geekhack Projects > Making Stuff Together!
61key Keyboard
Maarten:
Oh nice plan! But i have a 60-key board, and since less is more I WIN by ONE !!!
Nice to see you have the numpad in the same place as i do, i can tell you it works great!
megnin:
--- Quote from: jackpipe;605945 ---I'm a vi user, so I'd have ESC on the first layer, and swap caps-lock and ctrl.
--- End quote ---
I agree. That layout is great. Swap the caps-lock and ctrl, put ESC on the first layer and it's perfect. If the "number pad" sends NUMPAD codes instead or R4 number codes then it's the perfect keyboard. IMHO Oh, wait, almost perfect... Make it both USB corded and Bluetooth selectable and it's the perfect compact keyboard for desktop, laptop, iPad, iPhone...
Roguemaster8:
Awesome layout, I hope to see you go through with it.
takyon:
I've been imagining doing this but the wall I run up against is the prohibitive cost of printing a 12x4 PCB. In prototyping quantity the board itself will run itself well beyond the cost of a Poker on BatchPCB or Express PCB. I don't have the space for a home photoetching setup, the frustration there would be getting the holes drilled anyway (let alone trying to align both layers perfectly).
So this brings me to my question: How feasible would it be to build a keyboard like this, assuming one had access to one of those 3D ABS printers (maker bot, reprap, et al.), by creating a frame that the switches are mounted on, then soldering leads to the switches dead-bug style from a small protoboard?
With one of those metal mounting plates in that DIY Poker thread and maybe some ABS tray designed to slip around or hold onto the switches from the bottom could the same stability of a PCB be achieved? This arrangement would surely free up expenses for cooler experiments (Bluetooth, USB hub, downloadable keymaps)
uberben:
--- Quote from: megnin;612182 ---Oh, wait, almost perfect... Make it both USB corded and Bluetooth selectable and it's the perfect compact keyboard for desktop, laptop, iPad, iPhone...
--- End quote ---
I'm currently working on a USB/Bluetooth replacement keyboard controller. The current target is for a Kinesis Contoured keyboard, but I plan to leave it flexible. Watch the mods page as I plan to start a thread as I get some more progress going :)
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