A year with the Elgato Stream Deck • Hacker News Board

Re: A year with the Elgato Stream Deck

#51

Post by [deleted] » Mon, May 30, 2022, 4:29 AM UTC

cletus wrote: post #46

hbn wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As an aside, volume on Windows is a horrible mess. You can have an external speaker volume, a system Master volume, an app-specific volume (the last 2 through the Windows Volume Mixer) and then volume settings inside a game. You never have 2 applications outputting audio and you want to balance them? Sometimes I'll be playing a game and listening to a podcast at the same time, and I want the podcast to have the lou…

You misunderstand my complaint. Windows already does this. There's a volume mixer where each app has its own volume. That's still the case AND the game/app has a separate volume. So the actual volume playing is effectively: Hardware volume x Windows master volume x Windows app volume x In-app volume No one wants or needs that level of control. You end up adjusting these separately as you need until you find out one d…

[deleted]

Re: A year with the Elgato Stream Deck

#52

Post by rnoorda » Mon, May 30, 2022, 4:30 AM UTC

rtpg wrote: post #34

For someone who kinda wants this stuff but doesn't feel great about spending 200 bucks for 15 buttons and all the garbage that goes with... an idea I had last week seeing this article is to buy a USB 10-key numpad from a pawn shop, and use something like kmonad[0] to map key presses from that device to specific actions. Reuse some existing tech, and you can just tape over buttons. It's not exactly the same product fo…

I used a RP2040 macropad from Adafruit [0] to play with this- I use mine as numpad on occasion, but can also use it for Zoom controls, media volume/next/speed/etc, or Photoshop actions.

[0]: https://www.adafruit.com/product/5128

Re: A year with the Elgato Stream Deck

#53

Post by stosto88 » Mon, May 30, 2022, 4:44 AM UTC

No post body was provided.

Re: A year with the Elgato Stream Deck

#54

Post by rx_tx » Mon, May 30, 2022, 4:45 AM UTC

user3939382 wrote: post #43

I was thinking about getting one for my IDE. Any one try that?

I use a streamdeck with VS Code [1] and it's been really nice. You can map any actions that you could run with Ctrl+Shift+P (the command bar) and also have it send commands to the vscode terminal. Works great for me, including on remote servers connected through vscode. On mine I have a key for reload window, start debugging/compile, and all the actions for the debugger (step through, pause, next etc).

[1]: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=nicollas...

Re: A year with the Elgato Stream Deck

#55

Post by ocdtrekkie » Mon, May 30, 2022, 4:45 AM UTC

CamperBob2 wrote: post #27

This is interesting. Is anything known or documented about the low-level protocol used to upload images and recognize input? I can see it being useful as a controller for specialized applications, including embedded ones, but only if there's a low-level C API.

There are great third party solutions that can do all sortd of things. StreamDeckSharp is the library I use to interface with mine. I love the hardware, but their default software is garbage.

Re: A year with the Elgato Stream Deck

#56

Post by rx_tx » Mon, May 30, 2022, 4:49 AM UTC

I've really been enjoying mine with Home Assistant buttons to trigger lights and show sensor values, as well as a really neat way to apply tags while looking at images in digikam (through one of the windows streamdeck plugins that allows complex key sends including modifiers.

I also like it as a way to quickly open saved PDF datasheets on my system for the ones I use all the time.

Re: A year with the Elgato Stream Deck

#57

Post by password4321 » Mon, May 30, 2022, 5:08 AM UTC

It sounds like their software is very polished. Also, it might be possible to emulate the device on an old phone.

I bought an all-in-one PC with a touchscreen in part to experiment with using it in a similar fashion, but haven't made much progress yet.

Re: A year with the Elgato Stream Deck

#58

Post by filoleg » Mon, May 30, 2022, 5:15 AM UTC

busterarm wrote: post #48

cletus wrote: post #32

As an alternative to a stream deck, I started using a MIDI board last year. I tried a copule and settled on the Behringer X-Touch Mini [1]. It's less than $100. What I primarily use it for is volume control (including muting). Like I have a particular knobs for Chrome, Master Volume and games. This is all pretty easy to set up with something like MIDI Mixer [2]. There are Youtube videos on it. I also use the media co…

I'm doing similar with a Novation Launchpad X that I already had. I'm primarily using it with OBS but also use it with Zoom and a few other applications.

Any resources that you could recommend on this? Was thinking of trying to put mine up to a similar use.

Re: A year with the Elgato Stream Deck

#59

Post by pjgalbraith » Mon, May 30, 2022, 5:16 AM UTC

jowsie wrote: post #7

killjoywashere wrote: post #6

I would love it if Apple figured out how to do this with their keyboards. Might be up against some laws of physics, but would be nice.

There was this in 2007, so it's definitely possible to do a full keyboard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimus_Maximus_keyboard

Interesting that the Elgato Stream Deck came out a year after their patent expired.

Re: A year with the Elgato Stream Deck

#60

Post by diffeomorphism » Mon, May 30, 2022, 5:28 AM UTC

cletus wrote: post #46

hbn wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As an aside, volume on Windows is a horrible mess. You can have an external speaker volume, a system Master volume, an app-specific volume (the last 2 through the Windows Volume Mixer) and then volume settings inside a game. You never have 2 applications outputting audio and you want to balance them? Sometimes I'll be playing a game and listening to a podcast at the same time, and I want the podcast to have the lou…

You misunderstand my complaint. Windows already does this. There's a volume mixer where each app has its own volume. That's still the case AND the game/app has a separate volume. So the actual volume playing is effectively: Hardware volume x Windows master volume x Windows app volume x In-app volume No one wants or needs that level of control. You end up adjusting these separately as you need until you find out one d…

There is one x too many, yes. But otherwise I absolutely do want that.

Hardware × software master × in-app,

maybe condensed with "flat volume", so that raising the in-app volume also raises master if necessary, while leaving other sounds at the same effective level.

The only difference I see compared to what you call iOS is that that one throws all "video" together in one giant pile. Thus youtube, netflix, spotify etc. all get the same default volume. That is really annoying me with android and I want that off!