JSjsiepkes·Jul 29, 2025
Sounds cool! What do you think of the opensource smart knob https://github.com/scottbez1/smartknob ?
In Futurehome smart hub owners must pay new $117 subscription or lose accessscottbez1
smartknob
C++2022–2025
scottbez1 / smartknob
smartknob
Haptic input knob with software-defined endstops and virtual detents
11Distinct people
14Mentions
1Explicit recommenders
22.3KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
Haptic input knob with software-defined endstops and virtual detents
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use was verified in the last source check.
What people are saying
As an hardware guy with a love for good interfaces I can only say: told ya so (ca. 5 years ago). Touch screens can be nice for a lot of things, but sometimes actual haptic…
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This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 3:56:07 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year14 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2022-03-11 21:40:27 UTC to 2025-07-29 18:56:17 UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 5 | 1 | 4 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
What Hacker News says
14 sourcesYou might enjoy https://github.com/scottbez1/smartknob
The complexity of this approach (ignoring the display and flair) unfortunately means you won’t see this used too often due to cost.
In Eurorack Knob IdeaOne of my favoirite projects in this space:
SmartKnob - Haptic input knob with software-defined endstops and virtual detents
https://github.com/scottbez1/smartknob
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37448659
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30646886
I am really hoping this and similar projects take off and find mass success -- and tactile controls become more widely deployed across all devices for human-input.
In Touchscreens are out, and tactile controls are backHey OP - if your thinking about a smart knob with haptic feedback etc - check this open source project out that you can build yourself - its amazing:
https://github.com/scottbez1/smartknob
Video demo here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ip641WmY4pA&t=1s
In Reverse-engineering my speakers' API to get reasonable volume controlI've been eagerly awaiting the day when I can buy one of these: https://github.com/scottbez1/smartknob (or when building one myself doesn't require any soldering more advanced than thru-hole).
In Spinner-mouse: Arduino-based USB rotary controller for Arkanoid, Tempest, etc....it's a spring and a servo. Or a brushless motor.
https://github.com/scottbez1/smartknob
...or any not-bottom-end-of-market steering wheel for driving video games.
In The 1988 shooting down of Flight 655 as a user interface disasterSmartKnob – Haptic input knob with software-defined endstops and virtual detents
311 points · Open discussionI made a rotary input device that provides software-defined "virtual" detents and end-stops, implemented using a BLDC gimbal motor. It can dynamically switch from completely smooth unbounded rotation, to having detents with configurable spacing and strength and "end-stops" that spring back if you try to rotate past them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ip641WmY4pA
It's got a round LCD on the front of the knob (wired and supported via the hollow shaft of the motor) and uses the flex of the PCB and strain gauge sensors (in the latest revision, simply SMD resistors whose resistance changes when stretched) to detect when the knob is pressed down.
It's open source hardware and software - https://github.com/scottbez1/smartknob
HN folks might appreciate that it communicates with host software on the computer via protobuf-encoded USB serial messa
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ges -- nanopb is awesome for embedded C protobuf support, and having the defined schema, autogenerated serialization code, and compile-time type safety is so much nicer than ArduinoJson or hand-written binary protocols!
I'd love to get it hooked up to some real software eventually (video editors or home-assistant control are my 2 main ideas), but it's really just been a fun project to tinker with and try out some new ideas and parts I've never used before.
As an hardware guy with a love for good interfaces I can only say: told ya so (ca. 5 years ago).
Touch screens can be nice for a lot of things, but sometimes actual haptic feedback and positional consistency is worth more than the flexibility gained. Especially in devices or machines we interact with multiple hours a day, where flexibility isn't the point. E.g. a tablet using a touch screen makes a lot of sense, as that flexibility makes sense here. But it makes less sense in a car, except maybe for the entertainment system and even there actual physical switches, dials and levers can be superiour in terms of usability.
What I love are really nice things like motor faders on upper class mixing desks. You have a physical interface that can follow whatever digital state you have stored, it is just perfect.
There is a future in devices that
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combine screens, physical dials, levers and latches with haptic feedback, e.g. like this amazing project: https://github.com/scottbez1/smartknob
(A dial with a motor and a screen, which allows for virtual "limits" and dedents)
You might like this DIY, illuminated, force-feedback Bluetooth „Smart knob“:
https://github.com/scottbez1/smartknob
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30646371
In The Dial Toner – color dial hex code keypadI think force feedback (and or haptic feedback) is truly the future of interaction design.
To see an amazing example of this, check out the smartknob project: https://github.com/scottbez1/smartknob
In DIY mechanical keyboard switch lets you set its actuation pointCode, for anyone who found it hard to locate: https://github.com/scottbez1/smartknob
Per the repo, project was inspired by this video w/virtual detents: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gPQfDkX3BU
In DIY haptic input knob: BLDC motor and round LCDSharing a little side project I've been working on in my free time (and open-sourced [0]), using a BLDC gimbal motor and a magnetic encoder to create a rotary input knob with all sorts of software-configurable haptic feedback.
You can find gimbal motors for pretty cheap these days, and some of them have hollow shafts, so I was able to mechanically and electrically support a round LCD wired up through the middle of the motor, with no need for a slip ring or anything expensive/complicated.
I also experimented with mounting strain gauges to the main PCB, which has some cutouts so it acts as a little bit of a flexure, for push/pull detection (and haptic feedback "click" provided by a super short torque of the BLDC motor) [1]
Happy to answer any questions you might have!
[0] https://github.com/scottbez1/smartknob/
[1] https://twitter.com/scot
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Smartknob – an open-source input device
104 points · Open discussion