ADeck is a DIY touch based macro pad built using an Arduino UNO R4 WiFi and a 2.4 inch TFT touch display. It provides a simple interface to launch desktop applications, trigger shortcuts and automate common PC tasks with a single tap and the purpose is to create a compact desktop tool that makes workflows faster and easier without needing a keyboard or extra clicks for every action.
thought the hardware phase was over but my old TFT screen died 🤡 so i had to order a replacement. it looked exactly the same from outside but internally it behaved completely differently. because of that the whole project got delayed for a bit and i had to go back into hardware debugging again instead of continuing the software side
got a replacement that looked identical but touch refused to work. turns out these cheap screens have different internal wiring depending on the batch. wrote a diagnostic script and figured out the pins were different. had to swap XP and YM to digital pins 8 and 9 and route XM and YP to analog A2 and A3 to wake it up
once it was alive it started reading garbage noise with the Z axis pressure hitting crazy numbers like -13681. added strict MINPRESSURE 5 and MAXPRESSURE 3500 limits in the C++ code to filter out the fake inputs.then realized the manufacturer slapped the touch digitizer upside down. tapping top left opened the bottom right app. just inverted the coordinates in the Arduino map() function and flipped the Y axis completely through software.i have also pushed all the changes made for the new display in this commit
if you want to compare what changed after replacing the hardware you can check it here Commit
after recalibrating everything on the new display the hardware is finally back to the same stage as before. now the touch feels accurate again the bridge is stable and i can finally continue building the actual UI instead of fighting the hardware 😭
today was mostly about connecting the hardware with the PC and making the whole bridge actually usable. the UI side was already working but getting Arduino and Python to talk properly and now the deck can actually trigger apps on the computer instead of just opening test screens.
fixed a weird glitch where apps were automatically closing or returning back to the home screen after a few seconds even when i was not touching anything
increased the touch sensitivity by tuning the MINPRESSURE value so random touches are ignored and only proper presses get detected
built the first working Arduino to Python bridge so touch events from the TFT can directly control apps on the PC nd fixed touch mapping and serial communication bkzz wrong apps were opening due to incorrect touch coordinates and unstable data
tested different app launch methods for Windows until browser apps desktop apps and installed apps all started opening correctly from the touchscreen
now the deck can actually trigger apps on the computer instead of just opening test screens.
(by the way ignore that poor flickering display recording🙃)
started building the main touchscreen interface using the same Arduino UNO R4 WiFi and 2.4 inch TFT display setup that i already used before. instead of jumping into the PC side first i wanted to get the hardware feeling right because if touch detection itself is not reliable then the whole project falls apart. so i first made a simple landscape UI with six app tiles and started testing how every touch was actually getting mapped on the screen.
the biggest issue was touch calibration. the display was rendering everything perfectly but the resistive touch layer was returning different raw values than expected. while mapping p.x and p.y using the map() function and checking each app boundary with the apps[i].x, apps[i].y, bw and bh values i noticed the touch coordinates were not lining up with the actual grid. because of that pressing one app was opening another one and some buttons only responded with extra pressure.
