Apologies to Edit Share, I know you would like me to buy a console but I just
can't justify £2K when I have a perfectly good Media Composer system, so...

I have the Shuttle Pro 2 set up on my LW's system and it's working beautifully.
No lag or buffering on the jog wheel, very responsive.

I've laid it out the way I used to use the old Mk1 console.

The only down side is trying to get the STOP button to function like the old console
by becoming a modifier key.
Assigning it to 'K' just makes it act like the keyboard not the console STOP.

I'd even sacrifice one of the Shuttle Pro buttons if I could get it to act as a modifier
key and allow me to programme a second layer of functions.

Does anyone out there have any ideas on how to achieve this?
Is the console stop function an ASCII command?

Any help appreciated.

Below is my layout

Hello OwenP

Nice to see that the Shuttle Pro2 works so good.
I'm sorry that I can't really help you with your Problems. Maybe you should try make Stop the Caps locked button. Then you could assign capital letters as a second meaning.
Can you explain or extend your drawing with another color showing the meanings from the Keys when the modifier is activated? It would be really helpful to understand the console.

Regards Tobi

Hi Tobi,

thanks for your interest. Below is the updated image. The original had a couple of mistakes
(I'm still working out the best functionality)

The image on the right represents what I'd like to do. On the old mk1 console if
you held down the red stop button it gave you a second level of button functions.
If I could get it to work on the Shuttle Pro the text in red is how I would programme it.

There is a modifier function on the Shuttle devices, but I didn't like the way it worked. The big problem is that the SHuttle devices cannot read two different keys at the same time so you can't use one of the buttons as a shift key, you can only change to a second or third level and either remember which level you are at or look at the taskbar icon to see which level is functioning. My suggestion would be to go through and create a custom keyboard map, then you could assign those extra functions (in Lightworks) as something like control key + Shuttle key .

How hard would it be to make a 2 or 3 button foot pedal (shift, control, alt)? This might be easier than hitting the keyboard and a shuttle button.

Oh khaver, I like your thinking, sadly for me, very hard!

Greg E, been there, tried that. Assigning a keyboard modifier doesn't seem to work in
conjunction with the shuttle. Cntl, Shift & Alt have no effect when used together
with the Shuttle Pro.
(I say doesn't work. I tried assigning a second play function to Cntl+P and tried
Cntl + Shuttle Play button and got nothing...)

What I don't quite understand (and by 'don't quite' I probably mean, don't have a scooby)
is how a circa 1992 RS232 Mk1 console with a driver & 9 pin to USB adapter can work
and a straight USB controller can't?
Surely the control language is the same?

You might have to do a lot of re-mapping of keys in Lightworks key assignment panel but set the key for the command you want for you modified shuttle key to be SHIFT+key (like "c" for the normal button and "C" for the modified button). Then use the SHIFT key on the keyboard (or pedal) along with your shuttle button.

OwenP wrote:


already tested and doesn't work

OwenP wrote:

That console had an Intel 8086 (could have been an 8080 - can't recall) processor in it, and an EPROM for software storage. When you first start it, Lightworks downloads the operating software to the controller.

In principle, you could make the console do anything you want just by modifying the downloaded program. For example, to achieve a shifted function with any button combination all that you have to do is make the controller software recognize that those two buttons being pressed simultaneously require a unique code to be sent to Lightworks.

It also has its own method of sending speed override information to Lightworks. It's a series of Hexadecimal words consisting of a prefix and speed value, which can change dynamically. It is as unlike a Shuttle Pro as it's possible to be.

Bottom line: Since the Shuttle doesn't have the shift functionality built in in the way that Lightworks' console does you can't add it. Keyboard modifier keys won't help, since they modify the keyboard return values in the same way as the console does with the stop button.

In principle it should be possible to modify Lightworks so that it interrogates the keyboard keys individually, and apply the appropriate modifier to an external data stream. However this could cause cross-platform compatibility problems. That's the only way that I can think of at the moment that would allow you to use a keyboard modifier with data from an external controller.

Well, I just hooked up my Xpress based control panel, opened NotePad, forgot that I needed to program the global settings so I went and programmed a j for one of the buttons then typed (I'll type what I did in notepad right now):

jjjjjJJJJJ

Notice lower case and upper case. If it no longer works then it might be the newer driver, mine is a couple versions old but seems to work fine so I keep it (version 2..

JWRL

many thanks for the explanation. Bit over my head but I get the basic gist, it won't work!

Ah well, I'll have to live with the first layer functions and get mapping the
keyboard. (oh and keep my eyes open for a mk1 console!)

cheers all

Keep in mind that with the RS232 style consoles you may need to track down the post about fixing the initialization. A clever software coder made a utility to make it work with USB-RS232 adapters.

I may just get one so I can put it on display and admire it...

Did you ever get the shift + shuttle button to work? I was just testing my latest version control panel and shift + button definitely worked from my Xpress based part. I have shift+button doing 1/2 speed forward or 1/2 speed reverse play on the forward and reverse buttons, works just fine. My Pro device is at work and I haven't tested to see if it allows the same modifiers.