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Touchscreen Mixing Desk for Soundcraft Ui mixer

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Touchscreen Mixing Desk for Soundcraft Ui mixer

Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2016 10:38 am by johalareewi

I have a Soundcraft Ui16 mixer http://www.soundcraft.com/products/ui16

(http://www.soundcraft.com/products/ui16) which is remote controlled. It requires a computer (PC,
tablet, phone, etc.) with wired Ethernet or WIFI, running an HTML5 web browser (like chrome,
firefox, edge, etc.). By browsing to the mixer's URL, all the mixing desk controls are rendered on
the computer screen and can be manipulated. I am currently using a Windows laptop which is
portable but suffers 2 issues.
1) Screen size and resolution. The main mixing desk display has 33 faders. Whilst the software
supports left and right scrolling, it is nice to have as many faders as possible on the screen.
2) I have to use a mouse to manipulate the desk controls. It would be a lot nicer to have a
touchscreen so the controls can be directly controlled by touch (like a real mixing desk). This can
be done with tablets and mobiles but the screens are smaller than my laptop (see problem 1). All
in one PCs have a bigger touchscreen and will do the job but are not cheap. A desktop computer
with a touchscreen is not that portable and might not be up to gigging.

I came across the Iiyama ProLite T2252MTS touchscreen http://www.iiyama.com/gb_en

/products/pr ... 2252mts-3/ (http://www.iiyama.com/gb_en/products/prolite-t2252mts-3/) which is full
HD resolution with HDMI input, 22 inches and not that expensive. Could I hook it up to a
Raspberry Pi and make a suitable 'all-in-one' mixing desk for the Soundcraft Ui16?

And so the project was born.

I already have a Pi2 but the Pi3 had just become available, has onboard WIFI and was cheaper
so this was the Pi I used. The touchscreen connects to the Pi via HDMI (for video) and USB (for
the touchscreen). To get things setup, I also connected a keyboard and mouse but for normal
operation, these are not used. I put the Pi3 in a case and stuck it to the back of the screen and
used short leads to connect the screen and Pi (HDMI and USB). The screen and Pi can be loaded
fully connected into the original shipping box which protects it while in transit.

Parts List:
Iiyama ProLite T2252MTS Touchscreen (and keep the box), Rasberry Pi3, Pi3 power supply, Pi3
case, SD card (min spec 8GB, class 10), short HDMI lead, short USB lead (A-B), couple of stick
on velcro pads.

Raspbian (Jessie) vs UbuntuMATE (16.04 LTS)

I tried both but choose Ubuntu because it has an excellent onscreen keyboard and Firefox built
in. With Raspbian, I had to install IceWeasel (HTML5 browser) and an onscreen keyboard. I
found 2 keyboards (florence and matchbox) but neither of them were up to the standard of the
built in Ubuntu keyboard. Ubuntu also allows the screen power off when idle to be configured
via on screen settings. With Rasbian I had to edit the lightDM conf file to stop the display
switching off after 10 minutes.

Pics:

Rear view with Pi stuck to screen

back.jpg (33.11 KiB) Viewed 6560 times
In the box ready for transport. Pi still attached and plugged in.
loaded.jpg (30.01 KiB) Viewed 6560 times
 Ready to go to the gig.
Boxed.jpg (32.64 KiB) Viewed 6560 times

Re: Touchscreen Mixing Desk for Soundcraft Ui mixer

Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2016 8:27 pm by johalareewi

UbuntuMATE setup

1) Download and copy UbuntuMATE to SD card as per website instructions.

https://ubuntu-mate.org/raspberry-pi/ (https://ubuntu-mate.org/raspberry-pi/)
Note: If the download option does nothing, make sure you haven't got a script blocker or similar
running. The site doesn't work properly unless you have javascript enabled for cloudflare.com.

2) Plug SD card into Pi and hookup the screen, touchscreen, keyboard, mouse and wired
internet connection. Power up.
When asked for username and password, use the mouse and keyboard it is easier than using the
touchscreen at the moment.
I also chose the option to autologin.

3) At the end of the installation, chances are there are black borders around the Pi desktop and
using the touchscreen to click on desktop items is not easy. To fix this, you can disable overscan.
Open a terminal and edit the /boot/config.txt file. Locate the line that says #disable_overscan=1
and remove the #. Save the change and reboot the Pi. The desktop should now fill the whole
screen and the touchscreen is usable.

4) We need to do some updates.

4a. Open a terminal. At the command line enter sudo rpi-update After the update, reboot.
update: Jan 2017
Recent updates to UbuntuMate and Firefox result in 100%CPU use which makes the mixer
unusable.
So skip step 4b and use UbuntuMate as is.
4b. System > Control Center > Software Updater > Install Now (takes a long time) then another
reboot.

5) To have the onboard virtual kepboard always available from startup.

System > Control Center
Set Preferred Appkications
Accessibility
Mobility > onboard > tick run at start

6) Set these onboard preferences

onboard preferences
onboard2a.jpg (27.44 KiB) Viewed 6343 times

General: tick Show Floating Icon When Onboard Hidden

Window: untick Dock To screen edge
Layout: choose Full Keyboard

Now the mouse and keyboard can be unplugged and the touchscreen used for pretty much
everything.

7) To prevent the screen blanking during use.

System > Control Center
Screensaver: untick Activate screensaver when computer is idle.
Power Management > Put Display To Sleep = Never.

8) To get WIFI channels 12 and 13 working (if available for your country)
Open a terminal and edit the /etc/default/crda file.
Enter a 2 character region as appropriate for your country (eg GB).
Save the change and reboot.

enable wifi 12 + 13
wifi1213.jpg (20.29 KiB) Viewed 6335 times

9) Connecting to WIFI from the list of detected networks doesn't always work first time.
However, if you choose a network and enter a rubbish password, the network gets remembered.
You can then choose System > Control Center > Network connections. Edit WIFI and pick the
network. Click on WIFI security tab and enter the correct password. Now you can connect at
anytime by choosing the network from the list.

UbuntuMATE is now ready to be used with the Souncraft Ui mixer.

Connect to the mixer's WIFI or wired network.
Start up Firefox, browse to the mixer's URL, choose the Tablet interface.
You can also run Firefox fullscreen to make full use of the display.
Make sure you have the onboard floating icon enabled. You will need to press F11 to exit Firefox
full screen mode.

working
letsrock.jpg (53.04 KiB) Viewed 6343 times

Re: Touchscreen Mixing Desk for Soundcraft Ui mixer

Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2018 1:18 pm by johalareewi

Update for Pi3 B+

The Pi3 runs a bit hot so when the B+ arrived with faster CPU, faster Ethernet and better Wifi
and possibly cooler, I gave it a go.
Installation of UbuntuMate on the Pi3 B+ is possible already.

Setup instructions as follows:

1. Download Pi3 B+ suitable UbuntuMate (see this thread viewtopic.php?f=63&t=208538&
start=75#p1295937 (https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=208538&
start=75#p1295937) ) and write to SD card.

2. Plug SD card into Pi and hookup the screen, touchscreen, keyboard, mouse and wired internet
connection. Power up.
When asked for username and password, use the mouse and keyboard it is easier than using the
touchscreen at the moment.
I also chose the option to autologin.

3. At the end of the installation, chances are there are black borders around the Pi desktop and
using the touchscreen to click on desktop items is not easy. To fix this, you can disable overscan.
Open a terminal and edit the /boot/config.txt file. Locate the line that says #disable_overscan=1
and remove the #. Save the change and reboot the Pi. The desktop should now fill the whole
screen and the touchscreen is usable.

4. We need to downgrade Firefox to v45 otherwise the mixer software locks the CPU into a 100%
usage loop. I used Synaptic package manager.
Open terminal window. Type sudo apt-get install synaptic reply Y to the questions.
When installatino complete, start Synaptic and locate Firefox in the software list. Chose the
Force Version option and downgrade it to v45.

5. To have the onboard virtual kepboard always available from startup.

System > Control Center
Set Preferred Appkications
Accessibility
Mobility > onboard > tick run at start
Restart the Pi3

6. Set the onboard preferences

General: tick Show Floating Icon When Onboard Hidden
Window: untick Dock To screen edge
Layout: choose Full Keyboard

7. To prevent the screen blanking during use.

System > Control Center
Screensaver: untick Activate screensaver when computer is idle.
Power Management > Put Display To Sleep = Never.

Re: Touchscreen Mixing Desk for Soundcraft Ui mixer

Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2018 1:10 pm by

This is a great idea! Our band uses a rack-mounted Behringer X32 Rack, so I have to control it
via either tablet or PC. Since we're a very mobile band it's not practical for me to use a large
screen (even with a Pi attached to the back of it), but I definitely considered something similar.
I'm usually walking around to check audio levels anyways so the tablet is the best choice for me.

Re: Touchscreen Mixing Desk for Soundcraft Ui mixer

Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2018 6:09 pm by johalareewi

tropho (./memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=259910) wrote: ↑

(./viewtopic.php?p=1307635#p1307635)
Wed Apr 25, 2018 1:10 pm

Since we're a very mobile band it's not practical for me to use a large screen (even with a Pi
attached to the back of it), but I definitely considered something similar.

I do the sound while playing onstage. The touchscreen has a VESA mount which allows it to be
clamped to the speaker stand. Being 22inch HD means I can get all the channels displayed and
can adjust the sound without hitting the wrong control.

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