Author Topic: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches  (Read 48407 times)

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Offline nevin

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #100 on: Wed, 05 February 2020, 12:45:54 »
Lookin' good @iso !  :thumb:
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Offline iso

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #101 on: Wed, 05 February 2020, 21:31:39 »
And boom, done.

About 19 inch long, 9 inch deep, 6 inch tall.
I left about 6 inch of pipe to the left so I can add another module, mostly photoshop related shortcuts/tools, using a  different teensy.
Unless someone wants the STLs right now, I wont upload those until I modify the right console to add the trackpoint under delete key.
The screws on legs are to fix it on the custom piece of wood that I added/extended from my desk.

Offline nevin

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #102 on: Wed, 05 February 2020, 21:37:05 »
WOW! looks great. i see all the changes you've made. did you get the firmware running ok?
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Offline iso

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #103 on: Wed, 05 February 2020, 23:44:41 »
Thanks, yes @nevin, all very stabile. Used E7 instead of D6 pin, now that I`m using this, I`m really glad that I did not give up and postpone it. Soonish I`ll start digging up old threads looking for some firmware for the trackpoint and its only a matter of time before I get that working too, after which I want to get into resin casting, perhaps make some money back, compensate from all those long hours I`ve had to put on this project

Offline nevin

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #104 on: Thu, 06 February 2020, 00:13:39 »
yes, i'm hoping to get back to the mouse soon too. finally looking like it might be possible.

resin... check out this video (it's a great intro into what's involved and the stuff needed) and posts here by theGlyph

and here's another one that was related, about casting 3d prints.

i'd love an interesting blank set like he did with the stereo set
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Offline theKM

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #105 on: Wed, 12 February 2020, 13:21:28 »
I love this device and process so much! so nice.

...am a little confused by the ; and : and , keys in the middle clusters... you have to reach over to type those characters?

Offline iso

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #106 on: Wed, 12 February 2020, 19:15:57 »
Yes, unless your`re Shaq or Andre the giant you have to reach... just like any other keyboard, you can position those as you like, dont have to be where I put them/same layout, is just what works for me.

Offline theKM

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #107 on: Wed, 12 February 2020, 19:34:25 »
Yes, unless your`re Shaq or Andre the giant you have to reach... just like any other keyboard, you can position those as you like, dont have to be where I put them/same layout, is just what works for me.

feisty :)

guess I'm just surprised that there's so many keys in the key wells to have such common keys in a totally different cluster... to each their own!

Offline iso

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #108 on: Wed, 12 February 2020, 19:53:50 »
@theKM haha, sorry if came out that way, didnt mean to be rude or anything.
The reason for that many keys is I tried to eliminate using modifiers, which slows me down more than when I have to reach for the designated key, and now that I been using this for over a week, just works better for me.
For example, all F keys are at the left of the... left console, much smaller buttons, just because I dont use them as much as the other keys, convenient, thats all.

I saw you`ve attached a trackball to your KBD, nice. Ever considered using a diferent sensor with teensy and add custom keys  ?

https://www.tindie.com/products/jkicklighter/pmw3360-motion-sensor/ - You can build a trackball around that sensor but you`ll need to flip axis on the firmware because the sensor facing up.


Offline theKM

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #109 on: Wed, 12 February 2020, 21:10:00 »
@theKM haha, sorry if came out that way, didnt mean to be rude or anything.
The reason for that many keys is I tried to eliminate using modifiers, which slows me down more than when I have to reach for the designated key, and now that I been using this for over a week, just works better for me.
For example, all F keys are at the left of the... left console, much smaller buttons, just because I dont use them as much as the other keys, convenient, thats all.
...I actually really like the center cluster, would quite enjoy it for things like F keys and OS macros.

Quote
I saw you`ve attached a trackball to your KBD, nice. Ever considered using a diferent sensor with teensy and add custom keys  ?

https://www.tindie.com/products/jkicklighter/pmw3360-motion-sensor/ - You can build a trackball around that sensor but you`ll need to flip axis on the firmware because the sensor facing up.
I'd love to do that, viewed that page more than a few times... but I don't have the hours in the day to get my C programming game sharp enough to tackle the task :)

I really quite like QMK, and with layers, I'm doing more mouse based actions than I've ever done. The keyboard+trackball is just wonderful for stuff like CAD, spreadsheets, anything that's a quick mix of typing and mousing. The Ploopy open source trackball apparently someone ported QMK to it, so the integration is generally there, but for now, the dremel is the quickest way to my happiness for now :)

There's lots of split keyboards now with rotary encoders as options... hoping that one day they do similar thing for optional optical tracking support
« Last Edit: Wed, 12 February 2020, 21:12:09 by theKM »

Offline nevin

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #110 on: Thu, 13 February 2020, 00:09:46 »
ok.... now i really have to get on the new firmware implementation for the mouse we've been working on....
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Offline nathanchere

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #111 on: Thu, 13 February 2020, 04:35:04 »
This is epic! Been following silently for about a year, really happy to see it finally come together. I don't know if you want to bother or will get them re-printed but if you want to level up the keycaps I'd consider filling in the insets with something like black nail polish and then sanding the tops to a smooth finish.

Offline iso

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #112 on: Thu, 13 February 2020, 04:51:39 »
Thanks, oh yes, the nail polish technique, you can see it I`ve done it on the first page and posted pictures with few keys. Other than feels little smoother doesnt really do much as I dont look at the keys while typing>

@nevin - That`d  be awesome, I still have the plastics from when I made the trackball case with much larger ball and bearing for smoother scrolling experience.

Offline theKM

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #113 on: Thu, 13 February 2020, 08:46:24 »
ok.... now i really have to get on the new firmware implementation for the mouse we've been working on....

...your firmware, could it live on the same chip as QMK's firmware? :)

Offline nevin

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #114 on: Thu, 13 February 2020, 09:06:30 »
not sure about integrating it into QMK, that's a much bigger project than what we're working on.

QMK already has mouse keys (but that's an emulated mouse), and most of the code for the mouse we've been using is for reading/interpreting the input from the  optical sensor, the buttons are secondary/minor programming.

i guess it's something we could look into, but i never thought about combing them as i rely too heavily on a standalone mouse but i see the appeal for an integrated trackball. depending on the controller, space for the programming may be an issue. (some boards don't have enough memory to even support a full install of QMK, ...all the features QMK can do.)

most off-the-shelf keyboards with integrated pointers/trackpads/trackballs have a keyboard and a mouse cable. even though they are in the same housing, they are actually wired and interpreted separately.

currently, we've been using the old teensy (but promicro should be fine too) with the optical sensor iso mentioned to make a custom mouse.
« Last Edit: Thu, 13 February 2020, 09:11:13 by nevin »
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Offline iso

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #115 on: Thu, 13 February 2020, 09:13:03 »
The mouse project - https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=98360.0 - Is what im using right now, with DPI firmware mods by nevin


Offline theKM

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #116 on: Thu, 13 February 2020, 09:52:12 »
not sure about integrating it into QMK, that's a much bigger project than what we're working on.

QMK already has mouse keys (but that's an emulated mouse), and most of the code for the mouse we've been using is for reading/interpreting the input from the  optical sensor, the buttons are secondary/minor programming.

i guess it's something we could look into, but i never thought about combing them as i rely too heavily on a standalone mouse but i see the appeal for an integrated trackball. depending on the controller, space for the programming may be an issue. (some boards don't have enough memory to even support a full install of QMK, ...all the features QMK can do.)

most off-the-shelf keyboards with integrated pointers/trackpads/trackballs have a keyboard and a mouse cable. even though they are in the same housing, they are actually wired and interpreted separately.

currently, we've been using the old teensy (but promicro should be fine too) with the optical sensor iso mentioned to make a custom mouse.

The Teensy 2++ has plenty of head-room, I don't think that it's all that outrageous that if one wants a higher-form-of-mammal that they have to use worthy controllers :)

I'm personally fine with hard-hacking in a usb hub and logitech like I have been doing, as it means I can make a keyboard with a USB 3 card reader, plug drives into the keyboard, etc... the desire for full integration of course is just the fun of making a complete, compact, single piece of hardware that doesn't need a logitech driver (it would also allow fun things like being able to tweak the firmware to do mod conditional things like mod key, then trackball is scrolling... which logitech's take on it isn't super great and is dependent on windows/mac to work (not portable to linux terminal)).

...imagine being in Vim, holding mod, and the trackball whizzing the cursor around... so much fun to be had :)

Offline theKM

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #117 on: Thu, 13 February 2020, 09:59:24 »
The mouse project - https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=98360.0 - Is what im using right now, with DPI firmware mods by nevin

it's more than modest amounts of awesome, so great... I just adore looking at something that just appears beyond crazy, but in use is just magically correct.

Similar to it wrapping around your hand, I think that keyboards could get similar things with palm and wrist rests that if the keyboard was properly shaped should allow you to use the thing without moving or bumping your palm (even the most ergo of keyboards these days still rely on the flex in your skin somewhere that allows you to nudge your hand forward to reach keys)... trackball playing is just part of this mix for me.

Offline iso

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #118 on: Thu, 13 February 2020, 10:43:38 »
Minimal finger/hand movement with writst support you say ? You gotta see the other project then https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=104041.0 LOL

Im waiting for someone to build a reliable/cheap enough brain wave reader that will save me from moving a muscle to input things on screen.

Offline theKM

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #119 on: Thu, 13 February 2020, 11:52:50 »
Minimal finger/hand movement with writst support you say ? You gotta see the other project then https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=104041.0 LOL

Im waiting for someone to build a reliable/cheap enough brain wave reader that will save me from moving a muscle to input things on screen.

love the forward/back, just not sure how well the sideways action would go... likely make your fingers stronger.

Agreed on the brain reader, the sooner we can just sit there blankly staring at the screen while quietly drooling to ourselves the better...

Offline iso

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #120 on: Fri, 14 February 2020, 09:29:27 »
Some people have an easy time moving their fingers from side to side to type. I dont, I tried and is very frustrating :)
But I  can play video games just fine and thats why im still building/working on that project.

Offline iso

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #121 on: Tue, 18 February 2020, 22:56:34 »
Big wireless trackpad module almost done, gotta finish soldering everything.

Offline nevin

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #122 on: Tue, 18 February 2020, 23:03:37 »
what trackpad is that!?  ...interesting. ...details, details, please.
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Offline iso

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #123 on: Tue, 18 February 2020, 23:13:32 »
It`s an old HP wireless trackpad Z6500 - Stripped to bare electronics, I even removed the top cover from the sensing plate so I can go with black/gray.

Offline nevin

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #124 on: Wed, 19 February 2020, 00:22:48 »
oh, wow. thought it was some diy kit by the looks of it.
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Offline iso

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #125 on: Wed, 19 February 2020, 04:44:53 »
I turn perfectly good working devices into DYI kits and back into perfeclty good working devices :)
You can revive dead trackpads from old laptop using arduino, I believe I saw some deskthority threads but I got this one that was all scratched up and battery connector bent, for $7, cant pass that if is an easy mod.

Offline nevin

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #126 on: Wed, 19 February 2020, 13:05:58 »
good stuff. love repurposing things or making them your own.
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Offline Yatara

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #127 on: Fri, 21 February 2020, 07:57:04 »
Great work. The whole project is really impressive!

I have also done the same with old laptop trackpads from eBay :) I've had success with lots of different Synaptics devices although it seems impossible to find more than one of any specific model anywhere. I also tried the off-the-shelf Azoteq boards from Mouser with the hope of being able to build several identical devices, but I have not managed to get them to work so far.

Offline iso

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #128 on: Fri, 21 February 2020, 08:11:40 »
Thanks for the trackpad mouser link. You can find similar lot trackpads on eBay - search "lot of trackpad". Also, https://www.azoteq.com/design/software-and-tools/ - they have drivers and arduino code example, is that what you`re missing ?

Offline Yatara

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #129 on: Fri, 21 February 2020, 08:30:43 »
Thanks, I have tried their drivers and Arduino code but for me the boards never respond correctly to the initialisation step so I can't get any data out of them. So I've shelved that project for now and I'm hacking on trackballs for a while instead :) But I plan to go back to it someday. I love having a trackpad built into a keyboard.

Offline Yatara

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #130 on: Fri, 21 February 2020, 08:32:58 »
This was the last board I built with a Synaptics pad (I'd had surgery on my right hand and could only type with my left for a couple of months):




Offline nevin

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #131 on: Fri, 21 February 2020, 08:35:57 »
@Yatara - nice solution to get you through.

@iso - hoping to have an update early this coming week.
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Offline iso

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #132 on: Fri, 21 February 2020, 09:33:04 »
@Yatara - Thats one unique way of adding a trackpad, is that mounted on styrofoam or am I seeing wrong ?
@Nevin - Nice, let me know if you need anything from me

Offline Yatara

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #133 on: Fri, 21 February 2020, 09:53:33 »
is that mounted on styrofoam or am I seeing wrong ?

The base is all 3D printed in PETG. The top and bottom parts of each side are separate and clip together. The switches and trackpad are all handwired to a single Pro Micro.

The layout has “mirrored” alphas so the left half is QWERTY but if you hold a modifier it flips to POIUY, etc. (it's really nice being able to type with one hand but I never got above 50WPM). The keys around the trackpad are mouse buttons and modifiers plus Escape, Tab, Enter and Delete along the top (I found I really liked having those near the trackpad).

Offline iso

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #134 on: Sun, 29 March 2020, 04:09:46 »
Found the time to solder the trackpoint to another teensy and I get this when compiling

Files are there
« Last Edit: Sun, 29 March 2020, 04:17:07 by iso »

Offline nevin

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #135 on: Sun, 29 March 2020, 09:26:36 »
I'll look at it a little later today.

-Guessing you're just doing a protocol converter?
-Is the original track pad ps2? Adb? Or older serial  rs232?
-or you trying to use the raw components?
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Offline iso

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #136 on: Sun, 29 March 2020, 14:30:28 »
Hardware: ThinkPad R61 - PS2

Should be able to compile and get a HEX regadless
To begin with, I`m trying to get some kind of cursor motion on screen of any type or clicking/scrolling.
« Last Edit: Sun, 29 March 2020, 14:37:14 by iso »

Offline nevin

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #137 on: Sun, 29 March 2020, 16:22:33 »
Yeah, you said trackpoint, my brain said the trackpad you were also playing with.... 

Which teensy?

Ok.
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Offline iso

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #138 on: Sun, 29 March 2020, 20:29:50 »
Teensy 2.0

Offline theKM

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #139 on: Wed, 08 April 2020, 21:03:39 »
trackpad is a great update... steely-eyed missile man, continues to make steely-eyed missiles...

Offline iso

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Offline LiliãBug

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #141 on: Sat, 25 April 2020, 05:14:38 »
Congratulations !  :thumb:

Just one point of difference with me. It was epic.  ;)

Did you know that you had been nominated or have you just found out?

I think this competition is not well promoted. Only 18 voting for a community of more than 80,000 members, that seems abnormally weak to me.

Offline iso

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #142 on: Sat, 25 April 2020, 10:17:24 »
I was about to reply to your question on your thread and thats how I`ve found that I won.
Is not promoted because there is nothing to gain from it, why would anyone put any time into messaging the thread creator about the "achievement" ? :)

There should be a differentiation between type of keyboards/devices too, there should be "Well engineered", "RGB bling" and "FK Qwerty".

Offline theKM

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Re: MEK - 3d printed modular ergonomic keyboard, teensy, mechanical switches
« Reply #143 on: Mon, 27 April 2020, 11:43:03 »
Is not promoted because there is nothing to gain from it, why would anyone put any time into messaging the thread creator about the "achievement" ? :)

it would make the thread creator happy, and having happy people post isn't the worst way to keep people excited about contributing to a community site. you should dangle this in front of people at hackaday... getting on the hackaday homepage will put a spring in your step :)