The Dream Board

JD

Well-Known Member
It has occurred to me that designing one's own board from scratch is not a huge deal anymore. In fact, it is more about writing the software that goes between the user interface and a series of machine addresses that port to a series of RS-485 UTARs to provide output universes.

Ok, probably I will never get around to it, but here's a question for everyone:

What is the one (or more) feature that you just can not find in today's world of boards?

You know, the one that would make it your "Dream Board."
 
It has occurred to me that designing one's own board from scratch is not a huge deal anymore. In fact, it is more about writing the software that goes between the user interface and a series of machine addresses that port to a series of RS-485 UTARs to provide output universes.
Ok, probably I will never get around to it, but here's a question for everyone:
What is the one (or more) feature that you just can not find in today's world of boards?
You know, the one that would make it your "Dream Board."

Speech Recognition;

"Channel 1 to Full"

Or:

"DS Truss - All Martins 2k's to DC Singer in R27, 1/2 body - 5 count - and GO"

Or:

"Jeez - that really looks like Dog DooDoo - can you make that look pretty ?"

SB
 
It has occurred to me that designing one's own board from scratch is not a huge deal anymore. In fact, it is more about writing the software
We were actually talking about this kind with audio consoles on Sunday night at the PSW chat.
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Ours ended up being a huge outdoor LCD touchscreen with one physical channel strip to the side.
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I want to put it in a stylish oak frame.
 
Speech Recognition;
"Channel 1 to Full"
Or:
"DS Truss - All Martins 2k's to DC Singer in R27, 1/2 body - 5 count - and GO"
Or:
"Jeez - that really looks like Dog DooDoo - can you make that look pretty ?"
SB

My Lighting Design teacher has made the point that to him, all lighting consoles have speech recognition.

I like the Eos, good console, and I don't have to spend the years making it myself!
 
Ours ended up being a huge outdoor LCD touchscreen with one physical channel strip to the side.

Hummm... now there's something interesting to build on... Why have any encoders! Build the board out of a series of 19 inch LCD monitors that have touch screens on them. That way, you could "program" any configuration of controls to be displayed and then use the controls by touching them.
 
I'll leave the board building to ETC.

Voice recognition boards are going to put me out of a job...

"Board, give me channel 20 at 50%"

"I'm sorry but I can't let you do that Noah........"
 
Hummm... now there's something interesting to build on... Why have any encoders! Build the board out of a series of 19 inch LCD monitors that have touch screens on them. That way, you could "program" any configuration of controls to be displayed and then use the controls by touching them.
I've had this idea for a while, but the technology didn't exist to support what I thought was an intuitively functioning potentiometer.
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The new touch screen technology that allows a user to grab an object and rotate with two fingers makes this project a possibility.
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Anyone have a few million for development?
 
Hummm... now there's something interesting to build on... Why have any encoders! Build the board out of a series of 19 inch LCD monitors that have touch screens on them. That way, you could "program" any configuration of controls to be displayed and then use the controls by touching them.

Nothing feels better than a real button. IMHO.
 
I've had this idea for a while, but the technology didn't exist to support what I thought was an intuitively functioning potentiometer.
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The new touch screen technology that allows a user to grab an object and rotate with two fingers makes this project a possibility.
-
Anyone have a few million for development?

ETC, don't do it! Don't sell out!

Let Leviton handle that! ;)
 
Anyone have a few million for development?

Probably wouldn't cost that much for the hardware, lots of "off the shelf" items. The expense would be in the thousand (s) of hours of software development time. Of course, we could go "open source" with the system so that people could develop their own controls. The controls could then be loaded as "objects." Click and drag them to where you want them to be, then "patch" them into the system with drop-down boxes.

Of course, I also here what Char is saying, nice to get your hands on a real "knob!" ;)
 
Probably wouldn't cost that much for the hardware, lots of "off the shelf" items.
We figured around $5K for the physical parts.
A wood case would probably bring it up another grand or so.
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I would also put a voltage regulation/ surge arrestor system in it, maybe even a backup battery.
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Licensing for a digital snake protocol might be a pain though.
If we go off the shelf I like Roland's system.
 
Licensing for a digital snake protocol might be a pain though.
If we go off the shelf I like Roland's system.

With regards to the "lighting" version, DMX is a standard, so there would be no licensing cost. True also if it is run as an Ethernet system. As I think of these things, part of me realizes it is the natural evolution for a light board, and we probably will see this product built by someone in the not-too-distant future. Now that we have our blank board, what do we want it to do?

Hey, there's a good product name! "The White Board", because it is blank until you load in the features!
 
I'd have to say a fully upgradable board with a GUI designed to be a mix between a suped up iphone interface mixed with the configurability of Windows XP and the developer basis of the open source world, based around a hardware layout of something like the ion/congo mixed with the Strand 500i mixed with the Wholehog. But even that doesn't do the image in my head justice...
 

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