geekhack

geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: lucas on Mon, 23 November 2009, 02:32:01

Title: small keyboards with home-row-ctrl
Post by: lucas on Mon, 23 November 2009, 02:32:01
hi. i looked for similar threads and didn't find any.

i'm looking for a small (<100 keys) keyboard with ctrl on the home row (either swappable or hardwired).

so far, i've come up with these candidates:

filco tenkeyless
realforce 87u tenkeyless
happy hacking pro 2
happy hacking lite 2

what others am i missing?

many thanks!
Title: small keyboards with home-row-ctrl
Post by: imsto on Mon, 23 November 2009, 06:02:18
tg3 & cherry 4100
Title: small keyboards with home-row-ctrl
Post by: lucas on Mon, 23 November 2009, 19:29:34
i want it to be software-transparent.

so either:
* the ctrl key is always on the home row
* dip switch can be flipped (or any other hardware switch) and keycaps swapped

thanks!
Title: small keyboards with home-row-ctrl
Post by: ch_123 on Mon, 23 November 2009, 19:38:27
Which OS are you using?
Title: small keyboards with home-row-ctrl
Post by: AndrewZorn on Mon, 23 November 2009, 19:49:43
did not know a filco had home-row ctrl
Title: small keyboards with home-row-ctrl
Post by: xsphat on Mon, 23 November 2009, 19:53:34
Quote from: AndrewZorn;135724
did not know a filco had home-row ctrl


Every keyboard I've owned has no matter what the button says :smile:
Title: small keyboards with home-row-ctrl
Post by: AndrewZorn on Mon, 23 November 2009, 19:59:20
dont you mean that your OS has the ability to detect caps lock and switch it with something else
Title: small keyboards with home-row-ctrl
Post by: microsoft windows on Mon, 23 November 2009, 20:18:00
Get a Model F. Oops, I forgot! They aren't the most compact things in the world.
Title: small keyboards with home-row-ctrl
Post by: rdjack21 on Mon, 23 November 2009, 22:01:05
Yea for hardware only switching of the Ctrl key you only have the HHKB Pro or the 87U/86U.
Title: small keyboards with home-row-ctrl
Post by: xsphat on Mon, 23 November 2009, 23:45:49
Quote from: AndrewZorn;135727
dont you mean that your OS has the ability to detect caps lock and switch it with something else


Mac OS X lets you remap the modifier keys including caps lock.
Title: small keyboards with home-row-ctrl
Post by: AndrewZorn on Mon, 23 November 2009, 23:50:32
certainly not reprogram any keyboard
thats what i mean
anything is possible with software
but i dont think thats what OP meant
Title: small keyboards with home-row-ctrl
Post by: lucas on Tue, 24 November 2009, 01:07:05
i wonder why i thought that the filcos had this option.

i use a variety of oses. mostly freebsd and openbsd. i don't use xorg, and i don't think there's a way to remap on the console. i just love hardware solutions that always work.

so the only boards with (a) ctrl on the home row, or (b) ctrl and caps lock switchable, are:

* realforce 86u tenkeyless
* realforce 87u tenkeyless
* happy hacking pro 2
* happy hacking lite 2

yeah?

thanks for all the replies! <3
Title: small keyboards with home-row-ctrl
Post by: lowpoly on Tue, 24 November 2009, 01:26:40
The Marquardt Industrial in my SIG would have that.

(http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/8742/marquardtreflotron01.jpg)

It's not in production anymore though.
Title: small keyboards with home-row-ctrl
Post by: Rajagra on Tue, 24 November 2009, 03:50:33
Quote from: xsphat;135725
Every keyboard I've owned has no matter what the button says :smile:

What about those funny Apple boards that have some weird delay added to the capslock key?
Quote from: lucas;135812
so the only boards with (a) ctrl on the home row, or (b) ctrl and caps lock switchable, are:

* realforce 86u tenkeyless
* realforce 87u tenkeyless
* happy hacking pro 2
* happy hacking lite 2

yeah?

Hmmm. I have 3 of those models and I don't have Ctrl replacing capslock. I feel kinda guilty now.
Title: small keyboards with home-row-ctrl
Post by: ch_123 on Tue, 24 November 2009, 05:26:04
Quote from: lucas;135812
i wonder why i thought that the filcos had this option.

i use a variety of oses. mostly freebsd and openbsd. i don't use xorg, and i don't think there's a way to remap on the console. i just love hardware solutions that always work.


You should be able to make your own key layout map for the console. Not sure how you'd do it in BSD though...

Quote
so the only boards with (a) ctrl on the home row, or (b) ctrl and caps lock switchable, are:

* realforce 86u tenkeyless
* realforce 87u tenkeyless
* happy hacking pro 2
* happy hacking lite 2

yeah?


The 86U AFAIK doesn't support the swapping of Caps and Ctrl. There's a few older keyboards that have Ctrl in the right place, such as the IBM Model F.
Title: small keyboards with home-row-ctrl
Post by: rdjack21 on Tue, 24 November 2009, 09:10:13
Quote from: ch_123;135846
The 86U AFAIK doesn't support the swapping of Caps and Ctrl. There's a few older keyboards that have Ctrl in the right place, such as the IBM Model F.


Hmm dip switch position 1 on mine does this and that is the way I have mine setup.
Title: small keyboards with home-row-ctrl
Post by: ch_123 on Tue, 24 November 2009, 09:12:29
Do they include the extra keycaps for the swap like the 87U does?