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Touch Deck (as many menus as you need)

The project uses the Makerfabs-ESP32-S3-SPI-TFT-with-Touch board to produce a Touch-Deck

michael-otooleMichael O'Toole
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This projects aims to simplify the process of creating a TFT based Macro Keyboard / Stream Deck, without the need to rewrite, recompile and re-upload every time. We program the device once, after that, we simply edit text files on the SD card. • Create a bmp image containing 15 icons (the buttons) per menu... • Create a text file of 15 line of text (the macros) for each menu... • Save files to an SD card, insert the SD card into the board and power up... • Can have as many menus as you require... As we load a menu image we read the associated menu macro file (to associate the correct menu button to the corresponding macro). In the main loop we watch for touch button actions and pass the associated macro to the computer... Working on a web based editor: Add, Remove, Edit ... Menus/Icons/Macros. Optional: Download binary so you never need to code or flash...

Example Menu:

freecad
[T]/usr/bin/flatpak run --branch=stable --arch=x86_64 --command=kicad --file-forwarding org.kicad.KiCad
/opt/sublime_text/sublime_text
/home/Mike/Downloads/arduino-1.8.19/arduino
[T]ls -l
[LA]3
/usr/share/playonlinux/playonlinux --run 'Fireworks'
firefox
xfce4-terminal
kcalc
[RA]4
meld
[NEXT]
/home/user/AppImages/Stellarium.AppImage
[PREV]

In this example Menu, (a simple text file) we have 15 lines each containing one command. Lines (commands) can be preceded by special codes wrapped in square brackets [    ]

[T] = Open Terminal first, then process the line...

[SUP] = Win key, [FN] = FN Key

[RA] = Right Alt & [LA] = Left Alt 

[RC] = Right Ctrl & [LC] = Left Ctrl

[RS] = Right Shift & [LS] = Left Shift

The corresponding Alt, Ctrl, Shift etc., Keys are pressed, then the line is processed...  

Menu Navigation:

[HOME], [NEXT], [PREV] coded to load next, previous or first menus...

Menu Icons:

The corresponding program icon would be displayed in the menu, in this example, icon 1 would be a FreeCad icon, icon 2 would be for Keycad corresponding to the line number. 

Icon Positioning:

3   6   9   12  15

2   5   8   11   14

1    4   7   10   13

menu1

menu1 - 377.00 bytes - 09/14/2023 at 15:38

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menu5

menu5 - 71.00 bytes - 09/14/2023 at 15:21

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  • 1 × Makerfabs-ESP32-S3-SPI-TFT-with-Touch The main Board

  • No code or compile necessary

    Michael O'Toole • 01/10/2025 at 21:45 • 0 comments

    When complete, I will make the binary file available, that way you have a macro keyboard / deck without having to write or compile any code. You still need to write the macros text files and furnish the button icons...

    1. Purchase the LCD...
    2. Make or print a case ..
    3. Write a few macros...
    4. Add icons (images for the buttons)...
    5. Write files to SD card and insert into LCD module...

    ...

  • Source Code etc.

    Michael O'Toole • 11/14/2023 at 06:15 • 0 comments

    Code and STL files included... see project link...

  • Notes on Menu (macro)​ files...

    Michael O'Toole • 09/14/2023 at 15:53 • 0 comments

    Notes on Menu (macro) files...

    • Menus must be named in sequence from menu1 to menu99...
    • Menus can not contain empty lines...
    • Menus can not have more than 15 lines...
    • Menus can not contain comments...

    In theory you should be able to add comments/text after the last line (assuming all 15 lines are present).

    In testing I have based everything on 5 menus, this allows me to load the last menu from the first menu round-robin... Set the variable for the last menu (MAXMENUS,) to whatever yours is. If you have three menus then set this to 3, that way you can safely load the last menu from the first menu in a round-robin fashion. 1,2,3,4,5,1,2,3 etc... 5,4,3,2,1,5,4 etc...

  • menu5 (sample menu for MpxPLay)

    Michael O'Toole • 09/14/2023 at 15:23 • 0 comments 

    [<]
[S+]
[S-]
[P]
[B-]
[B+]
[>]
[T-]
[T+]
[MU]
[x]
[y]
[CF]
[z]
[HOME]

  • Case for Project (Macro Keypad / Stream Deck)

    Michael O'Toole • 09/14/2023 at 14:41 • 0 comments

    A case for the project can be found over at thingiverse ...

  • Stack issue fixed!

    Michael O'Toole • 09/12/2023 at 12:23 • 0 comments

    Stack issue (reboot after x processes), fixed... Thanks to MicroController over at ESP32 Forums.

    My issue was (infinite recursion)... rewrote the code... Hope I didn't speak too soon ;) but it's looking good.

  • Code Cleanup

    Michael O'Toole • 09/08/2023 at 11:20 • 0 comments

    Code has been reworked...

    First we load the current Menu image (we always start with menu1), we then read the 15 lines (macros) from the associated Menu File... We wait for the user to press a key and process the Macro text associated line... that's all there to it...


    You can designate one of the menu button to load the next menu, another to load the previous and perhaps another to go to home menu. To navigate through all the menus we only need two buttons and one home button for convenience, this still leaves st least 12 buttons on each menu...

    In the example code I use Menu5 to control an old DOS player (MpxPlay) but it could be any media device. The Menu has the normal media icons play, next, previous as well as Volume, Bass, Treble, Surround Sound Up/Down, plus many other options...

    Making a Menu image is very simple and quick. Simply load the image with the red squares, then import icons for you program/actions and save the image to the SD card. Then make a macro file using a text editor containing the actions you want for the associated image, save file to SD card and plug in the TFT board... Power up the card and that's it...

  • Stack Issue

    Michael O'Toole • 09/08/2023 at 11:05 • 1 comment

    Looking for help with Stack issue...

    To begin I best point out the project was built using sample code. Somewhere in this code or my implementation of it, the stack reduces on each key processed and eventually the board resets. I added code to report the stack size after each process and it is being reduced and eventually reboots, ( something is being pushed to the stack but not popped)...

    It's not major (if you don't mind the board resetting every so often), but it has to be fixed... any help appreciated...

    The touch detection should probably be an interrupt (instead of inside a loop), this may account for stack issue...

    Resolved!

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Michael O'Toole wrote 09/16/2023 at 16:45 • point

Rewrite old description...

We start with a 480px by 320px background image, it consists of 16 button areas (identified by the red outlined squares). Then using an image editor, we edit a  Grid480x320.bmp file and import the desired button icons (64px by 64px images works well) into each of the outlined button icons positions. Once finished, export the final image as menu1.bmp and save to SD card.

Now we need to add a text file named menu1, containing up to fifteen lines of text (macros), these will be triggered when you press the associated button on the display. Menus images are named: menu1.bmp, menu2.bmp, etc... Macros file/text files are named menu1, menu1 etc...

The project uses the Arduino IDE to compile and upload the code, once done, you only need edit the menu text file to change the macro on the SD card. You can have multiple menus each with it's own macro text file, menus can load other menus with [NEXT], [PREV], [HOME] see sample menu text file....

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