Control using X-Keys

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Russell

Hi, I'm a complete noob here but I'm hoping someone can answer a couple of basic(ish) questions before I go too far down the wrong road!

What I'm trying to achieve, is to control some DMX LED par cans (currently 8) using QLC+ on a Raspberry Pi and only a rack-mountable input device such as the X-Keys XK-16 Stick: http://xkeys.com/xkeys/xk16.php. This will all be housed in my mixer rack for convenience, so there will be no mouse connected, nor video output to a monitor. Is this possible? I've just seen the recent foot pedal video demo which has given me hope!

I would be using the above input device with a Raspberry Pi and a USB DMX device such as the Enttec DMX USB Pro Mk2 (or any other suggestions?)

One final question, is there a way of achieving sound-to-light with the above setup?

Many thanks in advance. :-)
Massimo Callegari

Hello Russell, if the XK-16 stick acts like a normal PC USB keyboard, I don't see any issue to use it with QLC+.
You might wanna try it on QLC+ desktop version first and see if everything works correctly.

As for sound-to-light, that might be a little bit more tricky. You need to connect a USB audio card recognized by Linux.
However, the multimedia part on the Raspberry Pi is still a bit behind, due to limited CPU performances and software capabilities.

Just to experiment, I bought this a while ago:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/USB2-0-External ... 8Y0SQ4019M

VERY cheap (and also very low quality) but ideal to do some preliminary tests before switching to more expensive cards.
Russell

Hi Massimo, thanks so much for the prompt and useful reply, I shall take your advice of trying the desktop version first, and maybe have a go at the sound-to-light at a later stage when time permits. Many thanks again and keep up the great work! :-)
Jimmy T.

Hi Russell,

I wish you had posted this before I created a USB keyboard connector. It works fine but the Xkeys would have been a simpler solution. Take a look at my stand alone project at http://traylorhead.com/wp/?p=88. I'm in the process of completing the enclosure and will be posting more information soon. I might have to change over to the Xkeys device.
Tom Sepe

I'm working on a similar project to Jimmy T's

However I plan on using potentiometers and selector switches connected via the GPIO pins on the Rpi to control the lights: 2 banks of RGBW LED par cans.

In addition the there will be a web interface that mimics the function of the analog inputs.
Jimmy T.

Ah, interest. Would like to se more information on the connections to the GPIO, could put in a foot pedal for dimming effect

Cool
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