“Keyboards are the ultimate controller for video games (fight me, console peasants) but Premiere Pro demands a power level for which 104 buttons is not enough. We must Super Saiyan into a new form - we need KNOBS.
This project takes big, big influence from MattRHale’s glorious Elite Dangerous control pad, a project that would make nine-year-old Zack Freedman flip his metaphorical pogs. I also encountered HappyThingsMaker’s Premiere Pro Edit Dial Controller while researching the project, which almost certainly influenced this project.
The Big Wheel was built in one weekend (and a bit of Friday) for the attached YouTube video, but that video focuses on the development process. You handsome intellectuals get the part that’s too cerebral for the drooling masses of YouTube - instructions to build your own.
The Big Wheel brings the knobs, baby. It’s half mechanical keyboard, half DJ deck, half fidget spinner. You get 14 hotkeys, three knobs, and one more really big knob, to assert your dominance over industry-standard video-editing software.
I suppose you could also use this to control DaVinci Resolve, iMovie, Final Cut Pro X, Windows Movie Maker, Sony Vegas, and other searchable keywords for video editors. For that matter, you could use this as a MIDI deck if you reprogrammed it. I’m not gonna judge. You do you.
You’ll need a 3D printer, ideally but not necessarily a laser cutter, a soldering iron, the ability to read schematics, and the Arduino IDE with Teensyduino installed. Mac people, you’re gonna need to jump through some hoops. I used to love OSX; it treated us like developers instead of bumbling doofuses who aren’t educated enough to understand the implications of modifying their binaries. Dammit, Tim Cook, I’ll monkey-patch whatever I want.
Files are attached in their respective steps, but for the definitive version, download it off GitHub.
Supplies:
One set of 3D printed parts
Either of the following:
One print of the Waffle Baseplate Combo
One print of Support Waffle and one laser-cut Big Wheel Baseplate
7x 10mm M2.5 screws
6x M2.5 heat-set inserts, 5mm-ish length
1x M2.5 nut
14x Cherry MX-compatible keyswitches
14x keycaps for keyswitches
14x rectifier diodes, such as the 1N4004
4x PEC12-compatible rotary encoders with pushbuttons, 15mm flatted shaft preferred
3x encoder knobs, max. diameter 22mm
6x rubber feet, thicker than the head of the M2.5 screws
1x Teensy LC, 3.1, 3.2, or 4.0 (I used an LC)
Lots of wire and heatshrink
If you’re a laser-cutting bad-ass: Zap-a-Gap or other adhesive that can bond your 3D-printing material”