This is Crater75, an almost completely from-scratch row-staggered wireless split board that [United_Parfait_6383] has been working on for a few months. Everything but the keycaps and switches is DIY.

As cool as a keyboard full of screens might seem, can you imagine what it would be like to type at speed on a sea of slick surfaces? Not very nice, I’m thinking. But having them solely on the Function row seems like the perfect compromise. Here, the Function row keys interact with foreground applications, and change with whatever has focus. For the curious, those are 0.42″ OLEDs from Ali with a resolution of 72×40.

I’m not sure what’s going on internally, but the two sides connect with magnets, and either side’s USB-C can be used to charge the board. Both sides have a 2100 mAh Li-Po battery, and the average current of the OLED displays is low enough that the board can run for months on a single charge.

The switches are Gateron low-profiles and are wearing keycaps recycled from a Keychron, which add to the professional finish. Speaking of, the enclosures were manufactured by JLC3DP using the Nylon Multi-Jet Fusion process, but [United_Parfait_6383] says the left side feels too light, so the next revision will likely be CNC’d aluminium. Be sure to check out this short video of Crater75 in action.

Markov Keyboard Layout Changes Based on Frequency

For many people, QWERTY just doesn’t cut it. You’ve got your Dvorak devotees, the Colemak clan, and, well, if you’re not content with any of those, it just gets crazier from there.

Okay, so, what if the layout changed on your behalf? Constantly. Based on Markov frequency. What?

Yep, the layout changes as you type. It updates itself to move the letters that frequently come next to the home row.

Let’s say you only type the word Hackaday all day. After a short while, all the letters you need would be on the home row. I’m not sure whether they update left-to-right or what. But updating randomly would be even more fun, wouldn’t it? Of course it would.

While this one would make a good case for screens on every switch, that’s not entirely necessary here. It operates as an emacs library that updates constantly, showing the current layout.

The Centerfold: Sunshine On Your Desk

This is another Totem, but she sure looks different from last week’s contestant. And while I’d like to personally apologize for the lack of an appealing desk mat, I think the billiard-based trackball and see-through desk makes up for it. For the curious, [AsicResistor] sanded the ball a bit to help with tracking.

Do you rock a sweet set of peripherals on a screamin’ desk pad? Send me a picture along with your handle and all the gory details, and you could be featured here!

Historical Clackers: the Coffman Pocket Typewriter

It’s easy to think of a keyboard that can fit in your pocket as a strictly modern device, but the Coffman pocket index typewriter dates back to 1902. Costing a mere $5 after a single lifetime price increase, the Coffman was ultimately destined to fail, even at that price ($160 in 2024 money).

Although the idea of the index typewriter would live on in the form of the embossing label maker, its time as a popular item one uses to produce documents from wherever had come and gone. After all, by this time, there were tiny Underwood machines and Blickensderfers about that served the purpose much faster, if nothing else.

The Coffman, renamed the Popular in 1905, came in two versions — with and without a platen made of wood, interestingly enough. The one you see here does have a platen. The version without would print directly on to a sheet of paper.

Operationally, the Coffman used a rubber strip type element to print both upper and lower case letters. Ink was transferred via rollers. Unfortunately, the machine had no bell, line indicator, or Backspace.

The Antikey Chop finds no mention of the Coffman or the Popular after 1907, so the machine probably just quietly failed. Dr. Coffman did okay for himself, though. Not only did he have a medical practice, he was a professor of physiology, a Sunday school superintendent, and even a published poet.

“I Didn’t Expect To See My Keyboard On AliExpress.”

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. But you know, I’m not sure I’d be quite so calm as [Squalius-cephalus] is being about this whole thing.

It started when [Squalius-cephalus] got a comment on YouTube from someone who found one of their silakka54 boards on Ali. This is an upgrade from their previous board, which lacked a number row, and was designed just a few months ago.

[Squalius-cephalus] went a-browsing and found multiple listings for the ’54. They say they don’t understand why Ali chose to copy the ’54, because the firmware is quite bare-bones. But hey, once an idea is out there, it belongs to the ether, right? Looks like redditor [alarin] ordered one and will have an update on quality and usability next month.

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Got a hot tip that has like, anything to do with keyboards? Help me out by sending in a link or two. Don’t want all the Hackaday scribes to see it? Feel free to email me directly.