methods of input (Part 2)

Continuing the discussion from methods of input (Part 1) - #2596 by doolittle.

Previous discussions:

had a chance to get a deal on a 2022 steelseries aerox 3 wireless ghost (the white one) which I’d had my eye on. it’s a little large for a mouse for me (I tend to exclusively finger grip travel mice bc I have very long narrow fingers) but it is very very light, think I will hang on to it for at least a week

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I am Very Into mechanical keyboards, so I thought I’d post a picture of my best one… a Saber 68 (same thing as a tada 68) with mod-L switches in a wooden case. Bought the case off a guy on reddit. Keycaps are SA Vilebloom. The esc key is a Dwarf Factory Terrarium artisan I got in 2020.

I’ve had this board as my main personal keyboard, dressed up in various keycap sets and cases, for close to seven years now. It’s definitely showing its age… and while I really like the minimalism of a 60 or 65% board, I am starting to miss the function row for some of the game dev stuff I’m doing in my side projects now. I’m planning to replace it with another board in a wooden case. So I ordered this case called a KL90 in a group buy in November… if I assemble it properly and it ends up looking as nice as this promotional photo, I will be very impressed with myself:

For some reason the idea of wooden electronics is incredibly attractive to me. I’m not super into wood paneled equipment–more into the idea that my electronics can just be sat inside a hunk of wood, like I’m some idiot forest sprite who is typing inside a mushroom house or whatever. Since I type for like 11 hours a day I want the shit I type on to be the most saccharine fantasy-fulfilling devices I can possibly be typing on, haha. The wood knobs on the KL90 really sold me. Once it arrives, I will be moving the Vilebloom keycaps and the cute little succulent artisan onto it.

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in that case, you might enjoy the fine work of our very own @doolittle

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god, one day I am going to have to learn PCB design, aren’t I

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Oho, this is great! Love the thumb knob. Curious what it’s most commonly used for – I think I’d use something like that as a scroll wheel basically.

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volume! up/down, click to mute

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Sweet. I am planning to use one of the two knobs on my new board for volume. No clue what I’ll do with the left hand one though, haha. Maybe I’ll just have two volume knobs??

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I’ve also seen scrolling, page up/down, or binding arrow keys like an etch-a-sketch. Any key code can be bound to clockwise/counterclockwise/press in QMK, some are just better suited.

Oh, and fyi the technical term is “rotary encoder” if you need a keyword to search with. Knob is better but que sera sera

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oh no i need this, i’ve always wanted to be able to scroll my text editor without moving the cursor or taking my hands off the keyboard to find the mouse then move the pointer over the active window

do standalone rotary encoders that i can put next to my current keyboard exist or is this a custom builds only kinda deal?

Typically they’re part of a “macropad” of 3-12 keys which you can get as a kit or pay to have assembled by the vendor a la carte

The part itself is super cheap to just wire up to a microcontroller but you can definitely get one built or built-in

This might be the cheapest way to get one set up by itself but it does take soldering:

(I can look more or build one and ship it if you like)

FYI that board needs a suitable rotary encoder, sold separately (they sell one for US$4.50)

this is the same kit (though with their rotary encoder breakout rather than that USB one) I used in my weird little macro pad build over here:

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It is a controller for retro games equipped with 3 types of “loop lever”, “trackball” and “paddle”. We are soliciting opinions from users regarding the retro game controller (provisional). Please email us with any positive comments or new features you would like us to add to your reference!




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Finally a proper Xybots stick!

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Oooh, that’s a neat product

Yes! I love xybots and have been looking for a good loop lever stick. I’d also like a good trackball for Mister and have had my eye on the taito egret mini controller, but this looks better.

Not sure if Mister actually supports trackballs well, but I assume if a good option is widely available, support will come.

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Ready to break my wrist on my CRT screen when the Golden Tee cores come out.

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Man I remember seeing someone shatter the screen protector playing that game

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Got one of these guys to finish death stranding with. At first holding it I was sure Id be uncomfortable with its tiny size but a few minutes into play I forgot it was even there. Hours later I was still quite comfortable.

Buttons:
The D pad is really nice, better than first party.
The back triggers are analog but have a much better snappier throw. This is an improvement in any game that uses them like digital buttons.
The touch pad replacement button acts like a center touch pad click. Meaning I cannot “like” things in death stranding as that is on the right third of the touch pad.
It has no motion control and no rumble.

Plugging into a windows PC it installed its drivers and worked flawlessly. The analog back triggers register as both analog axis and as digital buttons.
I think this will be my general emulation pad. The extra center buttons are a great way to trigger emulator functions. The small size makes it easy to pack up and the wires mean no pairing bullshit.

In general Im shocked how good it is for the money.

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lol

image

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