New Project: Handheld grip chording keyboard

[regicide]

Rationale:
I have rather nasty RSI/OOS and it is made worse from having to contort my fingers to type, I have a Kinesis Advantage which helps quite a bit as I can move problem keys around until they are comfortable, but no matter how good my typing habits are my hands must be more horiztonal (parallel to desk) than vertical (right angle to desk).

I know of Kinesis also making a vertical keyboard, but that looks quite awkward to type on (in terms of wrist/elbow movement)


I have been thinking of a 'dream keyboard' that I would like to try, it would certainly allow my wrists to sit more naturally (rather than having to rotate to be parallel to the desk).
I have tried to make a keyboard before, I bought all the parts, designed the board and even started programming. In the end the hardest part was the physical case and the minute measurements trying to get the keys to line up, I eventually found an affordable second hand Kinesis and bought that instead of finishing my project.


Work so far:
This time around though the board is much simpler, in fact it is currently looking like it will be made from polymer modelling 'clay'. I will be experimenting with this material to see if it possible to make the mounting plate out of this as well, otherwise I will consider harder plastics, wood or even a thing metal plate.

Here are some (blurry) prototypes using the cherry MX clears and ducky keycaps I had laying around from my last attempted project, I combined those with cardboard to simulate a plate and play-doh to take the place of the modeling clay and allow me to play around with different grip sections.




Apologies for the blurry photos, was in a rush as the camera was dying and the lighting is quite poor in here.


Where to:
For now the design is currently made of 2 parts, the mounting plate where all the wiring will happen and a grip section, I plan to have one of these per hand (later versions may add thumb buttons).
Currently I have a cut out groove in the handle to allow the wiring to go between the plate and grip section.

I have ordered a Teensy 3.0 to serve as the brains for this, for now it will sit on a desk with wires dangling from each hand going to it.

I plan to have 1 per hand, each with 1 button per finger and hopefully 1 or 2 buttons for each thumb. I have thought of a few different schemes for chording, I will have to prototype a few of them and see which sticks.

[fohat.digs]

Sorry that it is so difficult to search this forum, but there are a number of threads that address this issue from various perspectives.

Many (98%) of the comments are negative, but it is always helpful to see past mistakes so that you do not go through the exercise of repeating them.

[jfb]

Did you explored http://chordite.com/ ?

It's a one hand keyboard but it's the best issue I know for that kind of stuff.

[regicide]

Sorry that it is so difficult to search this forum, but there are a number of threads that address this issue from various perspectives.
Many (98%) of the comments are negative, but it is always helpful to see past mistakes so that you do not go through the exercise of repeating them.

I have seen the comments on the decatxt thread which are very negative, the decatxt looks rather uncomfortable to use and I can understand why the average user probably wouldn't want a chording keyboard.
It seems every man and his dog has tried to make a chording keyboard, and they all manage to be slightly different.

For this project I think it will be a case of building a few prototypes and trying many different chording ideas, thankfully there are plenty of projects to draw inspiration from.

Did you explored http://chordite.com/ ?
It's a one hand keyboard but it's the best issue I know for that kind of stuff.

When I was only considering this project I tried to explore other already existing chording keyboards and the chordlite was one of my favourite looking ones, I am not sure about having 2 buttons per finger though but in the video it looks rather pleasant, it also has the advantage of leaving one hand free for mouse or pen usage.

I also quite like the look of things like the BAT and spiff, the idea of being able to type one handed and also use a mouse is somewhat appealing, however I type a lot more often than I use the mouse so I think I should optimise for typing first.


Thank you both for your replies.

[OldDataHands]

It keeps occuring to me that if you modify the datahand key design I've mimicked here:
http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=41422.msg882543#msg882543
To remove the East and West keys, then you might have a perfect chording setup for one hand.

You would need a different pcb layout in order to pack the keys in closer, and more inline,
But you'd get 12 keys instead of 4.  PM me if you're interested.

[regicide]

It keeps occuring to me that if you modify the datahand key design I've mimicked here:
http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=41422.msg882543#msg882543
To remove the East and West keys, then you might have a perfect chording setup for one hand.

You would need a different pcb layout in order to pack the keys in closer, and more inline,
But you'd get 12 keys instead of 4.  PM me if you're interested.

Thanks for the reply

Funnily enough the datahand is one of the inspirations for this project, when I first saw them I thought of mounting them below my chair like this

Which looks insanely comfortable as the wrist position is very natural.

When I noticed your thread I subscribed immediately and have been following quite closely, very excited to see where you go with this.

I am not entirely tied to the idea of chording, for me the most important aspects are the natural wrist position (at my side rather than on my lap or desk) and the limited wrist movement, so I am very interested in exploring other possibilities


I already had cherry MX clears laying around form a previous failed project, so this made it dramatically easier.
So far I havent made any actual PCBs for this project, using modeling clay to form a 'plate' for the keys and eventually a grip section (currently play-doh)

My current prototype is fresh out of the oven and is waiting to be wired up.


I have so few keys (6 per hand) that wiring each key individually by hand is feasible.
For now the micro-controller (teensy 3.0) is sitting on a breadboard, at some point I will probably have to consider a PCB or solder is directly to the wires.
I may also have to explore stronger materials for the 'plate' for the keys, that will depend on how the modelling clay holds up to typing.

I am very interested in the idea of exploring alternatives, and the Datahand and DodoHand have always had my interest.
Sending a PM

[regicide]

So a day of tinkering and I now have 1 'hands' worth of keys mounted on their 'plate' (made of molding clay) and wired up such that they can change the colour of an LED.

The Teensy is turning on one pin of the multi-coloured LED when it detects that one of the keys is pressed, it has no idea what chording or USB is yet though.



So now 'just' a matter of doing this all again, building a grip (or more likely, temporarily using the play-doh prototype), figuring out the Teensy 3.0 USB libraries and then writing the firmware....

progress, I promise

[TheFlyingRaccoon]

So a day of tinkering and I now have 1 'hands' worth of keys mounted on their 'plate' (made of molding clay) and wired up such that they can change the colour of an LED.

The Teensy is turning on one pin of the multi-coloured LED when it detects that one of the keys is pressed, it has no idea what chording or USB is yet though.

Show Image

Show Image

So now 'just' a matter of doing this all again, building a grip (or more likely, temporarily using the play-doh prototype), figuring out the Teensy 3.0 USB libraries and then writing the firmware....

progress, I promise

Looks great so far! Good luck with the grips

[OldDataHands]

https://github.com/imarko/dhteensy

You should be able to jumpstart your S/W by starting with dhteensy...

[john_3000]

By searching US patents it quickly becomes apparent that an awful lot of people have worked on alternative keyboards.  It's what they call a densely covered subject. There are dozens, hundreds really, of patents on every aspect. Of course every inventor is convinced his gizmo is the best and best possible.  Oddly however the patents just lie there and expire fruitlessly.  By the hundreds.  So if you adopt a scholarly approach, rather than just leaping into tinkering, you will learn about a whole lot of ideas that aren't good enough in one way or another or, usually, in several.  Now for me that was good, because I don't get off on tinkering for its own sake.  I do like to learn stuff, even if it's just stuff to avoid.  Long story short: learn from others' mistakes. Build yourself a Chordite. :-)

[regicide]

By searching US patents it quickly becomes apparent that an awful lot of people have worked on alternative keyboards.  It's what they call a densely covered subject. There are dozens, hundreds really, of patents on every aspect. Of course every inventor is convinced his gizmo is the best and best possible.  Oddly however the patents just lie there and expire fruitlessly.  By the hundreds.  So if you adopt a scholarly approach, rather than just leaping into tinkering, you will learn about a whole lot of ideas that aren't good enough in one way or another or, usually, in several.  Now for me that was good, because I don't get off on tinkering for its own sake.  I do like to learn stuff, even if it's just stuff to avoid.  Long story short: learn from others' mistakes. Build yourself a Chordite. :-)

Thanks for your reply

I do quite like the chordite and am definitely drawing a lot of inspiration from it, although I am not sure about having 2 keys per finger and none per thumb as I can't see how that would make modifiers comfortable (I often have to quickly repeart things like windows-shift-k) and I am not sure if I have the dexterity required to individually use 2 buttons per finger.

For now I am still concentrating on trying to make it 2-handed but this presents other problems (how do I use a pointer?), primarily I type all day as a programmer and only using 1 hand to type feels wasteful and doesn't balance the load across my hands.
My concerns are primarily with comfort (preventing RSI) rather than portability, in fact i have been considering the idea of mounting each 'grip' vertically on a desk as this may be easier than trying to create a suspension system similar to the chordite.

I think my project is going to be closer to the spiffcorder (http://chorder.cs.vassar.edu)

https://github.com/imarko/dhteensy

You should be able to jumpstart your S/W by starting with dhteensy...

Thanks for that, I have added it to my group of firmwares to *borrow* ideas from
Sorry I have yet to reply to your newest PM, the university semester is coming to an end so I am swamped with assignments and study to do, along with work.


Short update:
Shortly after my last post I finished wiring up the other components, I now have all the buttons wired onto their respective 'plates'.
I also have a basic firmware working, currently sending an arbitrary letter (A through L) over usb for each button that is pressed.

Lately my spare-time has been minimal due to work and university, I have been experimenting with different play-doh grips and have made a few that are promising.
As I mentioned above, I have also been considering the idea of having each grip mounted vertically on a desk for stability.

At this point I think I am going to have to make grips that are 'good enough' rather than stall the project until I find the 'perfect' grip.

[john_3000]

Here is a test to see if you can work 2 keys with 1 finger.  Put 2 pencils on a table near and parallel to the edge, separated by the distance between the middles of the 2 distal phalanges of the finger to be tested.
Press on one pencil, then the other, then both.  Repeat with other fingers. If you can do this with your index, middle and ring fingers, you can work a Chordite.  If you can't do this, but still want something like a Chordite, I'd advise putting both switches close to the finger tip so that again you can press either or both

[Viz]

Hey regicide!
I am also trying to develop a chording keyboard of sorts, my idea is a chorded keyboard similar to the dh(thumb cluster, up/forward keys, maybe downwards).
Maybe we could discuss the topic further? Seeing that you are also trying to develope a "chorder".
-Viz