Facility Control

Hi, I'm looking for a shot-box type unit to trigger dashboard buttons. Something with a fair amount of buttons (16 or more would be good). Any suggestions? I've tried Xkeys. It seems a bit flakey / unreliable, but that might just be my programming. Is there a better solution than XKeys? cheers.

Hey James, take a look at my post:
https://discussions.rossvideo.com/forum/default-forum-gc1/dashboard-gc43/13839-custom-hardware-panel-using-elgato-stream-deck

I am using this little Elgato Stream Deck as a shotbox and it works great. I have it calling a custom Dashboard panel which triggers custom controls on the Carbonite as well as any other function I can tie to a button. We've been using it about a month with no issues. I am planning to add another one which will make web calls to the same Dashboard panel but will locate that panel elsewhere.



I considered Xkeys originally but decided on this for the flexibility and cost. If a video walkthrough would be helpful, just let me know and I can probably shoot one for you. Sorry I didn't have a banana for scale, the keyboard is about as tall as a pen. I have found it to be a nice size.

Joseph

#DashBoard

Hi mate. The link you have goes nowhere. Trying to set this up myself and any assistance would be greatly appreciated

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Alan Stocker
Director
DTEP
Australia
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Original Message:
Sent: 11-05-2017 23:25
From: Joseph Adams
Subject: hardware buttons to trigger dashboard

Hey James, take a look at my post:
https://discussions.rossvideo.com/forum/default-forum-gc1/dashboard-gc43/13839-custom-hardware-panel-using-elgato-stream-deck

I am using this little Elgato Stream Deck as a shotbox and it works great. I have it calling a custom Dashboard panel which triggers custom controls on the Carbonite as well as any other function I can tie to a button. We've been using it about a month with no issues. I am planning to add another one which will make web calls to the same Dashboard panel but will locate that panel elsewhere.



I considered Xkeys originally but decided on this for the flexibility and cost. If a video walkthrough would be helpful, just let me know and I can probably shoot one for you. Sorry I didn't have a banana for scale, the keyboard is about as tall as a pen. I have found it to be a nice size.

Joseph

#DashBoard

thanks Joseph. Great idea. I've used these before, and forgot about them. Looks like 1.2 bananas to me. Are you using keyboard shortcuts assigned to the button's trigger ID's, or some other way?
#DashBoard

No, if you click over to the other post, you can see how I am doing it. The stream deck can make URL calls in the background so I have it sending requests to the Dashboard panel. This method means I don't have to have Dashboard in focus on the computer, it can just run in the background. That helps because I use the same computer currently to also run Wirecast.
#DashBoard

I just got my Xkeys working with Dashboard (Beta). The Dashboard side was very easy. I setup my Xkeys to emulate a game controller, and then just added a game controller inside Dashboard. I set each button to fire a different GPI when pressed, and then simply added a GPI (trigger ID) to the buttons on my panel. Works great, even without Dashboard being in focus.

I agree though, that setting up the Xkeys was the hardest part. Macroworks kept crashing on me. The gist of the Xkeys side though is to set the device for hardware mode, set joystick button actions on each button, and set the endpoint to make sure your computer sees it as a joystick.

I think once you get it programmed once, you should be fine. At that point it's just a matter of making sure the buttons on your panel are mapped to the correct GPI.
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That's awesome! Great job!
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thanks all. I've bought a streamdeck. now trying to find the time to open the box.
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It's a nice box either way! :)
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trying this but not working yet:
http://[127.0.0.1]:5800/ajax/[FSM1DVI] the streamdeck is plugged into the dashboard PC, so it's a local call. FSM1DVI is the trigger ID of the button. do you know if I have to setup Dashbaord to accept this?


#DashBoard

Yes, you have to configure your custom panel in Dashboard to accept the request. Go to this post and look at Troy's answer: https://discussions.rossvideo.com/forum/default-forum-gc1/dashboard-gc43/13599-accessing-the-control-panels-with-a-browser

Once you configure the panel to listen on a specific port (I used port 5800 for my particular panel) then it should pick it up the way I described (as you are attempting). Take out the brackets [] though on the trigger id as they are not needed. I was just using that as reference in my previous post. Sorry about that!

Good luck!
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ahh yes. I didn't publish the panel page. Will give it a try tomorrow.
thanks again.
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Also make sure to remove the brackets [] around the IP address.
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WooHoo!! it worked. thanks so much for your help.
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Yeah!!
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do you know if you can have 2 stream decks plugged into the same pc?
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I have two decks on separate computers controlling the same dashboard panel but haven't tested two on the same computer. I can test tomorrow if you'd like.
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In my tests, the software only recognizes one stream deck at a time. The other deck (even after power cycling) acted like the software wasn't installed. I'm sure it is just a software limitation though, so maybe you could write to them about it.
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