I needed to get a hardware controller working with QPrompt and had a bit of difficulty finding information for my particular situation. I am writing this thread mainly for my own benefit as I will probably forget how I did it and will need it again in the future! However, hopefully it also helps others who might be looking for the same kind of thing!
This thread is specifically related to the Contour Multimedia Controller Xpress (Model No.: S-XPRS) being used with the Windows 10 Pro operating system (22H2). It is likely that similar results will be possible with Windows 11 but I have not tested them at the current time (see below in case I update).
There is a separate thread that discusses many of the same topics but which appears to be more related to Linux where the use of this device is more difficult as Contour Design does not provide a native app for Linux distributions. The other thread can be found here.
Contour Designs currently advertise 2 different devices on their website. The Multimedia Controller Xpress and the Multimedia Controller Pro V2. It is likely that this will work for both devices but I have only tested with the Multimedia Controller Xpress. Contour Design have also made several legacy versions of this device dating back over a number of years with various different names such as the Shuttle Xpress, the Shuttle Xpress v2 and the Shuttle Pro. These devices may also work with QPrompt but again are untested by me. For the avoidance of doubt the following photo depicts the device that I have used and tested.
The Contour Design devices both operate in the same way and require software to be installed to get most of the functionality to work. Although Contour Design describe the software as a “driver” it is actually a bit more than that. On installation it creates a system tray icon and starts to “listen” to the Contour Design hardware. However, there is also a configuration app that gets installed at the same time and which can be accessed by clicking on the system tray icon. Until a configuration has been added to the configuration software the hardware doesn’t really do much although the Jog Wheel (the centre of the circular bit) will often default to the same function as a mouse scroll wheel in a number of software applications.
I am not going to describe how to set up the Contour Design configuration software in this thread as it is fairly straightforward when its all working. However, part of the problem I had was that the current version of the driver that is distributed on the Contour Design website would not work. I tested it on two separate machines running Windows 10 Pro (22H2) and Windows 11 (exact version not known) and got the same result, it would recognise the controller but no key strokes would be sent to target apps and the tray icon did not track which app has the focus. On speaking to their support via email I was told that “this is the first version of the new driver, after almost a decade without development, and some issues are being addressed in a update that should be ready before the year-end [2025].” I was given access to an old version of the driver (file name is “cdi_shuttle_win_2.13.4.exe”) to use via a private, expiring link but this version is not currently available on the Contour Design UK site, even in the legacy driver section (I have asked them to add these drivers to that section). You will also need to get in touch with their support to request this driver if v3.0.0 of the “driver” doesn’t work for you. After installing the new “driver” the configuration software reported it was version 2.13.3 on the splash screen rather than the 2.13.4 indicated by the file name but it did now work successfully.
I could now successfully add commands to the Multimedia Controller Xpress and have those commands appear in an application like Notepad for verification. For example, I could set button 1 to emit the “H” keystroke and then with Notepad in focus I could see it type an “H” by hitting button 1 on the Multimedia Controller Xpress. However, it would not work with QPrompt v1.1.6 the version currently distributed on the QPrompt website (qprompt-v1.1.6-51788eb-windows-cl-msvc2019-x86_64.exe).
After contacting Cuperino, the author of QPrompt, through the GitHub bug tracking system he suggested I download the latest (v2.0.0 at the time of writing) Early Access build of QPrompt from the Patreon site . After downloading this it worked perfectly and I was able to setup a nice configuration of buttons for the Media Controller Xpress which worked well for my situation. For reference I will add a separate post showing the key mappings I used and how the controller looks with the labels. I created physical labels for the buttons using a Brother P-Touch E550W label printer with a 12mm white on black label cartridge.
