3x5_touch_tft_keypad

Example of finished project (stl files here) Thinyverse.

Hardware:

• The project uses the Makerfabs-ESP32-S3-SPI-TFT-with-Touch board...
• The board contains an SD card to store menu images and text (macros)...

Software/Code/Images:

• Arduino Code...
• A few 320px240px images in .bmp format, and a few icons for buttons...
• A text file or two...

Notes on Menu Files:

• A menu lines contains: [the_key_type], the_macro_text (characters), see example below (sample_menu)...
• Menu files are simple text files with 15 lines...
• Menu lines cannot be blank, they can not contain comments...
• As many comments as needed can be written after last menu line, i.e comments start on line 16...
• You can have as many Menus as you want...

The Basics:
We start with a 480px by 320px background image, it consists of 16 button areas (identified by the red outlined squares). Then using an image editor, edit Grid480x320.bmp file and import the desired button icons (64px by 64px images works well) into each of the outlined button icons positions. Once finished, export the final image as menu1.bmp and save to SD card.

blankbg.bmp

Next, create a text file called menu1 and add 15 lines of text (each consisting of what we would need to type to execute the given programs, see sample_menu for example), then save the file to the SD card.

freecad
[T]/usr/bin/flatpak run --branch=stable --arch=x86_64 --command=kicad --file-forwarding org.kicad.KiCad
/opt/sublime_text/sublime_text
/home/Mike/Downloads/arduino-1.8.19/arduino
[T]ls -l
[LA]3
/usr/share/playonlinux/playonlinux --run 'Fireworks'
firefox
xfce4-terminal
kcalc
[RA]4
meld
[NEXT]
/home/Mike/AppImages/Stellarium.AppImage
[PREV]

Menus are arranged in 5 colums 3 rows as in:

3, 6, 9, 12, 15
2, 5, 8, 11, 14
1, 4, 7, 10, 13


Example Main menu (menu1.bmp)


Example media menu (/images/menu5.bmp)

Special keys:

• [LA] = Left Alt - [RA] = Right Alt
• [LS] = Left Shift - [RS] = Right Shift
• [LC] = Left Ctrl - [RC] = Right Ctrl
• [SU] = Super Key
• [TA] = Tab (used in conjunction with Alt, Ctrl Keys)
• [F?] = Function Keys, F1 to F24 (example [F4], [F12] etc..) are these needed)
• [T] = Open A Terminal
• [T]program_name... Launch program inside a terminal...
• [?] *any single character (a-z), for use with conbinations such as Ctrl C or Alt x

*You must add the appropiate character key to your code. Currently we have added K, F, and S to tft_touch_keypad.ino

In your OS, it's probably best to use or assign new shortcuts to your application and then use these shortcuts in your Menus.
You can use complex combinations to avoide conflicts as you don't have to remember them once saved in the menu file.
I've taken to using Super + (any single character) giving me lots of launch options, for example Super+K launches kicad.

Programming:
Install the Arduino IDE, add required libraries (see top of tft_touch_keypad.ino for required libraries), compile and upload tft_touch_keypad.ino.ino* sketch to the ESP32-S3 SPI board (don't forget to insert the SD card)...

TBA:
Generating macro keyboard data is context/window-focus sensitive, that is, the active program will try to implement the keystrokes, so for testing under Linux I normally open a terminal manually, the press a key. I have added the [T] special key, to open a terminal before process the rest of the menu line (some programs require launching from a terminal, but it also helps to remove undesirable affects).

sample_menu:
Each line of the menu text can contain:

• A program name (can include the path) to launch, for example: ~/{HOME}/this_path/this_program.
• Special key combinations: [LA]+3 or [LC]+[F10] or [SHIFT]+[LC]+[LA]+x.
• To open a terminal before processing a menu line use: [T]program_name_link_etc
• Any combination of keys up to 128 characters.

After initial programming of the TFT board:
All changes are made to the menu1 text file and/or the menu1.bmp image on the SD card, no need to recompile as these changes are imported from SD card on every boot.

Currently:
It is possible to implement as many menus as required, for example, menus might allow loading of sub-menus, with each sub-menu having 12 or 13 buttons (two would be required for navigation, one additional for HOME menu). ...

Future:
Optional 5x4 layout (20 key) (keysGrid480x320.bmp),

Anything is possible with edits to the code, you could use a larger TFT.
Macro Keyboards are more useful for complex Video/Audion editing and hardware projects and they can always be repurpose.
Hope it's useful to someone.

Some updates:

• The alt folder may contain code for testing if issues arise).
• Stack issue fixed (thanks to MicroController over at ESP32 forums).
• In an ideal world we could edit the program excution code and change icons via a web interface... someday...

Note, Some code is in the public domain (example code), remaining code © Michael O'Toole 2023

Mike