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Show HN: TheKnob – sound volume control knob made of concrete and RGB lights
- pachico 6y agoSounds like a nice DIY weekend project indeed!
- teemofeev 6y agoYep. And even after weeks touching the concrete surface, it still feels awesome. Sometimes I wish there was a concrete mouse :D
- Hackbraten 6y agoWill it be available for purchase?
- teemofeev 6y agoI'm not sure yet. We have several manually assembled samples now, but it isn't easy to produce a lot of them without a proper production line... If you're interested in getting one of these samples you can email at brainhublab@gmail.com, we'll try to figure out how to send one to you.
- lukevp 6y agoIf you made your own board pcb and ordered them populated with everything but the rgb ring and switches, I bet you could get the soldering time down to 2 minutes or so per device, especially if you made custom jigs to hold everything in place. I could see a price point of $100 totally reasonable for this, especially if the user can easily swap knobs. Bulk manufacture of the concrete knobs should be easy, as long as you can make sure the molds are reusable. Seems totally marketable to me, why not throw it up on Kickstarter with a $50k goal and a $80 early bird price? If it doesn’t fund, who cares? You’ve already done the work to make the prototype.
- aspenmayer 6y agoIn all fairness, it looks like user DIY Perks on YouTube already did the work to make the prototype. I’m not sure what’s different about this version; I’m sure it could even be superior. But let’s put credit where it’s due. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJ5vhShdVjo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJ5vhShdVjo
- lukevp 6y agoThanks for sharing. They’re obviously inspired by that one from a materials point of view, but the technical implementation is far different. There are some major limitations on the YouTube one. First of all, it’s a potentiometer not a rotary encoder, so it has a start and a stop. Second, it is controlling an audio signal directly, not using a PC, so it is not usable in the same way. Audio would need to be routed through the knob. This wouldn’t work for a setup like mine that has balanced outs directly from a sound card to my monitors. I would want a digital control. I’m not sure why the YouTube video recommends a linear pot specifically either, an audio taper pot should be used which is logarithmic. The one in the OP also has a push button which opens up more functionality.
- teemofeev 6y agoTo avoid any confusion: The concept of the knob made of concrete is fully inspired by DIY Perks. But we are added a lot of perks, like: - Open-source Arduino-compatible firmware so you can add your functionalities and light effects; - The audio is controlled with the HID library instead of potentiometer; spare time - There are one audio input and two outputs that can be switched with the hardware switch; - Bonus option is you can use it as a scrolling knob; - The audio lines are connected to the microcontroller and you can add light effects relative to the sound; - It is 3d printed and we also added a 3d printable model of the mold for the concrete part; Have a nice day ;)
- aspenmayer 6y agoWow! That’s amazing level of improvements! I’m glad people share their inventions online in this open way. It helps us all get better ideas. I hope you didn’t think I was saying anything negative about your new improved version! It looks fantastic. Thanks for the details and thank you for sharing.
- rubyn00bie 6y agoReally neat little project! I would have loved to paid more attention but easily the most unusable website I've used in a while. Like seriously, it's awful if you scroll up an down a couple times because you're pushing URL changes. Then because everything animates it starts chugging a long, doing weird shit, like not going back. It's a single page it doesn't need to change the fucking URL or even worse animate those changes... On the plus side, the website looks really nice even if it is unusable.
- chris_st 6y agoWell, maybe on other browsers... on Safari, on a wide screen, I still had to maximize the window to see all the text. At a "mere" 1200px wide, half the text was under the knob.
- Hamuko 6y agoSame on Firefox at 1530 px.
- tsomctl 6y agoNot sure what pisses me off more. That, or the music autoplaying.
- jbverschoor 6y agoOr breaking the back button
- Gibbon1 6y agoBe nice if there was a DNS that blackholes websites that break the back button.
- jbverschoor 6y agoOH yeah! A DNS that would crawl the website, launch a VM with a couple browsers to see if the backbutton is broken.
- asguy 6y agoAs an aside: this is the first time I’ve seen scrolling the page implemented with history. This feels like an anti-pattern; I had to hit back 4 times to return to HN.
- mey 6y agoI couldn't get Firefox Preview on mobile to get back to HN.
- seabrookmx 6y agoDitto. Had to close the tab completely.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- somishere 6y agoCombined with the url back nav issue it crashed mine :)
- Anther 6y agoEvery time I pushed back, my iPhone auto played a video full screen. Most annoying.
- teemofeev 6y agoHey, We didn't expect such huge feedback, and the website was made just for fun without any testing. We know that the webpage is ugly. Moreover, we're hosting it on a limited free Firebase tier. Sorry for the inconvenience.
- teemofeev 6y agoSorry for the inconvenience. We've updated the website. I've removed the clunky scroll. I hope it works better now. Have a nice day
- tonetheman 6y ago... sigh ... the back button ... sites that mess with the back button should not be allowed on the internet.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- based2 6y agoshould be part of https://www.darkpatterns.org/types-of-dark-pattern https://www.darkpatterns.org/types-of-dark-pattern
- PascLeRasc 6y agoHow is this even achieved? I've made websites before, but I don't know how you'd even go about hijacking the back button like this.
- Hamuko 6y agohttps://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/History/pushState https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/History/pus...
- quickthrower2 6y agoIt should require a click action in my book. Bad web standards (== bad google)
- Hamuko 6y agoDefine mess. Anchor links also make the back button move around on the same page.
- teemofeev 6y agoHey, We didn't expect such huge feedback, and the website was made just for fun without any testing. We know that the webpage is ugly. Moreover, we're hosting it on a limited free Firebase tier. Sorry for the inconvenience. As a temporary solution, you could use https://hackaday.io/project/172188-control-your-audio-wit-theknob https://hackaday.io/project/172188-control-your-audio-wit-th....
- chris_st 6y agoI have... somewhere... a stainless steel knob, designed to control the volume, that was wonderful to feel and turn. Alas, the driver was incredibly flaky, and just wouldn't work consistently. I ought to dig it up and see if I can reverse engineer it.
- jedimastert 6y agoIs it, by any chance, a Griffin Powermate? <https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Griffin_PowerMate> https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Griffin_PowerMate>
- chris_st 6y agoYup! I may give their drivers another try... this is a different computer, with a later OS. Alas, they no longer support it. Ah well...
- tkzed49 6y agoSeems like this is inspired by DIYPerks' video from a few years ago, is it not? https://youtu.be/sJ5vhShdVjo https://youtu.be/sJ5vhShdVjo
- jedimastert 6y agoI was just checking to see if someone else had posted the link. I think that the concept of a knob made of concrete could definitely be made through independent invention given that concrete is a popular aesthetic right now, but it still wiggles it's eyebrows...
- DanBC 6y agoDIY Perks is credited in the Thingiverse page. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4424564 https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4424564 > So, driven by the idea, I began to look for some inspiration and finally found this awesome video made by DIY Perks youtu.be/sJ5vhShdVjo I am starting to develop.
- jedimastert 6y agoSuper glad to hear!
- teemofeev 6y agoHey tkzed49, Right, the concept of the knob made of concrete is fully inspired by DIY Perks. But we've added a lot of sugar: - Open-source Arduino-compatible firmware so you can add your functionalities and light effects; - The audio is controlled with the HID library instead of potentiometer; - There are one audio input and two outputs that can be switched with the hardware switch; - Bonus option is you can use it as a scrolling knob; - The audio lines are connected to the microcontroller and you can add light effects relative to the sound; - It is 3d printed and we also added a 3d printable model of the mold for the concrete part;
- egypturnash 6y agoSo it's a PowerMate (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griffin_PowerMate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griffin_PowerMate) except made from concrete? (Huh, apparently Griffin stopped making them in 2018, so I guess there's room for a replacement. I covet one every time I remember they exist but I never quite covet one enough to actually want to spend the money getting one...)
- rootusrootus 6y agoI have an older PowerMate (USB, not Bluetooth) that I used about 15 years ago in my first carputer. It's really good for that, better than relying on just a touchscreen. The carputer is long gone, but that Griffin PowerMate is sitting on my desk in front of me right now. Still wonder if I can find another clever use for it.
- jb0x168 6y agoI've been using an ElGato StreamDeck repurposed as a global mute button (among other things) for Zoom, Webex, etc. The Powermate could be pretty nifty for this as well, using the radial menus to quickly get at globals like mute/unmute, start/stop video, etc
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- Avshalom 6y agoMicrosoft makes one still https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/surface-dial/925r551sktgn?activetab=pivot%3aoverviewtab https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/surface-dial/925r551sktgn?...
- rsync 6y ago"Huh, apparently Griffin stopped making them in 2018, so I guess there's room for a replacement." Teenage Engineering makes one of these: https://teenage.engineering/products/orthoremote https://teenage.engineering/products/orthoremote It is designed as a remote volume control for one of their synths but it is a generic bluetooth volume control device that can be used with anything. I have one - very nice and very high build quality.
- smabie 6y agoWhy can't I go back? Cool product, but this is the worst webpage I have ever had the privilege of using.
- teemofeev 6y agoHey, We didn't expect such huge feedback, and the website was made just for fun without any testing. We know that the webpage is ugly. Moreover, we're hosting it on a limited free Firebase tier. Sorry for the inconvenience. As a temporary solution, you could use https://hackaday.io/project/172188-control-your-audio-wit-theknob https://hackaday.io/project/172188-control-your-audio-wit-th....
- teemofeev 6y agoSorry for the inconvenience. We've updated the website. I've removed the clunky scroll and fixed the browser history issue. I hope it works better now.
- Animats 6y agoDoes this sell for $495 or $4.95?
- teemofeev 6y agoWe're not ready to sell any of these yet. If you're interested in getting one of the samples please email us. I'm not sure, but I hope we'll figure something out.
- ConcernedCoder 6y agoScrewing with the browser history == "The abomination that causes instant abandonment"
- teemofeev 6y agoSorry, we didn't expect such a huge interest from the community. The website was made quickly and without any testing. I know it's ugly, sorry. Maybe I'll try to fix it these days.
- teemofeev 6y agoSorry for the inconvenience. We've updated the website. I've removed the clunky scroll and the browser history issue. I hope it works better now.
- cocktailpeanuts 6y agoI swear there was some startup that raised millions of dollars to do exactly this, but can't remember the name. It could be a YC company. Anyone know?
- teemofeev 6y agoInteresting... I've never seen the startup doing something like this, we were inspired by DIYPerks on youtube.
- serf 6y agoit's already said in this thread, but wow am I impressed with how many things are working against me on this website. 1) scroll is totally hijacked into discrete intervals, those discrete intervals count as page loads (destroying web history and any chance of using the back button), 2) auto-playing media that isn't default-muted that starts with loud music rather than a soft lead-in or voice, 3) and after you trudge through the mess, the site doesn't really work at reasonably average resolutions, explain much, or offer a product. The straight thingiverse link[0] that's on the site is a better, more descriptive advertisement for this project than the project's site itself -- not good. [0]: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4424564 https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4424564
- teemofeev 6y agoHey, We didn't expect such huge feedback, and the website was made just for fun without any testing. We know that the webpage is ugly. Moreover, we're hosting it on a limited free Firebase tier. Sorry for the inconvenience.
- teemofeev 6y agoWe've updated the website. I've removed the clunky scroll. I hope it works better now.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- Awelton 6y agoWhoever designed this train wreck of a web page should be tarred, feathered, and publicly flogged on national television as a warning to anyone that might be tempted to make something similar.
- teemofeev 6y agoHey, We didn't expect such huge feedback, and the website was made just for fun without any testing. We know that the webpage is ugly. Moreover, we're hosting it on a limited free Firebase tier. Sorry for the inconvenience.
- quickthrower2 6y agoI’m sorry your getting such a hard time from HN.
- teemofeev 6y agoSorry for the inconvenience. We've updated the website. I hope it works better now.
- mesozoic 6y agoWebsite usability vomit
- teemofeev 6y agoHey, We didn't expect such huge feedback, and the website was made just for fun without any testing. We know that the webpage is ugly. Moreover, we're hosting it on a limited free Firebase tier. Sorry for the inconvenience. As a temporary solution, you could use https://hackaday.io/project/172188-control-your-audio-wit-theknob https://hackaday.io/project/172188-control-your-audio-wit-th....
- teemofeev 6y agoSorry for the inconvenience. We've updated the website. I've removed the clunky scroll. I hope it works better now.
- kaushikt 6y agoThis is a great project. Yes, the website sucks a bit but that can be fixed. Good job !!
- teemofeev 6y agoThanks! We didn't expect such huge feedback, and the website was made just for fun without any testing. We know that the webpage is ugly. Moreover, we're hosting it on a limited free Firebase tier. Sorry for the inconvenience. As a temporary solution, you could use https://hackaday.io/project/172188-control-your-audio-wit-theknob https://hackaday.io/project/172188-control-your-audio-wit-th.... Maybe I'll fix the webpage in the next couple of days
- teemofeev 6y agoSorry for the inconvenience. We've updated the website. I hope it works better now.
- sertsa 6y agoActual build instructions at: https://hackaday.io/project/172188-control-your-audio-wit-theknob https://hackaday.io/project/172188-control-your-audio-wit-th...
- brokenmachine 6y agoThank you. The site felt like more like one of those old adventure game puzzles than an actual website with information.
- teemofeev 6y agoWe are getting a lot of questions about the knob. Here is some info to avoid any confusion: The concept of the knob made of concrete is fully inspired by DIY Perks. But we are added a lot of perks, like: - Open-source Arduino-compatible firmware so you can add your functionalities and light effects; - The audio is controlled with the HID library instead of potentiometer; spare time - There are one audio input and two outputs that can be switched with the hardware switch; - Bonus option is you can use it as a scrolling knob; - The audio lines are connected to the microcontroller and you can add light effects relative to the sound; - It is 3d printed and we also added a 3d printable model of the mold for the concrete part; If you are interested in buying one of the samples please email us, we'll try to figure something out. This way you will help us understand how desirable the product is. Thank you and Have a nice day ;)
- teemofeev 6y agoIf someone is still reading this: We're the developers of TheKnob. Please tell us how would you like us to improve the knob itself? Would you buy it? Would you like to see it as a DIY kit or ready-to-use product? We're using plastic for the bottom frame now, maybe we should consider using aluminum or wood frame?