- global mute button (plugin Audio Mute). This is amazing and the most useful action I've setup.
- screenshot tool. I'm on a Mac and always forget the combination for opening the capture tool, so a physical button is nice to have
- iTerm button. It just opens a terminal, or make it appear if there's already one open.
- clock, because when using fullscreen mode, macOS doesn't show the clock
- weather, because it's cool
- specific to iTerm: a "split vertically" button, because after years of use, I can't remember how to split iTerm
- specific to Firefox: a macro to write this text "-method:OPTIONS domain:xxx.com" because I'm tired of typing it again and again in the network devtools filters
Is this different than the system mute button next to volume up and down?
> iTerm: a "split vertically" button
FYI: you can customize your own shortcuts. I use i3 on linux, so I bound my split and movement keys in iterm to be the same as my Linux ones
A global mute button for the mic, sorry for the confusion. I don't think there's an easy way to get on on mac.
But I really wanted it to work, I can think of tons of useful buttons I want to have on my desk. Maybe I will give it another try. Can you tell me, have you got any tips, found any good third party tools for working with it? Maybe I just went down the wrong rabbit holes.
But under Linux I used this
https://timothycrosley.github.io/streamdeck-ui/
Works pretty well by my experience under Debian. There are some edge cases like Wayland (see the issues) though.
I ended up using Touch Portal[1] and put a phone on an old stand, and it pretty much does everything I want to do. Integrates with teams with mic on/off, hand raise, and reactions, and I created some nice graphs for cpu/gpu/disk load and a UTC clock for when I'm not in a meeting. Desktop app is free and phone app is like $13 or so. Works on Windows/MacOS and Linux support is apparently coming.
It's probably clunkier than a Stream Deck but it's a fraction of the price.
Complex operations that used to take three people can be done by a single person.
For a basic example:
Audio operator fades out background music and brings up video playback audio channels Lighting operator puts lighting into video state Video operator switches from holding slide input on screen to video playback input
Is now one button. Same equipment, same production value. One button. Boop. Go.
Admittedly it takes some additional configuration time, but for something like a roadshow where it is the same sequence of actions every day it ends up being a great time saver.
That said, if you can't make good use of the display anyway, then you can also just take a normal keyboard or numpad and remap the keys. There is some software around for this, or just write your own hacky script. Repurposing old hardware is such an overlooked solution.
I sold the Stream Deck XL for two reasons: I didn't need that many keys, and I found out that if you are to use a device like this at home and in the office, you really need two. The setup needs to be the same in all your work places, otherwise you won't bother learning to use the accessory.
As for some other less typical accessories: I use a 3DConnexion SpaceMouse and can't imagine doing any 3D CAD work without it.
Oh, also: for many years now all my monitors are on arms. The supplied stands are always too low, and arm mounting has the additional advantage of freeing up lots of space on the desk.
Does a 16-port USB-A hub count? (in addition to the CalDigit thunderbolt dock)
I also have media control buttons to control music playing on my desktop throughout the day without having to toggle the monitor. A mute button to silence things for calls is also frequently used.
Finally, extra buttons to toggle some smart lights if I need to override some pre-programmed schedule.
Other than that, It's been a bit of overkill.
I got one to play the DJ air horn sound effect in meetings but between google hangouts, my m2 xlr device, and the stream deck something doesn’t work quite right.