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My Kingdom For A Remote Volume Knob! can this be made?

Keith_W

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The difficulty of this, and you can see it just reading this thread, is that everyone here has different needs. Some need IR to control their preamps, some want Bluetooth to control their apps, some need wifi.... Impossible to build a one fits all solution I think....

Yes, I realize that. The solution I have in mind is an Arduino board with IR and Bluetooth output. Not sure how to integrate wifi / Alexa / Google Home assistant into an Arduino board.
 

somebodyelse

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Yes, I realize that. The solution I have in mind is an Arduino board with IR and Bluetooth output. Not sure how to integrate wifi / Alexa / Google Home assistant into an Arduino board.
Go for an ESP32 one and you'll have WiFi and Bluetooth. The Pi Pico W is another option, but I don' think the software side supports bluetooth yet.
 

MCH

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Go for an ESP32 one and you'll have WiFi and Bluetooth. The Pi Pico W is another option, but I don' think the software side supports bluetooth yet.
Problem is the power. Either you have a cable, that to me ruins the purpose of the project, or you'll have to add a battery and charge quite often. That's why I favor ZigBee now, seems that the batteries last super long
 

TonyJZX

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i think this is a great idea however its one of those things that manufacturers should have opened sourced

i have a crappy 'old' Onkyo atmos receiver on my network and its come to my attention that the unit uses a generic Arm based wifi bt network processor it in to control streaming.... its probably a super cut down dual or quad core SBC that has half the processing power of an android phone from 2016....

so it runs unix and obviously all this is capable in that I think there's an app that you can remote control the receiver but there is a market (I guess) for some kind of remote control that has some kind of jog shuttle on it so it acts like a high end controller like on the old Meridian or Sony ES tablets... but my concern would be of latency...

like once it goes thru BT or wifi how much delay would you have?
 

Soniclife

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Problem is the power. Either you have a cable, that to me ruins the purpose of the project, or you'll have to add a battery and charge quite often. That's why I favor ZigBee now, seems that the batteries last super long
Yep, a third party device probably needs to be 2 parts, the actual remote running a very low power protocol for great battery life, and a 2nd device that talks to the remote, and fires commands to the destination device.
 

buz

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The Philips hue tap dial might fit the bill in terms of zigbee hardware.

I have not yet used one but the hue stuff is generally solid.
 
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Keith_W

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After some thought, I think it would be easier to buy a universal remote control and fabricate a metal housing for it. I would have to de-solder and re-solder all the buttons. It is within my skill set and the hobby machining equipment I have at home. I recently came across a technique where you can press thin aluminium plate using a 3D printed stamp which seems pretty easy. Make your 3D print, sandwich the Alu plate between the positive and negative halves of the stamp, then use a vice to press. It does not produce crisp lines, so if you want that you have to go over it with soft taps of a chisel. After that all the holes need to be cut out which can be done with careful marking, a drill, and some files.
 

MCH

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The Philips hue tap dial might fit the bill in terms of zigbee hardware.

I have not yet used one but the hue stuff is generally solid.
Dial + 4 buttons (play, pause, mute, red hot chili peppers) looks ugly but very interesting. It seems quite new, is everything needed to make it work with ZigBee2mqtt available?
 

buz

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Sorry, no idea there. Generally hue stuff is popular enough to get supported I think
 
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anotherhobby

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Dial + 4 buttons (play, pause, mute, red hot chili peppers) looks ugly but very interesting. It seems quite new, is everything needed to make it work with ZigBee2mqtt available?
Yes, the dial is fully supported by zigbee2mqtt. Details for that dial button can be found here. Available actions are:
The possible values are: button_1_press, button_1_press_release, button_1_hold, button_1_hold_release, button_2_press, button_2_press_release, button_2_hold, button_2_hold_release, button_3_press, button_3_press_release, button_3_hold, button_3_hold_release, button_4_press, button_4_press_release, button_4_hold, button_4_hold_release, dial_rotate_left_step, dial_rotate_left_slow, dial_rotate_left_fast, dial_rotate_right_step, dial_rotate_right_slow, dial_rotate_right_fast
Of course zigbee2mqtt is just a bridge that connects automation platforms to physical devices. You'll need something like Home Assistant to make actual use of it. If you only need that button, I bet NodeRed would work directly with zigbee2mqt and would probably be easier than standing up home automation for one button.
 
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somebodyelse

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There are a load of MQTT to IR transmitter/bridge projects just a web search away too. What we're missing is the equivalent of piCorePlayer/Moode/Volumio, or the CamillaDSP instruction threads that make this more accessible to those who don't already have this understanding.
 
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MattHooper

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I'm quite curious about the result - please let me/us once you get your remote ! Indeed, it really all boils down to infrared latency (hardware/signal wise + proper implementation on the preamps and remote) - it could actually work much better than what I've described in my pessimistic post :)

FYI: I asked the company about possible latency problems. As I mentioned, they originally built the remote to IR control their own preamps. I was told "There is no noticeable latency between turning the remote control knob and turning the volume knob on the amplifier." At least in terms of sending the commands. However the speed of rotating the volume is more set at the preamp side, in terms of the motor turning that knob. So the volume will only go up as fast as the actual knob will turn on the pre-amp. In practice, they say, it's actually a good thing - you can't suddenly whip up the volume all the way in a second and blow out your speakers.

My Benchmark preamp has a volume knob, my CJ doesn't (uses stepped attenuators though - clicks through volume changes).

I have a custom installer coming over this week to get the necessary codes from my equipment and then, finally, I'll be able to send them to AdamsCustomAudio
to get the remote in to production.
 

MCH

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Hello all, i forgot to tell you I am currently trying to build my remote rotary knob! Feel free to have a look:

 
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MattHooper

MattHooper

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Hello all, i forgot to tell you I am currently trying to build my remote rotary knob! Feel free to have a look:


Fascinating. Thanks! I hope that works out for you.

The volume knob you reference seems to have essentially the same commands as the one used for the custom remote being built for me.
 
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MCH

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Fascinating. Thanks! I hope that works out for you.

The volume knob you reference seems to have essentially the same commands as the one used for the custom remote being built for me.
Yours is a IR remote, isn't it?.... Maybe they are using one of these standard rotary encoder that my ZigBee knob also has inside.
Did they tell you anything about battery life?
 

Keith_W

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I stumbled across a few Youtube videos on how to make a DIY macro keyboard for your PC. Watch this video to see what is possible. Then do a search on Youtube for "DIY Macro keyboard for PC" and you will find umpteen examples from very basic to very advanced. Since my audio is entirely controlled by PC, I will probably DIY something like this as a remote controller.

 
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