When using Pepper regularly, often ideas for new features pop up.
Maybe these can be considered while developing the new version (Rev C).
These are just my ideas as a user, I totally understand that there's limitations.
Feel free to delete if you don't like a feature request discussion.

-The LED strip is great, but it would be very practical to have leds that can change color.
During a live performance, it's hard to count if led number 4 or 5 is blinking for example.
Programming led 4 to be green and led 5 to be blue would make things easier.

-USB input on the main Pepper frontpanel would be better then the Pepper USB breakout panel.
If this is not possible, a slim 2HP breakout is handier than 4HP.

-reset button for the great "loop_*" function on the main Pepper frontpanel or on the breakout.

-6 pushbuttons in stead of 4

-more CPU

-a louder build-in speaker amp for Bela

-aluminum faceplate for Pepper.
I find the original black plastic faceplate bends a little when touched which sometimes messes with the contacts of the pin headers. This made a pot stop working during a concert.
Brass pcb standoffs can help with stacking the pcb's so less force is applied to the headers.

3 months later

DragonSF Output of -5v to + 5V in Eurorack environment.

Actually this is now possible with Bela Cape Rev C that we started shipping in mid January, though it requires some manual wiring and we don't have an instruction guide for that yet.

    a year later
    7 months later

    This week I've been using Pd on my laptop, two Bela Pepper modules and an Organelle.
    Organelle runs Pd directly with visual feedback (HDMI screen) and physical feedback (knobs).
    This made patching and programming way faster as it avoids going back and forth between the patch, IDE and compiled code on Bela. On Bela, I do this tens of times, just to see how a knob performs on Pepper.
    It would be great to have Pd running directly on a new version of Bela (hardware or OS) so I can enjoy the "real-time" advantage Pd has over text based programming environments.

      Floris On Bela, I do this tens of times, just to see how a knob performs on Pepper.
      It would be great to have Pd running directly on a new version of Bela (hardware or OS) so I can enjoy the "real-time" advantage Pd has over text based programming environments.

      We actually did some work on that last year: https://github.com/BelaPlatform/pure-data-web-GUI. It mostly worked, though it was not ready for a release and turns out to be a dead end in some way.

      I have planned something easier to implement and maintain for Bela, stay tuned.

        a month later

        While I think Pepper is the most versatile digital Eurorack module ever, I hope the next version will have sturdier hardware for signal flow between the faceplate and the different pcb boards.
        Last 3 years, I played over 50 concerts where Pepper brilliantly provided most of my CV and digital signal processing.
        But after travel, or pressure on the faceplate while playing, sometimes one or more of the pin headers come a bit (fraction of a millimeter) loose which cause knobs to malfunction. Sometimes it's easy to solve by applying some pressure, sometimes not.
        This happens more often with the knobs then the sockets, and only with the Pepper in my live case, never in the studio.

        I believe that may be a combination of issues of having the rev B cape (which I assume you have?), which has the sockets for the analogs slightly recessed, and the headers for the analog outs on Pepper PCB that are not long enough.

        Floris fade-able dual-color LEDs

        Btw, the ones on Pepper are already fade-able (albeit single color). You just need to bit bang some PWM on it. Something like this should do (keep in mind that digital outputs are internally thresholded at 0.5)

        [phasor~ 100]
|    
|   [sig~ ] <<< intensity: -0.5 is minimum and + 0.5 maximum
|   |
[+~ ]
|
[dac~ 11] // or whatever channel(s) you set to outputs at signal rate
          2 months later

          Bumping this as I'm sure there's a market for pre-build Peppers and interest in a larger patch examples library on patchstorage.
          For example the 2 last digital Behringer Eurorack modules, a Mutable Instruments Stages clone and a vocoder, would work well on a Pepper.

          a month later

          I recently got a Behringer RS-9 and created a Drumbox for Pepper (sample based). As Pepper has only 8 analog ins and most of the digital pins are already occupied, I woder, if it's possible to add more (let's say 8 ) digital inputs for the accent effect. I2C maybe? I'm thinking about using a TCA9555 for this, because is has 16 inputs - more than enough.

          That could work. The I2C bus is exposed at the bottom of the Pepper PCB. However, an alternative is to repurpose some or all of the pins used on the LED bargraph: those are GPIOs that could be wired - via a large series resistor - to digital inputs. Desoldering the LED bargraph can be complicated, but you could just wire in parallel to it: get a 10k in series from your jack input to the LED's anode (the side of it that's not connected to ground), set the digital channel to input instead of output and you're done. Maybe you can go as low as 4k7 or 2k2 and hope to also have the LED light up in response to the trigger input ...

          on second thought, whether this works depends on the forward voltage of the LED: if it's too low it may prevent the pin from reaching the necessary HIGH voltage (approximately 2.1V I think). In that case you'd have to wire to the other side of the 220R resistor connected to the LED, which is equivalent to wiring onto the BBB pin itself.

          Thanks for the advice. The RS-9 produces 10V max and therefore shouldn't it be wise to add a voltage divider to the input (like how it's done in the pepper digital input circuity)?

          Another idea: I found an USBIO card (in my storage) , which can also provide a lot of ADCs and IO pins. To access the card, I need the hidapi library. Has this already been ported to Bela or shall I include just the header and source ind the project?

          Resistor divider is provided by the led, and anyhow a large enough series resistor tends to be enough because it limits the current that can flow through the pin to a safe value (< 6 mA).

          You should just be able to install it via apt-get? Note that if you are on v0.3 image tou need to replace deb.debian.org with archive.debian. org in /etc/apt/sources.list before you can run apt-get update and apt-get install. Also you'll need to be connected to the internet.

          Your idea (connecting the trigger signal via series resistor directly to the DI) works while using a 560Ohm resistor. Higher values don't produce enough potential (around 2.1V @10k or 2.7V @1k - which isn't good enough).560Ohm has also the advantage, that the LED fires up.But ATM I don't want to go that route, as the Pepper is not so easy to dissamble and on the other side having 12 cables in a Eurorack floating around calls foe desaster (IMHO). But anyway, thanks for the idea, maybe I'll have to comeback to that.