Macro keyboards are mini programmable USB keyboards that can be pressed to trigger shortcuts, a sequence of keypresses etc. They can have several layers so switching to a different one will trigger different keypresses from the same key, so e.g. different IDEs can be represented.

I’ve just bought one with a view to setting up shortcuts for debugging. Each IDE has its own unique keys for navigating through the code, so I figure it’ll be nice to just press one key to start debugging and one key to step into instead of a combination of ctrl+whatever etc

Do you use one? If so, what do you use it for and what size do you use? Is it too big / too small?

  • DeebsterEnglish
    2·
    4 hours ago

    I just had mine arrive yesterday!

    I have one of these
    macro keyboard with 12 keys and three knobs

    I’m using ch57x-keyboard-tool to configure it, because I don’t fancy running some random closed-source Chinese code (the manual links to a file on Google Drive). It also means I can move over my config when I switch to Linux.

    I have two keys for switching between headphones and speakers, and some set up for shortcuts I forget (like ctrl-shift-e for the network monitor in Firefox). One key types “hello” just because I can.

    I’ve got the large knob controlling volume, and I can click it to toggle mute. The other two are currently set to scroll, but I don’t need that as my mouse has better ergonomics for scrolling.

    I still have plenty of unused keys and it’s got three layers so I won’t be running out in the foreseeable future.