Have you ever had to cut a piece of furniture in two to get it into a new place? Yours truly has, having had to cut the longer part of a sectional sofa in two to get it into a high-rise apartment. That’s what [Charles]’ sawed off keyboard immediately reminded us of. It sounds just as crazy, but brilliant at the same time.
In [Charles]’ case he wanted a keypad whose keys were customizable, and that would make a single keypress do common things like cut, copy and paste, which are normally ctrl-X, ctrl-C and ctrl-V in Windows. To do that he literally sawed off the numeric keypad from a full-sized keyboard. He also sawed off the end to the left of the QWERTY keyboard, and glued it onto the open end of his keypad.
The circuit board was too wide to fit in his new keypad, but he couldn’t stretch out the connections from the keypad’s keys to the board. So he did what any self-respecting hacker would do, he cut the circuit board where there were a manageable number of traces, leaving one part that would fit inside the keypad and another part that he could connect the traces to using a few wires. Lastly, he’d started with a PS/2 keyboard but he wanted USB output and programmability. So he redirected the PS/2 wires to an Arduino compatible Pro Micro and wrote some conversion code which you can find on his GitHub.
What other transformations can we do to keyboards? [Shrodingers_Cat] combined his with some DVD case covers to come up with a pedal board for use with his feet. And given that the keys on the numeric keypad are redundant, [Kipkay] put it to use as a hiding place for valuables instead.
Quote: “Sawed Off Keyboard”
How could you resist the golden opportunity to say “Hacked Off Keyboard”, after all it was hacked off with a hacksaw.
Love these projects.
I like the current title…
It was a hacksaw that was used, not a generic saw.
I saw what you did there.
One way or another, it was also a golden opportunity to say “Sawed Off” as in the “Sawed-Off Shotgun”.
An extremely little known fact, is that a Model M shortened to less than 18″ is a prohibited weapon in Canada.
Likely has to do with being able to conceal it.
Which is always difficult to do in Canada, legally that is.
LOL that didn’t even cross my mind. I guess that I am closer to the hacker world than the real world :)
Speaking of the real world … Is it still out there? Last time I saw the real world the resolution was excellent but the game play really sucked.
For $0 this is a great hack but for the time invested it seems like a bit of a waste. I dunno, I guess my personal preference is to have cleaner solutions/builds/hacks when it comes to things you are going to use daily.
like building a motocycle by cutting a car in half. there’s easier ways to do it but… ok?
not when you are stranded in the middle of a desert
http://www.mekanika.com.my/wp-content/uploads/bfi_thumb/Emile-Lerays-kereta-jadi-motor-3-6gq1tqlrtyzqw8hxlvs7fvarfpf84e9zc2uvkzrpzhk.jpg
also https://hackaday.com/2012/05/21/man-stranded-in-the-desert-makes-a-motorcycle-from-his-broken-car/
Wow … I was going to say +1000
But on second thoughts I think it’s
+1x10E+4
there’s so little weight over the front wheel of that thing that mybones are shattering just looking at it
They replicated this on MythBusters
Broken link is broken.
Link fixed.
It looks like they didn’t use a DuCheVaux for the Myth test…
B^)
LOL! I’ve done something similar myself. Years ago I had an “all-in-one” ascii terminal (along the lines of this one, though this one isn’t mine: http://blogs.dailynews.com/click/files/2012/09/adm_3a.jpg) and I literally sawed the keyboard off the front and reattached it back with a long ribbon cable so I could sit with the keyboard in my lap. My Dad thought it was funny and he helped me make a little angled holder for the keyboard out of wood. And that was my terminal for a number of years. I wonder if I still have a photo of that thing anywhere…
You can buy these for like 3 bucks. Shipped. :|
True, but this is hackaday, not buyanumberpadtoday.
But what’s the point of making something that already exists and does exactly the same thing?
I think you are on the wrong site…its more about how?…not why? Knowledge in all forms can be useful in others.
@Steve123
It boggles my mind how you’ve completely missed the point of this site.
Because there is something special in a “MacGyver” way about being able to create a solution to a problem using nothing more than the immediately available resources.
Where is the fun in that?
I did this too, but I used a Teensy which I wired more or less directly to the keys. Teensy3.2 can be a USB Keyboard, and customising the keys is a breeze.
This way you dont have to keep this other part of the keyboard PCB around (albeit out of sight).
Where are you from, I have the exact same saw, It has to be Soviet made I think.
It’s a pull type hack saw, I have several U.S. made ones in my shop, I’m not saying his isn’t CCCP.
How is it a pull type? On mine, the blade can be installed with the teeth pointed in either direction, for push or pull. Is there something different about the frame?
The handle is “coaxial” with the blade, as opposed to perpendicular.
The blade is installed “backwards” and the saw is pulled on the cutting stroke instead of pushed. With the “D” type handle (perpendicular) the proper use is having the blade positioned for a cutting stroke with a push, and the sawyers other hand at the opposite end of the saw to steady it.
Ah. Thanks. I can also see how you can see that now. Certainly not a “D” type.
i dont know why you would opt to go from ps2 to arduino for usb. id cut out the middle man and matrix the switches/membrane directly to the arduino’s gpio. run it up as a 4×5 matrix and debounce in software. you only need 17 of those 20 possible inputs. since you have 3 inputs left over, you can put the 3 leds into the matrix. when the leds come up during the scan you can z-state the inputs to to turn them off, or leave it low to enable them. so you can have inputs and outputs on the same matrix.
Probably because it is easier to use ready-made libraries for ps2->usb, and key remapping.
there are libraries for matrixing and software debounce as well. then its just a $4 pro micro to go straight from gpio -> usb. you also cut out a lot of protocol latency having to buffer up serial data from the ps2 interface, reformat, remap, and retransmit over usb.
Slow day at the office? In to the retro garbage aesthetic? Can’t afford a <$5 to buy a brand new USB number pad keyboard?
I would be impressed if my 7 year old did this using LEGO blocks…otherwise this is an ideal project post for failblog.cheezburger.com/thereifixedit
Problem solved! Lets go home folks! Someone found a link to amazon!
Well even though I have 4 different plug in numpads, USB and PS/2 AND a wireless one, I’m bookmarking this because it offers useful insights into messing with keyboard protocols and mapping and arduino/avr.
Have several KB projects I want to get on with, including palm folder to android tab and palm folder to bluetooth via dollar store camera shutter. Maybe model M compact to wireless.
Sounds good.
Personally I’ve been thinking about making my own keypad using levered microswitches, I like the smooth action of those.
I’d need to design some kind of holder and external keys and case though, but without messing up the action.
Modern chicklet or island style keyboards trap the keys with a flange against the bezel, so using one of those as a basis might work.
A keypad is like 8 bucks on the usual Chinese sites, and I’m not saying to not do the custom keyboard hack but my suggestion is to use that keypad and a MCU to give the keys your own output to bypass the whole sawing mess.
And in fact you could just leave it as it is internally and put an arduino or something in between it and the computer (hidden inside the pad) to remap the keys.
If you like luxury you can also use a cherry keys keypad as basis for it.
I think the point is he can customise the keys to perform specific functions/key sequences – you can’t readily do that with an off the shelf number pad.
Google key remapper (favorite OS)
Well that’s why I pointed out I meant to use a standard keypad, feed it in an arduino, output modded keys to a computer.
Same thing as this project except using a existing small keyboard instead of modifying a full size one.
And yes there are 2 utilities on windows (one of which is very old) to remap dynamically via software, but that’s windows and it requires software to be started.
A real “Happy Hacker Keyboard” indeed