Hi Skurdd, thanks! No, launchpad x and the Pro mk3 don’t offer custom firmware ability. It’s sad they didn’t extend this option into the future but that’s how it goes. Working on other things now. But plenty of features in the custom firmware as it is.
I think the MK3 does offer custom firmwares, no? I thought I saw that when I was researching it.
It has Custom MODES where you can put in 4 screens of basic midi scales or CC triggers. But not actual custom firmware (but read on). I did a search just now, and it does have this as of September2020 on V1.2: “Lastly, Legacy Mode re-introduces the User layout of the original Launchpad Pro. This brings a level of backwards compatibility that opens the door to a world of legacy applications and lightshow performances, and gives long-term Launchpad Pro users a way to transfer their old projects into the Launchpad Pro [MK3] environment.”
That sounds like a possibility for custom firmware but I can’t nail down if that does Custom Firmware yet. Further look around looks like there’s some deep hack that could put custom firmware on a Launchpad X… that’s cool, just I think it might be not supported by Novation. whatever! Hackers gonna hack 
Wow, been a while on this thread… This is still for Digitakt but I found with my Syntakt - it works just as well there…maybe I’d add a few more adjustments for that. The random sequencer gets upgrades!!! (generative patterns). “live re-trigs” bug fixes and new feature
this was originally built for Digitakt but now I started using it with Syntakt and it works even better in some ways. Check out the video to learn more - at the end I talk about options to port it to more than just Launchpad Pro mk1 - if there is interest in that let me know. Thanks.
The Pro MK3 has a very simple brainless mode where it just sends a MIDI message for every button press. Similarly, sending special MIDI messages to it can change the color of the buttons.
This is how the DAW mode is implemented. The DAW just receives which button was pressed and react accordingly.
This would also enable anyone to make a controller that would act as the brain.
This controller could be a program running on computer or the firmware for a microcontroller.
I was actually toying with the idea because the custom modes have some bad limitations.
I haven’t had the time to work on it, but at the end of the day, the brain is just a finite state machine.
Exactly. That’s what I’d tap into… no more custom firmware just something like that.
In the past this has been done on computers or iPad apps… I know about making microcontroller-pcbs and have an idea for making this a simple box.
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About 80% done:
Also reacts to incoming midi:
All done with Mozaic on the iPad in session mode (not programmers).
I just gotta get off my lazy ass and finish it. 
Top vid have 20 pages of faders (excessive, was more of a proof of concept so I just left them). None of them use the custom modes. Faders are justbredrawn when needed with sysex.
That’s excellent! Can you explain more what it is? Maybe a link if you’ve already described it on your page somewhere?
Is this using some “host” or “brain” like an iPad or computer for the commands to the Launchpad?
Always interested in LP stuff. Thanks for sharing.
It’s basically a generic session mode with a few modifications so can be used with anything really. The buttons across the bottom behave like session mode (vol pans etc). The scene select buttons down the side act like track selectors, and displays individual parameters for that “track”.
It was built as a control surface for AUM and other hosts on iOS.
I use Mozaic on iOS for the code in place of slapping an arduino/teensy on it. This way it’s configured and saved easier on a per project basis.
Sounds good. iPad is a good brain for this. My path is leaning me towards a dedicated small-low-cost box in case someone doesn’t have an iPad but both routes are good.
Since iOS has historically been lacking controller support (most apps/plugins don’t send out midi) I used to build all my controllers from teensy boards. That’s a real deep rabbit hole. I switched to scripting off the shelf stuff and leveraging existing solutions. A lot due to saving and editing flexibility, but mostly cause an airline damaged my custom controller on a gig, which sucks when you depend on it. So I stopped that right quick. That gig was rough……
You can really run those scripts off your phone. Don’t need anything fancy. Controller to phone to rest of setup.
oh man, that is rough. Was it due to the scanners (xray machines?) or just physical damage from rough handling or something?
That’s a good lesson learned, thanks.
physical, but not smashed, but enough to disconnect a bunch of the internals. one of those things where the overhead bin is full and they had to check the bag. they weren’t letting me on w/ it. c’est la vie.
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I remember using that in the past, nice! As this thread is inactive now, I was wondering if this interesting idea was still a thing with new Digitakt OS
is Digipad abandonware?
I think DigiPad has good compatibility with the latest Digitakt OS. There is some issues of abandonment: Novation did not really continue the open-source programmable firmware in their LP Pro MK3… otherwise I would have bought one and continued onward with that. As it is, I’ve learned enough with circuit design now to build my own!! So, I think that will be how this continues on. I’ll try to post more here when there is news.
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