[Adam Welch] has built macro pads in the past from pre-made key dies and Cherry MX clone handles. But not all the stickers and custom keys in the world would make these macropads as versatile as a streaming platform – those visual shortcut panels with tiny touchscreens for each button that some streamers use to change A / V settings. or switch between apps.
Let’s face it, stream decks are expensive. But 0.96 ″ OLED displays aren’t, and neither are SMD touch buttons. Why not emulate a cheap screen rig by having screens operate buttons behind them? [Adam] based this baby on the clever design of [Kilian Gosewisch]’s FreeDeck, and they ended up working together to improve it with a dedicated PCB.
The brain of the operation is an Arduino Pro Micro, which addresses each screen individually via two 74HC4051 mux ICs. Thanks to an SD card module, it is not necessary to flash the ‘duino every time you want to modify a shortcut or its image. Even if this deck doesn’t last forever, it won’t break the bank to build another. Skip the break for the construction video, which has all the links you would need to build your own, including a handy configurator.
There are several ways to create a visual macro block. Here’s one that uses a single screen and splits it up brady heap style to match the matrix.
Thanks for the advice, [arturo182]!
