MeloAudio MIDI Commander - Custom Firmware

[Harvs]

I'm putting together a custom firmware for this MIDI footswitch I bought. 
Thought I'd post here incase anyone else was interested or had one and wanted to contribute.

https://meloaudio.com/products/meloaudio-midi-commander-guitar-floor-multi-effects-portable-usb-midi-foot-controller-foot-switches

The hardware's quite nice really, can't fault it for what I think is a pretty reasonable price.  Nicely finished, and products in this market are typically pretty expensive for what they are.  One of these is around $160 USD.

Firmware that comes on the device is ok I guess for specific applications they intended.  It all becomes a bit hacky for things outside of this though, and I want to do sequences of commands to configure multiple items on my pedal board with a single button.

Hardware is pretty simple as one would expect.  STM32F103RET, some switches, LEDs, SSD1306 OLED, and the USB & MIDI connectors.  There's also an SWD header pads on one end of the board which makes debugging easy.

All the hardware is basically nutted out, and there's a CubeIDE project which exercises everything (this is just code thrown in the main.c file for reversing, not intended to be an actual application yet.)  High res PCB photos are in the git repo.

https://github.com/harvie256/midi-commander-custom

[Harvs]

An interesting part of the PCB is the un-populated MIDI-IN Jack.  The passives and protection diode is populated, needs the jack and so-5 footprint optocoupler.

There's no reason this couldn't also function has a generic USB-MIDI interface.

Something I'll probably do, as could be useful.  By far the hardest bit will be drilling a neat hole in the powder coated case though...

[Renate]

I can never get used to feeling my way with shoes so I use pedals barefoot (with socks).
The "guitar style" stud switches are not acceptable.
I have an iRig BlueBoard which has elastomeric switches. https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/irigblueboard/
I wouldn't mind owning something with a more solid case.
I don't use any of the iRig software, I just get the GATT myself.

I know, this is comparing apples & oranges.

[Harvs]

I can certainly understand what you're saying.  Also I find the second row of switches particularly difficult to quickly hit without smashing the first, but it seems to be a common complaint across the market.

My main use case is without a computer, just using traditional midi serial. This kind of limits the market a bit more.

[Renate]

Yeah, I can't even imagine hitting the second row.

Hmm, stuff I've never thought about! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organ_shoes