About the Project
If you use a computer regularly, you’ve probably run into a frustrating problem: controlling the volume of different apps is way harder than it should be. Whether it's music, a YouTube video, or a voice call, adjusting each one usually means clicking around through menus, alt-tabbing, or fumbling through tiny sliders — all while trying to stay focused on what you're doing.
As someone who constantly has music playing, a video in the background, and maybe even a game running, that friction added up fast. I just wanted a simple, physical way to adjust app volumes on the fly — without stopping what I was doing.
So I searched. And searched.
But… nothing.
There was no off-the-shelf product that actually solved this in a satisfying way.
After talking to a few friends — many of whom had the exact same complaint — I realized: this is a real problem, and no one’s built the right solution yet. So I decided to create it.
Early prototypes
The first ever prototypes, worked great but looked bad! Using 3D printing I started to develop the idea. It was simple, 4 knobs and a Arduino Uno sending signals to the computer to then be processed by my software and change the apps volume. I couldn't tell you how many iterations it took for such a simple case design.
I experimented with different case designs such as a slanted case to make it easier to access the knobs. The final prototyped case included feet to elevate the product off the desk and add much needed grip.
From 3D Printing to Manufacturing
Originally, I tried to sell a 3D printed version of the product. It worked — but it just didn’t cut it. For a final product, I knew I needed something more refined. I experimented with sandable primers, paints, and all kinds of surface finishes, but nothing was scalable or repeatable. Every unit looked slightly different, and I wasn’t happy with that.
At the time (2 years ago), I was in Year 12 — the final year of school here in Australia, but I decided to have a crack at doing this properly anyway.
I jumped online and started hunting for manufacturers. Eventually, I found someone who could make the cases from anodised aluminium. That was a game changer. No more printing on my old CR-10S. No more inconsistent surfaces or DIY paint jobs. Just clean, professional-grade enclosures — and a product that looked as good as it worked.
Saving time with a PCB
If you’re not familiar, a PCB (Printed Circuit Board) is how we mass-manufacture electronic circuits. Instead of loose wires, the connections are thin copper "traces" embedded in a fiberglass sandwich, usually finished in that classic green solder mask.
I went through four iterations of the PCB design before landing on what VolumeMaster uses today. It gets expensive quickly — one small mistake can cost hundreds of dollars. That’s nothing to a big company, but as a full-time student, it hurt every time I messed something up.
V1.0 / V1.1 — The Beginning
My first working version used an Arduino Nano clone as a daughter board. It was a smart choice at the time — cheap, simple, and easy to get running. But after hand-soldering hundreds of headers for early units, I realised I needed a more scalable solution.
V2.0 / V2.2 — All-in-One Design
With V2, I moved everything onto a single board. This saved on parts and cut my build time from 10 minutes down to just 1. As an electrical engineering student, this part was honestly a lot of fun. Designing and building your own microcontroller board is a solid intermediate electronics project.
But of course… I messed it up.
In V2.0, I made a beginner’s mistake and forgot to add programming pads, which meant I couldn't upload firmware after assembly. To make things worse, the pin outs on the footprint for one of the main components were completely wrong. So V2.0 became an expensive, green fibreglass paperweight.
That failure led to V2.2, which fixed the issues and finally gave me a board that was functional, fast to build, and production-ready.
There were plenty more interesting design decisions made along the way — like getting a custom internal cable manufactured and finding aluminium feet — but that’s all I’ve got time to cover for now! I hope you found this behind-the-scenes look at VolumeMaster interesting. If you’ve ever had a nagging problem and thought, “someone should build that,” — you should!
Thanks for reading