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Illustrated Kristina with an IBM Model M keyboard floating between her hands.

Keebin’ With Kristina: The One With The Hardware-Layered Keyboard

January 20, 2025 by 3 Comments

You know (or maybe you didn’t), I get super excited when y’all use the links at the bottom of this round-up we call Keebin’ to communicate with your old pal Kristina about your various labors of love. So just remember that.

Case in point: I was typing up this very issue when I heard from [Jay Crutti] and [Marcel Erz]. Both are out there making replacement keyboards for TRS-80s — [Jay] for Models 3 and 4, and [Marcel] for the Model 1. Oooh, I said to myself. This is going at the top.

A TRS-80 Model 4 with a replacement keyboard.
A TRS-80 Model 4. Image by [Jay Crutti] via JayCrutti.com
Relevant tangent time: I remember in the 90s having a pile of computers in my parents’ basement of various vintages, a TRS-80 Model 2 among them. (Did I ever tell you about the time I got pulled over for speeding with a bunch of different computers in the backseat? I was like no, officer, first of all, those are old machines that no one would really want, and I swear I didn’t steal them.)

I think the TRS-80 is probably the one I miss the most. If I still had it, you can bet I would be using [Jay] and [Marcel]’s work to build my own replacement keyboard, which the 40-year-old machine would likely need at this point if the Model 4 is any indication with its failing keyboard contacts.

To create the replacements, [Jay] used Keyboard Layout Editor (KLE), Plate & Case Builder, and EasyEDA. Using the schematic from the maintenance manual, he matched the row/column wiring of the original matrix with Cherry MX footprints. Be sure to check out [Jay]’s site for a link to the project files, or to purchase parts or an assembled keyboard. On the hunt for TRS-80 parts in general? Look no further than [Marcel]’s site.
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Illustrated Kristina with an IBM Model M keyboard floating between her hands.

Keebin’ With Kristina: The One With The Holey And Wholly Expensive Keyboard

January 13, 2025 by 10 Comments

An Ultimate Hacking Keyboard (UHK) with DIY rainbow keycaps.
Image by [jwr] via reddit
The Ultimate Hacking Keyboard (UHK) line is, as the name suggests, a great choice for a lot of people. They’re each a toe-dip into the ergonomic waters with their split-ability and those beginner thumb clusters.

However, [jwr] was not completely satisfied and decided to make a custom set of keycaps. The idea was to create ‘caps without the “annoyingly abrasive texture of PBT”, that are larger than average for larger-than-average fingers. Finally, [jwr] wanted the Function row to tower over the number row a little, so these have a taller profile.

So, what are they made of? The look kind rubbery, don’t they? They are cast of pigmented polyurethane resin. First, [jwr] designed five molds in Fusion360, one for each row. Then it was time to machine master molds via CNC in foam tooling board. These were filled with silicone along with 3D-printed inserts, which produced silicone molds for casting keycaps four at a time in resin.

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Illustrated Kristina with an IBM Model M keyboard floating between her hands.

Keebin’ With Kristina: The One With The Circuit Sculpture Keyboard

January 7, 2025 by 2 Comments

The left half of GEMK-47, a mechanical keyboard with a round screen.
Image by [New-Concentrate6308] via reddit
Don’t worry, [New-Concentrate6308] is working on the GitHub for this final build of 2024, dubbed the GEMK_47. That stands for Grid Ergo Magnetic Keyboard, but I swear there are 48 keys.

What we’ve got here is a split ergo with an ortholinear layout. There’s a round screen and encoder on the left side, and a 35 mm trackpad on the right. There’s also space for some other round thing on this side, should you want another rotary encoder or whatever fits in place of the spacer.

Internally, there’s a Waveshare RP2040 Tiny and a mixture of Gateron Oil Kings and Gateron Yellow V3 switches. That lovely case is printed in silk silver PLA, but [New-Concentrate6308] wants to try metal-filled PLA for the next version. Although the original idea was to go wireless, ZMK didn’t play nicely with that round display, which of course is non-negotiable.

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Illustrated Kristina with an IBM Model M keyboard floating between her hands.

Keebin’ With Kristina: The One With The Copycat Keyboard

December 30, 2024 by 1 Comment

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.

The Crater75 split keyboard, which features OLEDs on the Function row.
Image by [United_Parfait_6383] via reddit
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.

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Illustrated Kristina with an IBM Model M keyboard floating between her hands.

Keebin’ With Kristina: The One With The Keyboard-Mouse

December 23, 2024 by 11 Comments

One of the most annoying things about keyboard and mouse input has got to be the need to constantly switch between the two. Ever wish there was a single solution that combined them with elegance? Then you should definitely check out [lemosbor]’s Lapa keyboard, where the right half includes a mouse sensor.

A 36-key split board where the right half also operates as a mouse.
Image by [lemosbor] via reddit
Lapa, which is Russian for ‘paw’, certainly has that type of look. This hand-wired keyboard uses a pair of Pro Micros and an ADNS9800 optical sensor for mousing around. Under those ‘caps are MX blues, the OG clackers.

Let me just say that I love the look of this keyboard, and I don’t normally like black and brown together. But that oak — that oak is classy, and it looks good with the resin-and-varnish case. If you can handle a 36-key board — I myself cannot — then this would probably be a game changer. There are even slots for your palms to breathe.

Unfortunately it’s not open source, but a girl can dream, right? In the reddit post, [lemosbor] says that they would be interested in selling the next version, provided it’s the final one.

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Illustrated Kristina with an IBM Model M keyboard floating between her hands.

Keebin’ With Kristina: The One With The Curvy Centerfold

December 16, 2024 by 7 Comments

What do you get when you combine a Raspberry Pi 4B, a Kaypro keyboard, and a 9″ Apple ], you get the coolest AVR development workstation I’ve seen in a while.

A Raspberry Pi-based AVR workstation that uses a Kaypro keyboard and 9" monochrome Apple ][c display.
Image by [John Anderson] via Hackaday.IO
As you may have guessed, I really dig the looks of this thing. The paint job on the display is great, but the stripes on the keyboard and badging on are on another level. Be sure to check out the entire gallery on this one.

About that keyboard — [John] started this project with two incomplete keyboards that each had a couple of broken switches. Since the two keyboards were compliments of each other parts-wise, they made a great pair, and [John] only had to swap out three switches to get it up and clacking.

In order to make it work with the Pi, [John] wrote a user-mode serial driver that uses the uinput kernel module to inject key events to the kernel. But he didn’t stop there.

Although the Pi supports composite video out, the OS doesn’t provide any way to turn off the chroma color signal that’s modulated on top of the basic monochrome NTSC signal, which makes the picture look terrible. To fix that, he wrote a command-line app that sets up the video controller to properly display a monochrome NTSC signal. Happy AVRing on your amazing setup, [John]! Continue reading “Keebin’ With Kristina: The One With The Curvy Centerfold” →

Illustrated Kristina with an IBM Model M keyboard floating between her hands.

Keebin’ With Kristina: The One With The Funny Keyboard

December 9, 2024 by 19 Comments

What’s the most important keyboard macro you know? Honestly, it’s probably Ctrl-S. But do you use that one often enough? Chances are, you do not. What you need is a giant, dedicated Save keyboard that looks like a floppy disk.

A physical Save button that looks like a floppy disk and sends Ctrl-S over USB-C.
Image by [Makestreme] via Hackaday.IO
[Makestreme] recently started creating YouTube videos, but wasn’t pressing Save often enough. Couple that with editing software that crashes, and the result is hours of lost work.

Just like you’d expect, pressing the floppy icon triggers Ctrl-S when connected over USB-C. Internally, it’s a Seeeduino Xiao, a push button, and some wires.

The floppy disk itself is made of foam board, and everything is encased in a picture frame. If you want to make one for yourself, [Makestreme] has some great instructions over on IO.

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