2000 to the computer and from the computer to the BCF2000

• All data needed for the displays can be taken from the 'host' without disrupting the connection between the computer and the BCF2000

• I have a smile on my face

Need to do

• Create a video for evidence😝

• Remove unwanted characters from the small displays

• Update the zon-files for the Reapinger-BCF2000 project

Finaly

• Finish the case

• Clean up some code

• Assemble

[Navelpluisje]

I created a small video of the current state of the Scribble-D.
It can be found here: https://youtu.be/dybNZ2TNHLc

The quality of the video is not great, but it will give you an idea of what is is going to be.

[Navelpluisje]

Originally Posted by mschnell

I don't know the Teensy, but in my Job i am an embedded software engineer, hence I suppose I'll be able to tweak the code when appropriate.

At first I think I need to find an OLED type that that fits for that purpose.

Any ideas ?

I mostly am afraid of the hardware / case ...

-Michael

The Teensy 4.0 (https://www.pjrc.com/store/teensy40.html) is an arduino like prototype board, but way faster, has more options and is smaller. It is programmable with the arduino ide, or the one you prefer. https://www.pjrc.com/teensy/teensyduino.html

About oleds I do not know that much, only that the one I use are pretty cheap (about 7 euro each) and easy to program.

I share you fear for the case. I do the same. I'm pretty close finishing the front part. Will let it print and then fingers crossed.

[TonE]

Hm, did not understand the concept fully, what is the point seeing the same information as on the screen duplicated on extra screens? It can be nice putting just under the midi controller, as a gui extension of it. Anything more to it? Thanks for sharing and reporting about this project.

[Navelpluisje]

Originally Posted by TonE

Hm, did not understand the concept fully, what is the point seeing the same information as on the screen duplicated on extra screens? It can be nice putting just under the midi controller, as a gui extension of it. Anything more to it? Thanks for sharing and reporting about this project.

Well, the problem I'm facing now with my BCF2000 is the lack of information. It has 8 faders, 8 rotaries and some buttons. There in no visual feedback or so ever. So while going back en forth through the channels, you really have no idea which fader is which channel.

Also when selecting effects, you are not able to figure out easily which control does what.

The purpose of this project is to make it all visible on the controller. So you do not have o wiggle a fader to see which channel you're on.

[tdc]

Great work!! No small task getting to this stage and its looking exciting.

[Navelpluisje]

Originally Posted by tdc

Great work!! No small task getting to this stage and its looking exciting.

Thanx

[ramses]

Originally Posted by Navelpluisje

I created a small video of the current state of the Scribble-D.
It can be found here: https://youtu.be/dybNZ2TNHLc

The quality of the video is not great, but it will give you an idea of what is is going to be.

Beautiful!

I want one for the Softube Console 1 Fader, which banks in groups of 10 channels. Did you say you would make the code open source at some point? I'm no coder, but I might just be able to make it work from studying existing code. I believe we are a few Reaper C1 Fader users that would really like to have this. Again, great work!

[Nick Morris]

This is looking great. I’m kind of surprised by the current work being done by reaper users on the control surface front. Up until recently I really had been annoyed by the lack of control surface options for reaper. With projects like this, the group buy custom FX project siniarch is working on, CSI, Eucon, etc, reaper control surface future is looking bright!

[siniarch]

Originally Posted by Navelpluisje

I created a small video of the current state of the Scribble-D.
It can be found here: https://youtu.be/dybNZ2TNHLc

The quality of the video is not great, but it will give you an idea of what is is going to be.

Hey,
Congrats!!! This is looking awesome!!
Wish I was able to code like you are. Maybe in the future, I may have to put myself through some classes or something. It's just not something I think I may excel at.

Look forward to seeing this completed. If you need help with the case, let me know. I maybe able to help with that.

[siniarch]

Originally Posted by mschnell

I don't know the Teensy, but in my Job i am an embedded software engineer, hence I suppose I'll be able to tweak the code when appropriate.

At first I think I need to find an OLED type that that fits for that purpose.

Any ideas ?

I mostly am afraid of the hardware / case ...

-Michael

as I said to Navelpluisje, if you need help with the case, I may be able to help. Well, at least depending on what material you want to make it. Don't know much about injection molding but metal or 3D printing, I could help with.

[Navelpluisje]

Originally Posted by siniarch

Hey,
Congrats!!! This is looking awesome!!
Wish I was able to code like you are. Maybe in the future, I may have to put myself through some classes or something. It's just not something I think I may excel at.

Look forward to seeing this completed. If you need help with the case, let me know. I maybe able to help with that.

Hi Sinearch, Thanx. About the coding, this is also a pain for me sometimes. I'm a webdev and am not really familiar with c++. Lot of searching and figuring out why it does not do what I want it to do. But I will manage . Now doing some refining and implementing it in my Reapinger-BCF2000 project, so I can also check sends info and FX info zones.

I might need some help with casing, so thanx for offering. Will try to figure it out myself first. Will let you know when I need help. Are you also familiar with 3D drawing etc?

[Navelpluisje]

Originally Posted by ramses

Beautiful!

I want one for the Softube Console 1 Fader, which banks in groups of 10 channels. Did you say you would make the code open source at some point? I'm no coder, but I might just be able to make it work from studying existing code. I believe we are a few Reaper C1 Fader users that would really like to have this. Again, great work!

Thanx Ramses. The project will be open sourced, so you should be able to fork it and modify it to your needs. Also the 3d drawings will be in there, so the case can also be modified to your needs.
If you do so and need help, you can ask me. I'm not a c++ guru, but still

[siniarch]

Originally Posted by Navelpluisje

Hi Sinearch, Thanx. About the coding, this is also a pain for me sometimes. I'm a webdev and am not really familiar with c++. Lot of searching and figuring out why it does not do what I want it to do. But I will manage . Now doing some refining and implementing it in my Reapinger-BCF2000 project, so I can also check sends info and FX info zones.

I might need some help with casing, so thanx for offering. Will try to figure it out myself first. Will let you know when I need help. Are you also familiar with 3D drawing etc?

I'm an architect by trade, so yeah, pretty familiar with 3D drawing. But I have been dabbling in the independent film business for some time and due to that, gotten into audio. Mostly post production, but will want to eventually produce some songs here and there if I get the chance.

I'm also in the process of creating an interface that will talk with Reaper, but I have to pay someone to code for me.
Today, I received the printed parts, so I'm pretty stoked about it at the moment.

[Navelpluisje]

Here's a little update about the displays. This weekend I managed to switch between different layouts for the displays. 4 different versions have been created (yet?).



Top left: Channel display. Shows the track name and panning by default. On fader touch it shows the fader/volume value. The 4 squares are for the Mute, Solo, Recarm and Active/Selected states. The bar on the left is the meter.

Top Right: The screen displayed when `ToggleMapSelectedTrackFXMenu` is triggered. It displays the effect for the channel.

Bottom Left: On `GoFxSlot` each channel displays effect params and names. You're able to show 2 params and their corresponding values.

Bottom Right: Displays the send. The top name is the name of the active channel. The lower name is the name where it is send to. The arrow indicates that it is active. When the send is muted, the arrow disappears. The value is the send volume.

I would love to hear other ideas about what to display.

[Teddy]

This looks great. I especially liked the sends screen.

[Navelpluisje]

Originally Posted by Teddy

This looks great. I especially liked the sends screen.

Thanx Teddy

[Navelpluisje]

Did a lot of work on the CSI-files for adding display stuff to the effects etc. Tomorrow I will do the final mixing of 3 new songs we're woring on. This is a nice opportunity to do some live/production testing with the prototype.

Will let you know my findings

[Teddy]

Looking forward to it. Maybe a nice opportunity to take some pictures or a short video of the prototype in action as well? Would be cool to see.

[Navelpluisje]

Originally Posted by Teddy

Looking forward to it. Maybe a nice opportunity to take some pictures or a short video of the prototype in action as well? Would be cool to see.

Too late for that. Had a nice mixing session and liked the displays. The setup with a breadboard is not ideal, but it worked better then expected.

Now need to do some casing stuff. Not my hobby, but needs to be done. Will make the code public in a week or two, if all goes well.

[Philbo King]

Cool project!

[BarryLimestone]

Really cool!


For anyone who found this thread whilst searching for info, these links might be helpful..

https://github.com/Silhm/bcf-scribble-strips

http://midibox.org/forums/topic/1989...ip-with-oleds/

https://github.com/tttapa/Control-Surface/issues/164

[ramses]

Yeah, nice!

What about designing a nice 10-channel versions as well? The Softube Console 1 / Console 1 Fader environment are lacking scribble strips, and that environment is based on 10 channels (which makes a lot of sense, as you start using it). I believe there might be a real market if you could get scribble strips working for these, as they are pretty high quality, but a bit limited by lack of scribble strips.