deskthority

I recently acquired this from richie, thanks again! I am still uncertain if these are still available. I have found one at a german online store (one of the CH "rebranded" ones) that seems to be available but it costs ~200 euros.

In short: Awesome.

Good things: Being able to put keys anywhere is just wonderful. It's like going from ints to floats for keyboard layouts.
I have used the layout visible in the first picture to play Anno 1404 yesterday and it was great.
I also absolutely love the open source driver. It's easy to install and easy to use and just generally wonderful. Programming a key takes seconds.

The obvious downside is that it doesn't even have mechanical keys. Somebody said something about rubber domes but to be precise they're buckling rubber sleeve. Still suck, of course. The sticky pads that are used to keep the keys on the plate don't work very well either but I'm assuming that's because I've got a used one. Some of them stuck to the plate instead of the key when I tried to move it.
The keycaps are also not particularly pretty. The have stickers on them, the legends are not centered on the stickers and the stickers are not centered on the caps and no the effects don't cancel each other out perfectly. :p

All-in-all I can understand the fuss this caused when it came out. It is easily the best thing to use for gaming when you have one hand on the mouse and one hand on the keyboard.
The way you can move the keys, reprogram them and even use macros makes it incredibly useful and because it works so simply and smoothly it makes you use it without hesitation.

At least that's my opinion right now. I will try to find some time to test it with Starcraft. That should give a pretty good indication.

I don't get it. How does this work?

Feelings after Starcraft?

dsjbirch wrote:I don't get it. How does this work?

Feelings after Starcraft?

Wild guess:
Probably via induction, like...

- The base generates a weak magnetic field
- This induces a current on the keys PCB chip thingy
- This causes it to send out a signal (which changes when the key is pressed)

Okay, so I haven't played Starcraft with it yet but I just played several hours of Quantum Conundrum and I have to say, the switches really are shit. The activation point is totally indecipherable. They are shitty to the point of spurious keypresses.

Hmm, very disappointing, interesting concept though. Perhaps something for the workshop... A cherry switch replacement?

It seems I got a bad switch, while they still feel shitty the others seem to work reliably and I have used it for more gaming. The concept is definitely great but they saved money on the wrong things. :/

(And it was still very expensive!)

Where would you like to have seen more attention to detail / money spent?

Well, maybe nice mechanical switches, nice software and the option for a curved surface...
Yeah, that would probably make this thing perfect.

Curved like Ms ergo right?

Or something else?

I was thinking of a bowl but I assume it would all be relatively easy to do. Would have to open it up to look at what's there to be sure, of course. Anyway the idea is great the final product is okay and I don't see anybody making anything similar anyway so..whatever

A slightly newer version is the CH Multi Function Panel. Basically the same thing, but the software is better. Haven't touched either of mine for a long time.

Want to sell it to me?
I kind of like mine but better software would be great and I would have some more switches to try and mod.

Didn't realise it was still possible to buy these. I didn't think they've been made for a while. But Ergodex are still going apparently - http://www.ergodex.com/mainpage.htm

I don't know... There are still prices on the DataHand website but you can't get one either.