[jcerecke]

Hi team,

Trying to plan out a HTPC build using XBMC and have scored a nice case that used to be a minidisc player. Am hoping to use some of the buttons and knobs on the front of it to interface with XBMC for things like play, stop, pause etc. Also there's a knob which is the sort that 'clicks' as your turn it, and turns forever so was hoping to use that for moving through menus and such. Has anyone done this sort of thing before?
At first I thought I could get a midi interface which would accept the 'real world' and pass them to the computer as midi commands, but it doesn't look like anyone has ever controlled xbmc with midi before (from my googling efforts). Then I thought about the fusion brain which is a USB-real world interface, but haven't ever used anything like this so am not sure if I can get the signals into XBMC from the software they provide...

This will be the icing on the cake to my build but in the end it's not crucial if I never figure it out.

[Death-Axe]

Perhaps you could hack open an old keyboard and attach the buttons some how? Like +5 and ground to the switch to the keyboard button. And put all the gubbins in a lil box inside??

[jcerecke]

Hmmmm I like that idea. And for the knob I could use a wheel off a mouse...

[Death-Axe]

Go for it, tell us your progress :-)

[Death-Axe]

Just came to me, you could also hack a game controller too and use the pcb from it. Get a multimeter to test where the ground points are and stuff. Might be a bit easier than using a keyboard.


google pad hacking for more information (people usually use pad hacks to make arcade sticks, so you can probably hook up knobs as well.)

[Bstrdsmkr]

You want an arduino. Those click knobs are usually resistance based (the clicking is just a piece of plastic), so that as you turn the knob, the resistance increases untill you get all the way back around. Arduino is pretty simple and can be had for around $10. Connect it to your MoBo via usb, add in a short Python script to catch the incoming commands and send them to xbmc via the JSONRPC.

If that sounds like too much, find your local hackerspace: http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/List_of_Hacker_Spaces
I'm sure they'll be foaming at the mouth to help lol

[jcerecke]

Thanks for all the help & ideas. I've just ordered myself a teensy++ 2.0 dev board which should handle all the switches and knobs in one device, and going to follow this guy's instructions: http://generichid.sourceforge.net/
Will let you all know how it pans out.