We’ve all been there. You’re manning the battle station, deep in the sim-racing or some other n00b-pwning zone and suddenly some loudmouth blows out your eardrums over Discord. It’s insulting to have to stop what you’re doing to find the right Windows volume slider. So why do that? Build [T3knomanzer]’s simple yet elegant multi-volume knob and stay zen in the zone.
It’s easy, just turn the knob to cycle through your programs until Discord comes up on the little screen, and then push down to change it into a volume knob. If you need to change another volume, just click it again. Since there’s no Alt+Tabbing out to the desktop, no checkered flags should ever slip through your fingers.
Inside the well-designed case you’ll find the usual suspects — Arduino Nano, rotary encoder, an OLED display, and an LED ring, each with their own place carved out.
This completely open-source knob looks great, and we love that it’s been made incredibly easy to replicate by standing up a site with foolproof, well-depicted, step-by-step instructions. Watch them take it for a spin after the break.
Want more than volume at your fingertips? Here’s a DIY USB knob that does shortcuts, too.
Nice, but it needs numbers around it that go from 0 to 11.
At what point along the infinite should the 0 be placed?
Just turn the knob until the volume is 0, and then paint it there ;)
In the middle obviously, duh.
Looks cool and useful, and I have all the parts lying around. A nice project for the weekend :)
I have all the parts too! Good luck, hope yours turns out nice!
That makes 3 of us! The OLED is a nice touch, especially since I have a thing for small OLEDs as it is.
4, count me in
I’ve been wanting to build a controller knob project for a while, this looks like a good starting point. Just need a 3D printer!
A double click to mute all would be nice added feature to an already nice design. I like to concept of paying for the parts and software, then printing/ customizing the enclosure.
> We’ve all been there. You’re manning the battle station, deep in the sim-racing or some other n00b-pwning zone and suddenly some loudmouth blows out your eardrums over Discord
No. Discord is a gruesome pit of realtime spamming and I for sure don’t use a tool (computer) for playing games. That I have games and friends for (they work for chatting, too).
> It’s easy, just turn the knob to cycle through your programs until Discord comes up on the little screen
… by the time I have done THAT (I would to actually have to LOOK at yet another display – 3 monitors, 2 phones AND another display JUST for volume settings???) I have used the keyboard-shortcut for “turn down xyz volume” that Windows allows users to create. Or used one of my keyboards with built-in volume controls.
That said (meaning: For the purpose and usage described in the article, this solution to me looks like a no-solution but complication), I like the design a lot and immediately had a couple of ideas how to make use of that neat little goodie.
Thanks for presenting it – but PLEASE, don’t make assumptions about your readers that simply aren’t justfiiable. “noob-pwning zone”? No. Hell, no.
Don’t worry, we know you could never compete, Nitpicker “Pedant” Smartyass. Most understand the descibed situation won’t apply to everyone and that it’s just a narrative choice. Some don’t.
Not hating on the current project. It looks really nicely done. I love that case + oled etc. but… as an alternative though, we have one from Prusa. https://blog.prusaprinters.org/3d-print-an-oversized-media-control-volume-knob-arduino-basics_30184/
The Prusa version uses an arduino pro micro.. the benefit being that it can appear as if it was a native plug and play HID device. I would love to see a combination of both.
The Prusa version uses generic volume controls and controls the master volume. The downside being you cannot control volume on a per-app basis. There’s actually quite a lot you can do using the basic HID library, see https://github.com/NicoHood/HID for more info.
The advantage of the MaxMix is the ability to expand upon the limitations of the HID commands. In theory this project could serve to expand functionality beyond just a basic volume knob.
What I would love to see is the ability to mute mics as well. Or even launch apps and macro support. Then you could very easily adapt it to become a replacement Stream Deck.
As for hardware, I think anything that uses the ATmega32u4 should work. You just have to make sure the pinout is correct.
Can someone do a guide on a small monitor i can attach to the top of my laptop or monitor that has a constant spotify scroller on, so when i use my macros to change song, i can instantly see what song it is. annyoing having to stop what im doing to open the spotify app.
Google is your friend.
This is a good starting point for what you want:
https://ashcroft.dev/blog/now-playing-screen-spotify-raspberry-pi-es6/
Oh damn, thanks. Imma have a go. it bothers me way too much having hot keys to change the song, but not being able to see whats playing without tabbing out of my focus.
Very nicely executed ! I’ve been meaning to build something similar, but I am still searching for the right controller
I was thinking something along the lines of the 3dconnexion spacemouse compact.. but diy :)
If anyone has insights on where I can find an affordable joystick/rotary encode combo (emphasis on affordable)
so this is fantastic im doing it !
But have a question , how i can do the same thing with the whell on my keyboard and assign it to a specific software?