How about a hardware mod? A three or four pin cable connection to one of the softkeys, with an LED and a momentary foot switch on the other side, connected to the LED and momentary switch of the softkey respectively (LEDs in series, switches in parallel)? That would be the simplest one, but a separate hole and a little soldering on the Qu would be needed.
You loose the warranty, yes. But in five years all these cheep digital units will be obsolete anyway.
That option was discussed and quickly forgot about, Steve said he could quite easily mod the QU-16 were a foot switch could be plugged in like desks of old, but if something was to go wrong whilst still under warranty, you would be screwed. And in turn could potentially face a a hefty repair bill, so why take that risk. Better to pay a little more rather than save in the possible short term.
Modding the Qu-16 would not only make you loose warranty, but also something else: The possibility to replace a broken Qu-16 by another one, re-install your presets from an USB key and go on with the show. Furthermore, a Qu-16 foot switch will most likely also work for your future Qu-24 or the Qu-32.
Actually I donât agree with GuitarHero that in five years a Qu-16 will be obsolete. After all, I started out into the digital mixing world with a DDX3216 that I had gotten used and stuck to that for 6 years or so - only replacing it by a 91V96i, because the preamps and converters sucked - which is for sure not the case for the Qu-16. (The usage scenario of the DDX3216 was quite different from what Iâm doing with the Qu-16, so itâs not entirely comparable.)
Today I started to get into a more advanced design of my control program - letâs see which one will make it faster into the device, the quick hack or the real stuff.
Best
Doc4
Ok, so you think this unit will have any value higher than 200âŹ-300⏠in five yearsâŚWellâŚ
But I understand the other reasons.
Then how about this: AMT FS-2 Midi â Kenton Midi USB host â Qu16
I donât know if that works, havenât tried myself. But according to the specs of the units it should do.
Letâs talk again in 5 years about this.
I just plugged the Qu-16 into a Linux box via USB and it showed up as a class compliant USB-Midi Interface and a 18channel I/O audio interface. Hence the Kenton MID USB host should be able to deal with it. So in the end it depends on the question whether or not the AMT FS-2 will send the right messages.
For my foot switch project based on a RaspberryPi, this means I can probably use the Linux USB-Midi drivers instead of a network connection, which could be easier. So far I have the hardware ready talking to buttons and LEDs with a message-controller-based architecture⌠it just doesnât talk to the Qu-16 yet. My plan is to have the LEDs on the foot switch also update when you operate the same functions on the Qu-16âs surface.
Could anyone from A&H answer the following question: Can the Qu-16 talk MIDI to a computer via USB and to an iPad via the network simultaniously? This would definetley make me go for the USB solution.
Best
Doc4
https://niels.drni.de/stuff/quPy.jpg â got the hardware up and running, but the âfirmwareâ still has a bit of trouble talking via USB⌠TCP/IP is less attractive but seems to be easier to do. Loads of working hours, probably not worth the effort if you can spent your time on doing paid gigs with the Qu16 insteadâŚ
Doc4
Wow, that looks nice! Good work!
Dear A&H folks!
would it be possible for you to publish the fancy formula that computes the NRPN parameter values for the delay time, say from seconds or millisec?
I figured out how approximately compute the coarse value, but itâs really not that easy to get to the fine-grained values or any precise formula just from the table with examples.
Best
Doc4
Would it be possible to use a lookup table?
The examples in the MIDI documentation are too few for a lookup table, especially since the relation is logarithmic. One could of course âsniffâ a table from the MIDI output of the Qu, which would be quite cumbersome. Furthermore, it is hard to step through exact msec values with the data knob.
Iâm still very excited about this footswitch, keep us informed! Iâm definitely buying it, when it is possible:)
A lot of the hard work regarding setting up a test board and making sure the test board connects to the QU-16 and sends midi strings back and forth has been done. Will now be moving on to the next stage, will keep everyone updates as soon as more testing has been done.
Concerning my approach to the âQuSwitchâ: Itâs up and running, sending mute on/off and tap delay commands to the Qu16 via TCP/IP. It doesnât receive mute on/off yet, though. Furthermore, Iâd like to have the communication happening via USB/MIDI so that the network connection is free for the iPad. Further improvements would include a more precise formula for computing the delay parameter values.
The picture linked above shows the prototype that has 2 mute groups configured for button 1 and 2, and FX2 tap delay for button 3. On the Qu16, I have 2 FX sends on 2 mute groups, so i can drop in/out reverb and delay either using the softkeys or the foot switch.
Quite some work went into this, so I definitely wonât manufacture another one. But I might release the code and write a little DIY manual if I find the time.
Best
Doc4
would it be possible for you to publish the fancy formula that computes the NRPN parameter values for the delay time, say from seconds or millisec?
DocDocDocDoc, Will send to you via PM
ârock solidâ: https://niels.drni.de/stuff/quPy-Footswitch-on-stage.jpg - first show with our new Qu-16 and my DIY TCP/IP footswitch. I know it reads âHughes & Kettnerâ on it - itâs actually an amp footswitch that I used as a case for the RaspberryPi, a little board with resistors and stuff, and another little board with a DC/DC converter that creates stable 5V from any DC between (I think) 8V and 17V, so standard guitar stomp box wall warts (9V) would do the job.
The Qu-16 did great on its first gig. The fellows from the band enjoyed the delay that I dropped in here and there, e.g., in some blues harp solo in a slow piece. The DIY embedded device did well, too. And me as a computer nerd quitting my nerd job this year really enjoyed kicking a linux system. 
I hope I find the time to make a DIY manual or similar from this experience, including source code (in Python, the most obvious programming language for hardware )
Hi there,
for all those who thing the DIY foot switch is just some kind of powerless phantom, hereâs a little video demo:
Ive been working on a blog post including source code and schematics but it has been delayed by months by a real bunch if lifeâs obstacles⌠hoping to get it done finally in the next couple of days!
Best
Doc4
Our techy who is building me a footswicth for muting FX should have completed by mid august, we/I have moved the goal posts since first brought the idea up. The new footswitch should and hopefully will be a wireless one.
We have already tested out a wired footswitch a few months ago to see if the desk excepted the commands, so all being well I should have a wireless footswitch availble for others to purchase. You wonât need to program or assemble anything, plug and play.
Lee
So, here we go with the blog post about the DIY foot switch, including schematics and source code: https://zwei.drni.de/archives/1553-Kick-the-Qu-A-DIY-Foot-Switch-for-the-Allen-Heath-Qu-Series.html
This is great. If I find some time I will definitely try it. Thank you for sharing this. You could put you code on Github or another collaboration platform so if somebody wants to improve something in your code it could be handled easier.
Hi All - Doc you did a great job here and I really appreciate the time taken in coding all those Python scripts, etc.
As they say, the proof is in the eating and I now have a working breadboard design which works perfectly and wirelessly with my QU-24.
Attached photo shows the breadboard and Raspberry Pi.
Doc, did you ever develop the code further and add the âread tap tempoâ from the QU?
Did anyone else build Docâs footswitch? Experiences?
My goal would be to get the âactualâ footswitch working wirelessly with a Raspberry Pi Zero, so any experiences with WiFi dongles and antenna on stage would be useful?
Thanks again Doc.
