MIDI interface or USB- Keyboard type?

[KC3QVF]

There are some inexpensive, versatile USB keyboard rotary encoders and buttons which can take advantage of Thetis' keyboard commands.  On the other hand, there are midi boards with knobs and buttons too which Thetis can interface with.  Other SDRs can probably do this too.  With the low cost, USB keyboard type seems the way to go.  Am I wrong?  Am I missing something?  I have never used either...

73 KC3QVF

[John Burch]

The issue I see with using just a normal keyboard is you have to contend with the operating systems shortcuts as well. Prime example of this is say you map a special shortcut with out realizing its a windows specific one say alt-f4, that will kill what ever app is on top. I think if you can afford the Midi interface then go with that.

John,

KC0ZOD

On Sun, Nov 26, 2023, 11:35 PM KC3QVF <kc3...@gmail.com> wrote:

There are some inexpensive, versatile USB keyboard rotary encoders and buttons which can take advantage of Thetis' keyboard commands.  On the other hand, there are midi boards with knobs and buttons too which Thetis can interface with.  Other SDRs can probably do this too.  With the low cost, USB keyboard type seems the way to go.  Am I wrong?  Am I missing something?  I have never used either...

73 KC3QVF

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[KC3QVF]

That's a great point.  To clarify, I am talking about keyboard emulators like:

Amazon.com: USB Volume Control, DROK PC Computer Speaker Audio Volume Remote Controller Knob with 1-Key Mute Function Support Win7 8 10 XP Mac Vista Android : Electronics

and

Amazon.com: Cryfokt One Handed Programmable Mechanical Keyboard, 12 Keys RGB Programmable Macro Keyboard with Knob Plug and Play Multifunctional Mechanical Gaming Keypad Function Keypad for Windows(Black White) : Video Games

which have clever firmware which allows you to map the knobs and buttons to keyboard keys, not just sound volume.  In Thetis SDR the keyboard shortcuts are set in Setup --> Keyboard.

I do not know how the MIDI interface works, but Thetis has one in Setup --> Serial/Network/Midi CAT --> Midi.

73 KC3QVF

[John Burch]

Yeah if you are just looking for a volumn knob and maybe a couple other thing those should work. But since they emulate a keyboard the software has to assign a "key" to a function. My understanding with the midi devices is you can map them to a "control" even if there is not a key (I could be wrong on that, but it's what I kinda understand).

John

KC0ZOD

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[KC3QVF]

Here is an example of a "DM4DS midi controller" which DK1MI is using for their Hermes Lite 2:

Building the "DM4DS MIDI Box" SDR Controller | DK1MI.radio 

This looks more appropriate than a full featured midi DJ mixing Station.

73 KC3QVF

[John Burch]

I was going to suggest building a midi controller but though people would think that's overboard 

John 

KC0ZOD 

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["Christoph v. Wüllen"]

I strongly suggest to switch from the Arduino UNO to an Arduino Leonardo,
since this can to MIDI natively.

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[Ed Grafton]

Look up "Badass MIDI Controller" It uses a Teensy.

Ed

[Josh Logan]

I'm using rp2040 with a foot switch for ptt, it sends midi on switch down and release.

I would suggest midi because it works with any program in the foreground.  I think there is also midi support in more programs.

73, KD7HGL

Josh

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[Digiital aka David]

As Josh stated, with keyboard(none Midi) once you leave the application, in my case Thetis, the keyboard no longer works. Midi will run in the background regardless of the application is in focus, like a logger.

I have been playing around with my own DIY and have been using a Raspberry Pi PICO to emulate Midi and using a regular KY-040 Encoder. Buttons to switch things like bands/filters using CircuitPython. 

[Heath Petty]

I bought one of these https://www.crowdsupply.com/anavi-technology/anavi-macro-pad-10 to setup to use with various HL2 applications. I'm on Linux, so no thetis, but Quisk, sparksdr, and piHPSDR. I did some initial testing with it, but I need to get it really setup. I'd like to be able to hit a button to use the encoder to adjust the volume, gain, etc, and I haven't figured out how to do that. Ive been writing stuff for the KMK firmware, but I'm not sure it can do what I want. I'm looking for any examples of what people have done.

-Heath

[DL1YCF]

In piHPSDR, the MIDI menu is „self learning“. So you hit a button or turn
a knob, and then you can select which action should be associated with
that button or know. Just hook up your MIDI device, it should appear
in the MIDI menu and you have to check it if you want to use it.

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[John Burch]

Unless I am mistaken that device linked is not a midi device it is a keyboard HID device. It is running the KMK firmware which is a keyboard firmware. So unless the software has a keyboard shortcut for the function it will not work.

John

KC0ZOD

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[Digiital aka David]

I haven't done it, but from what I understand there is away to send midi as well in KMK https://github.com/KMKfw/kmk_firmware/blob/master/docs/en/midi.md

[Heath Petty]

Yes, I should have clarified. The KMK software does support sending midi commands, and you can mix and match midi and HID/keyboard commands, that is I can have one key send space bar command for PTT, but another key send a midi note or similar thing.

-Heath

[Mike Lewis]

I plan to add encoders and some switches to the hopefully upcoming first run of the Teensy CW keyer project which uses MIDI.  

 

I built an early version keyer/soundcard with a SGTL5000 audio module stacked on a Teensy 4.0 and embedded it into one of my PiHPSDR controllers.  It acts as a sound card for small speaker amp and the hand mic input. It also takes care of the mic PTT with debounce converting it wo MIDI.   I added some more MIDI commands into PiHPSDR to some controls so the Teensy operates headless.  Very easy to extend it with encoders and switches.  

 

For some spice I use Duppa RGB i2c encoders in my Teensy SDR project.  The encoder shafts are clear and various available knobs will show thru the colors.  I use red for end of adjustment range limit, green when moving within range, and blue for push feedback.

 

• Mike K7MDL

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[Mike Lewis]

Something mentioned in this forum long ago could be interesting to anyone looking to build a custom Teensy MIDI controller with knob and switches.   Similar to the Teensy CWKeyer project with added controls and a display for decoded CW.

 

g0orx/TeensyMIDI (github.com)

 

Home · g0orx/TeensyMIDI Wiki (github.com)

[Louis Mamakos]

I posted a message on the SparkSDR group about a programmable keyboard that I found on Amazon.  See https://groups.google.com/g/sparksdr/c/HNNVLPtLshw/m/0cXgjbdyAgAJ for more details and a link to the Amazon listing.   It supports QMK, which is an open-source keyboard macro software.  The keyboard in question has an STM32F103 part with plenty of RAM and FLASH space, as well as a small OLED display.  You can build QMK to generate MIDI events.

I'm using this presently with my HL2 and SparkSDR.   Of the 3 rotary encoders, I'm using the large knob to change the VFO by 100Hz, one of the smaller encoders for volume and the other smaller encoder to change the VFO by 1kHz.  I have one key on the keyboard used for PTT and another for PTT toggle for those long-winded transmissions when I can't be bothered to hold the button down.    I have many more buttons as yet unused.

QMK is pretty flexible, and you can add actions for double-tapping keys and lots of other stuff.

If you don't want to construct your own, this keyboard is pretty friendly for software hacking and built to be compatible with the open-source QMK software you can find on GitHub.

louie

WA3YMH