Guide 15 button Hotlink Panel (1meg of images)

ok, i have had this mod for about a year, when it suddenly occured to me that, since I stumbled upon it by acident, many people may not know the shear simplicity involved in it. Basically, you install & run this software which interfaces with winamp, windows and more. You then build this very easy interface using the SERIAL port (nice change from all the parrallel mods) now, you can either use 4 buttons and no diodes or 15 buttons and 28 diodes, it also allows for a led, which is pc controlled (although something went a bit weird with me, and i have two leds which alternate....)

Anyway, first thing to do is go download the software here:

Bottom of this page



Have a read through there to. Look at some picture examples for inspiration!

I will say now, the software is damn stable, i have never had any issues and it is not resorce taking.

This quick guide (i hate typing) is on the 15 button version.



picture 1

Things you need:

1x serial port plug and housing (9 pin D shell plug)
1x 680 - 1k resistor
1x 9 core wire - any length
15x momentary push buttons
28x diodes, 1n4148, kd-521, kd-522 ALL MUST BE THE SAME
1x box or similar to shove it all in
1x soldering iron + computer
2x houres of your precious time
patience and eyesight, if you put one diode in backwards, it all goes haywire. (not damaging to pc, just when you press a button it does lots of other stuff too.)

FIRST
Solder the serial plug onto the wire, making notes of all wires, disregard the wires going to pins 7,3 and 2.

SECOND
Mount the led, all buttons and wire into a housing, well wire going into the housing, you know what i mean

THIRD
SOlder one side of every swith together and connect to pin 4 of serial wire

attach the following number of diodes, rings away from switch, to the following swithches ( the other terminal, not the one you have just joined together,

3-2
5-2
6-2
7-3
9-2
10-2
11-3
12-2
13-3
14-3
15-4

first digit is the switch number (inportant to make up a number for each switch) second number is number of diodes.

FOURTH

Pin one of the serial poet goes to ONE diode (any) of the following swithches:

3,5,7,9,11,13,15 and also swith one (no diode)

Pin six of the serial poet goes to ONE diode (any) of the following swithches:

2,3,6,7,10,11,14,15 and also switch two (no diode)

Pin eight of the serial poet goes to ONE diode (any) of the following swithches:

4 (no diode) ,5,6,7,12,13,14,15

Pin nine of the serial port goes to ONE diode (any) of the following swithches:

8 (no diode) ,9,10,11,12,13,14,15

Fore poeople who just are screaming for a schematic, the program provides one, but here is the same one now:

Picture 2



Connect the cathode (negative) of the LED to pin 5 and the anode (positive) to pin 4 via the resistor.

Now stick it all together, connect it to your mobo and start assigning buttons!

I TAKE NO RESPONSABILITY FOR YOU SCREWING YOU MOBO UP WITH THIS AT ALL. UNLESS YOU REALLY SCREW UP THE WORST I CAN SEE HAPPENING IS A DIODE IN BACKWARDS, WHICH RESULTS IN A BUTTON ACING AS ANOTHER. have fun!


Closeup of buttons 1

ratsnest of wiring 1


Wiring 2



good luck!

 

I applaud your valiant usage of spare time. Very well done indeed.

If I had done it, I would've gone for smaller switches and a more streamlined look. But, then again, if you go completely blind youll still be able to work the switches on yours

 

looks really good

guide abit confusing for me though

 

Yup, made a couple of these in my time, including one i posted on here a while back:


http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=61827

there's a whole bunch of em on the ComControl website too:

http://diba.hotbox.ru/comctrl/pictures.html

Really handy, and super simple

 

Can you completely control Winamp, including choosing play lists? If so, I can see my PSone screen and some buttons coming to good use...

 

I did that some time ago, and I really sugest making your own IR receiver circuit, you'll love to have a remote control instead of a bunch of buttons.

 

You're awesome! I love you... I needed something just like this.

Do you think Cat5 cable would be thick enough to interface the device to the serial port? Sure looks better than a half dozen odd wires flying about to a plug... (although sleeving could work too I suppose) I'm more concerned with the LED than anything else. Also, on that site, it says to wire the LED to 4 and 7 or 5 and 7, you say to ignore pin7 and wire it to 4 and 5

/me needs to find a ton of switches and wire now

 

Meeper: Yes, you can add create new playlists and add files and stuff using the commands available.

Firehed: THanks and yes, Cat 5 cable is fine as it has 8 cores, the led is optional and i did something wrong in mine with that, as i said, but i have it as it is in the daigram, and it works fine.

Starfighter: nice n neat, but 5 buttons? is it 4 button setup with last button not functional or is it 15 button setup with only 5 buttons?

Skylined: I made an IR reciever system but found it not as good, i have 5 meter cable on this which does me fine, IR is a pain when it is outta range...

 

It's actually a 4 button set up, purely because I couldn't find any diodes knocking about. Let's call the spare button a magic button

It's not such a worry though, since I only ever use the "skip" button on it anyway.

It's mainly a convinience so I can change the track on the computer if I've left it for a while, without having to type in a password / wait for the monitor to fire up..

 

You wouldn't happen to know of a place that sells a whole load of pushbutton switches cheap, would you? I'd spend a small fortune locally

 

firehed, I believe they are called "junkyards" or if your more lucky Recycle centers, obsolete computer places etc. I felt cheap but I got a lot of the components for my case from flea markets, old scanners etc

 

ebay = good for that soft of thing...

 

I suppose I forgot to mention they should all be the same...
/me ponders 15 vandal resistants, a relay-based luxeon, and the $200++ bill

Actually if you're good at binary, you could make the 15-button version of the software work with four buttons.

Of course what I'd really like to do is make something the way a keyboard is done, with copper traces on a thin sheet of plastic like an overhead transparency. Too bad I don't have a copper-toner cartridge.

ebay isn't really my thing but I'll see whats there anyways, thanks for the tip

 

its working only for winamp ? or i can use it for everthying in windows ?

 

Black,
You can use it for any programs in Windows, go to the 'WinAmp' tab in the COM Port properties and you can assign functions to the buttons (to start programs, act as a key press, shutdown, reset etc).

Rgds,
ARM

 

softwares the same reguardless... Just an option to select which one you have built..

 

great guide, cant wait to use it for my htpc, does it work on a sort binary basis, when using 15 buttons

 

More or less. 11 of the 15 buttons are really just combinations of two. Count to 15 on your hand in binary and you'll find it remarkably close to the schematic. Actually identcal, minus the diodes and whatnot. But you can't push more than one at once in 15-button mode to have it act as (2^15-1) combinations.

What I was saying is that if you wire it up with only four buttons (if you download the program there's a schematic for it), you could push combinations of those to have it work with the 15-button setup.

 

i have been thinking about making one of these since i saw this thread..... i only want to use 8 buttons... is it possible just to not add the last few buttons to the circuit?
one other thing.... where did you get your components from? a local electronics store or a known electronics shop?

 

yeah you can use upto as many buttons as you like.. just "remove" from then on on the schematic. I got my stuff from maplin... expansive i know.. One of my first projects about a year ago now..