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Author Topic: X-Keys Professional  (Read 3951 times)

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Offline Architect

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  • Posts: 254
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X-Keys Professional
« on: Mon, 03 January 2011, 14:57:35 »
I have an X-Keys Pro. It has it's limitations, and it's uses. First it's limitations. It's quite expensive for what it is, even though it uses the Cherry Brown switches and had a metal backplane. In practice I found that its usefulness is limited. I tried a variety of kidnappings and only one set is particularly useful. Additionally since it involves moving the hand from the keyboard to perform a single task I have a tendency not to use it. This is different than for a house where usually you're moving your hand to the mouse to perform a variety of tasks.

On the upside I use the central 4 x 4 keypad for switching between Mac OS X spaces. I have spaces configured to its maximum size which is a 4 x 4 grid, this maps directly to the 4 x 4 central grid of the X keys (which is actually a 5 x 4 grid, I use the bottom row for some other functions.) I have a space configured specially for some type of activity, such as Photoshop, Xcode, mail or web browsing. The X keys allows me to navigate quickly between these applications/spaces. Unfortunately I haven't found much utility beyond that.
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TECK 209 Blank Keys; Leopold Number Pad; X-Keys Professional; X-Keys 84.

Offline hoggy

  • * Ergonomics Moderator
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X-Keys Professional
« Reply #1 on: Mon, 03 January 2011, 15:48:58 »
Quote from: Architect;272498
I have an X-Keys Pro. It has it's limitations, and it's uses. First it's limitations. It's quite expensive for what it is, even though it uses the Cherry Brown switches and had a metal backplane. In practice I found that its usefulness is limited. I tried a variety of kidnappings and only one set is particularly useful. Additionally since it involves moving the hand from the keyboard to perform a single task I have a tendency not to use it. This is different than for a house where usually you're moving your hand to the mouse to perform a variety of tasks.

On the upside I use the central 4 x 4 keypad for switching between Mac OS X spaces. I have spaces configured to its maximum size which is a 4 x 4 grid, this maps directly to the 4 x 4 central grid of the X keys (which is actually a 5 x 4 grid, I use the bottom row for some other functions.) I have a space configured specially for some type of activity, such as Photoshop, Xcode, mail or web browsing. The X keys allows me to navigate quickly between these applications/spaces. Unfortunately I haven't found much utility beyond that.


I so hope you mean key mappings...

I have a similar issue with my cherry keypad - I tend to use it in phases - quite a bit for a few weeks after reprogramming it and this will tail off until I get another idea and start again.

At the moment, I've got it set with the idea of reducing mouse usage - a grid of 9 keys that move the mouse pointer to the corresponding part of the screen and a few keys for clicks.  It's tailed off already...
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GH Ergonomic Guide (in progress)
http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=54680.0

Offline Lanx

  • Posts: 1915
X-Keys Professional
« Reply #2 on: Mon, 03 January 2011, 16:14:30 »
nostromo practically does everything i need for business related macros.
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Offline Ekaros

  • Posts: 942
X-Keys Professional
« Reply #3 on: Tue, 04 January 2011, 13:08:01 »
I got one of very early models of these, still as I will soon move solely on Win 7, I don't have much use of it, still might need to find time to conf it onces...
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So I should add something useless here yes? Ok, ok...
Filco 105-key NKRO MX Browns Sw/Fi-layout|IBM Model M 1394545 Lexmark 102-key Finnish-layout 1994-03-22|Cherry G80-3000LQCDE-2 with MX CLEAR
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Dell AT102W(105-key SF) (Black ALPS)|Steelseries Steelkeys 6G(MX Black) ISO-FI-layout|Cherry G84-4400 G84-4700 Cherry MLs

Offline NamelessPFG

  • Posts: 373
X-Keys Professional
« Reply #4 on: Fri, 07 January 2011, 12:46:13 »
I've seen these things before, but didn't know about the use of Cherry MX Browns. What I DO know is that they're fairly popular amongst the flight sim community, especially pit builders. (However, the CH Products Multi-Function Panels, basically rebadged Ergodex DX1s, have eaten somewhat into that. Not quite as expensive, for starters.)

Even if they don't get one of the X-Keys pads specifically, they may go for that 128-key matrix encoder and wire up their cockpit switches to it.
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Offline pfink

  • Posts: 196
X-Keys Professional
« Reply #5 on: Tue, 11 January 2011, 19:36:09 »
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