DIY 87-Key Macro Keyboard - Because he has too many keyboard shortcuts!
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2016-05-06
·
1,864 words · ~9 min read
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why on Earth would anyone want a second keyboard lonus asked me when I tried to
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show him this project I've been working on for quite a while well let me tell
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you it's not for everyone but if you are a productivity freak like me the concept
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might really appeal to you basically this entire keyboard has been converted
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into a set of 87 fully programmable
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macro keys
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Intel brings ddr4 to the mainstream with their new core i76700 K and core i56600k
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processors check out the link in the video description to learn more so to
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give you some background on why I need a second keyboard I'm the video editor for
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most of the videos that go up on this channel that's a lot of videos and the
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more quickly and efficiently I can edit them the better now fast and efficient
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video editing relies heavily upon keyboard shortcuts so much so that
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inside Premiere I assigned functions to all the numbers letters and symbols all
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the function keys the entire numpad and most of the reasonable combinations of
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control shift and ALT that's a lot of shortcuts and yes I do use all of those
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on a daily basis it's easy to remember single key shortcuts but the more keys
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you need to press in a row the more difficult it is to not only remember the
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key combination but also to physically press those keys that's what macro keys
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are good for if you don't know a macro key will basically launch a
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pre-programmed series of keystrokes and or Mouse clicks which you would
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otherwise have to press manually every time for example let's say I'm editing a
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video in Premiere and I want to reverse a clip on the timeline to do this I
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could click on the clip Mouse over to the clip menu select speed duration
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Mouse over to the panel that appears click reverse and then Mouse over to
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enter and click on that this takes a few
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seconds to do alternatively I could just press one single macro button which
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automatically executes the keystrokes controlr tab tab space enter which
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accomplishes exactly the same thing but in a fraction of a second that's the
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power and usefulness of a keyboard macro
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Gamers will use macros in Games like World of Warcraft DOTA Starcraft League
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of Legends and so on but pretty much any game can be made easier with macros and
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keyboard macros are also really useful for certain jobs like video editing
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animation graphic design programming Music Creation and I don't know
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accounting maybe I don't really know what accountants do all day but pretty
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much anything that involves heavy computer use and repetitive tasks
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usually macros are just a series of blind keystrokes and mouse clicks but
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you can make even more powerful macros
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using Auto hotkey auto hotkey is a free
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brilliant little program that you can use to completely automate repetitive
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tasks remap Keys intelligently simulate
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clicks and keystrokes and do a lot more stuff that I don't even understand I've
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used auto hotkey to program a ton of useful features for Premiere Pro that
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don't even exist in the application itself like recalling saved Transitions
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and applying effects directly onto selected Clips but my problem now is
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that I use so many macros and so so many keyboard shortcuts that I have now
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physically run out of keys on the keyboard and what can you do then well
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we have a few of these cool little Tech Keys keyboards lying around the office
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so I experimented with those we also have a razor orb weaver which is
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actually pretty awesome and it's been designed for this exact purpose all of
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its keys can be remapped to any key or key combination you desire now since
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you're still restricted to standard keyboard Keys what I like to do is
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program the keys on these extra keyboards to execute very obscure key
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combinations like Control Alt F1 and
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then I program Auto hotkey to listen for these key combinations and then execute
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whatever function I desire the trouble is if you do too much of this it's tough
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to remember what combinations you've already used and what combinations all
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your various different applications might already be using but you know what
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the tech keys keyboards and the orb weaver still don't have enough keys for
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all the extra functions that I want and
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these keyboards are surprisingly expensive and that's when it hit me why
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can't I just hook up a second keyboard to my computer well it turns out that
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Windows will treat every keyboard that you plug in as one keyboard you can plug
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in all the keyboards you like but your computer cannot tell the difference
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between them bummer fortun Ely one of my
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Twitter followers linked me to this video by Tom Scott who successfully got
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14 keyboards to work as their own separate inputs he used a program called
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Lua macros which was actually developed for flight simulator enthusiasts who
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want to have a lot of switches and buttons for their virtual cockpits great
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so it is possible now all I needed to do
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was figure out how to code in Lua and
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find a way to get Lua Ma R to communicate with auto hotkey which is
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where all of my functions already are Tom Scott had done this but he didn't
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provide any of the necessary details like you know sample code then it
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presses the f24 key that's after quite a
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bit of frustration I finally figured out how to do it my second keyboard now
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works as its own unique input and every
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single one of these Keys acts as a macro button which will launch its own Unique
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Auto hotkey script so here's how you do it first download Lua macros and auto
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hotkey plug in both of the keyboards you want to use run Lua macros and open up
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quick start. Lua then click on the play
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button you'll get a prompt asking you to identify device macros which will become
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the name of your second keyboard all you need to do is press any key on that
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second keyboard luam macros will now recognize it as such and those key book
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will now be intercepted by Lu macros and therefore blocked from normal typing
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once you get that working you can write your own code or download and use my Lua
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code which basically just writes a small string to a file on disk and then
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presses the f24 key download my auto hotkey script or write your own and
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double click on it to get it running an icon for that script will now appear on
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the taskbar now anytime the f24 key is
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virtually pressed by luam macros this Auto hotkey script will read the
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string in that file and execute the correct Associated function Tada I knew
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it would be difficult to remember which key did what so I created a bunch of
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keycap images in Photoshop printed them cut them out and taped them onto the
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existing keys if you do this keep in mind that your key caps will not
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necessarily be compatible with every slot on the keyboard so you may have to
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be careful to maintain the underlying quty layout although for me I think it
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was just the F and J Keys the keyboard that I used for this project was the
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Logitech k120 and it's nothing special
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at all any cheap or old keyboard will work perfectly when using the second
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keyboard it does take about 2 seconds to look down find the key you want move
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your hand over to that key press it and then move your hand back to the primary
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keyboard so it's best to use the secondary keyboard for secondary
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functions that you don't need all that often if you want to try building and
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programming a second keyboard I will be providing all the necessary code in the
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video description you're welcome and before you say it I know that my code is
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sloppy and suboptimal I know but guess
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what it still works so if any of you
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real programmers out there want to complain about my messy code I sure
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would appreciate it if you could provide a functional sample of some code that
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will work even better a great place to do this will be in the Linus Tech tips
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discussion thread that is associated with this video also linked below
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there's still a lot to figure out like using modifier keys and double tapping
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to launch a different function in fact Lua macros itself is just a side project
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of a single man with very little free time it's not even out of beta and it's
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still got a lot of bugs the good news is the software is open source so if you
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can help to make Lu macros better I really suggest suggest that you do I
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think it would be great if we could use the power of our community to improve
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useful Niche software like luam macros
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personally I'm very satisfied with my secondary keyboard and I'm really
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looking forward to seeing what you guys come up with tunnel bear is the easyto
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LT thanks for watching guys give the video a like or a dislike get subscribed
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join the Forum and talk about Lua macros
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with our affiliate code so we get a small Kickback whenever you buy
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something and you should check out another one of my videos up here or
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wherever where I talk about the fly clly and how incredibly disappointing it was
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no the smart pet I I keep forgetting what it was called it's terrible though