Elgato Stream Deck alternative

[InternetJohnny]

Lately I've been searching around for a programmable keyboard to use when gaming/creating. Searching on google got me to the Stream Deck, which looks perfect, except for the price. So I came up with an alternative by repurposing a MIDI keypad I had laying around.

 

Ingredients

• a MIDI device/keyboard

• some free software

Recipe

In order to accomplish this, I used a program called BOME Midi Translator Classic, which allows you to translate a MIDI keypress into a regular keypress (or a combination of them).

Detailed instructions along with screenshots of the process can be found here 

This let's us map the press of a pad to, for instance, the volume up key-combo (it's fn + F4 on my keyboard)

I also used a program called AutoHotKey.

AHK let’s you remap any key combo to something else. Here's an example of a really useful script I have:

#j::
    Send, myemail@gmail.com
Return

Translated:

Line 1 - Creates a new shortcut for Win + j

Line 2 - When the shortcut is activated, it sends the text after the Send, statement

Line 3 - ends the script

End Result ⌨

(image attached since I dont know how to embed images)

 

It is hard to state how much time this has saved me in the long run. You can do this and much more with it.

The post detailing the full process with images is on Medium, I thought it might be useful for someone.

Let me know if you have any questions :)

 

PS: I would also love to know if anyone has found a cheaper  off-the-shelf alternative to the Streamdeck. I've watched Taran's video about using a 2nd keyboard just for macros, but it seems like it would take up too much space

[Video Beagle]

I'm a Mac user, but I've been doing similar using a basic $10 USB number pad from Amazon and a USB controller program, Controllermate iV.

 

It basicly just takes USB signals from a device and using a series of building blocks, can make it do..whatever, from different keys to opening programs to running full scripts.

 

(I know it has a bunch of midi control stuff in it, too, but I haven't looked at that yet)

 

[Video Beagle]

As I'm planning to duplicate my mac stuff on Windows, I'm a bit bummed this thread didn't get more traffic