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Max Falcon-8 Programmable Macropad Kit

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Max Falcon-8 Programmable Macropad Kit

Name: Max Falcon-8 Programmable Macropad Kit
Brand: Max Keyboard
SKU: max-falcon-8-programmable-macropad-kit
Rating: 3.75 (4 reviews)

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Product Description

Whether you spend your time gaming, Photoshopping, or using any hotkey-intensive software, the Max Falcon-8 programmable mini macropad—a DIY kit that requires soldering—promises to simplify the process. Aside from the tools themselves, it comes with everything you’ll need to build the eight-key pad at home Read More

discussions392

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ShinyTiff

Mar 27, 2017

Can I have multiple layers with this?

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Daed

574

Apr 5, 2017

Yeah, there's a little bit of time and money in this project :). $4o on the blown acrylic, $70 on the steel plates (and another $40 or so, when I get the middle plate done)... $25 for another Teensy++ 2.0. I already have all the wire and solder and connectors and such. Still haven't given any thought to the body, though.
I'm a split addict. My wrists haven't liked standard boards for nearly 20 years now. I thought the ErgoDox would be perfect, because the angle could be whatever I want it to be, but it turns out I just keep sliding them around and ending up off. That's why this project is going to have fixed angles. It's all just a big experiment, really. Hey, maybe if it works out, I'll start charging immoral amounts of money for a bespoke keyboard design service ;)
I've there's an end to layout editing, I haven't found it yet. The only thing holding me back is what a pain it is to flash firmware on a Windows machine. I brought a Raspberry Pi into work for that purpose, because my work system is locked down -- it thinks dev software is malware.
As for caps, I've been lusting after Carbon since I first saw it. I have the Tai Hao knockoff set on order, but rumor has it Signature Plastics will be doing another production run, supposedly going up for pre-order this summer. If at all possible, that's what this board will be wearing :).

ShinyTiff

Apr 14, 2017

DaedToo bad that ergodox disappointed you, but in a sense it seems it gave you a chance to start the project :) You should really start a keeb design service if this one works out well... I'm all for new keeb designs. Not that existing keebs are bad but for diversity. Hope I can read the build log or anything similar, if ur gonna post it anywhere.
I am a mini keeb addict. All started from an Infinity, now heading to planck, and probably JD45. Wanted to get a minivan but recently the price roared ;/
P.s. Go Linux lul

SpiroC

Dec 20, 2016

I got sick of my hotkeys clashing with my apps, so I programmed my Falcon-8 to send F13-F20 keys and used Autohotkey to hook these and implement macros. Couldn't program the F13-F20 with the normal programming software. With a lot of experimenting and trial and error, eventually found the right spot in the firmware bin file and the right bytes to write using a hex editor (... so I guess technically it could be done in non-windows!) Works like a charm. ZERO hotkey clashes with any apps. All modifier keys work too (Ctrl, Alt, Shift, Win) to each give another 8 macros. Now with all these new keys available, I needed a way to remember the macros. Used the same Autohotkey script to put an always on top legend down in the taskbar. Scroll Lock disables the hotkeys so you can press the modifier keys to glance at the legend before using Scroll Lock again to re-enable. Also, the programming combination that seems to work best for me for each Falcon-8 "Prog" (again from trial and error) was :- Line 1, 0s, desired keystroke (eg F13), Line 2, 0.1s nothing (clears modifier), Line 3 usual terminator. Currently tinkering with rewriting my ahk script using Python. For no good reason really. This works. I haven't seen any way yet to distinguish keydown from keyup events. That would be nice. Love the device. I bought a second one for home.

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ltzany

Oct 10, 2020

i am interested in this file as well. can you re-share or possibly email it to me?

(Edited)

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ltzany

Oct 28, 2020

do you still have @SpiroC bin file that he uploaded for the MAX Falcon 8? I would love that if you can share it!

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JELLYMUSHER

Keyboard Club Member

Jul 27, 2016

So this was fun to put together and very straightforward even with zero soldering experience. Anyone have guidance on how to de-solder an led I accidentally flipped the wrong way? (Otherwise works perfectly as a home for my artisans).
My plan is to re-program for Diablo 3 / HOTS quick keys, just for grins.

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Dino_Martino

Aug 15, 2016

JELLYMUSHERIt helps to get someone to assist you. You can hold the circuitboard and re-heat the solder from the underside. At the same time your buddy can grab the LED from the topside (with tweezers, it gets hot!!) and carefully pull on it. Once the solder gets hot enough to reflow, the LED will pop out. If nessecary you can clean up the pcb hole with desolder pump afterwards.

JELLYMUSHER

Keyboard Club Member

Aug 15, 2016

Dino_MartinoThanks I'll have to try again I was having no luck with desoldering braid, I do have a friend with a desoldering gun so I'll try that as well.

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only1love

204

Jul 27, 2016

Do I really need this? No.
Do I really want this? Yes.

pattmyn

Aug 9, 2017

So, curious question for everyone - has anyone tried doing their own paint job on the aluminium plate? Good results? Bad results? Left you crying in a corner questioning your life choices? Sound off!

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pattmyn

Aug 26, 2017

Haha too bad I use my toaster oven 95% of the time compared to a normal oven so I don't cheap out on that bugger. I finally went completely bonkers and got one that's French Doors styled a while back and can actually cook a small turkey in it for the holidays.

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PigmonkeY

1082

Aug 26, 2017

pattmynMassdrop needs a convection toaster oven drop. It has been decided.

yellowdraft

102

May 30, 2016

Am I the only one who wish it has more keys?

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Fuzz

396

May 30, 2016

yellowdraftI hope we see a 16 - 20 key version in a numpad layout at some point.

LastBrat

217

Mar 12, 2017

FuzzDucky Pocket RGB seems like a good candidate: 22 programmable keys, which you can program on the keypad itself, without any software. And it's 80 euro, so not bad :)

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Hedphonze

Aug 20, 2017

Does anyone know of any clever and practical uses for this?

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TTheuns

884

Aug 24, 2017

I've seen people go as far as having an entire Planck keyboard purely for the macros they use on the daily. Having repetitive things automated is so much better on your hands and fingers.

kittykatmax

140

Jan 21, 2018

HedphonzeThis is belated, but perhaps it will help others. I don't know how clever it is, but I casually, manually dual-box WoW using two PCs with one.
I'm too cheap to pay a monthly subscription for multibox software, and hotkey.net has its drawbacks (especially if your computer setups are different like mine are - "real," hard core multiboxers have multiple, completely identical gaming rigs), so I bought this for my second PC. I can cover all the major spells with 8 buttons, so having the macropad set to numbers 1-8 (for action bar buttons 1-8) works well for my purposes (leveling, world quests, farming old content).
I've tried using gaming pads like the G13, but having small hands, they didn't work well for me - and they took up more desk real estate. The Falcon-20 is a bit overkill for my needs, but if Max Keyboard comes up with a 10 or 12 key macro pad, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

Wigdaddy

549

Mar 27, 2017

Got one of these a few weeks ago. Works great. One caveat: you can't program the keys on Mac or Linux — only PC. The programming is hardwired, though, so you can still plug it into your Mac or whatever after you're done and it will still work.

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Wigdaddy

549

Mar 30, 2017

Correct, unless you reprogram it on a PC first.

jgracey

Jan 24, 2018

WigdaddyWish I knew that when I bought it (not on this drop). Luckily I didn't have much difficulty getting it to run in Wine. I still wish they could publish their source so the interface could be improved (it sucks) . Oh also, I hate the jumper to switch modes. We already invented switches, they don't cost much.

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SpiroC

Dec 23, 2016

Max Falcon-8 Programming Software on Mac - programming works for me but running the Falcon-8 does not (go figure)
Some comments in this forum express disappointment that you can't get the programming software running on a Mac. Firstly, I seem to be having the opposite problem to everyone else. I got the programming software working but not the keyboard itself in run mode (at least not yet). I notice it's showing up as a 250 mA USB device so that may be the reason (except it's also not working through a powered USB hub so maybe not), or it's the age of my MacBook, or my Falcon-8 config itself which I have set to F13-F20 keys (see comments below on how to set that up), or my Falcon-8 firmware version. I bought it at the last Falcon-8 Massdrop. Anyway, here at least is how you get the programming software working using Crossover 16.
1. Macbook tested on:

2. Output from OSX command showing a USB mounted device: ioreg -p IOUSB -l -w 0

3. Output from OSX command showing the mounted Falcon-8 in programming mode

4. Setting up Crossover. Crossover is Codeweavers version of wine. Wine/Crossover are tools for running windows exe's on OSX. They are kind of hit and miss but the probability of success greatly increases as the windows exe gets smaller. Each year they're getting better at the bigger apps etc. Crossover adds (at the very least) a simpler gui to wine but still uses wine underneath. I'm not a wine expert so I bought Crossover one day on special in case it helps at all to get things done a bit faster. I'm sure the wine experts would eat this in seconds. I started with using the Crossover gui (selected Win 7 64 as the environment for the new bottle) to run Max's programming util. It didn't it didn't work. After turning on on logging, I received this error message:

Google brought me here: https://www.codeweavers.com/support/forums/general/?t=27;forumcurPos=1700;msg=66056. I did this twice. Once for msvbvm60.dll and then for comdlg32.ocx. I got them off a Windows machine and as per the instructions from the above link, copied them to (in my case): ~/Library/Application Support/CrossOver/Bottles/MAX Falcon-8 V2.1 Programmer.exe/drive_c/windows$ Then it just worked. See here:

nikonf5

167

Dec 26, 2016

SpiroCTry it after changing the key layout to the default by copying over the default firmware file that comes with the programming app on the mfr website.

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SpiroC

Dec 28, 2016

nikonf5Thanks for the reply. I did try but no luck. I also tried on both a 2012 Macbook pro and a 2016 Macbook Pro but still nothing. It's not showing up at all on the USB bus (command: ioreg -p IOUSB) which to me hints at a driver issue. Plugging it back into a Windows machine and using MS USB View to compare Vendor ID's when it's running the bootloader (which does work under OSX) vs firmware mode (which does not work), it looks like this:

Google suggests Vendor ID C251 is Keil Software, one of the big embedded compiler vendors. Maybe that's the default Vendor ID in the USB code of the compiler environment used to write the firmware. Probably time to email Max. I'd like to know if anyone has these running on any Mac, and which specs (hardware/software), thanks, Spiro
---------- Edit. Here is the Keil page for this processor: http://www.keil.com/dd2/nxp/lpc1343fbd48/ no driver listed there though.
Also I just tried the Falcon-8 on Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS and it's working great. lsusb -v says:

So for me at least it works fine for Windows and Linux, but not OSX. Search continues...
------------------- 2016-12-30. God I'm an idiot. Max tech support fixed this with a one line email .... REBOOT THE MAC. Works like a bought one. That's it I'm retiring. S

sacratoy

177

Jun 22, 2016

A whole lot of fun to assemble! First time soldering, and it all worked out. One of the bottom screws (case -> standoff) was missing, but I've contacted support. A really cool project for a great price.