PowerGrid is dead! Long live Panels! (yes, that's a panel/remote app for tablets)

Valorin

Valorin
For the uninitiated: PowerGrid was a program that turned your phone or tablet into a customizable remote, displaying buttons associated with keyboard keys. Think "control panel".

After a few months of not bothering with those nice panels I created with PowerGrid I wanted to load them up again a few days ago and found out: PowerGrid is dead. It seems Roccat just stopped supporting it and all my lovely panels were gone. So I took to the internet looking for a substitute, and I actually found one!

It's simply called "Panels" and though still in development it's pretty much fully functional. It's for iOS and Android and wants you to invest 3 Euros.
So I got the App and the PC client and after some trying around I got a grip on it and... it's awesome. There are no assets coming with the program so you'll have to create your own or scavenge on the web if you want your panels to look fancy, but it also features an Elite themed dev-made panel that's ready to use. I kinda didn't bother and made my own thing grabbing symbols and pictures from the web and photoshopping them to my convenience.

I am in no way associated with the developer, but I just thought he deserves a spotlight on the forum for his great work. Be aware that it's in development and a few features (like resizing text and picking fonts and such) are still missing, apart from that it's functional and in my opinion even better than PowerGrid.

Here's the link: http://www.panelsapp.io/
 

CMDR _BigJay_

C
I just had to reboot for a windows update and learned the hard way that power-grid is gone. What a pain. Wasn't really looking to setup something new just now.

Thanks for the link. I'll check it out.
 

Valorin

Valorin
PiLhEaD said:
Thanks for posting - as a long time user of PowerGrid I am really sad that Roccat had abandoned it - such a pity.

It would have been nice if they had made it 'donate-ware' - but I can understand why they might not.
Click to expand...

Or open source... But no.
Panels though could very well grow into something much better than PowerGrid I think. My new flight pad for example consists of 4 pads for supercruise, normal space, ground and combat. You can create different "views" in the panel editor and make a button refering to the different views which is cooler than the tabs PowerGrid had in my opinion.

John Kozak said:
Does Panels emulate a joystick, or is it a keyboard emulator like PowerGrid was?
Click to expand...

Only keyboard so far. There is a forum though where you can post feature requests. Asked that as well and he said it's not on the roadmap yet. I hope for mouse and HOTAS input though...
 
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PiLhEaD

PiLhEaD
Valorin said:
Or open source... But no....
Click to expand...

Agreed. Such a pity Roccat didn't release the source. I find it really helpful when playing ED - especially the ability to record/edit macros.

It's good that 'Panels' seems to have 'macros' too - that's very welcome news for those of us who like to have a 'docking request' shortcut!

And of course there is this level of insanity/genius -

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/134772-Custom-Control-Panel

...if only I had the talent/perseverance...

Does anyone have any experience of using Elgato Stream Deck?
 
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CMDR _BigJay_

C
Power-Grid login servers are back to working this morning. Obviously Roccat is choosing not to continue development of Power-Grid, but at least we can still use what we have. I would hope that when they do choose to end-of-life the product they would send us all an e-mail giving us fair warning.
 

CMDR _BigJay_

C
HugoStiglitz574 said:
I’m going out on a thread here, is there anyway that would work with a Xbox?
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Power-Grid is an app that runs on your tablet that connects over WiFi to an app you have running on your gaming PC. You can define key presses and macros in the app on your PC. Since the Xbox doesn't have a way to run the app that would normally be on your computer I don't think it would work.

I haven't tried Panels, but I assume it would be very similar.
 

Valorin

Valorin
CMDR _BigJay_ said:
Power-Grid is an app that runs on your tablet that connects over WiFi to an app you have running on your gaming PC. You can define key presses and macros in the app on your PC. Since the Xbox doesn't have a way to run the app that would normally be on your computer I don't think it would work.

I haven't tried Panels, but I assume it would be very similar.
Click to expand...

Yeah, sorry. Gated off computer in a box doesn't work. :(
 

Shiro Akai

Shiro Akai
Some time ago I stumbled upon info about Power Grid. It got me interested enough so I got app and PC part. Installed, run just to stuck at connecting app with PC. Nothing seemed to work, I had no PC response after requesting connection. Tried solving that problem for quite some time, to no avail. In the meantime I learned about something new but as usual, I forgot to note it down and later when I wanted to find it - I couldn't.

Few days ago I took last attempt to get Power Grid working. SSDD, to sum it up. So Power Grid was uninstalled. Good riddance. So I started to search again form the soft I found earlier. While doing so I found Panels. Sounds and looks good but it wasn't what I was looking for. Finally, found that. It's called LEA software. Right now I'm waiting for a weekend to dig through it. Just played a bit with app, need to set PC server to get it fully working.

So while Power Grid is dead and you're not willing to spend €3 for a feature you are not familiar with, try LEA. Pretty much same functionality (from what I see in descriptions), different approach.
 

Valorin

Valorin
Shiro Akai said:
Some time ago I stumbled upon info about Power Grid. It got me interested enough so I got app and PC part. Installed, run just to stuck at connecting app with PC. Nothing seemed to work, I had no PC response after requesting connection. Tried solving that problem for quite some time, to no avail. In the meantime I learned about something new but as usual, I forgot to note it down and later when I wanted to find it - I couldn't.

Few days ago I took last attempt to get Power Grid working. SSDD, to sum it up. So Power Grid was uninstalled. Good riddance. So I started to search again form the soft I found earlier. While doing so I found Panels. Sounds and looks good but it wasn't what I was looking for. Finally, found that. It's called LEA software. Right now I'm waiting for a weekend to dig through it. Just played a bit with app, need to set PC server to get it fully working.

So while Power Grid is dead and you're not willing to spend €3 for a feature you are not familiar with, try LEA. Pretty much same functionality (from what I see in descriptions), different approach.
Click to expand...

This is funny, because I tried LEA and it wasn't for me which is why I got Panels. :D
Also, the PC client is free where you can at least get familiar with how to create panels.

This is one of the views I made with Panels and internet stuff (none of the images used for buttons and symbols are my own, I just tweaked them):

bbh0eoR.png

That's actually a screenshot of my phone's display.
 
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xzanfr

xzanfr
If you fancy something a bit more physical then this may be of use:
keybow
It comes with an os that puts the pi in a gadget mode so shouldn't be too hard to build in a rotary encoder or additional controls. Also it's got clear keys that light up, so it should be possible to put on stickers.
 
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