[icewolf08]

Your rotary encoder idea has been the standard for controlling moving light attributes for a long time. However, why do you need a rubber belt? Just attach a wheel to the encoder (like on most modern consoles) and call it a day. At the same time, why bother with the LED bar graph? You are going to have some kind of channel display with levels on the computer monitor, so is there really a need for the redundancy of information?

It really intrigues me that people have such an affinity for the physical faders and the visual feedback from them (I think the latter is why most like them). I use a couple physical faders for submasters, but never individual channel control. Keyboard input is so much faster; typing "1-25@50" is so much easier than running up 25 faders and finding the level you want them at. So, save the encoders for your ML attributes and use the keypad!

Forgive me, but it just seems like a waste of time to reinvent the wheel. I realize that you don't have any money and you want the challenge of writing your own software, but I would love to know a little more about the board that you have, like what it is. You say that it only has 24 faders in single scene mode, but does it support more channels than that? Does it have a keypad? My other concern is that I would never want to use a totally unproven technology to run any show critical element (like lighting). It is one thing to tinker in your garage, but what happens when the system just up and dies in the middle of a show and there is no support number you can call?

I don't mean to come off as harsh and disheartening, it is just my 2 cents.