Switch Lighting with Global Hotkeys (eg with a Stream Deck, AHK, etc)
For context:
- I have a blackwidow chroma, mamba te, base station, lian li-dynamic chroma, firefly, thermaltake floe dx, mystic light mobo and a bunch of hue lights
- I set up all lighting through synapse as that can control everything from my closet lighting to gsync ram color.
- I just got a stream deck as an early christmas present
So I currently know how to set up macros in synapse for my blackwidow keyboard specifically, but I'd really love to be able to downsize to the cynosa without the extra keys and use the stream deck for lighting control and media playback.
If I were to only use hue that's currently possible, but I want to upgrade to a keyboard with underlighting and still be able to switch between my different lighting modes. Even though it's ambilight 90% of the time, sometimes I need just some light to find something i dropped or want to change to an audio reactive lighting, etc.
After looking everywhere, I'm guessing that isn't possible, although I'd take some good news!
Please pass it to the right people, let us change lighting profiles with global hotkeys. I want to use it with stream deck, but i know people that might only have a razer mouse or headset, but hue lights or nanoleaf panels and want to change their lighting on the fly with AutoHotKey, Smartphone Hotkey Trigger, or a Stream Deck like me.
I look forward to being told I'm wrong, there is a way, or told it will be implemented at some point in the future.
In the meantime, I encourage anyone else to reply if this is something that could help your battlestations - global hotkeyed lighting profile changes.
Thanks squad
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I'm not aware of any way to do this through streamdeck, but you can setup something convinient like this using "Global Shortcuts" tab on Synapse dashboard.
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RazerThe_FiendHey, cool! I don’t generally poke around in synapse too much, lest i break something real important - but initially, this looks like something i can use as outside hooks for the API! i will try after work today and report back for the other google gremlins looking for answers out there!
I'm not aware of any way to do this through streamdeck, but you can setup something convinient like this using "Global Shortcuts" tab on Synapse dashboard.
RazerThe_FiendOkay, so I tried it, and the Global Shortcuts only work from the keyboard. I set it up so that "right ctrl+numpad 7" would change the lighting preset. When I do that manually on the keyboard, it works fine - however, when I send the same command via the stream deck (or I'm guessing via AHK or something similar) it is not converting that to a "hotkey" and activating the command. I know synapse can 'hook' in to external software and API's, but I need an external device to be able to 'hook' in to the synapse hotkeys. It doesn't seem like there is a solution at this time, beyond Razer being a bro and developing that ability for us. Since it's technically in beta, hopefully that means something like this could be for us. Can you imagine how many people would use Synapse as their primary lighting software if they could send the commands via their smartwatch, phone, tablet, or other device to the software and have it be able to activate the hotkeys set by the user. That's hue, nanoleaf, thermaltake, msi and more companies who have synapse integration and not very featured control software. Good luck to all of us - I'll def. update this thread if anything changes
I'm not aware of any way to do this through streamdeck, but you can setup something convinient like this using "Global Shortcuts" tab on Synapse dashboard.
Hey, @__elev8__ , I'm really curious about this, as I use a StreamDeck for work all the time. I have a couple of questions about what you've got set up while doing your testing.
What OS are you using?
What version of Synapse?
Did you have your Blackwidow connected when testing, or was it your Cynosa, and did you use that same keyboard to program your hotkey in the StreamDeck software?
Did you try using a different combination for the Global Shortcut: something more common to all keyboards (e.g., "left ctrl + numrow 7")
Have you tried any other software to attempt the same thing? We use a program called Bitfocus Companion to do ... a whole bunch of stuff ... at my work. It was built from the ground up to work specifically with the Elgato StreamDeck.
I'll mess around with lighting control tomorrow in the office with my Tartarus v2 and my BWCS, and my StreamDeck, and let you know what I find.
PT.SingerHey! Thanks for the collaboration on this - it certainly had crossed my mind that I’m just not smart enough to figure it out! I’m on Windows 10, Synapse 3 (latest public release). I only have a black widow at the moment, but would like the opportunity to buy a smaller keyboard like the Cynosa. The main shortcuts i tried were right ctrl+num 1/num 7/ins, with all of them working on the blackwidow, but not via stream deck. I did not try any of the main num row, I was trying to avoid buttons that could conflict in any pc games. I’ve looked in to other software, like AHK with no luck, though I’d not heard of bitfocus before. One thing i came across was that razer products sends commands in something like 16bit packets, that synapse then decodes for windows. So, synapse might be looking for a specific data feed that stream deck is unable to produce. In that case synpase would have to accept data input via windows as well as their hw level commands. I’m okay with needing to buy a software solution providing it actually does what i need, although I’m sure it can be added it to Synapse in some form. Please test it out and let me know what you find!
Hey, @__elev8__ , I'm really curious about this, as I use a StreamDeck for work all the time. I have a couple of questions about what you've got set up while doing your testing. What OS are you using? What version of Synapse? Did you have your Blackwidow connected when testing, or was it your Cynosa, and did you use that same keyboard to program your hotkey in the StreamDeck software? Did you try using a different combination for the Global Shortcut: something more common to all keyboards (e.g., "left ctrl + numrow 7") Have you tried any other software to attempt the same thing? We use a program called Bitfocus Companion to do ... a whole bunch of stuff ... at my work. It was built from the ground up to work specifically with the Elgato StreamDeck. I'll mess around with lighting control tomorrow in the office with my Tartarus v2 and my BWCS, and my StreamDeck, and let you know what I find.
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Companion isn't something that most streamers would necessarily use. Most of the people in my industry (audio visual) to control multiple pieces of AV hardware with a single button. Total game changers: Companion and StreamDeck.
Another thing I'll try is to set up a Hotkey in Synapse using a non-Razer keyboard (like my laptop keyboard), and see if that can be used to change the lighting state.
I've tried some stuff, but the biggest thing right off the bat was that in the Global Shortcuts window, it specifically says that the input must come from a Synapse 3-enabled device. Even though it let me SET the shortcuts using a non-Razer laptop, it wouldn't let me fire them off from anything except my Blackwidow Chroma Stealth. Even when I mapped Ctrl and 7 to my Tartarus v2, so I could use the same keys that you tried, pressing those keys on my Tartarus did nothing ... but when I pressed the mapped Ctrl button and the key on my Tartarus that was set to "3" by default, it switched to another lighting profile.
When I tried another key combination (CTRL + 5) as the hotkey to switch profiles, it worked from my Tartarus v2, since the number 5 is one of the default keys on that unit. Strange that even though it was a Synapse 3 enabled device, CTRL + 7 wouldn't work, since 7 was a mapped key.
The weird thing is that CTRL on my Tartarus v2 was ALSO a mapped key, but that keypress worked every time.
Synpase DID see my CTRL keypress as a SHIFT+CTRL kepress sometimes while I was trying to map the Tartarus key and set the Global Shortcut, though. I also thought that was strange.
I'll keep digging around tomorrow and see if there are non-number combinations that might work - combinations with numbers are the only ones that I tried.
PT.SingerYeah that's what I kept bumping up against, even though it says "Global Shortcuts" it doesn't quite mean with a global device. It's why I'm hoping, with an update, Razer can open up at least those commands to external hooks. Basically turning Global Shortcuts in to a sandbox that can convert non Synapse commands in to whatever format Razer needs to fire off the hotkey. I COULD buy a tartarus, but that adds more desk space and I was trying to pare down my existing hw. (as we talked, switching from BW to Cynosa), but I need new Headphones, and those Lucio ones are $$ - I was hoping to get those instead. I will admit, I'm a little frustrated because I wanted all of my house/room lighting to go through synapse, and I have found out very late in the process that it's a little bit of a walled garden. Sorry for the aside, I know the commentary isn't very useful. I'm guessing no luck via Companion as well. I was looking all over for a way to "spoof" a BW keypress in windows/synapse, but nothing there either. Any other suggestions or solutions would be welcome, esp. via a Razer rep, otherwise I gotta just keep this old keyboard and wait for a better solution to come along - either via update/razer software solution or a different ecosystem/company entirely. Haha, whichever is first I guess! Thanks!
I've tried some stuff, but the biggest thing right off the bat was that in the Global Shortcuts window, it specifically says that the input must come from a Synapse 3-enabled device. Even though it let me SET the shortcuts using a non-Razer laptop, it wouldn't let me fire them off from anything except my Blackwidow Chroma Stealth. Even when I mapped Ctrl and 7 to my Tartarus v2, so I could use the same keys that you tried, pressing those keys on my Tartarus did nothing ... but when I pressed the mapped Ctrl button and the key on my Tartarus that was set to "3" by default, it switched to another lighting profile. When I tried another key combination (CTRL + 5) as the hotkey to switch profiles, it worked from my Tartarus v2, since the number 5 is one of the default keys on that unit. Strange that even though it was a Synapse 3 enabled device, CTRL + 7 wouldn't work, since 7 was a mapped key. The weird thing is that CTRL on my Tartarus v2 was ALSO a mapped key, but that keypress worked every time. Synpase DID see my CTRL keypress as a SHIFT+CTRL kepress sometimes while I was trying to map the Tartarus key and set the Global Shortcut, though. I also thought that was strange. I'll keep digging around tomorrow and see if there are non-number combinations that might work - combinations with numbers are the only ones that I tried.
Yeah, sorry I couldn't be more help.
It really threw me for a loop when I still couldn't do the profile change from my Tartarus without using default keymaps. Even more when I realized that it was only the numbers/letters that wouldn't work, since Ctrl WAS re-mapped. Possibly a bug? I'll submit a bug report with those details just in case.
Clarification would definitely need to come from somebody with knowledge of the inner workings of the API involved. Unfortunately I don't have direct access to anybody like that. I think the best option for you at the moment in regards to possibly getting this feature added is submitting a feature request via Synapse.
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