Can you teach an old typewriter new tricks? You can, at least if you’re [maniek-86]. And a word to all you typewriter fanatics out there — this Optima SP 26 was beyond repair, lacking several internal parts.

But the fully available keyboard was a great start for a gaming typewriter. So [maniek-86] crammed in some parts that were just laying around unused, starting with a micro-ATX motherboard.

But let’s talk about the keyboard. It has a standard matrix, which [maniek-86] hooked up to an Arduino Lenoardo. Although the keyboard has a Polish layout, [maniek-86] remapped it to English-US layout.

As you’ll see in the photos of the internals, this whole operation required careful Tetris-ing of the components to avoid overheating and ensure the cover could go back on.

The graphics were a bit of a challenge, since the motherboard had no PCI-E x16 slot. To address this, [maniek-86] used a riser cable, probably connected to a PCI-E x1 slot with an adapter, in order to use an NVIDIA GT 635 GPU. It can’t run AAA games at 4k, but you can bet that it’ll play Minecraft, Fortnite, or Dota 2 just fine.

Parkinson’s Keyboard Design Starts With the Human Body

This is OnCue, designed by [Alessandra Galli]. For Andrea, design is a “vehicle for care, inclusion, and meaningful social impact,” and these values are evident in her creation.

What makes OnCue different? Lots of things. For one, there’s a pair of wearable cuffs which use haptic feedback and visual cues to help alleviate symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. The keycaps are like little trays for your fingers, so it’s much harder to accidentally hit neighboring keys while typing.

The keys themselves have haptic feedback as well as the cuffs. AI-driven visual cues light up the most likely next letters, which is interesting. And everybody deserves a split layout.

Although wrist-based haptic feedback was the most well-received feature based on user feedback, it’s interesting to note that no single feature stood out as preferred by all. Users found the haptic feedback calming and relaxing, which is a huge win compared to the usual keyboard experience faced by users with Parkinson’s disease. Because the overall Parkinson’s experience is different for everyone, [Alessandra] took a modular approach to designing the customization software. Users can adjust the settings based on routines, preferences, and intensity of symptoms. And plus it looks to me like there’s a haptic feedback slider right there on the keyboard.

The Centerfold: Bonsai? Banzai!

Again, isn’t this just nice? The overall look, of course. I wouldn’t be able to use that keyboard or probably that mouse, but maybe that keyboard hiding on the right would work.

Regarding the real bonsai on the right shelf, [mugichanman] keeps it outside for the most part. It only comes indoors for a little while — three days at the absolute most. If you’re interested in the care and feeding of these tiny trees, check out this bonsai master class in a book.

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 Columbia Index Typewriter

Remember the Caligraph? Probably not, so I’ll wait. Well, apparently inventor Charles Spiro was hellbent on building a better Caligraph after he saw one being used. But he couldn’t raise enough capital to create such a large machine, so instead he went down to the basement and came up with the Columbia Index Typewriter.

If you’ll recall, index typewriters are like label makers — you must choose each character using an index of some kind. Operating this machine was no different.

One simply turned the straight handle on the right side to choose the character, which was highlighted by a small hand. Then the user would just press down on the handle to print it, and this action locked the typewheel so it wouldn’t slip and print something different.

Interestingly, the Columbia was the first typewriter with proportional spacing. That means that the carriage advanced based on the width of individual characters.

Columbia typewriters were only made for three years, from 1884-87. Three models were produced — Nos. 1 and 2, followed by an improved No. 2. The Columbia shown here is a No. 1, which typed in uppercase only. The 2 came out in March 1885 and could do upper and lowercase. The improved No. 2 was more robust and better mechanically, as well as being easier on the eyes. By 1887, Spiro was working on the Bar-Lock typewriter.

Finally, One-Handed Keyboard Does It Flat Out

The journey toward the keyboard you see here began with an email to [HTX Studio]. It came from a father who wanted to see his daughter be digitally independent again after an accident took the use of her right hand.

He asked the company to build a one-handed keyboard with a built-in trackball mouse, and even included a drawing of what he envisioned.

After several iterations, each tested by the daughter, the result is a compact, 61-key affair in a fanned-out arrangement for ease of use. Everything is within close reach, with special consideration given to the location of Space and Delete.

One of the early iterations had the user moving the entire keyboard around to mouse. While that’s definitely an interesting solution, I’m glad that everyone settled on the nicely exposed trackball with left and right click buttons above Space and Delete.

Another thing I’m happy about is that [HTX Studio] not only built 50 more of these in both left- and right-handed models and gave them away to people who need them, they went ahead and open-sourced it (Chinese, translated). Be sure to check out their fantastic video below.

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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.