Hello, quick question. I read somewhere else that the two rotating knobs on each side of the DevTerm are supposed to be usable for the printer paper feed and for scrolling in a terminal. But I could find no substantial information on that in this forum or anywhere on the site. Is there any confirmed information if these knobs will be functional or are they only gimmicks?
Thanks,
I was under the impression that the knobs were purely a fastening device for the two halves of the shell. I didn’t think that they had any hardware connected to them.
jog dials on gpio is not a bad idea. i like
Yeah just fastening knobs. But I remember reading some of the initial press for the DevTerm, and one publisher actually claimed it was a jog dial thing…
I think it just like Gameshell, for fastening the shell
Well just need to look at the parts and schematic.
There is clearly no electronic around the knobs, so I’m not really sure where that claim come from.
No the “knobs” are just there to help closing the devterm without using screws, like they’ve done with the gameshell. In fact in a way it is now CPi “signature” on a device 
That makes sense actually. I also didn’t see anything relating to that in the pics, but then I can’t be sure they show all the components in the pics.
Would be a nice idea for a mod though. I’m thinking small Hall effect sensors probably. Would need to be either hooked up directly to a GPIO pin, or go through a small dedicated micro that then communicates via serial. Just need to find a pin for that…
As far as I can tell, they do.
What they were showing for the gameshell was correct, I doubt they would not show everything for the devterm. And as it is opensource they have no reason to hide stuff.
As for the rest, have fun 
But they really are not designed to be rotated more than needed as there is friction to keep them in the “close” position.
Sure, I realize that too now. It will probably not be easy to use those for anything. A pity really.
I still feel like it misses some analog input…like a pot, a rotary encoder, a slider or something.
I think I only shared this in Discord. Here’s a animated assembly I rendered in Blender:
(this is only midly related to the topic of what do the knobs do… I might do a revision that includes the PCBs and such)
nah, you shared that in the same post where you shared to the obj breakouts from the massive singular file
A 3d print mod that uses clips instead of knobs could be nice. kinda like the otterbox cases.
Well the device is made for tinkering and the keyboard have free GPIO some may work for analog, at worst can use an external ADC, so definitely can be done!
Yes, good point about the keyboard GPIO. That could be a good way to pass some additional inputs (if they are not all used up as well already).
Rotary Encoders
appear to be the keyword to search for:
shoot, i might get a few myself
there is also this:
Im thinking these could fir great either below the gears on the sides or even on the front bottom corners (ie. etch-a-sketch knobs, lol)
https://www.amazon.com/RLECS-Encoder-Module-clickable-Arduino/dp/B07YFPV5N4/ref=sr_1_5?
If you like that, you will probably love this:
a neopixel, ouf. i can almost FEEL my battery draining, lol
They are not that bad, if you dial down the brightness, and don’t make them glow white, you can get away with under 20 mA per pixel.
that board is so teeny… i might get one… just 0NE… for kicks… but it doesnt seem practically for daily use on something like the devterm. I handle stuff pretty well so im careful to not break stuff… but sometimes I fail to recognize my own power and usb devices see a L0T of use… i’d hate to have to fish a chunk or board out with tweezers
I’m looking at them and wondering since they are slotted will a guitar strap function as a carry strap…
