Yep. And even after weeks touching the concrete surface, it still feels awesome. Sometimes I wish there was a concrete mouse :D

Will it be available for purchase?

I'm not sure yet. We have several manually assembled samples now, but it isn't easy to produce a lot of them without a proper production line... If you're interested in getting one of these samples you can email at [email protected], we'll try to figure out how to send one to you.

If you made your own board pcb and ordered them populated with everything but the rgb ring and switches, I bet you could get the soldering time down to 2 minutes or so per device, especially if you made custom jigs to hold everything in place. I could see a price point of $100 totally reasonable for this, especially if the user can easily swap knobs. Bulk manufacture of the concrete knobs should be easy, as long as you can make sure the molds are reusable. Seems totally marketable to me, why not throw it up on Kickstarter with a $50k goal and a $80 early bird price? If it doesn’t fund, who cares? You’ve already done the work to make the prototype.

In all fairness, it looks like user DIY Perks on YouTube already did the work to make the prototype. I’m not sure what’s different about this version; I’m sure it could even be superior. But let’s put credit where it’s due.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJ5vhShdVjo

Thanks for sharing. They’re obviously inspired by that one from a materials point of view, but the technical implementation is far different. There are some major limitations on the YouTube one. First of all, it’s a potentiometer not a rotary encoder, so it has a start and a stop. Second, it is controlling an audio signal directly, not using a PC, so it is not usable in the same way. Audio would need to be routed through the knob. This wouldn’t work for a setup like mine that has balanced outs directly from a sound card to my monitors. I would want a digital control. I’m not sure why the YouTube video recommends a linear pot specifically either, an audio taper pot should be used which is logarithmic. The one in the OP also has a push button which opens up more functionality.

To avoid any confusion:

The concept of the knob made of concrete is fully inspired by DIY Perks. But we are added a lot of perks, like:

- Open-source Arduino-compatible firmware so you can add your functionalities and light effects;

- The audio is controlled with the HID library instead of potentiometer; spare time - There are one audio input and two outputs that can be switched with the hardware switch;

- Bonus option is you can use it as a scrolling knob;

- The audio lines are connected to the microcontroller and you can add light effects relative to the sound;

- It is 3d printed and we also added a 3d printable model of the mold for the concrete part;

Have a nice day ;)

Wow! That’s amazing level of improvements!

I’m glad people share their inventions online in this open way. It helps us all get better ideas. I hope you didn’t think I was saying anything negative about your new improved version! It looks fantastic.

Thanks for the details and thank you for sharing.

Your link is for a potentiometer and a cable.

The submitted link is for an actual HID, using this: https://www.dfrobot.com/product-1075.html and these: https://easyeda.com/brainhublab/theknob_v2_copy