Ask HN: What lesser-known accessories do you use with your computer?

Don't forget that most audio interfaces also let you hook up a good pair of studio monitors for output. (And there are compatible subwoofers as well, if you really want more bass.)

Mine also has a headphone jack and independent analog volume controls for speakers and headphones. It's amazingly nice to not worry about the operating system switching audio devices properly on headphone connect/disconnect.

Windows works fine if you just plug 2 keyboards into it. Left hand on one keyboard, right hand on the other; works exactly as if you had one keyboard. Uses a bit more desk space but way cheaper and super easy to manage in an office setting.

I only recently tested this out on a mac and was sad to see that shift/ctl/buckey on one keyboard didn't affect keys on the other keyboard. Probably not worth opening a bug with them.

I have a Roccat Vulcan 120 RGB keyboard which has a sweet volume knob on it. Don't use the software that comes with it though. I use Project Aurora[1] to control the lights on the keys. I'm able to program color/fx/animation per key per program that has focus. It's useful if you have new software or a game you're not used to. For example, you can highlight all the relevant keys to help you memorize them.

But mainly I use it to play an audio waveform of any music that's playing. And highlight caps lock whenever it's on.

[1]: https://www.project-aurora.com/

"Tryone" Gooseneck tablet holder to hold my Linux-running x86 2-in-1 tablet. I get like 2 people a week asking me what the fuck this is and how they can get one ASAP. Unbeatable ergonomics at any place; your screen where you want it. Paired with a Lenovo Thinkpad Trackpoint BT keyboard, and sometimes a mouse.

Gas-spring monitor mounts are well known by now. I semi-recently hacked together a wall mount gas spring arm & am surprised how much more flexibility & space going from desk mount (first clamp then through-hole) arm to wall-mount gave me; better range of motion, zero desk-space is amazing.

I used to dearly love my Griffin PowerMate jog-wheel for volume control. I really wanted to create a morse-code system for it & got quite far but stopped 50% of the way through. But still, jog-wheels are lovely devices. I'm on split keyboards now but I love so much the old Logitech MX keyboards that I had that also had big job-wheels & media-buttons; having on-tap control over devices was so nice.

AtomCube RX1 (now RX7) has a pretty nice battery-powered videography light that also works great as my key light. I hope one day to figure out how to reverse engineer the bluetooth control protocol for it, but haven't started digging in to how to intercept/reverse engineer the Android app. I also really dig the very cheap the Aputure AL-M9 deck-of-card sized light that works great with my camera; just so versatile a light & imminently affordable.

Fiber optic displayport/hdmi cable. I used to use a 50ft 1080p hdmi cable & some active USB extension cables to put my computer in the hallway or bathroom, connected to a separate terminal, so I could have a no-noise environment. Now, my AIO coolermaster watercooled computer is quite quiet. But there are some very cheap fiber optic cables of up-to literally hundreds-of-feet of length for incredibly cheap prices. The no-name brands seem to work fine. Now I can play games on my roof just fine, thanks to these absurd cheap luxury devices. I've tested up to my gaming monitor's 1440p170 and they work great.

A $20 HDMIUSB "MS2130" converter for plugging in my cameras as webcams. Present as standard usb-video devices. Alas the frelling monsters making Android phones still don't include the kernel module to support these; how very badly I want to be able to use my phone to control & connect to my cameras, but nooo. Tick the kernel module box on for usb-video, you jerks!

ElecJet Ultra is the most interesting battery pack I have. It's only 10k mAh- <40WHr- which is low capacity. But it charges at 100W across a huge part of the charging curve. This makes it an idea travel unit: wherever I am, I can accept wall power at 100W. That's 3x the rate my laptop accepts. I have some ZMI 20k (mAh) Pro packs that I adore as my mainstay everyday travel units, lots of juice, very compact, nice usb-hub features, but they only charge at 45W, or a ~2hr+ charge time. Being able to get a fully charged pack in ~30 minutes is incredibly useful if I'm on the go & trying to keep a couple devices charged. That said, I often have two ZMI Pro packs, and my multi-output charger will do 90W into both packs, and thus the ElecJet often stays at home. It's still a rare noteable gem of a device to me.

I’ll see your 16” MacBook and raise you 12” iPad with external mech keyboard. I’ll admit that I’ve recently reverted to a 16:10 external display as I’m working more with engineering drawings and this reduces printing for short term use, but having one and only one thing to focus on can definitely be good under the right conditions.