Greetings all,
I use MediaMonkey on my work XP PC, and was constantly reaching for the volume knob on my speaker system,
which is a rather 'coarse' control, plus the length of the cables meant I was swiveling and shifting my chair about 8 inches just to tweak a song.
Since moving to a trackball mouse years ago, I've come to loathe extraneous movement around my computing environment.
Interrupting my work to mouse over to the system volume was just annoying, and I like the keyboard I have, but wanted easier access to volume and play/pause.
And I like old-school hifi knobs. Brushed metal is kind of soothing.
A bit of googling brought me to the Griffin PowerMate,
a USB controller popular on specialized workstations (AV editing, graphics, gaming).
Making it actually work to my satisfaction took a bit of tinkering, which I thought might be helpful to share.
You can get the PowerMate (PM) software here or from the Griffin support site (no media in the package).
Get that, as well as the MediaKeys utility.
The PM software will install and recognize the device.
It has presets available for WinAmp, but I couldn't get them to work with MM.
MediaKeys allows you to assign your own key/combinations to MediaMonkey events that will work when the app is not in focus.
It's an .exe that should be copied to its own folder on your system drive prior to first run.
(Both add clutter to the Notification Area, and combine for about 25MB of RAM, but the functionality is worth it for me)
Run MediaKeys before you configure the PM and set up Function keys as the Play/Pause, Next, and Previous.
I used F8, F9, and F10 respectively.
With that configured and MediaKeys running, you can assign the Function keys to actions on the device.
Another tweak I found necessary was the application of electrical tape to the illuminated base of the device.
While the software makes you think you can adjust the brightness of the blue glow,
it's not immediately clear that it's a volume-level indicator. Mute=no light, cranked=glare.
I don't like extra indicators of any kind, so I wrapped the base, mostly obscuring the annoyance.
Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with Griffin or MediaKeys, but have been using MediaMonkey forever and try to contribute where I can.
This guide is the result of my tinkering and results exclusively.
If you have better/cleaner methods for the same outcome, I welcome your comments.
-G
Optiplex 745 Win7 x64 8GB
HTC Inspire - CM7
Library + Subsonic on QNAP TS 419p II
~620GB/50k Tracks
Configuring the Griffin PowerMate
Moderator: Gurus
Re: Configuring the Griffin PowerMate
Update:
I hadn't spent enough time with the Hotkey controls in the MediaMonkey Options.
They work just fine, and are a valuable feature for everyday users.
As much as I appreciate Josh who wrote MediaKeys, that app is really not necessary.
However, I omitted another utility I use: 3RVX, which gives you a popover for system volume changes.
It is skinnable and has additional hotkey settings, which I found need to be deleted to avoid conflicts.
-G
I hadn't spent enough time with the Hotkey controls in the MediaMonkey Options.
They work just fine, and are a valuable feature for everyday users.
As much as I appreciate Josh who wrote MediaKeys, that app is really not necessary.
However, I omitted another utility I use: 3RVX, which gives you a popover for system volume changes.
It is skinnable and has additional hotkey settings, which I found need to be deleted to avoid conflicts.
-G
Lifetime license since 2005
Win10 i3 16GB
QNAP TS-419P+ II
Library ~1.720TB/140k tracks
Win10 i3 16GB
QNAP TS-419P+ II
Library ~1.720TB/140k tracks