[voxeltek]

I do think you could make a device like you're describing that works well with Tangara tho! Tangara literally already exposes a USB serial console over the USB-C port; we mostly use it for some special development/debugging commands, but you can also get access to a Lua environment over this console that includes all the usual system bindings. This is how, for example, Hailey's companion app (https://github.com/haileys/tangara-companion) is able to change Tangara's volume (screenshot here https://hails.org/@hailey/111889509622928744)

I am Not Smart™

So I misunderstood this message at first. I thought you were saying that a raw UART interface was exposed on the USB-C pins, i.e. a TX and RX pin. Naturally, this isn't the case.

The chip I'm using in my remote is an ATtiny1616, a cheap, low-power chip that works fine for my needs. It's plenty capable of standard serial communication, but USB communication is far outside its abilities.

Combining this with the need for a battery, and honestly it would probably just make more sense to design an entirely different device that operates over Bluetooth and can control playback.