Leopold FC 660M + OS X Mavericks

[aggiejy]

As I've stated in a few other threads, I've pretty much abandoned my extensive keyboard collection for the Leopold FC 660 keyboards since April.  The layout is so perfect for me, and I'm as much in love today as ever.  I've actually been favoring the FC 660M (with Cherry switches) for the past couple months over the Topre. 

The problem:
I upgraded to Mavericks last week and something weird happens.  When I touch the Fn key, any mouse drag events in progress are canceled.  It's not super common to do such a thing, but for me at least, it ruins a lot of common tasks.  It's strange because presumably the Fn shouldn't be sending any signal to the computer, right?  Any ideas?

Interestingly, this doesn't apply to the FC 660C, so I suppose they handle the firmware differently.

I'm curious if any other Mac users with the FC 660M have similar issues?

UPDATE:
Turned out it was KeyRemap4MacBook, and there is a fix.

[AKmalamute]

not being real familiar with the FC660 ... is your mouse plugged into the keyboard's USB hub?
If you do the keyboard combo first, can you still drag while holding the Fn key? Or if you just press Fn first, click/drag, then the other (now modified) key?
Have you tried re-seating either of the peripheral's USB cables? Or, y'know, rebooting?

[alex4nder]

I'm curious if any other Mac users with the FC 660M have similar issues?

I couldn't reproduce this behavior.  I have a 2013 MBA running Mavericks with a FC660M, and I tested this with the built-in touchpad and an external USB mouse.    My FC660M was identified as a generic ANSI keyboard, and all of the keyboard's DIP switches were set to off.

I also did a quick test under Linux.  Pressing the FN key didn't register as a key event, even when dumping directly from the kernel's keyboard event interface.

[aggiejy]

To be clear, I'm not seeing any key events either.  If I hold down Fn before clicking and dragging, it works fine.  If however I am in the process of dragging a window, tapping the Fn key then cancels the window drag. This happens on two different Macs running Mavericks. If no one else can reproduce, perhaps it's my board.  That just sounds strange though. :'-(

[alex4nder]

To be clear, I'm not seeing any key events either.

Got it, and I'm not talking about seeing a key being pressed.  I'm talking about reading keyboard events (even hidden ones) directly from the Linux kernel's key event interface.  I didn't break out a USB sniffer, but I'm pretty sure the FN key isn't being seen by the underlying OS.

If I hold down Fn before clicking and dragging, it works fine.  If however I am in the process of dragging a window, tapping the Fn key then cancels the window drag. This happens on two different Macs running Mavericks. If no one else can reproduce, perhaps it's my board.  That just sounds strange though. :'-(

That's what I tested on Mavericks.  Mine doesn't do that.

[dustinhxc]

Oh wow I still have lion.. good luck sir! how is mavericks?

[terran5992]

I dont have that problem on my mac

[Matias]

I've gotten some reports of keyboard flaky-ness with Mavericks.  For example, keyboard shortcuts done on the numberpad vs. the main keyboard number keys are now treated as different.

That aside, I could see how the problem you're having could happen if you have a high-power device (e.g., hard drive) sharing the bus.

Probably your best course of action is to contact Leopold or their exclusive distributor in the US (elitekeyboards.com).

[aggiejy]

Just a quick update that I've found my problem.  I plugged the keyboard into a 3rd Mac and there was no issue.  I then realized that I had KeyRemap4MacBook installed on both of the problem computers. Sure enough, uninstalling fixes the issue.

So now my only problem is I don't have a way to map print, scroll lock, and pause to volume like I want.  Hmm...

[jorgenslee]

Just a quick update that I've found my problem.  I plugged the keyboard into a 3rd Mac and there was no issue.  I then realized that I had KeyRemap4MacBook installed on both of the problem computers. Sure enough, uninstalling fixes the issue.

So now my only problem is I don't have a way to map print, scroll lock, and pause to volume like I want.  Hmm...

have you tried USB Overdrive to Map the keys?

[codyeatworld]

I tried to come up with a solution for key remapping without keyremap4macbook when i had the model f, and was trying to edit the keylayout file. I never got it to work but it might be worth a shot with your leopold.

[aggiejy]

I'm using this currently, and it works fine for what I need to do.  It does need to be running to remap shortcuts though, so I'm not sure what drawbacks there might be. http://www.boastr.de

[aggiejy]

Update

The awesome creator of KeyRemap4MacBook (Takayama Fumihiko) was kind enough to apply a special fix for this keyboard.



If anyone happens to have the same issue, be sure to install the beta (until it goes into the live channel).  I'm so happy about this!  Great to see someone like that help out with the niche community of keyboard fanatics. I just donated again, and I hope others will too.

[rowdy]

^ Awesome!

Be even better if they heard about the problem from GH.

[aggiejy]

Not exactly... I pinged him.  But, squeaky wheel gets the grease.

https://groups.google.com/d/topic/keyremap4macbook/AN8hgpSOGU8/discussion