[HN Gopher] My Custom Stream Deck Toolkit
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My Custom Stream Deck Toolkit
Author : peterhajas
Score : 92 points
Date : 2021-08-02 01:07 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (peterhajas.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (peterhajas.com)
| slg wrote:
| With the popularity of these devices, I am surprised no one has
| taken a swing at producing a new keyboard in the spirit of the
| old Optimus Maximus[1]. I would love to see how the tech
| improvements of the last decade and a half could help improve
| that design.
|
| [1] - https://www.artlebedev.com/optimus/maximus/
| scrollaway wrote:
| Waaaah! I remember the Optimus Maximus. I never got one but I
| was drooling over it as a kid.
|
| It made a lot of sense to me that a keyboard should be
| configurable to display what's expected on which keys.
| Switching between different layouts but also quick actions,
| video game inputs, etc. The macOS touchbar sort of does that.
|
| I frankly would like to see it, even if I suspect that, if it
| could be done (without expending millions in R&D), it would
| have been done by now.
| FractalParadigm wrote:
| The Optimus Maximus felt like the future of keyboards when I
| was a kid and it first released. Hold shift and all the
| letters go from lower-case to upper, hold control/command and
| the keys change into their modifiers, telling you exactly
| what it does. Play World of Warcraft and instead of a number
| row your action bars with appropriate icons is there.
|
| I'm a little surprised Elgato hasn't tried. I wonder if the
| original creators have some kind of a patent on ANSI/ISO
| keyboards with displays under the keys?
| slg wrote:
| Wikipedia[1] says the patent for this expired in 2016.
| Interesting enough, it also mentions that Apple filed a
| similar patent for a "dynamically changing OLED keyboard"
| in 2007. I wonder if that project was abandoned or
| eventually morphed into the Touchbar. Personally, I think
| having the screen(s) be individual keys would be a huge
| usability improvement over the Touchbar which doesn't have
| the same tactile feedback.
|
| [1] -
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimus_Maximus_keyboard
| cronix wrote:
| I've always been curious as to how many patents exist
| where the holder actually had no intention of building
| the thing, for whatever reason, but didn't want anyone
| else to either.
| burnte wrote:
| I have a stream deck and use it the exact same way!
| dend wrote:
| Really cool! I've recently got really fed up with the default
| software and wrote my own library for .NET to manage the
| device[1].
|
| For anyone curious, I've also documented how to reverse-engineer
| the USB protocol[2], so you can write your own libraries and
| pretty much set any buttons to anything (with much more OS
| control granularity).
|
| [1]: https://deck.surf
|
| [2]: https://den.dev/blog/reverse-engineering-stream-deck/
| akerl_ wrote:
| Is anybody aware of a similar tool for Windows for doing deeper
| customization on the Stream Deck? I <3 Hammerspoon on my Macs,
| and I like my Streamdeck on my Windows PC, would definitely
| switch from the stock Elgato software to something like HS if I
| could.
| TimMeade wrote:
| I love my streamdeck. But these are great ideas. I never thought
| of doing the function keys. That will be a game changer by
| itself.
| mikey_p wrote:
| Glad to see integration with Hammerspoon. I still think
| Hammerspoon is massively underrated in terms of productivity
| software.
| mahoro wrote:
| I like the idea that you can make a clipboard key that displays
| what's inside :)
| WilliamP78249 wrote:
| I'm glad we are seeing people with their own take on this, this
| is something that Valve said they hoped to have hardware vendors
| embrace because the Deck really is supposed to be an "open
| platform ecosystem" instead of closed / wallgardened consoles
| like XBOX, Playstation, and Switch. Hats off to the developer and
| I hope we see more like this from commercial vendors as well.
| [deleted]
| jorams wrote:
| This post is about the Elgato Stream Deck, not the Valve Steam
| Deck.
| WilliamP78249 wrote:
| Oh, well that's terrible naming then. I totally thought this
| was a PC gaming console. I wonder if Valve is going to try to
| fight a trademark in court because it's so similar.
|
| This guy better be careful otherwise he could be stuck with
| huge legal fees depending how popular this gets. Seems early
| enough in product development that he could change it without
| problem.
| crymer11 wrote:
| The Valve Steam Deck was announced on July 15, 2021 and
| isn't even released yet. The Elgato Stream Deck has been
| for sale since mid 2017.
|
| I don't think Elgato, the manufacturer of the Stream Deck,
| or this guy, who wrote code to integrate with it, have
| anything to worry about.
| WilliamP78249 wrote:
| It doesn't matter who had it first. I don't think Elgato
| has the deep bottomless pockets that Valve has. They both
| wouldn't stand a chance in court for years of litigation.
| I'm not saying it's fair but that's just the way it is in
| the US court system.
| [deleted]
| crtasm wrote:
| The photos in the post show quite clearly what this is.
| kamiheku wrote:
| This is not a new product. It's the author's configuration
| for an existing product, the Elgato Stream Deck.
| drewzero1 wrote:
| Terrible naming indeed. Valve should have thought about
| that before naming their new product... but they probably
| did, and decided they were the bigger fish.
| gadders wrote:
| I notice the author mentions "Nonce Buttons". Just a reminder
| that "nonce" has a very different meaning in British English, as
| discovered by Nonce Finance: https://www.indy100.com/viral/nft-
| company-nonce-finance-prob...
| throwaway378037 wrote:
| Had a good laugh at this. Thanks
| Beaver117 wrote:
| I find it hilarious that old keyboards used to have most of these
| buttons. Gradually people migrated to "60% TKL" keyboards to save
| space, and now apparrently buy an entire stream deck to replace
| their missing buttons? I admit it looks cooler though
| stinkytaco wrote:
| If you're a game streamer, the keyboard might not be an option
| (since you're using it to play), and that's who it's aimed at,
| I think. I can definitely see the appeal, just leaning over to
| tap while in a meeting or watching a video or something. It
| would be useful in a conference room as well. It's a luxury
| item, but it definitely fills a niche.
| tuananh wrote:
| it's kind of like general purpose (old keyboard) vs specialized
| customizable keyboard (stream deck)
| tehbeard wrote:
| >= old keyboards used to have most of these buttons
|
| Hmmm, I only recall one previous "proper" keyboard having OLEDs
| under the keycaps...
|
| Slightly facetious, I know, but I think one key element you
| missed is the adaptability.
|
| Yes keyboards used to come with calculator and mail and
| internet buttons, but often times you were stuck with those
| options only, or worse, the particular apps hardwired in the
| drivers.
|
| Not only can this solution adapt to what you are doing /
| context aware, it can give feedback. That mail button can pull
| and render an inbox count. Online contacts profile pics can
| display in a select few buttons when they are available.
|
| Price/gamer tax on this type of solution and how useful to the
| average user, that's up for debate.
| jcowdy wrote:
| The advantage I find using a Stream Deck is that it can be
| configured to use the context of your active window to show a
| subset of buttons. This unlocks a lot of power in terms in
| application specific shortcuts / macros that can all be
| triggered from a small device. I have >100 different buttons
| but only see the most relevant by default based on what I'm
| doing.
| [deleted]
| mdbauman wrote:
| I've tried a similar setup with a Novation Launchpad that I had
| bought to function as a sort of Stream Deck before this product
| existed (but without the little displays of course.) It's just
| a MIDI controller, so I could use a [piano-style] keyboard too.
|
| Although my normal keyboard does still have function keys and a
| numpad, I like being able to map annoying shortcuts to
| individual buttons. For example, Photoshop's "Merge Visible
| Layers" (default Ctrl+Shift+E) is hell on my wrist, so I map it
| to a button on the MIDI controller.
|
| It's also nice having extra buttons to access F13-F24 for
| whatever behavior I want since virtually nothing uses them by
| default.
| spicybright wrote:
| I use my mac touch bar in the exact same way actually using
| BetterTouchTool.
|
| Much more ergonomic, I can't say I'd want to have a separate
| keyboard next to my laptop...
| rnjesus wrote:
| is there a tried-and-tested ipad app anyone can recommend that
| does what the stream deck does?
|
| stream decks have always interested me, but the price has always
| seemed a bit steep. compared to their XL model, for ~50$ more
| (with an educational discount) you can get a base ipad, and
| unless you really want the tactile feedback, i can't think how
| that wouldn't be a better buy.
| kinghuang wrote:
| There is the Stream Deck Mobile app.
| https://www.elgato.com/en/stream-deck-mobile
| cyberge99 wrote:
| Stream Deck for productivity is underrated. I don't use it as
| much as I thought (I integrated KayboardMaestro entirely too late
| into my workflow), but it's still handy.
|
| I like having haptic interfaces, (perhaps too much).
|
| Before a good keyboard tool, I occasionally ran in to keyboard
| shortcut collisions which produce odd outcomes.
|
| Thanks for sharing this, I'll have another look.
| ocdtrekkie wrote:
| Stream Decks are super neat, but the official software is
| complete trash. Rolling your own is basically the only way to win
| here. I use a library for .NET called StreamDeckSharp which is
| pretty nice.
| ogjunkyard wrote:
| What are specific concerns you have? I've been using the Stream
| Deck software for a couple of years now and other than a few
| freezes that required me to relaunch the application. I haven't
| had any issues.
| ocdtrekkie wrote:
| From my experience, almost all the functionality with any
| sort of smarts is designed solely for it's core audience: If
| you're using OBS and Twitch I'm sure it's fine, but it's
| general Windows interaction functionality is extremely
| primitive.
|
| Then there's third party plugins, but I don't really see any
| security guarantees on how those are designed, there's not a
| lot of reason for me to be comfortable with those.
|
| The really basic functionality I wanted that the software
| couldn't change, was the ability to remain functional when
| the PC was locked.
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(page generated 2021-08-03 23:02 UTC)