Since the reddit community is now private, I want to ask this question again here :) The encoders intrigue me but I just lack the imagination to figure out how to use them for anything else but volume control…
Left Knob: Volume Up/Down Click to Mute
Right Knob: Scroll up/Down Click to Refresh
In GIMP, Right Knob scrolls in and out
In Kdenlive, Right Knob scrolls timeline left and right
In Game, Right Knob alt+tabs to swap between game and discord for sending messages, cause the in game UI sucks and is slow.
How do you change the function for different applications?
Manual layer switching. Though I think there are some GitHub projects which add active application detection to qmk, I just haven’t gotten around to it yet.
ignore this reply, testing.
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I have one set to
tabon clockwise andshift+tabon anticlockwise, allowing to you holdalt,shift,ctrlorguiwhile turning it to determine the function. It’s also great for code indentation.As for the inwards click function, I set that to caps lock as it’s not used frequently but nice to have when needed
Now that is quite interesting…
Volume knob with a quick push for muting is always a classic. If I’m on a set up with two knobs, I also like including next track, previous track, and pause/play as the secondary knob.
Arrows
current modes:
- next/prev tab
- next/prev change in vscode diff
click cycles mode
I tried all sorts of additional modes (scrolling, paging, cursor movements…) but I didn’t use them in the end so I disabled them.
It’s a matter of taste, I use the encoder when I need to go quickly into a given position, without any requirement for the precision.
So it’s ok for me to use it to scroll a webpage, zoom-in zoom-out inside a picture, or set the volume, but I prefer using a real key if I need to switch between tabs or applications.
PageUp/PageDown, VolUp/VolDown; mute, media control (next song)
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In addition to what others have mentioned:
- display brightness
- prev/next song and play/pause
Check out this article from SplitKB, it has some ideas and sample code you can start with:
https://docs.splitkb.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010513760-How-can-I-use-a-rotary-encoder-
Personally I have mine set to switch windows mostly, but lately I’ve preferred using a set of custom keycodes on a nav layer for that. I have to hold down a key to activate the layer. Tapping one key sends tab, the other shift-tab, and both hold down alt if it isn’t held down, starting the window switcher. Releasing the layer key releases alt, implicitly selecting the current window. It’s faster for me to do this than to move my hand to the knob.
I have a pimoroni trackball that I use for a variety of things which might feel good on some knobs too. I think that text cursor will likely feel pretty good, particularly if your encoder ticks while twisting. Then you could make one tick equal one arrow key press, and you dial in precise cursor location.
redo / undo
