Can your Keyboard do THIS?? - Make ANY key a MACRO! #Helpful Post

ay 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

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