Keyboard are good for shortcuts, but sometimes we prefer to use a knob for more intuitive and smoother operation. The Surface Dial ($100) was designed for such a purpose. However, the Surface Dial doesn't lend itself to muscle memory - the only operations are rotate and press so you need to rely on mode change in order to invoke more than 3 actions. That's why people like compact controllers with more buttons like the TourBox ($158 at Amazon) or the Clip studio TabMate ($57) so that they can control more parameters swiftly without worrying about which mode they're in.
Controllers like TourBox are great to use but a bit expensive. Any alternatives that are less expensive but still give us a dial?
We found numerous USB volume controllers on the market. Among them, devices from iwit caught our attention since their inexpensive knobs can actually be programmed to send custom keystrokes. They can even simulate a Surface Dial! This is a Chinese company in Beijing and they sell in Taobao (from $10) for the Chinese market but various resellers are reselling them at Amazon or EBay (big version available at e.g. as this item at Amazon for $31, small version at EBay for $20, big or small at Aliexpress for $20-$30). The two we got are small ones.
Build
The weight is just right and together with the non-skid pad it doesn't move around. The knob on the silver one was not level when it arrived, but we managed to pull the knob out and after plugging it back it stayed leveled. The design is simple and the knob clicks and rotates well making It almost a fidget toy. ∠( ᐛ 」∠)＿ The iWit dials are notched so they don't rotate as smoothly as the Surface Dial. They are also smaller and don't have a indention like the Shuttle Express ($60) does making them less suited for one-finger operation.
Programmability
Programmability is not advertised but it is there. I chatted with the seller at Taobao, who said they don't want to advertise it to avoid the trouble of providing customer support. Why? They said their way to program the device can be confusing so they would rather just sell it as a simple, single-purpose USB volume controller. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
How to Program. The way you program them is special. You use the app Notepad as the display and let the device print a menu that you can choose from. Make sure you use EN_US keyboard layout for this. To enter setup mode, press the iwit dial while you plug it to a computer via USB. You should have Notepad already open and in focus when you do this so that Notepad receives all the key output from the iwit. The rest is simply to navigate the menu with the dial itself. Each can be programmed to give different keystrokes independent of each other and thus you can connect multiple iwit knobs and have them control different things (a bit like Palette ($330 for a Travel Console)). This is what the Surface Dial can't do, as multiple devices would only map to the same Dial API. The same goes for ordinary USB volume controllers, since all of them would map to the same volume +/- mute keys.
How to Program. The way you program them is special. You use the app Notepad as the display and let the device print a menu that you can choose from. Make sure you use EN_US keyboard layout for this. To enter setup mode, press the iwit dial while you plug it to a computer via USB. You should have Notepad already open and in focus when you do this so that Notepad receives all the key output from the iwit. The rest is simply to navigate the menu with the dial itself. Each can be programmed to give different keystrokes independent of each other and thus you can connect multiple iwit knobs and have them control different things (a bit like Palette ($330 for a Travel Console)). This is what the Surface Dial can't do, as multiple devices would only map to the same Dial API. The same goes for ordinary USB volume controllers, since all of them would map to the same volume +/- mute keys.
iwit video editing controller If you want to control different apps without having to reprogram, you can do so with Autohotkey, which can remap the input keys according to the foreground app. This requires you to do some coding with Autohotkey though.
Granted, this setup UI is not the most user-friendly, but it gets the job done. If you prefer a more user-friendly setup procedure, you probably would prefer a TourBox ($158) or a designer keyboard ($90). Taobao users would have more options like this keyboard (RMB 399 = $56) or this dial (RMB 138 = $20) that allow custom key assignments. Iwit also offers a larger video editing controller (RMB 799 = $113) at Taobao featuring a knob, a shutter ring and a dial (see photo right), but again you have to deal with their special setup UI.
Granted, this setup UI is not the most user-friendly, but it gets the job done. If you prefer a more user-friendly setup procedure, you probably would prefer a TourBox ($158) or a designer keyboard ($90). Taobao users would have more options like this keyboard (RMB 399 = $56) or this dial (RMB 138 = $20) that allow custom key assignments. Iwit also offers a larger video editing controller (RMB 799 = $113) at Taobao featuring a knob, a shutter ring and a dial (see photo right), but again you have to deal with their special setup UI.
Mutiple Devices working together
Personally I'm quite happy with using a keyboard with my non-dominate hand for hotkeys. In Expresii, we have made common tasks like undo and redo easier: we have Z and X as hotkeys for them so that you only need to press one key, as opposed to Ctrl-Z or Ctrl-Y which requires some finger twisting. We still support standard multi-key commands like Ctrl-Z and Ctrl-Y for undo and redo so that, if you're new to Expresii, those familiar key commands you got used to are still there.
That said, the only missing piece from my standard keyboard is a dial. Or, a few dials. So, I put the two iwit dials besides my keyboard. Because they are wired and the connectors stick out, I can only put them side-by-side. One knob controls Brush Wetness (hotkeys Q W) and the other Pigment Adjuster (hotkeys , .). And I still have more assignments available for operations of knob short press, long press, and knob rotation while pressed. So, a total of 6 assignments per controller.
That said, the only missing piece from my standard keyboard is a dial. Or, a few dials. So, I put the two iwit dials besides my keyboard. Because they are wired and the connectors stick out, I can only put them side-by-side. One knob controls Brush Wetness (hotkeys Q W) and the other Pigment Adjuster (hotkeys , .). And I still have more assignments available for operations of knob short press, long press, and knob rotation while pressed. So, a total of 6 assignments per controller.
In the future, we may add the support for using multiple mice on the same computer, so that you can use your spare mice's buttons and wheels for controlling different settings in Expresii. Leave us a comment to let us know how you like this plan.
Custom tool for Surface Dial
Microsoft added the ability to add custom tools for different apps for Surface Dial. Here is a little walk-through of such a process. To get to the right setting page, type 'Wheel' in the search bar and choose 'Wheel Settings'. Then see the following screenshots for guidance:
This is also useful if you have a device that mimics a Surface Dial , such as the iwit knob we review here and the Huion Q620M . Hers is an example usage of the custom tool with Expresii:
Conclusion
The iwit USB volume controller is a great choice if you want to add a couple of dials to complement your keyboard. They are inexpensive but reasonably well made. We thought of using multiple mice for their wheels, but this is not the same as a dial: you cannot keep rotating a mouse wheel like you can with circular motion for a dial. When do you need such a motion? Rotating the paper like this. (^.~)☆
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