mini Koala midi controller

[Deleted User]

@rs2000 said:
Good luck @szczyp, the size is great without doubt

Thank you!
Mine arrived today, it’s working and I press buttons lightly. At first, this is beauty small controller 8€ with shipping from local marketplace.

wim

I like this little guy that my son gave me. The trackpad is handy. The volume buttons, etc. pretty much all work. The form factor is pretty good for thumb typing when you're holding it, and can even (awkwardly) work for touch typing when on a surface at a pinch.

I wish it was Bluetooth, but the wireless adapter has a few advantages such as being able to more simply swap between devices, and working for bare-bones startup of Raspberry Pi devices before the bluetooth stack is initialized. It has a switchable backlight for the keys too, which is handy.

It's great for when you could use a mouse and a keyboard for things like screen recordings but don't want to have all the clutter of a mouse and keyboard around. It's probably useful for the new crop of game system emulators though I haven't tried that yet.

I've seen similar ones for as little as $10 on amazon.

[Deleted User]

@wim said:
. It has a switchable backlight for the keys too, which is handy.

Thanks, that is a reason (backlight for play during night) to consider similar for me.
And for moving cursor during screen rec to show watcher where I click.

[Deleted User]

@wim said:
It has a switchable backlight for the keys too, which is handy.

@wim is backinglight lighting all the time (I prefer this in my case), or it goes off after few minutes of not using? Can be permanently turned on backnglight?

wim

@szczyp said:

@wim said:
It has a switchable backlight for the keys too, which is handy.

@wim is backinglight lighting all the time (I prefer this in my case), or it goes off after few minutes of not using? Can be permanently turned on backnglight?

That will depend on the exact model, I think. On mine you can turn it on permanently. ymmv

[Deleted User]

@wim said:

@szczyp said:

@wim said:
It has a switchable backlight for the keys too, which is handy.

@wim is backinglight lighting all the time (I prefer this in my case), or it goes off after few minutes of not using? Can be permanently turned on backnglight?

That will depend on the exact model, I think. On mine you can turn it on permanently. ymmv

Can you please tell exact model name? I checked local market, about 10 similar looking models, non of them have pernament light, some even no backlight at all.

wim

@szczyp said:

@wim said:

@szczyp said:

@wim said:
It has a switchable backlight for the keys too, which is handy.

@wim is backinglight lighting all the time (I prefer this in my case), or it goes off after few minutes of not using? Can be permanently turned on backnglight?

That will depend on the exact model, I think. On mine you can turn it on permanently. ymmv

Can you please tell exact model name? I checked local market, about 10 similar looking models, non of them have pernament light, some even no backlight at all.

(Backlit Version) Reiie H9+
https://www.amazon.com/Backlit-Wireless-Handheld-Keyboard-Raspberry/dp/B06X9J8NG4

wim

@szczyp ... sorry! I'm wrong, the backlight goes out after a timeout of a few minutes of inactivity, when the keyboard goes to sleep. Pressing any key lights it up again and it stays on until the next sleep.

[Deleted User]

Good to know… I like to play piano in dark, so backlight inspired me, but, that’s all ok. Anyway thanks 🙏 😃

wim

@szczyp said:
Good to know… I like to play piano in dark, so backlight inspired me, but, that’s all ok. Anyway thanks 🙏 😃

It's because when inactive it goes to sleep after three minutes. I think any wireless keyboard will work that way unfortunately.

wim

@eross said:
i am a huge fan of Koala sampler. So much so; when I came across a capacitive touch pad, I immediately thought it would make a cool midi controller. I took me a weekend to design, 3d print laser cut and wire and program to work as a universal midi controller. but man it is fun to play. and small enough to take on the go.
next up, a battery powered bluetooth version.
if anybody knows any of the guys that make koala. send me their info. i’d love to share it with them too.

Got my keypad today. Did you use any reference project to put this together? I can figure it out if not but am not above resorting to shortcuts either. 😉

btw, If I didn't already mention it, the very active Koala Discord would be a great place to post about this nifty little thing.

eross

@wim said:

@eross said:
i am a huge fan of Koala sampler. So much so; when I came across a capacitive touch pad, I immediately thought it would make a cool midi controller. I took me a weekend to design, 3d print laser cut and wire and program to work as a universal midi controller. but man it is fun to play. and small enough to take on the go.
next up, a battery powered bluetooth version.
if anybody knows any of the guys that make koala. send me their info. i’d love to share it with them too.

Got my keypad today. Did you use any reference project to put this together? I can figure it out if not but am not above resorting to shortcuts either. 😉

btw, If I didn't already mention it, the very active Koala Discord would be a great place to post about this nifty little thing.

so i used this guys midi course. the course is pretty nice. but he also has a new feature that helps you get the basic code setup, and the. you can go in a tweak it to make it fit your projects. and just the other day. he added a feature that uses AI to help you, if your having problems getting it to work. well worth the price of the course.

eross

so with the keypad. take the code form his generator, and paste it into chat gtp. and tell chat gtp to modify it so it will use this keypad to control the midi. it took a few variations but eventually i was able to get it to work. it pretty crazy what it can do, as long as you have some very basic knowledge of arduino world, it’s pretty fast.

wim

Thank you @eross.

I'll probably just work it out from scratch. I found the basic Arduino library to talk to the chip, so it should be doable. Once I get into coding I generally enjoy the challenge. Good to know I can fall back to the course if I get stuck or otherwise run out of patience.