“Great little keyboard! Easy to setup and program with basic code knowledge. Great addition to my arch design toolkit and I’m using it for keystroke shortcuts”
“Perfect macro keypad. Is plug and play. Takes only a few minutes to put together. Reprogramming it for what you want is super easy with any programming knowledge. If not there are loads of examples and tutorials online.”
“The most fun I’ve had with a keyboard!
I love how compact it is for what it delivers. Building it was so easy it was basically legos, no soldering! Hotswappable switches is a huge plus for me too. The pcb design is beautiful! I wish I could stare at it more but it’s on the underside of the keypad. I got smoky keycaps to match the rest of my desk setup, the LEDs are still very bright.
Software wise, it’s also very fun and easy. I only have minimal coding experience with python but with some fiddling around I managed to get shortcuts working. I have media controls, browser tab switching, I can sort of control spotify on my google nest hub, and I have a dedicated “ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ” button. I have yet to configure shortcuts for zoom so I can easily switch my video/microphone on and off.
Only problem I had was it kinda took a while for shipping but it’s honestly understandable considering brexit and covid. I also wish it didn’t look like an appetizing cold dessert.
I’m hoping to see a wireless version of this (if I can’t hack it myself) and I’m hoping to see more awesome products from Pimoroni!”
“The Dabbler ( Ubuntu 20.04)
INTRO.
During COVID-19 lockdown I ended up spending a considerable amount of time on my PC, learning and using applications that had sat unused for several years.
This led me to install OBS-Studio, not so much for streaming as recording. I found it better to record what I had done rather than write. I was recording my own 'technical manuals' which I could refer to when I needed to recall something. I use several applications ( GIMP, Inkscape, OBS, Audacity etc.), which have all made my digital life more complex and put a strain on memory.
DEVICE.
I'm an elderly dabbler and my hands are less dexterous than they used to be, not to mention the deterioration of eye-sight.
I assembled this quite easily, my main fears being either stabbing myself with the key pins or even worse bending them.
Nothing went wrong, it was an easy peasy build. The final build felt good, it all fitted together well, no wobbles etc. I can't comment on long term sturdiness. And it has LED's, fabulous.
What slightly annoyed me was that I had to press the reset button after every power on after a shutdown. It persists after a restart.
COST.
I thought this was more expensive than I would have liked, the alternatives were a macro keypad ( as low as £25) or something like an Elegato stream deck( about £140).
I use Ubuntu 20.04 and If I had bought a macro keypad then I would have to first 'program' it on Windows (too much like hard work) and no LEDs, at least at the cheaper end.
Bearing in mind that my primary purpose in using OBS is not streaming, I didn't want to invest in the expense of a stream deck.
SOFTWARE.
I said I was a dabbler, it's a few years since I dabbled with python and even longer since I last used a punch card.
It was good that there are a few examples and I was up and running very quickly with 2 macros for OmegaT, an open translation application.
I'm not a translator, but I have the said app. linked to google translate for machine translation (I call this process Dabbler Translation!).
I use Omega commands CONTROL-M to copy and paste the machine translation and CONTROL-N to move to the next part.
A frequent irritation is doing CONTROL-N and not jumping to the next section but just entering N which I then have to remove.
Programming two simple macros made my life easier, two keystrokes instead of four and no mistypes and I tend to keep my gaze on what I am doing rather than having to keep glancing at the keyboard.
An unintended consequence of buying this was that I also sorted programming my keyboard function keys. On the whole, I want my keyboard separate from any 'macro' device.
The use of a stream deck for handling complexity is very compelling as you can configure and see icons to help you navigate through applications and OBS.
A more complex example for the keybow shows that you can use three sets of keys by using a colour coding scheme ( LEDs are very useful).
It falls short of an expensive stream deck, but I see can see that you can build a useable 'stream deck' with a bit of strategic thought.
In summary, I could then program one colour combination for OBS whilst using another for GIMP and that is precisely where I intend to go.
I could not get the keybow software to work with Pycharm even after enabling circuit python but I did get things moving with the mu-editor.
CONCLUSION.
It would have been nice to see some example program which used mouse controls and the keybow library is USA QWERTY only.
Overall good build quality, good software support, a keypad with its own 'OS', a good buy and I love the LEDs.”
