Stream decks are pretty useful in all kinds of contexts, but commercial models can feel a bit pricy for what is effectively a bunch of buttons. [WhiskeyTangoHotel] has whipped up one of their own on the cheap using some readily available parts.
The build came about due to the use of Stream Decks as a common way to control the Flex-6400 software-defined radio. [WhiskeyTangoHotel] figured that using a full-priced Elgato Stream Deck was overkill for this purpose, and that a cheaper interface could be put together for less. Enter the Cheap Yellow Display—a combination of the ESP32 microcontroller with a 2.8-inch touchscreen LCD. It was simple enough to code the device such that it had four big touch buttons to control RIT-, RIT+, XIT-, and XIT+ on the Flex-6400. Plus, with the ESP32 having WiFi onboard, it’s able to control the radio wirelessly—you just need to feed the unit 5 volts, and you’re up and running.
[WhiskeyTangoHotel] set this unit up specifically to control a radio, but you don’t have to feel limited in that regard. The ESP32 is flexible enough that you could have it control just about anything with a bit of different code. We’ve featured more flexible designs along these lines before! Video after the break.
If you have a spare tablet or old phone laying around you can set up a very capable virtual stream deck for free using a program called Companion from Bitfocus.
Another fan of Companion here too. Companion also have a useful remote StreamDeck API, so you can make any hardware or software “pretend” to be a StreamDeck. I was expecteting this project to have gone the same route, rather than communicating directly with the hardware it controls.
A lot of times if there is enough need to use a streamdeck, might as well use a physical hotkey whatsit, which is dead easy with QMKEYS on an arduino
My bad, I see that the connection is WiFi and the ip address and adjustment value appear on the screen, seems quite useful. Still miss the physical clicks, but I believe a clear acrylic and some tact switches off the edge for them to activate would satisfy that.