Repurposing an Accom Axial Control Panel

# 2021-01: Researching possibilities

Having thought about doing something like this for some time, I've occasionally looked for these control panels online. They're rarely offered for sale, and usually at a high price. Nonetheless: It seems that now is the time to finally scratch this itch!

First order of business: Is this even doable? A few words on Stack Exchange, and my faith in humanity is solidified yet again: Someone knows something about anything! Yes, this should be doable. Onwards!

I am preparing to purchase the parts I need. First and foremost the control panel itself, and also an RS-422-to-USB converter. With parts in hand, I need to see if I can get any sort of connection going, and then I will give the control panel a thorough cleaning. After that it's on to working with the data stream.

# My plan

My plan is to convert this console to be useful in the context of a modern pc. How to achieve this depends on whether I can work with the original guts.

## Do I keep it original, or rip out the guts?

Keeping the original hardware functional could be a nice touch -- although this thing is unlikely to ever again see the inside of an editing suite. The sentimentalist in me says to keep it original; the realist says screw it.

To keep it original, I would need to write a bespoke interface driver/daemon/service on the pc end of things. Originally, the control panel communicated with the chassis via an RS-422 connection, and some very good people at Stack Exchange helped me get started on deciphering what it's saying. However, given that I have access to only one half of the communication, this is not going to be particularly straightforward. It could be interesting to figure out how to talk to it, and see how much I can control. However, it's doubtful to be worth the time: Even in the most optimistic scenario, many of the functions (and all of the VFD controls) would make zero sense to an office-bound desktop user.

Alternatively, I'll end its life as an editing console and give it a whole new purpose. Somehow interface with the existing inputs and outputs, and use a microcontroller to convert this console into a regular USB input device.

Either way, I am most likely keeping the original circuit boards (if not their traces) because they provide excellent mounting for the hardware. I'm not inclined to re-do all that structural and precision positioning work.

## Am I building a keyboard or a computer?

The control panel needs to work as an input device in either case, so it's more a question of whether I want to make use of the internal space to put a self-contained computer in there. Hey, it might even be an option to give the keyboard an external connector ... which can be looped back to a built-in computer.

For now, the goal is to make an input device for a separate computer.

## Additional functionality

This thing has a lot of blinkenlights, and it would be a shame to not use them! Just off the top of my mind, the display and those dials could be used to select audio in/out devices and adjust volume levels; per-app tool setting adjustments; media center integration; home automation; etc.

I expect to need some form of configuration tool so that keys can be mapped to keystrokes or macros, and dials to various scalar controls. Hopefully, I'll be able to use the VFD to offer on-device management of macros and configuration, because that section just begs to be used for that purpose. Wouldn't that be something?

I also expect to need a small (desktop/cli/daemon) program running on the pc in order to provide whatever data might be useful to indicate on the VFD and lighted keys.

# Origin

This is part of a console for a film/tv editing system. This is just the control panel; the actual brains of the thing, including the interfaces to the rest of the production equipment, reside in two separate rack-mounted chassis (yup, that's plural), which I don't have. Not that it matters; those cost several times as much as the control panel itself, which is already plenty expensive. Besides, I don't plan to use it for film production anyway, although back in the day I used to work with ones just like this.

The manufacturer, Accom, folded in late 2005. Their web site is now defunct, and their documentation is not that easy to come by since the archive does not include their FTP site. I have since found that support continued under the Abekas name, which was eventually acquired by Canada-based Ross Video. I have reached out to current and former staff at these companies, contacts listed as international distributors, and repair centres around the world -- in the hope that someone, somewhere, has kept some of the old paperwork around and is willing to share. So far, no luck. This means I'll have to reverse engineer it.

## Physical appearance

The control panel is fairly hefty: The thing weighs around 7.7kg, is 78cm wide, 16cm tall, and 32cm deep.

In total, there are 189 buttons, 23 of which are individually lightable. The majority of the keys are, according to keyboard enthusiast Chyrosran22, Cherry MX Black switches topped by DSA-style Cherry M8 key caps, which are in three shades of grey with lettering that is engraved and painted. Of the lighted buttons, 18 use specialty switches of frankly underwhelming feel and caps with replaceable labels.

All of this is arranged into a full qwerty layout, a combined numeric/navigation block, five banks of 12 keys each, other minor clusters, and a 2x40 character VFD display with a blue-on-black colour scheme surrounded by six sets of lighted switches, dial knobs, and keys. There's also a large trackball (although with no mouse buttons nearby), and a solid-metal jog wheel.

On the back there is a 6-pin XLR socket for power and a DE-9 socket for the RS-422 serial connection to the comms chassis. On the inside, there is plenty of space to hold any additional modern electronics necessary to revive or repurpose this thing.