Removing onscreen switch labels and displaying more plugins

[AeonKen]

I have been using PiStomp for a while now, but I dont feel the need to have the buttons labeled on screen as it is now. What I would prefer instead, is to display more plugins and their state. How may I change the code to do that, and where should I start?

[Randall (Admin)]

I get that the footswitch display is somewhat redundant.  Back in 2022, a user like yourself created the foundation for a better, more customizable LCD UI.  I integrated that a few months ago into the 'beta' branch.  That branch is usable, but still has some rough edges so won't be ready for general use until probably December.  But, I would recommend that code base if you're going to be modding the LCD code.   It's much more simple to code, it looks better, adds overlay dialogs, and the sections (panels) of the screen (like the plugin grid) are scrollable.

If you wanted to avoid showing the footswitches, you could just comment out calls to draw_footswitch() and draw_unbound_footswitches()
https://github.com/TreeFallSound/pi-stomp/blob/beta/pistomp/lcd320x240.py#L151

And if you want the plugin grid to extend into that space, just grow the Y dimension of the 'main_panel' from 170 (line 106) to 240.

For testing, you'll want to stop the pi-stomp service and then run it manually.  There are shortcut commands available for that:
ps-stop
ps-run

[AeonKen]

Wow!
Thanks for the quick reply! Ill switch to the beta branch now. If you like, I can give feedback on future updates.

[Randall (Admin)]

Definitely would always love to hear whatever feedback you have, good, bad, or otherwise.

One additional caveat regarding the 'beta' branch:  It's mainly been used for v3 development.  We strive for backward compatibility with v2 and v1 even, but we're not actively testing that beta branch on v1 and v2 hardware.  We certainly will before merging it to master, but just be warned that some stuff that used to work, could be broken, or is simply missing because we've not re-implemented it using the new LCD UI lib, yet.  Analog knob and expression assignments for example, aren't being drawn yet.

Since it requires some additional packages and OS setup, you'll need to install from scratch.  When it comes time to clone, use:  git clone -b beta https://github.com/TreeFallSound/pi-stomp.git

[AeonKen]

I have already installed the Beta. It is quite rough arround the edges as you said. Changes made on the web UI dont show up on the display except for changing the pedalboard/snapshot. The display often gets stuck on a white screen and Audio only passes through when the web UI connects, even though processing is enabled. That also fails often. Im not sure if I can do anything through menudiving, but Im waiting on a new encoder at the moment.

Edit: I plan to switch to a rpi 5 soon. So I can also test updates on it!

[Randall (Admin)]

MOD-UI doesn't publish change events, except for Pedalboard changes.  So that's the only MOD-UI change that the LCD will respond to.

If you're display is going white though, that's an unexpected malfunction.  The audio dropping too.  Both of those could be due to MOD problems or audio card problems.  Running the pi-stomp service manually, might reveal something.  To do that:

ps-stop
Then
ps-run

[AeonKen]

All I get when running that is

Adding empty fonts...
Adding empty colors...

Also on the wayside:
Is it possible to trigger the bypass relay via a MIDI event?
Also, I want to use an external MIDI footswitsch controler (PedalinoMINI DIN, USB and WiFi MIDI support) to change the bypass state of plugins within MOD. Would that also fail to reflect on the display, and if so, how can I make the pistomp software handle that midi input?

[Randall (Admin)]

There was an issue that I fixed on beta last week.  Without that fix, it was possible for the screen to blank without any obvious error from the pi-stomp service.  If you're still having that issue, I suggest you update your software.

To do that, you can run:
ps-stop
git pull

The change I made requires an extra package that setup.sh would install, but to avoid you reinstalling, you could just add the package manually yourself:
sudo /usr/bin/pip3 install RPi.version

Then restart with ps-run


Regarding your other questions:
Trigger bypass via MIDI?  Not currently.  Would require that pi-Stomp be a MIDI listener which it currently is not.  Mod does the listening.  Because of that, MOD WILL reflect plugin bypass or parameter tweaks that were mapped to a MIDI controller (pi-Stomp or external controller connected via DIN/USB/OSC).