Author Topic: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%  (Read 159594 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline technomancy

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 134
Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« on: Thu, 13 February 2014, 21:24:01 »
So this is the Atreus, my first attempt at a keyboard design. I've been using the Ergodox for a few months now and love it to death, but I do a lot of working from coffee shops and such where it's cumbersome, and the Ergodox isn't great for typing on the couch. So I thought I'd give a shot at a lighter, more travel-friendly design after starting to play around with laser cutting and learning how approachable it can be.

As this is intended to be complementary to the Ergodox, I went with a single-piece design instead of two split-hand pieces. The keys for each hand are rotated a bit like the MS Natural, but with a columnar staggering approach, because the Ergodox has taught me to hate staggered rows with a passion. The staggering is slightly more pronounced than what the Ergodox uses, (I have big hands) but the column spacing is the same.

To further reduce the size I moved the digits to the fn layer, which might turn out to be super annoying in practice, but I'm willing to experiment and see how it works for me. This design puts a lot more keys under the thumbs like the Ergodox, (huge space bars are silly) but it doesn't have a physically separate cluster for the thumbs.

Anyway, once my shipment of switches arrives I'll be off to the local hack space to cut the case and start wiring the matrix. But I'm interested in review and comments on the design. Right now the case is just three acrylic layers, but I might add another on top of the plate to make it thicker. I've only done small-scale laser cutting before, so I'm probably making a bunch of newbie mistakes, but I'm prepared to learn from mistakes and iterate quickly. I'm going to do my best to document every step so others can follow along if it turns out to be a decent design.

More details and files are on GitHub: https://github.com/technomancy/atreus

Offline regack

  • Posts: 660
  • Location: Thessia
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #1 on: Fri, 14 February 2014, 07:54:33 »
I haven't had much experience typing on the column staggered layout yet, I keep not using my ergodox, but it looks neat.  You have a very similar layout to the mini ergo that MOZ has been working on over here : http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=48718.0   

Offline lcs

  • Lover of Grape Drank
  • Posts: 669
  • Location: Brazil
  • はやく
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #2 on: Fri, 14 February 2014, 08:00:51 »
Very nice. I'm eagerly waiting for one of the 'portable' doxes to be available :3

Offline technomancy

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 134
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #3 on: Fri, 14 February 2014, 10:51:01 »
You have a very similar layout to the mini ergo that MOZ has been working on over here : http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=48718.0

Yeah, I like the look of Moz's design, but I have some reservations about the hinge. It's probably fine for most usage, but I want to have something that can sit on my lap while I type, and I don't think he's going for that. It would be cool (and stronger) to have the hinge fold on the Y axis instead, but I don't think it's possible to do a design like that with layered acrylic, so I went with a more traditional shape.

Also I'm just impatient; I want to hack on something now rather than wait around for a PCB. Switches are scheduled to arrive today, so I'm hoping to do some lasering this weekend.

Offline SpAmRaY

  • NOT a Moderator
  • * Certified Spammer
  • Posts: 14667
  • Location: ¯\(°_o)/¯
  • because reasons.......
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #4 on: Fri, 14 February 2014, 10:54:49 »
Any thoughts of putting any switches, trackball, buttons, etc in the middle area?

Offline yasuo

  • Posts: 978
  • Location: ID
  • spanengan puyeng newbie
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #5 on: Fri, 14 February 2014, 11:03:37 »
nice design looks Japanese M System but 40% maybe need added horizontal thumb
Logitech MK220 Colemak DH
SplitSyml by Moz BlacksMx fuk blacks

2/3 8.5pm                                          in de la my september month ya da all get my fukka "fake message"

Offline technomancy

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 134
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #6 on: Fri, 14 February 2014, 11:12:58 »
Any thoughts of putting any switches, trackball, buttons, etc in the middle area?

I would looooove to mount a scroll wheel there. Future revisions will probably include attempts at this, but I want to get the basics working first.

Scroll wheels are a bit tricky to mount though because the quadrature encoder's IR detectors seem to require pretty precise placement, so I've been thinking about other ways to do scrolling with analog inputs. Oddly enough I haven't been able to find much in terms of analog buttons that vary the voltage based on how much force is applied, but if I could find a switch that did that it might be easier than mounting a scroll wheel. Maybe I'm just using the wrong search terms or something. Pointers to prior art here would be appreciated.

Offline Binge

  • Island of Sandy Beaches
  • * Maker
  • Posts: 3269
  • Location: Binge Haüs
  • With Gentle Time. I Feel Very Nice.
    • Hunger Work Studio
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #7 on: Fri, 14 February 2014, 12:19:04 »
I don't mean to be lame... but I created a simple two-rod insert for my ergodox and it makes travel very easy.

Have you considered modifying your dox to suit travel?
60% keyboards, 100% of the time.

"What the hell Jimmy?!  It was ruined before you even put it up there with your decrepit fingers."

Offline peterstock

  • Posts: 25
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #8 on: Fri, 14 February 2014, 13:12:05 »
Looks good to me :)  I'm making a keyboard which has a similar design. I've made the staggered columns have different spacing though - none for the inner column for the index finger to reach across to, but quite a lot for the pinky column - that seems to match the shape of my hands. Like the 2nd from back in this picture:

http://www.key64.org/keyboards/ipsj021.jpg

You've got to love those keyboards - why have these designs not taken over the world by now?

Maybe you might also like some thumb keys a little more towards the middle of the board? My thumbs seem to rest a way out from my fingers rather than straight below the index finger.

Offline tlem

  • Posts: 20
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #9 on: Fri, 14 February 2014, 13:45:49 »
I would add screw holes to the bottom left and bottom right.  You may need a gap in one of the layers for the usb cable, depending on how you build it.

Offline technomancy

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 134
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #10 on: Fri, 14 February 2014, 15:11:32 »
Have you considered modifying your dox to suit travel?

Travel is only part of it; the other aspect is having something I can put on my lap when I'm on the couch. I don't think a two-part keyboard can ever work for that.

But in any case, the adventure of building something is at least half the point.

Offline technomancy

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 134
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #11 on: Fri, 14 February 2014, 15:17:34 »
I would add screw holes to the bottom left and bottom right.  You may need a gap in one of the layers for the usb cable, depending on how you build it.

Oops; haha. My first rev had a gap up there, but I redid the design to more of a wing shape and forgot to reintroduce it. Also good call on the extra screw holes.

Which reminds me, how difficult is it to modify the acrylic without a laser cutter after it's cut? Say if I wanted to add another screw hole or something, can I do that with a hand drill, or is the material too fragile?

Offline Oobly

  • * Esteemed Elder
  • Posts: 3929
  • Location: Finland
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #12 on: Sat, 15 February 2014, 08:49:42 »
Looks like a nice design. I agree with peterstock about the staggering of the pinkie and extra index finger columns, I found I need a lot more stagger on the pinkie column than I originally planned and not much at all on the extra index finger column.

Also, thumb keys rock. Especially for modifers, layers, space and enter.

You can drill acrylic (or cut it with a jigsaw), but watch it's not too cold when you do. Cracks really easily when cold. Be sure to make a starter dent with a punch to guide the bit so it doesn't travel or use a drill press if you have one.
Buying more keycaps,
it really hacks my wallet,
but I must have them.

Offline Binge

  • Island of Sandy Beaches
  • * Maker
  • Posts: 3269
  • Location: Binge Haüs
  • With Gentle Time. I Feel Very Nice.
    • Hunger Work Studio
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #13 on: Sat, 15 February 2014, 11:23:48 »
Have you considered modifying your dox to suit travel?

Travel is only part of it; the other aspect is having something I can put on my lap when I'm on the couch. I don't think a two-part keyboard can ever work for that.

But in any case, the adventure of building something is at least half the point.

Great answer!  I do not want you to think I see this as fruitless :)  Very cool that you are making this happen!
60% keyboards, 100% of the time.

"What the hell Jimmy?!  It was ruined before you even put it up there with your decrepit fingers."

Offline MOZ

  • KING OF THE NEWBIES
  • * Maker
  • Posts: 3981
  • Location: Jo'burg
  • Busy making stuff
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #14 on: Sat, 15 February 2014, 15:25:08 »
Looks good! I can help with the PCB if you want, PCB prototyping is relatively cheap and you can always try to get some "backers" here on GH to further increase your test group and bring down prices.

Offline riotonthebay

  • Cherry Peasant
  • * Destiny Supporter
  • Posts: 2048
  • Location: Raleigh, NC
  • keycult.com
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #15 on: Sat, 15 February 2014, 15:26:22 »
Looks good! I can help with the PCB if you want, PCB prototyping is relatively cheap and you can always try to get some "backers" here on GH to further increase your test group and bring down prices.

I've be quite interested in prototyping this and pitching in!

Offline OldDataHands

  • Posts: 280
  • Location: Michigan
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #16 on: Sat, 15 February 2014, 19:44:21 »
Looks sufficiently similar to: http://deskthority.net/workshop-f7/onehand-20-keyboard-t6617.html
that you might start with two of those PCBs as a really easy prototype.

Offline technomancy

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 134
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #17 on: Sat, 15 February 2014, 20:07:35 »
Looks good! I can help with the PCB if you want, PCB prototyping is relatively cheap and you can always try to get some "backers" here on GH to further increase your test group and bring down prices.

That's very kind of you to offer, but personally I don't have any ambitions beyond getting a nice keyboard for myself and documenting a solid design so others can build something similar, so I'm planning on skipping the PCB step entirely for my own purposes. I'm also planning on iterating quickly on design tweaks, which is a lot easier to do if each new design only involves cutting a few new layers of acrylic at the hackerspace downtown.

Running a group buy could get prices down on the acrylic cuts, but given that there are a number of similar projects out there, I don't think it makes a lot of sense right now. It's easy enough for anyone who lives near a laser cutter to put their own together without a group buy I think, especially as it's looking like the total cost could come in under $100 without any volume discounting.

Offline technomancy

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 134
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #18 on: Sat, 15 February 2014, 20:15:31 »
Looks like a nice design. I agree with peterstock about the staggering of the pinkie and extra index finger columns, I found I need a lot more stagger on the pinkie column than I originally planned and not much at all on the extra index finger column.

Thanks Oobly! I'm super impressed by your design and would love to branch out in the future to one with angled thumb clusters since it looks like a much more natural fit, but I don't think that's practical with layered acrylic, and I want to stick with that material for my first design.

I brought the pinky down (and the middle finger column up) a fair bit compared to the Ergodox layout, which I'm considering my baseline. I might drop it further for my next revision if that proves to be insufficient, but it's already forcing the spacer layer to be pretty thin, and I don't know if I want to increase the overall dimensions quite yet.

Putting the inner index column at the same level as the index column doesn't really make sense for my usage patterns--on the Ergodox (which has it somewhat lower) I find I'm always hitting the bottom half of keys in that column, so I feel like having it lower is a safe bet. But again, this probably won't be my final revision, so there's always room for more tweaking in mark II.

Offline technomancy

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 134
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #19 on: Sat, 15 February 2014, 22:28:46 »
I've be quite interested in prototyping this and pitching in!

I hope I didn't come off as too dismissive in my previous post about the group buy. I'd be thrilled to have others testing out my design and using it; I just think that since it's relatively cheap and interest levels will likely be low with a number of concurrent similar projects, others who want to build it should be able to just go for it on their own.

I picked up some acrylic today and will have my case cut tomorrow or the day after, so though wiring and firmware will take a while longer I'll at least be able to comment on the feel and ergonomics of the design even if it isn't live. At that point I might make a few further adjustments, but I'd encourage anyone who's interested and has access to a laser cutter to just jump right in without having any larger coordinated efforts.

Offline jdcarpe

  • * Curator
  • Posts: 8852
  • Location: Odessa, TX
  • Live long, and prosper.
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #20 on: Sat, 15 February 2014, 23:07:07 »
Your design is somewhat unique, in that is is one-piece and non-rectangular symmetric staggered column design. I always like the PCB approach over direct wiring, but then again, I've never designed my own PCBs before -- someone had always helped me with that part. It seems if you can get a few people interested, prototyping costs can be split amongst several people.

If it were me commissioning a PCB of your design, I would go with through hole components (Teensy, diodes), and have the option for the bottom two switches on the inside columns to be a 2-unit vertical, as in a tenkey enter.

I'm sure you know this already, but if you are making the switch plate from acrylic, I recommend 3mm thickness for rigidity, and hot glue the switches in place, since they won't lock in.
KMAC :: LZ-GH :: WASD CODE :: WASD v2 :: GH60 :: Alps64 :: JD45 :: IBM Model M :: IBM 4704 "Pingmaster"

http://jd40.info :: http://jd45.info


in memoriam

"When I was a kid, I used to take things apart and never put them back together."

Offline technomancy

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 134
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #21 on: Sun, 16 February 2014, 00:05:04 »
I'm sure you know this already, but if you are making the switch plate from acrylic, I recommend 3mm thickness for rigidity, and hot glue the switches in place, since they won't lock in.

Interesting; I had planned on 6mm for the switch plate and the spacer layer since that's what my Ergodox has. I suppose 3mm would result in a lighter total weight, but I'd be worried I wouldn't have room for wiring the matrix. We'll see how it goes, I suppose.

I hadn't given any thought to the glue--I expect to make a few revisions to the case design, which makes me a bit reluctant to glue the switches. I wonder if there are any good options that are less permanent. Do you expect the looseness of the switches to be a problem in the short term of a few weeks while I experiment with cases?

Offline jdcarpe

  • * Curator
  • Posts: 8852
  • Location: Odessa, TX
  • Live long, and prosper.
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #22 on: Sun, 16 February 2014, 00:43:08 »
6mm will surely be fine, I just hoped you hadn't planned on using 1.5mm acrylic. :)

And you can always try it first without glue, and if they come loose from the plate, glue them at that point. I believe hot glue will lose adhesion when exposed to alcohol, so it should be easy to remove.
KMAC :: LZ-GH :: WASD CODE :: WASD v2 :: GH60 :: Alps64 :: JD45 :: IBM Model M :: IBM 4704 "Pingmaster"

http://jd40.info :: http://jd45.info


in memoriam

"When I was a kid, I used to take things apart and never put them back together."

Offline PJE

  • Posts: 30
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #23 on: Sun, 16 February 2014, 20:45:08 »
I've been building a small one hand (OneHand) or two hand (TwoHand) keyboard which looks very similar to your concept.



I have two Teensy controllers, one in each half, and depending on if one or two units are interconnected. Full details are in a thread on Deskthority.

I've built the units onto an acrylic base, which holds them in position. I currently have the two units at a much wider angle (90deg) than your drawing.

The split thumb keys act as modifiers selecting numbers (right hand) or cursor movement (left). I feel you could make a very usable keyboard with your layout, but l'd investigate the key stagger as others have suggested.

I'm now looking at 3D printing a base to hold my two piece design, I may look at hinging the halves to give the best possible ergonomics.

Your one piece design will be much easier to program, and be more reliable than a two piece arrangement. I like each half of the keyboard being tented slightly, l've not tried a flat style.
« Last Edit: Sun, 16 February 2014, 20:49:41 by PJE »

Offline Oobly

  • * Esteemed Elder
  • Posts: 3929
  • Location: Finland
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #24 on: Mon, 17 February 2014, 02:58:21 »
Obra has a sort of similar design board: http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=52639.0

It's got added thumb and palm buttons.

Another thought about acrylic mount plates. It may be possible to use a 1.5mm switch mount plate and glue it to a 6mm (or any thickness you want) plate that has oversize switch holes (say 1-1.5mm all around). So the switches mount correctly to the 1.5mm sheet and are held firmly by the supporting thicker plate. You can probably even have cutouts in the 1.5mm plate to allow for opening the switches when mounted, due to the support being really close.

You can make your own acrylic glue by dissolving shavings of the actual material you are working with in a solvent.
Buying more keycaps,
it really hacks my wallet,
but I must have them.

Offline technomancy

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 134
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #25 on: Mon, 17 February 2014, 21:31:10 »
So! I just got my case cut today and loaded it up with switches and caps to see how it feels. Pretty happy with how it looks so far! https://secure.flickr.com/photos/technomancy/tags/atreus

The keys are definitely loose enough that I'm going to need to glue them it, so I'm relieved to hear that hot glue can be dissolved. For my fingers, the inner index column feels just right; when I move my index finger inward, it goes down a fair bit. But I feel like the pinky column could be dropped a bit further too. However, the top plate doesn't have quite enough clearance even as it is (I had to sand it down to let the lower corner keys even bottom out) so I might have to increase the overall size to drop that column.

Anyway, my next step is to wire up the matrix and start hunting for firmware. I was planning on using this Teensy 3 I have on hand from a previous project instead of a Teensy 2, but not many existing firmwares support the 3. Working on getting https://gitorious.org/kiibohd-controller to compile presently.

Offline jdcarpe

  • * Curator
  • Posts: 8852
  • Location: Odessa, TX
  • Live long, and prosper.
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #26 on: Mon, 17 February 2014, 22:02:49 »
Looking great! I am following your progress with great anticipation. I really love seeing the steps you are taking to make this all come together.
KMAC :: LZ-GH :: WASD CODE :: WASD v2 :: GH60 :: Alps64 :: JD45 :: IBM Model M :: IBM 4704 "Pingmaster"

http://jd40.info :: http://jd45.info


in memoriam

"When I was a kid, I used to take things apart and never put them back together."

Offline MOZ

  • KING OF THE NEWBIES
  • * Maker
  • Posts: 3981
  • Location: Jo'burg
  • Busy making stuff
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #27 on: Tue, 18 February 2014, 01:35:57 »
Looks excellent!

Offline clickclack123

  • Posts: 357
  • Location: Australia, Mate!
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #28 on: Tue, 18 February 2014, 06:13:27 »
That looks really nice, great for travel/cafe/couch!

It's amazing to see how many different ideas there are of the "perfect" keyboard, and inspiring to see that people are actually capable of designing and custom-building their own amazing, professional-quality keyboards at home nowadays.

How much does it weigh?

My ideal porta-dox would have two thumbswitches for each hand though.  :cool:

Offline clickclack123

  • Posts: 357
  • Location: Australia, Mate!
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #29 on: Tue, 18 February 2014, 06:40:13 »
I would looooove to mount a scroll wheel there. Future revisions will probably include attempts at this, but I want to get the basics working first.

Scroll wheels are a bit tricky to mount though because the quadrature encoder's IR detectors seem to require pretty precise placement, so I've been thinking about other ways to do scrolling with analog inputs. Oddly enough I haven't been able to find much in terms of analog buttons that vary the voltage based on how much force is applied, but if I could find a switch that did that it might be easier than mounting a scroll wheel. Maybe I'm just using the wrong search terms or something. Pointers to prior art here would be appreciated.

I'd also love to find a source for good scrollwheels that are easily mounted. There's a real hole in the market for this I think. I bought an extra logitech revolution mx which has the best scroll wheel I've ever found (you can switch it between clicky and super free-spinning by pressing the wheel switch). I'm intending to take it apart later and hopefully get the wheel working while mounted inside a custom keyboard.

Offline technomancy

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 134
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #30 on: Thu, 20 February 2014, 00:05:00 »
Put it together a bit more and realized that the Teensy 3 I was planning on using won't work for this because it has headers soldered onto it, which take up too much room even when bent outwards. So I ordered a Teensy 2, which was kind of a relief because I hadn't realized that most of the existing firmwares out there don't work on the 3--I was starting to worry that I'd have to write my own. I've adapted the TMK firmware for my layout here: https://github.com/technomancy/tmk_keyboard/blob/atreus/keyboard/atreus/keymap_atreus.c but my Teensy hasn't arrived for me to test it on yet.

I did start the matrix wiring process today. It took me about an hour to do a single side; the main tedious part was cutting and stripping the ends of the insulated wires for the columns. All in all not bad though.

Now once I finish the diodes all I've got to do is sit around and wait for the shipping in the microcontroller.

Offline peterstock

  • Posts: 25
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #31 on: Thu, 20 February 2014, 03:25:38 »
I hate to say it, but I think you've put your diodes in series when they should be wired in parallel :(  Diodes are cheap though!

I found this helpful, with good pictures:
http://deskthority.net/workshop-f7/brownfox-step-by-step-t6050.html
« Last Edit: Thu, 20 February 2014, 03:28:18 by peterstock »

Offline technomancy

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 134
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #32 on: Thu, 20 February 2014, 10:17:17 »
I hate to say it, but I think you've put your diodes in series when they should be wired in parallel :(  Diodes are cheap though!

Welp! I was even reading that the night before I wired this thing; just wasn't paying attention. I think I can fix it without re-wiring the whole side though. Thanks for catching this before I ended up wiring both sides.

Offline technomancy

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 134
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #33 on: Thu, 20 February 2014, 23:04:55 »
Re-wired the matrix now in what looks like the proper parallel way, and I've tested it all with a multimeter; all checks out! Also my new set of keycaps arrived today, so I can put my black ones back on my Ergodox, though I saved a few black caps for the bottom (non-alpha) row of the Atreus.

It's down to just waiting for the Teensy now; wishing I had expedited that shipping.

Offline technomancy

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 134
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #34 on: Thu, 20 February 2014, 23:27:44 »
How much does it weigh?

My ideal porta-dox would have two thumbswitches for each hand though.  :cool:

Without the microcontroller or USB cable, it weighs 365g. This is with 3mm top and bottom layers, a 6mm spacer and a 4.5mm plate.

Actually the eight inner most keys of the bottom row are all meant to be hit with the thumbs, though only six (fn, backspace, ctrl, alt, space, and enter) are easily reachable from a neutral position. I love the heck out of my thumb keys on my Ergodox, so I made sure the Atreus also takes advantage of the wonderful flexibility of the human thumb.

Hitting the lower outer corners with the pinkies (shift and super) feels like a bit of a stretch now that I'm playing with it. Might need to move those to the thumbs; I don't have anything all that important on the stretch thumb spots (currently esc and page up) so that could be a good swap.

Offline technomancy

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 134
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #35 on: Sat, 22 February 2014, 18:18:16 »
It's aliiiiiiiive!

Just finished wiring the Teensy in, and it's working! Pretty excited. I made a few more goofs (turns out when you turn over the plate, all the columns are reversed; who would have thought!) but I was able to correct that in firmware. I'm going write up more details about the assembly process, but there's nothing about that  specific to my design. The clearance is really tight on the Teensy with a 6mm spacer layer; in fact I had to sand down the USB micro connector that went into the Teensy in order to get the case closed, but eventually it did.

Made a few minor layout modifications--while fn is important on a 40% layout, turns out it's still less important than shift, so that got moved closer to the thumbs, as did the super key. I've been teaching myself to prefer ctrl-I instead of tab (by removing the tab keycap from my ergodox) since tab is a stretch on this layout. I'm sure I'll have some more tweaks to the layout once I've been using it for a while, but it's looking pretty good for now.

If anyone wants to try their hand at one of their own, let me know. Would be very interested to hear how it goes.

Offline clickclack123

  • Posts: 357
  • Location: Australia, Mate!
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #36 on: Sat, 22 February 2014, 18:36:53 »
Congratulations! Good on you! It must be satisfying to type on something that you created, designed and built!

Offline peterstock

  • Posts: 25
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #37 on: Sun, 23 February 2014, 13:51:00 »
Yay! ^_^

Looks very smart with the keycaps on :D

Offline technomancy

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 134
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #38 on: Sun, 23 February 2014, 21:46:12 »
After typing on it for a while I'm pretty happy with it. I haven't done any coding with it yet, so I'll have to wait to give an experience report for regarding punctuation-heavy things. I find myself still a little hesitant when needing certain of the modifiers, but I feel like that will just come with time. Sometimes I'll accidentally try to use my pinky for shift, etc.

One thing I miss from my Ergodox is having a "Teensy reset" key; if that's a feature of the tmk firmware, I haven't been able to find it yet. So all my firmware changes require pulling the case apart, which is a little annoying.

The other annoyance is that it seems to draw more power than my Ergodox--despite having fewer switches and no IO expander, it cuts out periodically every so often when I'm using it with my Thinkpad on battery power. Plugging into AC power fixes it, so I'm thinking it's drawing more current than the laptop is providing. It's a low-voltage chipset, which is great for battery life, but might be causing this as it doesn't seem to be occurring on other laptops. I'll have to see if there's anything I can do with the TMK firmware to reduce power consumption; I know it has a lot of extra features I'm not using.

Offline jdcarpe

  • * Curator
  • Posts: 8852
  • Location: Odessa, TX
  • Live long, and prosper.
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #39 on: Sun, 23 February 2014, 23:31:31 »

One thing I miss from my Ergodox is having a "Teensy reset" key; if that's a feature of the tmk firmware, I haven't been able to find it yet. So all my firmware changes require pulling the case apart, which is a little annoying.

By default, you press both shifts and Pause. I can't remember where you change that setting.
KMAC :: LZ-GH :: WASD CODE :: WASD v2 :: GH60 :: Alps64 :: JD45 :: IBM Model M :: IBM 4704 "Pingmaster"

http://jd40.info :: http://jd45.info


in memoriam

"When I was a kid, I used to take things apart and never put them back together."

Offline clickclack123

  • Posts: 357
  • Location: Australia, Mate!
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #40 on: Sun, 23 February 2014, 23:33:14 »
One thing I miss from my Ergodox is having a "Teensy reset" key; if that's a feature of the tmk firmware, I haven't been able to find it yet. So all my firmware changes require pulling the case apart, which is a little annoying.

That would be annoying.

Teensy key is part of tmk: have a look at this.

You need to add these lines to the relevant parts of your keymap.h file:

Code: [Select]
enum function_id {
    TEENSY_KEY,
};

static const uint16_t PROGMEM fn_actions[] = {
    ACTION_FUNCTION(TEENSY_KEY), // FN4 - Teensy key
};

void action_function(keyrecord_t *record, uint8_t id, uint8_t opt)
{
    keyevent_t event = record->event;

    if (id == TEENSY_KEY) {
        clear_keyboard();
        print("\n\nJump to bootloader... ");
        _delay_ms(250);
        bootloader_jump(); // should not return
        print("not supported.\n");
    }
}

And also put a FN0, or whatever entry number it is in the Actions list, onto whatever key you want it to be in the layout. I snipped the other lines out of the code I just quoted, but it was FN4 on that layout.

Like jdcarpe said, you could also just use LShift+RShift+Pause (or was it Esc?). LShift+RShift+H will bring up a help menu on your screen if you are running hid_listen.exe. LShift+RShift is called the Magic Key, and can be changed if you want.
« Last Edit: Sun, 23 February 2014, 23:44:33 by clickclack123 »

Offline jeffgran

  • Posts: 126
  • Location: Denver
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #41 on: Mon, 24 February 2014, 09:17:07 »
This is awesome. Nice work.

Offline technomancy

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 134
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #42 on: Wed, 26 February 2014, 15:56:42 »
Teensy key is part of tmk: have a look at this.

You need to add these lines to the relevant parts of your keymap.h file: [...]

Perfect! I only have one shift key, but I was able to add reset using ACTION_FUNCTION: https://github.com/technomancy/tmk_keyboard/commit/cb4ea37a2e6b03519269b8be5c1ed5a0b785e9de

I posted a more comprehensive overview on my blog if anyone's looking for details: http://technomancy.us/173 I still want to spend a bit more time documenting the assembly process on GitHub and investigating the power issues when my laptop isn't plugged into AC, but apart from that I'm pretty much done. Really happy with how it's turned out.

Thanks to all geekhackers both here and on the freenode channel for your encouragement and advice!

Offline Thimplum

  • * Esteemed Elder
  • Posts: 1101
  • Master of all Ponies
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #43 on: Wed, 26 February 2014, 18:22:05 »
That looks quite amazing, to be fully honest. I remember back in the good 'ol days, aka last summer, when I didn't have school and I'd spend all day reading awesome threads like these and then proceeding to troll them as best I could.



Keep up the good work!
TP4 FOR ADMIN 2013

Offline LadyPecs

  • Posts: 24
  • Location: United States
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #44 on: Wed, 26 February 2014, 22:04:06 »
Oh my that thing is awesome. <3 I want it. Good job!

Offline technomancy

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 134
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #45 on: Sat, 01 March 2014, 23:35:43 »
I published a nice photo guide to the assembly process if anyone is interested in following along at home. Please let me know how it goes if you try it; happy to take feedback.

https://github.com/technomancy/atreus#assembly

I was also able to get the power issues figured out with some help from TMK, so I think this is a wrap.

Offline clickclack123

  • Posts: 357
  • Location: Australia, Mate!
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #46 on: Mon, 03 March 2014, 02:02:58 »
I published a nice photo guide to the assembly process if anyone is interested in following along at home. Please let me know how it goes if you try it; happy to take feedback.

https://github.com/technomancy/atreus#assembly

I was also able to get the power issues figured out with some help from TMK, so I think this is a wrap.

Congratulations!

I'm curious, how do the keys feel with an acrylic plate? Any different to a metal plate?

Also, what was the power issue and how did you fix it?
« Last Edit: Mon, 03 March 2014, 02:25:28 by clickclack123 »

Offline technomancy

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 134
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #47 on: Mon, 03 March 2014, 10:38:22 »
I'm curious, how do the keys feel with an acrylic plate? Any different to a metal plate?

Also, what was the power issue and how did you fix it?

Sadly I haven't really tried any boards with metal plates in a long time other than a Model M, which is obviously completely different. The main point of comparison I have is to my ErgoDox. Since it's designed to sit in your lap, typing on it isn't as solid as it would be on a desk, but this is by design. Probably has more to do with the total weight though.

The power issue was apparently due to the microcontroller trying to suspend itself in low-power states, which can be turned off in the firmware makefile: https://github.com/tmk/tmk_keyboard/issues/45#issuecomment-36297926

Offline SonOfSonOfSpock

  • Posts: 321
  • Location: Colorado, USA
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #48 on: Sat, 08 March 2014, 17:55:10 »
This looks really nice. Congrats!

Looking at the bill of materials, I'm surprised it turned out so inexpensive. I guess that might be expected with a 40% design.

Offline john71

  • Posts: 4
Re: Atreus, a column-staggered 40%
« Reply #49 on: Thu, 20 March 2014, 17:38:49 »
Looks good and clean. You have done a nice piece of work.

Now that you have your little board a bit longer, how is it to work on?
i mean writing code, and what language?


Greetz John

Not native english...