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LeDouche
41
Feb 15, 2020
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Yo, are you me? I'm also an accountant and always on a quest for the perfect numpad. I am also looking for a numpad to go with my Alt keeb. Right now I'm putting together a Cospad with an LFKeypad PCB (hotswappable, per key SMD RGBs, underglow SMD RGB, USBC). The only thing holding me back is that LFKeyboards is the slowest vendor that I have ever ordered anything from. I also use that exact bluetooth macbook-looking numpad. It's fine in a pinch, but I want mechanical keys, obviously. My current solution is setting a layer where U-I-O, J-K-L, and (M , .) are 1-2-3, 4-5-6, 7-8-9; N is Zero; (8-9) are (/ *); P ; / are (- + .). Not bad, but not perfect. I have just ordered that GK21 bluetooth from KPRepublic and will see how that one is. I'm sure that it's just a bluetooth Cospad. My only concern is if it isn't supported by QMK because I need to be able to remap keys. I use my numpad on the left and I think my ideal keypad would be that one with the Tab thumb key. I don't like Tab all the way at the top of the numpad and would much prefer a thumb key, but on the right side of the board so that I could use it with my left hand. If you game at all or have ever had a cramped workspace at a client's office, you know how annoying it is to bump your mouse into the side of your numpad. Left-hand numpad solves this. It took a little while to get my left hand muscle memory on par with a career-worth of right hand numpad use, but it's not so bad. I haven't experimented with reversing the chirality of the 1-4-7, 3-6-9, bottom row, and enter-column keys, but it's on my list. I haven't found a numpad PCB that supports flipping. As a fellow accountant, you know how necessary the 2u Enter and Plus keys are.
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Feb 15, 2020
griponreality
190
Feb 15, 2020
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LeDoucheYeah, Looking at the GK21s software link, it's just a(n) .exe on a google drive link. The mech group on reddit had the first post I've seen of a GK21s in the wild a day or two ago, and the user who got theirs said it is in fact a metal case rather than plastic made to look it which is good. Perhaps they can speak to the programming element, assuming that isn't also you as I see they run southpaw too. Nobody's done a YouTube review or anything yet. Also, no one seems to have run the ALT or CTRL through its paces on Mac yet on there either. There are't any good macOS programming tutorials yet, had to dig into forums and make some guesses to make it work. What I first thought was my endgame was an ikbc mf108m with Cherry browns. They botched it on a few fronts, some just not knowing how things would progress. One, micro usb was bad enough as a flimsy connector, made worse by the fact that every mf108 has the usb connector screwed down too tight such that the plastic retaining clip is broken and you need to use some hot glue or spacers to fix it back. Two, they put the weirdest feature on it, choosing to override the top navigation keys for a weird pomodoro style stopwatch countdown (kind of like caps lock and the windows key... nice idea for some people, more annoying than useful for most). Third, macOS (at least latest releases on a trashcan Mac), glitched with it such that if the computer went to sleep, the keyboard had to be unplugged and replugged to function. Had to build in a usb extension cable break in the middle for this purpose as it would further deteriorate the micros connection on the board to do it there. Fourth, not being programmable meant most of the f keys and specialties like calculator were useless even with software key-re-mappers. Moved it to a windows machine in a client's office where it feels properly utilized. Currently I'm running an Alt with a Mac Magic Keyboard ripoff version of a ducky pocket. The electronics work well. Before I felt my first mech board I thought it was great other than needing either a backlight on the screen or a 45 degree tilt to be visible at a working distance. I've considered southpaw boards, but finding the PCB and an aluminum case is rare, figured two separate items were the way to go for flexibility or in case I can't hack southpaw. If the GK21-s doesn't do the trick, and this Hail Mary play @ Drop doesn't pan out, then I may try building something custom. I'm okay with woodworking and have access to a glow forge for wood and acrylic, just wish I had a CNC and bead blaster to do aluminum. I was thinking of getting a hot swap numpad PCB, and one of those 2-4 switch macro boards Drop does from time to time or kbdfas/kprepublic has, and then building a case that accommodates both as well as a small usb hub to link the boards into one unit. That would let me put a tab and shift-tab key on the left like the crappy plastic but well thought out one on amazon pictured above. Should probably pick black and green since whatever ends up coming into being would look monstrous and if it were at least Borg themed I could pretend like it was on purpose (...who makes Borg keycaps....?...). ----(DEAR DROP FOLKS, IF YOU ARE SKIMMING, and also looking for product ideas, this section between all the hyphens might be worth looking at, even if just to laugh at from a cost-benefit analysis if I'm crazy)---- One thing that would just be frickin amazing and maybe worth going the custom enclosure route just to try - Imagine if you took the guts of a laser mouse, and put them on the bottom of a numpad and somehow managed to make it ergonomically acceptable. I don't know about you, but quickbooks (I'll avoid going down the rabbit hole of being completionist about bashing on Intuit's lazy UX team) makes you use the mouse a little too often for efficiency, choosing inefficient and counterintuitive places to reset the cursor after entering/changing transactions. Switching between mouse and numpad is something even getting a proper numpad won't completely fix, but if moving the numpad gave you a way to avoid that back and forth as well as left less on the desk, it would be worth it, even if I had to QMK two of the row 6 keys into right and left click. Maybe a third 2 key macro on the right could handle it, IDK... will have to brainstorm more. Another really cool route might be taking the lessons of Palettegear and ROG Claymore and making something modular which is customizable. Imagine if you had a brain unit to avoid the necessity of OS-dependent apps for everyday full function use, and then smaller sub macro/navigation/mouse/numpad/I-O hub units to allow users to build something that did everything gamers and accountants alike could get behind. Imagine if you had a case with hot swappable mini cases with hot swappable key sockets. It would be comically meta. Kind of like those cases for smaller cases of key switch testers. Unless that would bring about the Ragnarok of peak mech keyboard. Or with the more-refined-than-gaudy-gaming-only mech keyboard community getting down into the marginal diminishing returns of evaluating lube viscosity and items like holy pandas being factory produced for newbs like me, it feels like that mad scientist min-maxing eye of Sauron should be turned to that other peripheral on the desk and give the mouse a needed makeover. Few mouse makers seem to have caught on to the growing market in between people who use whatever mouse came with the dell computer from the days of windows vista, and those who want every part of their PC setup to make enough of a light show to bring on ecstasy flashbacks and epilepsy warnings. I have two MX Masters in different setups, but just because it's the best known option currently on offer doesn't mean it's endgame, right? Imagine a mouse that took SD cards, thumb drives, and had a usable numpad on it somehow would really help function layer holdouts who want minimalist setups. ----------------------- I have three main clients I work with each week. My home office is set up ergonomically, but I'm there the least. One is stable and has the IKBC board in it's own little endgame. The other two have to be worked from a laptop, one at a dining room table which is hell on getting ergonomics right. I hopped on the bm43a drop recently thinking I could save space with it and a numpad for less mouse clash. We'll see. Also in on the DROP Shift, thinking that may be a good final setup for one office. Speaking of slow fulfillment:
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This is KPrepublic's shipping journey. You'd think it was going to Oregon from looking at it, but somehow it's going to have to find its way to Florida eventually.
(Edited)
Feb 15, 2020
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