Unbound — Editor Device Customizer

A desktop app for remapping the buttons on a compatible editor controller to anything you want, without needing any host software open.

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Builds are updated automatically whenever the main branch changes.

Quick Feature Update: March 15, 2025

• Jog wheel / dial customization - map left and right turns for each dial mode (Jog, Shuttle, Scroll) to any hotkey, with adjustable sensitivity (threshold)
• Dial mode buttons - assign a button to temporarily override the dial to control system volume, per-app volume, or screen brightness; press again to toggle off
• App Launch action - launch any app from a button press; includes a searchable Start Menu picker and support for .lnk shortcuts and URI schemes (e.g. spotify:)
• Categorized action selector - button actions are now organized into categories (Keyboard, Application, OBS, Layer, Dial) instead of a single flat list
• Dial settings tab - dial hotkey and sensitivity settings moved into their own tab

Features

Button actions

• Hotkey - tap a key combination (e.g. ctrl+shift+s)
• Hold Key - hold a modifier key (e.g. alt, shift, delete, etc.) down for as long as the device button is physically held
• Toggle Hold - latch a modifier key down on first press, release it on second press
• App Switch - bring any open window to focus by title substring
• App Launch - launch an application by path, Start Menu shortcut, or URI
• OBS: Switch Scene - switch to a named OBS scene
• OBS: Toggle Stream / Record / Mute Mic - toggle OBS outputs
• Dial: System Volume - while active, the dial controls master volume (with native Windows OSD)
• Dial: App Volume - while active, the dial controls volume for a specific app
• Dial: Brightness - while active, the dial controls screen brightness
• Dial: Reset - return the dial to its normal hotkey mode

Dial / jog wheel

The jog wheel has three physical modes: Jog (relative), Shuttle (absolute position), and Scroll (relative). Each mode can have its own left and right hotkey assigned. A Threshold setting controls how many ticks must accumulate before an action fires, so you can tune sensitivity per mode.

Dial mode buttons (System Volume, App Volume, Brightness) are toggles: press once to activate, press the same button again to deactivate, or press a different dial mode button to switch directly.

Layer system

Layers are like menus. Each layer has its own set of button mappings and dial settings. You can map a button to "Layer: Push" to switch all bindings to another layer, and the same button is automatically assigned as "Layer: Back" on the target layer so you can never get stuck.

Layers appear as tabs at the top of the Buttons view. The active layer is marked with an arrow. When the physical device switches layers, the app follows automatically.

Device connection

The app connects to the device over Bluetooth or USB without any host software running. It handles the proprietary challenge-response authentication on its own and re-authenticates automatically before the session times out.

If the device is not available at startup, the app retries every 3 seconds in the background. The status bar shows the current connection state.

Requirements

• Windows 10 or 11
• macOS 13 or higher
• Python 3.12
• Compatible editor controller connected over Bluetooth or USB

Setup (Windows)

Create a virtual environment and install dependencies:

python -m venv .venv
.venv\Scripts\pip install PyQt6 hidapi pynput pywin32 obsws-python pycaw screen-brightness-control

Then run:

.venv\Scripts\python main.py

Running from source (Mac)

Requires Python 3.12 and Homebrew.

brew install python@3.12
python3.12 -m venv .venv
.venv/bin/pip install PyQt6 hidapi pynput obsws-python screen-brightness-control

Then run:

.venv/bin/python main.py

Screen brightness control on macOS may require granting Accessibility permissions in System Settings → Privacy & Security.

Using Toggle Hold for modifier+scroll

1. Map a button to Toggle Hold and enter alt (or ctrl, shift, etc.)
2. Press the button once to latch the modifier key down
3. Scroll your mouse wheel in any app
4. Press the button again to release the modifier

To verify the latch is active before testing scroll, press Tab on your physical keyboard. If Alt+Tab triggers, the modifier is held correctly.

File structure

Authentication

The device requires a challenge-response handshake before it sends input events. The algorithm was reverse-engineered by Sylvain Munaut (Apache 2.0) and is reproduced in hid_layer.py. The app authenticates on connect and schedules a re-auth timer before the session expires.

Credits

HID authentication algorithm by Sylvain Munaut (Apache 2.0). Claude Code used for styling, debugging, and documentation.