Mousewheel Control of On-screen Pots

jabney · Post by **jabney** » Wed Feb 25, 2004 4:53 pm

I've been experimenting with using the mousewheel on my (thinks it's a) PS2 mouse to control the on-screen rotary pots in sfp. The idea is a good one, but I have two issues.

First, the movement of a pot is slow, i.e. I have to nudge the wheel several times to go all the way left from the top (centered) position. Adjusting the number of lines the wheel is supposed to scroll (under Control Panel) from 3 to 7 does not make any difference.

Second, although the pot will stop when it reaches the leftmost position, it does not stop at the rightmost position. Instead it starts over again from 'Left' or the lowest setting. (If it <i>has</i> to scroll around it is better going from loud to suddenly soft than the other way

.)

Has anybody else been able to solve either of these two problems?

The slow response can be a good thing sometimes, but the one-sided behavior at the extremes will probably keep me from making the mousewheel a primary control device.

john

interloper · Post by **interloper** » Wed Feb 25, 2004 4:58 pm

Save yourself the headache and spend the money on something like the Doepfer Pocket Dial. It uses rotary encoders and clicks one notch at a time, but when spun quickly, jumps a couple of values, depending on the acceleration. If you want to record any controller data, I'd really avoid the mouse.

jabney · Post by **jabney** » Wed Feb 25, 2004 10:19 pm

Hi Interloper,

It took me a while before I tried the mousewheel. I thought it must be a gimmick, but now - for scrolling text - the mousewheel is what feels natural to me.

The mousewheel can be "everyman's" virtual potentiometer in CreamWareland, but it's going to take a little tweaking. Make the course/fine ratio user-adjustable, and the hard-right behavior user adjustable, and mousewheel control would be <i>the</i> way to go - or at least less subject to jitters than trying to move the mouse around.

Is this something only CreamWare can address or will this be something an innovative, (to be)newly-empowered dsp/sdk developer can deal with?

John

interloper · Post by **interloper** » Wed Feb 25, 2004 10:44 pm

I think you should be able to adjust the wheel sensitivity in the control panel. I'm not sure if it will be optimal for your use.

I think this is more of a hardware issue, and CW would probably not be able to do much to improve it.

husker · Post by **husker** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 3:05 am

I'm using a Microsoft optical mouse which has quite a big scroll wheel, and the sensitivity seems fine. This IS something that Creamware can make configurable though (it's them that decides how mouse wheel movement relates to knob movement in SFP)...so that would be a nice change to have.

The 'wrapping around of clockwise knob' turning makes no sense and is just plan wrong! No configuration option required, just fix the bug!

cheers.

Kenf · Post by **Kenf** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 4:16 am

Hi
I have noticed these key/mousewheel combinations.
My mousewheel moves 3 increments, if I press shift at the same time it moves 2 if I press control it moves 6.

Also the a arrow keys on the number pad do the following... up/down arrows increment +/- 1 as do PgUp/PgDn. End resets the value to 0.
Using the other arrow keys on my keyboard, the left/right keys switch between old and new vale so you can do a comparison.
Best thing is to have a play with your keyboard.
Regards
Kenf