▲This is awesome. I know I have one someplace that I stopped using because of lack of drivers, now all I need is to find it :)
reply▲Would be great if it could do other things, like be a volume knob, or do media play/pause, given that scrolling and mouse button press seem like things you already have a mouse to do?
reply▲Yippy! I feel like I'm 15 years younger
reply▲maroonblazer5 hours ago
[-] >Of course, modern controllers exist that offer many more literal bells and whistles...
Anyone have a favorite 'modern controller' for those of us who no longer have a PowerMate?
Taewoong137824 minutes ago
[-] Surprised Loupedeck hasn't come up here. The Live and CT both have weighted main dials with real damping — which is what made the PowerMate feel different from a regular rotary encoder, more than the software integration ever did. Pricier than most of what's been mentioned, but the closest I've found to the tactile feel.
Everything in the sub-$50 range (Drok, generic Aliexpress encoders, etc.) works fine for mapping to volume or scroll, but they all feel like plastic clicky knobs. Fine for utility, not for fidgeting.
reply▲I don't have one, but Ploopy's knob is intriguing (
https://ploopy.co/knob/).
LilyGo/TTGo also has some interesting knobs with some unusual features features (force feedback or LCD touchscreen on top of the knob, depending on model) but again I don't have firsthand experience and these might take some DIY
ThrowawayR24 hours ago
[-] There was a poster on HN a while ago that recommended¹ the Drok USB volume knob because it can be reconfigured to send keystrokes or mouse actions. Just Google for "configure drok usb volume control knob" for instructions. I reconfigured mine to send mouse scroll events for scrolling through documents.
¹ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31702940
Microsoft Surface Dial is nice. You'll also need to write a driver...
reply▲As usual there is very very very good Linux support for a device (this device, the MS Surface Dial), better than anywhere else.
https://github.com/daniel5151/surface-dial-linuxSome are calling it the most obvious trend of all computing. And that was before the agentic age super put its finger on the cosmic scales of justice+hacking.
Surface Dial is a good hardware target.
reply▲some elgato stream deck models have knobs. 3Dconnexion also still around
reply▲I have one of these all I need to do is find it.
reply▲Literally thinking the same thing. I have one somewhere... Haven't seen it in twenty years
reply▲I love this. PowerMate was the ultimate fidget tool when not scrolling, editing, etc.
reply▲timnetworks6 hours ago
[-] I have one of these and now all I need to do is find a reason to use the Mac.
reply▲Damn I always wanted to one of these! So cool
reply▲_-_-__-_-_-4 hours ago
[-] I check eBay from time to time, they are usually very expensive.
reply▲I have one of those, but never used it too much—if the button got pressed while my Mac was asleep, it immediately woke up and kernel panicked. I don’t know if there was something odd about my machine or my particular PowerMate or what?
reply▲Lol I wrote a new driver for the bluetooth one a few months ago.
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