What features would you add to Soarer’s / Hasu’s Converter?
-
- Location: Des Moines / Cedar Falls, IA, USA
- Main keyboard: IBM Model F107
- DT Pro Member: 0190
Soarer’s Converter and Hasu’s Converters are awesome, but what features would you add to one or both if you could?
I have couple to start off:
SpaceFn to Soarer’s Converter
Mac Specific Keys like the Apple Fn Key - Hasu has a page describing how this would work, but not sure it is easily done
Bluetooth
Solenoid Support
Others?
I have couple to start off:
SpaceFn to Soarer’s Converter
Mac Specific Keys like the Apple Fn Key - Hasu has a page describing how this would work, but not sure it is easily done
Bluetooth
Solenoid Support
Others?
- alh84001
- v.001
- Location: EU-HR-ZG
- Main keyboard: unsaver
- Main mouse: logitech m305 / apple trackpad
- Favorite switch: BS
- DT Pro Member: -
Maybe off-topic but I deal more with controller's these days, and what I'm missing the most from hasu's is actually not concerned with keyboard functionality but with workflow:
- soarer's controller has custom tool to upload keymaps, which with Pro Micros means I don't have to play with RST pin to reset to bootloader and then hunt for a tty device
-defining a matrix is a bit easier in soarer's, especially if columns and rows are spread across non-contigous pins
- soarer's controller has custom tool to upload keymaps, which with Pro Micros means I don't have to play with RST pin to reset to bootloader and then hunt for a tty device
-defining a matrix is a bit easier in soarer's, especially if columns and rows are spread across non-contigous pins
- Phenix
- -p
- Location: Germany, Cologne
- Main keyboard: F122, soarer´d|Novatouch-s
- Main mouse: Roccat Kone Pure|Rollermouse
- Favorite switch: BS F|Topre-s
- DT Pro Member: -
I second Soarers programming workflow - would be nice if TMK/QMK would add this as well.
A "addon" bluetooth module had be interesting, exspecially if they were preflashed..
A "addon" bluetooth module had be interesting, exspecially if they were preflashed..
-
- Location: Belgium, land of Liberty Wafles and Freedom Fries
- Main keyboard: G80-3K with Clears
- Favorite switch: Capacitative BS
- DT Pro Member: 0049
- The ability to set and recognize device IDs.
While Soarer's tools are brilliant, I've had it happen a few times that I was reprogramming the wrong device because every one of my keyboards contains a Soarer controller / converter, and you don't always think about which ones are connected.
While Soarer's tools are brilliant, I've had it happen a few times that I was reprogramming the wrong device because every one of my keyboards contains a Soarer controller / converter, and you don't always think about which ones are connected.
- Daniel Beardsmore
- Location: Hertfordshire, England
- Main keyboard: Filco Majestouch 1 (home)/Poker II backlit (work)
- Main mouse: MS IMO 1.1
- Favorite switch: Probably not whatever I wrote here
- DT Pro Member: -
- Contact:
Is there a prize for the best idea? Do you know something about Soarer that we don't?
-
- Location: Austria, Europe
- Main keyboard: Unicomp PC/5250
- DT Pro Member: -
- Contact:
I always replace the boot loader on the Pro Micros with Grendel's. It's smaller and it doesn't have that pesky 8 second timeout. Of course, replacing the boot loader means that you need an ISP programmer, but these are cheap (if you want to go extra-cheap, you can use one Pro Micro to program the others. People have done that already; see here, for example. The AvrISP II clone in the LUFA archive might work as well).
- paecific.jr
- Location: United States
- Main keyboard: IBM Model F 122
- Main mouse: Logitech Performance MX
- Favorite switch: Capacitive Buckling Springs
- DT Pro Member: -
A gui
- pixelheresy
- Location: Åland
- Main keyboard: Pok3r Vortex (work); IBM Model M (home)
- Main mouse: Rollermouse Pro
- Favorite switch: IBM Buckling Spring; Alps SKCM Orange
- DT Pro Member: -
Tap vs longpress.
I re-converted my IBM Model Terminal to use TMK instead because I did the whole Caps as Ctrl thing, but if I tap that, it's ESC. Which is awesome. Basically Ctrl and Esc is easy reach for VIMmy goodness.
I re-converted my IBM Model Terminal to use TMK instead because I did the whole Caps as Ctrl thing, but if I tap that, it's ESC. Which is awesome. Basically Ctrl and Esc is easy reach for VIMmy goodness.
-
- Main keyboard: Macbook Pro built-in :P
- Main mouse: Kensington Orbit trackball
- Favorite switch: Buckling spring
- DT Pro Member: -
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Soarer's is practically dead in the water, it's closed source and abandoned (Soarer has been MIA for years). So no new features to expect there...
TMK seems to do all the things Soarer's does, though...
TMK seems to do all the things Soarer's does, though...
- paecific.jr
- Location: United States
- Main keyboard: IBM Model F 122
- Main mouse: Logitech Performance MX
- Favorite switch: Capacitive Buckling Springs
- DT Pro Member: -
If it could be where you could do general mapping with a gui then push a button to flash it, that would be a huge improvement in the usability. You could even add in a way for people to modify the code or import their own!
- seebart
- Offtopicthority Instigator
- Location: Germany
- Main keyboard: Rotation
- Main mouse: Steelseries Sensei
- Favorite switch: IBM capacitive buckling spring
- DT Pro Member: 0061
- Contact:
Yeah a GUI would be great.
- depletedvespene
- Location: Chile
- Main keyboard: IBM Model F122
- Main mouse: Logitech G700s
- Favorite switch: buckling spring
- DT Pro Member: 0224
- Contact:
More documentation, before anything else (including "recipees" for certain things and "typical" reconfigurations for some known models). As I've been writing down some of the stuff I've been doing, I can help with this.
-
- Location: Utah
- Main keyboard: White Fox / Zealio
- Main mouse: CST trackball / MX Master 2S
- Favorite switch: Alps / Topre / Zealio
- DT Pro Member: -
Some of you may know, others not, there is a GUI for Hasu's controllers...
http://www.tmk-kbd.com/tmk_keyboard/editor/unimap/?hhkb
http://www.tmk-kbd.com/tmk_keyboard/editor/unimap/?hhkb
- Chyros
- Location: The Netherlands
- Main keyboard: whatever I'm reviewing next :p
- Main mouse: a cheap Logitech
- Favorite switch: Alps SKCM Blue
- DT Pro Member: -
Hmmm, maybe I'm messing up converter names, but there's lots of ones I can't convert yet, like Fujitsu (I'm sure they used multiple ones actually), Sun, that AWX thing, Amstrad, basically all Hall effect boards, etc.
On a side note on your own converters, having a reset pin integrated would be a useful feature, that way you could do the Z-150 and DC-2014 etc. with it as well

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think that you have to compile the software for Hasus converter if you use a self built one made with a pro micro. So the UI interface is only partly existing
- alh84001
- v.001
- Location: EU-HR-ZG
- Main keyboard: unsaver
- Main mouse: logitech m305 / apple trackpad
- Favorite switch: BS
- DT Pro Member: -
- depletedvespene
- Location: Chile
- Main keyboard: IBM Model F122
- Main mouse: Logitech G700s
- Favorite switch: buckling spring
- DT Pro Member: 0224
- Contact:
Could we add/define "generic" pseudokeys to act as a sort of arguments to macros?
Allow me to explain with an example; as we know, we need to work on the layouts on two distinct levels, physical (with Soarer's Converter, to be programmed with a .sc file), where we think in terms of the actual keys being pressed and national/customized on the OS (with a .KLC file to be used on MSKLC), where the keys that have been pressed are sent to the OS, which then decides to produce a certain (Unicode) character(s) based on that.
I want to have a secondary side keyboard that will allow me to type Greek characters, while the main one keeps its usual layout. To this effect, on the upper (OS) level, with MSKLC, I've defined AltGr-G as a dead key that will produce those characters (AltGr-G+A → α, AltGr-G+Shift-S → Σ , etc). On the lower level, I could add a macro like this:
Or, actually, 26 macros like these, from A to Z (and perhaps a few more, come to think of it). Cumbersome, right?
And it could become worse, if I decided I need to have, say, four layers for four languages on this side keyboard, each supported with a distinct dead key at the OS-level layout.
This could become much less cumbersome with pseudokey constants that stood for any of a certain group (in a similar fashion than what already happens with SHIFT, that responds to either LSHIFT or RSHIFT). We could define, for starters, ATOZ (any of the A..Z keys), ONETOZERO (any of the 1..0 keys), ALPHANUM (A..Z, 1..0, MINUS, EQUAL, LEFT_BRACE, RIGHT_BRACE, BACKSLASH, SEMICOLON, QUOTE, BACKQUOTE, COMMA, PERIOD and SLASH), ALPHANUMISO (as before, plus EUROPE_1), and several others. This way, I would need just one macro, like this:
to cover all my bases.
We could even allow user-defined pseudo keys. For example, my .sc file could define IBERIANKEYS to respond only to A,E,I,O,U,L,M,N,R,S and IBERIANDEADKEYS to respond only to B,C,D,G,T, allowing this to require only two macros instead of 35.
Allow me to explain with an example; as we know, we need to work on the layouts on two distinct levels, physical (with Soarer's Converter, to be programmed with a .sc file), where we think in terms of the actual keys being pressed and national/customized on the OS (with a .KLC file to be used on MSKLC), where the keys that have been pressed are sent to the OS, which then decides to produce a certain (Unicode) character(s) based on that.
I want to have a secondary side keyboard that will allow me to type Greek characters, while the main one keeps its usual layout. To this effect, on the upper (OS) level, with MSKLC, I've defined AltGr-G as a dead key that will produce those characters (AltGr-G+A → α, AltGr-G+Shift-S → Σ , etc). On the lower level, I could add a macro like this:
Code: Select all
macro A
PUSH_META CLEAR_META all
MAKE RALT
PRESS G
BREAK RALT
POP_ALL_META
PUSH_META CLEAR_META alt
PRESS A
POP_ALL_META
endmacro
And it could become worse, if I decided I need to have, say, four layers for four languages on this side keyboard, each supported with a distinct dead key at the OS-level layout.
This could become much less cumbersome with pseudokey constants that stood for any of a certain group (in a similar fashion than what already happens with SHIFT, that responds to either LSHIFT or RSHIFT). We could define, for starters, ATOZ (any of the A..Z keys), ONETOZERO (any of the 1..0 keys), ALPHANUM (A..Z, 1..0, MINUS, EQUAL, LEFT_BRACE, RIGHT_BRACE, BACKSLASH, SEMICOLON, QUOTE, BACKQUOTE, COMMA, PERIOD and SLASH), ALPHANUMISO (as before, plus EUROPE_1), and several others. This way, I would need just one macro, like this:
Code: Select all
macro ALPHANUM
PUSH_META CLEAR_META all
MAKE RALT
PRESS G
BREAK RALT
POP_ALL_META
PUSH_META CLEAR_META alt
PRESS :ALPHANUM: # Be my guest to suggest a better way of making the backreference.
POP_ALL_META
endmacro
We could even allow user-defined pseudo keys. For example, my .sc file could define IBERIANKEYS to respond only to A,E,I,O,U,L,M,N,R,S and IBERIANDEADKEYS to respond only to B,C,D,G,T, allowing this to require only two macros instead of 35.