Gadgetory

okay so long story short this is the hasu USB to USB controller converter you can use it to convert almost any USB keyboard into a fully programmable keyboard using TMK or qmk so keyboard nerds yes this thing is every bit as awesome as it sounds there are a few limitations but overall it's great so if you want to buy or build one of these you should it has the terrans seal of approval even the keyboards RGB still works normally as for me I use three of them to give myself three additional pure macro keyboards no biggie okay that's all folks see you next time when I'll be discussing five reasons why you might want to inject an RFID chip into your app oh sorry did you guys want more of an explanation than that fine stick around the marlins screwdriver set from I fix it features five specialty precision screwdrivers check it out today at ifixit.com forward slash Linus okay so before I explain this thing let me address a question that I get so very often Taron do you really need so many keyboards can't you just use multiple macro layers on one keyboard let me answer your question with a question when you board an airplane do you peek inside the cockpit and ask the pilots do you really need so many switches and buttons a single keyboard and mouse works fine for Microsoft Flight Simulator in both cases the answer is the same having all of your controls laid out like this as a single layer of dedicated keys with everything clearly labeled means that you can work more quickly and more accurately it just requires more physical space so check this out on the left I'm using dedicated macro keys to view the production calendar go to the graphics folder of my current project to switch to premier to add a specific effects and to insert a specific sound on the right I'm doing the same thing manually without macro keys it takes a lot longer those seconds really add up can we fast-forward this a little bit okay okay thank you anyway there are a lot of jobs that use specialized hardware just because I had to build and program my own cockpit doesn't mean it was a waste of time okay so now that we've established why someone might want a dedicated macro keyboard let's examine our options and whoa-ho-oh there's actually quite a few each with varying levels of difficulty stability functionality and price if only someone could sort through all this stuff and tell us which one is best for most people so in third place is the Corsair k55 at just $50 this is the cheapest of their offerings that still supports IQ of course there's easy-to-use software that allows for every key of a supported keyboard to be reprogrammed with IQ you can create normal macros or because it supports f13 to f24 you can use this profile and this always running autohotkey script to call powerful functions with parameters like the ones I demonstrated earlier if that sounds pretty cool make sure you check out my full instructional video linked in the description below before buying a k55 in second place for $60 we've got the Razer cyanosis a chroma huh this is my list and this still surprised me I've always found Razer synapse really annoying to use but one of its best features is that it can distinguish between multiple keyboards and although it does not support f13 to f24 you can directly launch any file from any key which includes autohotkey scripts that is incredibly useful oh and for your extra ten bucks you also get perky RGB lighting honestly the cyano so chroma is such a great deal for a pure macro keyboard that I suspect for most of you it'll be more than enough so if you want to go this route the Razer profile all the autohotkey code and my instructional video can again be found in this video's description finally in first place for just 63 dollars from one of keyboards comm you can get the hasu USB converter or as I call it the ultimate macro device this is the cheapest and easiest way that I have found to get the awesome functionality of tmk or qmk onto almost any USB keyboard and that's a really big deal because boutique tmk and qmk keyboards usually cost over 100 US dollars all together that one that latticed an anthony built was about two 20 bucks for the board plate case switches and key caps and in fact the very cheapest fully assembled TMK keyboard that I was able to find is this one with only 68 keys for $100 so on a dollar per macro key basis the keyboard converter is way out ahead of that even when you factor in having to get a cheap keyboard to go with it this one's like 15 dollars so whatever but who cares about TM k and qmk anyway and what on earth are they I'm glad you asked they are open-source keyboard firmwares that are designed for specific hardware like the teensy and the pre on ik PCB and while I had always thought of these custom keyboards as a toy for people with too much money and no knowledge of autohotkey as it turns out only some of that is true seriously though there's a lot of cool stuff in here that will really appeal to a certain kind of nerd especially the programmers it's got macros layers and RGB support of course but there's also special stuff like space cadet shift which uses your shift keys as parenthesis if you just tap them Unicode support which does exactly what you'd expect and tap dance which we'll call different functions from the same key depending upon how many times you tap it okay so to get this working first you need a hex file the easiest way to get one is to use this online tool but don't bother because it doesn't give you access to most of the cool stuff that tmk or qmk is capable of so the better way to do this is to set up a Linux environment in Windows install git and then download the entire qmk repository it's easy then you'll be ready to use a text editor to modify the appropriate key map C file and maybe config dot H launch a boon to CD over to our qmk firmware folder and sudo make ourselves a hex file now I have a full tutorial video for that too it's linked below but don't worry you don't have to do any of that stuff because you can find several hex files that I already created for you on my github also linked below I recommend f24 and alt to still work normally use f24 with modifiers dot hex bringing us finally to how you actually get this thing working download install and open qmk toolbox then just plug in your USB converter by itself with no keyboard attached and hit the little button locate your hex file and hit flash to flash it onto the firmware then unplug the converter and you're done just remember that every time you use the converter you need to plug it in by itself and then plug in your keyboard to the back or it won't work and sometimes you might have to replug it in after a computer restart which is pretty annoying now if you were to go and type into a text document at this stage you'd probably notice that it's still sending normal keystrokes except the caps lock doesn't work so what gives well I lied earlier you're not quite done yet next you'll need to download and install autohotkey then go to this link and download this autohotkey script by clicking raw and ctrl s to save create this exact folder structure and save it here delete the stupid txt if it appears now double click on it to get it running a friendly icon should appear in your taskbar now try typing into a text documents instead of text you should be seeing tooltips no matter which key you press perfect after this point it's up to you all you have to do is replace those tooltips with literally any script you want you can do anything that autohotkey can do which is a lot oh I probably should have mentioned that you should already know how to use autohotkey before you add a second keyboard so if you're new this is a great tutorial to get you started also I strongly recommend that you place a shortcut to the script file into your startup folder like so but why do it this way why not just create the macros inside of qmk well because autohotkey can do with thousand times as much stuff so for my purposes I just needed a way for my qmk keyboard to call any of the functions that I've already written in autohotkey and because I couldn't figure out how to send PS to set one make scan codes or raw USB keyboard hid codes I had to go with my usual method of using F 24 as an extra modifier key I call this wrapping a keystroke then I use this single line in autohotkey to block those wrapped keystrokes and replace them with whatever I want but a few keys don't play nicely with this method namely caps lock num lock shift ctrl alt win apps and pause break so before wrapping them I replaced them with little known keys like language international and the Brazilian comma and that's it I'm done for three years I've been looking for a cheap but stable way to do all of this and the hasu USB to USB keyboard converter checks all the boxes even compatibility is a strong point for it it worked with every single keyboard and numpad that I tried and after two other converters I was even able to convert a model M into a qmk macro board it's not like I'd recommend it for this purpose but still it works with the model M now some of you might have noticed that asterisk before there is a cheaper way to do this open up your keyboard remove the logic board replace it with a teensy rewire everything and pray you didn't make a mistake this is less expensive than the hassle USB converter but this is much easier you know what else is easy ting they are the mobile carrier that is focused on customer service and customer satisfaction first when you call ting you don't speak to a robot you get put directly through to a person with ting you pay only for what you use with the average bill being only 23 bucks a month per device and if you're stuck in a contract and want to switch to ting they'll cover 25% of your cancellation fee up to 75 dollars head on over to Linus 2018 ting calm and try out their savings calculator they've lowered their mobile data rates and now data is just ten bucks per gigabyte beyond the second gig and every single ting customer will be able to reap the benefits of that change get twenty-five bucks off your bill or $25 off a new phone at the ting shop at Linus 2018 ting calm thanks for watching guys liked it if you liked it dislike it if you disliked it oh you can watch my original video about Lua macros but don't bother because this video makes it obsolete look at all these second keyboard pictures that people have sent me since then anyway bye submerge join the forum and subscribe to PewDiePie