Pixinsight control from Loupedeck/Streamdeck

flamidey

Well-known member
Hi everyone,
Not sure where to put this topic, so I opt for General... I did a search but came up with nothing spot on.

Objective : on Windows, use a LoupeDeck (it would probably be the same idea with a Stream Deck) to launch processes and scripts in Pixinsight.

I am unfamiliar with coding and I'm looking for the best way to "remote control" Pixinsight using a LoupeDeck. I am aware of Sascha Wyss' Loupedeck excellent module (on mac only for now) but I'm interested in the process rather than just the result.

Anything with a keyboard shortcut is straightforward. Now for everything else, how would you approach this?
- use the console commands (what about the processes that do not have one?). It seems to work but it looks a bit "dirty" : shortcut to open the consol, wait until it shows up, type text, type return
- use menu navigation (this is how Sascha did it on the Mac): customize a shortcut to navigate in the menu bar, use arrows to navigate to the proper menu, more arrows down to select the process, return, etc
- use JS (LoupeDeck can launch an executable)
- anything else ?

Any insight is appreciated.
Thanks!
 
Sorry - I missed your reference to Sascha - I have never used a LoupeDeck so I can't help further I'm afraid.

CS, Mike
 
Having looked at the loupedeck site I am not filled with confidence. Lots of glossy pictures and marketing, zero documentation. If there is not a basic manual telling folks how it works (i.e. what do I do with it if I buy one), then I for one am not wasting my time on it. If anyone can post a link to a user guide that describes how to make it work, I might change my mind.
 
I think this approach misses the point (at least for me). While I do sometimes simply "push a button" for a result, I am more often experimenting with the many parametric variations that the rich collection of PI processes make available.
I guess I'm not surprised that folks accustomed to simple, push-button applications are intimidated by this exponential multiplication of options, but I have spent most of my professional life using applications like this. MatLab; Mathematica; Cadence PSpice; a wide variety of CAD applications; they are all characterised by a large library of modular processing options, supported by a scripting facility that power users are expected to learn.
 
I think this approach misses the point (at least for me). While I do sometimes simply "push a button" for a result, I am more often experimenting with the many parametric variations that the rich collection of PI processes make available.
I guess I'm not surprised that folks accustomed to simple, push-button applications are intimidated by this exponential multiplication of options, but I have spent most of my professional life using applications like this. MatLab; Mathematica; Cadence PSpice; a wide variety of CAD applications; they are all characterised by a large library of modular processing options, supported by a scripting facility that power users are expected to learn.
It's bit more than a Stream Deck as it has a couple of "potentiometer"-like controls as well. But globally it is just a glorified keyboard with the BIG difference that it has customizable LED buttons. That makes a big difference to me as you can organize your shortcuts in pages and have a custom visual indication on what each shortcut does.
As for documentation, there is none for regular use (which is really simple) but there is a developer SDK here :

My question, though is not on how the Loupedeck works, but what is the best way to send commands to PI in a "keyboard shortcut" context, knowing that most PI stuff is not keyboard shortcuttable.
 
On a Mac, one way of accomplishing this is with the Keyboard Maestro application. This allows you to program just about every user action you can think of, including menu items. With KM you can then create actions for any of the PI processes and/or scripts that you want. Stream Deck has two free plugins (Keyboard Maestro and KM Link) that allow you to associate a Keyboard Maestro action with a specific Stream Deck button.

All that is needed is to create the usual Stream Deck hierarchy of actions, with each action being a PI menu item (process, script, etc) coupled with a corresponding KM Link plugin pointing to the action.

Pretty straightforward to implement, but also somewhat laborious since you would have to create a KM macro and Stream Deck button for each individual operation (not to mention an icon to make things pretty). Starting simple and adding PI processes and script "as you need them" is probably a reasonable way to go about this since you wouldn't be faced with the task of creating a hundred or so actions all at once.

Now that you mention it (and since I own both Keyboard Maestro and a Stream Deck), I'll play around a bit and see if I can cobble something together as a test. h

- Ken
 
Thanks macbates! My question is all about Windows though :)

Keyboard Maestro is indeed super powerful and user friendly. Sadly on Windows, its closest cousin is autohotkey and, powerful as it is, its Ui is... non existent. Also, PI being a QT app, I think it's non trivial to access simple elements such as menu items.

On the Mac, accessing the PI menu bar with "shortcuts" is doable, as Sascha demonstrated in his module (using a custom shortcut you need to set to access the menu bar).
 
It's actually pretty simple (on a Mac, at least). Here's a link to a quick Stream Deck profile that I created in just a few minutes. It contains 6 different PI processes and scripts (WBPP, DBE, SPCC, etc), together with the PI icons for each script and process. It's not organized to follow a typical process flow; it's just a few PI processes and scripts to demonstrate the concept. Install it as a Stream Deck profile, and when you press each button the appropriate PI process or script launches.

It was actually easy enough to create that I think I'll spend some time on it to make one that is more comprehensive and has multiple folders that allow you to follow a simple process flow (mine, at least!).

Any Mac / Stream Deck / Keyboard Maestro users out there?
 
That's my point, it's simple on Mac, not so on Windows.
I'm doing everything PI related on Windows, so...
 
That's my point, it's simple on Mac, not so on Windows.
I'm doing everything PI related on Windows, so...
Did you come to a resolution for Windows? I have both Mac and Windows and would like to set it up and am seeing the same - that Process Console is relatively easy but doesn't deal with everything.
 
Did you come to a resolution for Windows? I have both Mac and Windows and would like to set it up and am seeing the same - that Process Console is relatively easy but doesn't deal with everything.
Nothing yet.
Sascha mentioned he was on hold while the Loupedeck team needed to fix a bug on the Windows version.
And I am waiting for my CT so i could not dive deeper yet.
 
Process Explorer gives access to just about everything:
CTRL-ALT-P
TAB
TAB
text "process or script name"
RETURN
RETURN

Seems to work OK.
 
It seems to work well!

loupedeck_windows.png
 
Actually - CTRL-ALT-P followed by a short DELAY, then TAB, TAB, processname, ENTER,ENTER
I can confirm it works. Not the smoothest experience, given the mandatory popping up of the process explorer but good enough. 350ms seems the tipping point for the delay.
 

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Nice icons! Yes it’s not ‘clean’ but I’ve been using it in anger and it works fine. I’d like to put current pixelmath based process icons into this but think they would all need to be turned into Scripts which is a bit beyond me right now.
 
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