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

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

December 29, 2025 by Kristina Panos 8 Comments

The astute among you may remember an earlier version of this Russian beauty, the Lapa, which I featured last year around this time. Creator [lemosbor] claims that the worry was less about visual beauty and more about ergonomics. Way more. Well then, let this serve rather nicely as a textbook definition of that old form-follows-function principle.

A splendidly ergonomic split with few keys, large openings under the palms and wrists, and mouse control on the thumbs. — The lovely Lapa.

See, [lemosbor] believes that the keyboard must adapt to the hands and not the other way around. The main goals were to minimize hand and finger movement as well as the visual attention required of the keyboard itself. No, there were never going to be any screens or RGB, and there likely never will be.

But I refuse to sidestep the obvious beauty in this keyboard, which from the side resembles a stylish and expensive pair of slightly-heeled shoes that were tailored to the contours of the human hand. And let’s not forget those handmade, oval keycaps, which again are a product of form-follows-function.

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Keebin’ With Kristina: The One With The Ultimate Portable Split

December 23, 2025 by Kristina Panos 8 Comments

What do you look for in a travel keyboard? For me, it has to be split, though this condition most immediately demands a carrying solution of some kind. Wirelessness I can take or leave, so it’s nice to have both options available. And of course, bonus points if it looks so good that people interrupt me to ask questions.

A pair of hands poised above a blue split keyboard that packs easily for travel in a 3D-printed case. The case doubles as a laptop stand. — Image by [kleshwong] via YouTube

Depending on your own personal answers to this burning question, the PSKEEB 5 just may be your endgame. And, lucky for you, [kleshwong] plans to open source it soon. All he asks for is your support by watching the video below and doing the usual YouTube-related things.

You’ll see a couple of really neat features, like swing-out tenting feet, a trackpoint, rotary encoders, and the best part of all — a carrying case that doubles as a laptop stand. Sweet!

Eight years in the making, this is the fifth in a series, thus the name: the P stands for Portability; the S for Split. [kleshwong] believes that 36 keys is just right, as long as you have what you need on various layers.

So, do what you can in the like/share/subscribe realm so we can all see the GitHub come to pass, would you? Here’s the spot to watch, and you can enjoy looking through the previous versions while you wait with your forks and stars.

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Keebin’ With Kristina: The One With The Curious Keyboards

December 16, 2025 by Kristina Panos 6 Comments

I love first builds! They say so much about a person, because you see what’s paramount to them in a keyboard. You can almost feel their frustration at other keyboards come through their design choices. And the Lobo by [no-restarts] is no exception to any of this.

There’s just something about this Corne-like object with its custom case and highly-tappable and variously tilted keycaps. The list of reasons for being begins innocently enough with [no-restarts] wanting a picture of their dog on the case.

A nicely-tented split keyboard with really interesting, 3D-printed keycap profiles. — Image by [no-restarts] via reddit

From there, things get really personal. You may notice the thumb cluster is slightly different — [no-restarts] doesn’t like the thumb tuck required by the Corne to reach the innermost keys. I really dig the homing bumps on the middle thumb keys. Another difference is the splayed layout, as [no-restarts] is especially prone to pinky splay. Finally, there are a pair of OLEDs hiding on the inner sides of the case, which are designed to be visible when tented.

Overall, [no-restarts] is happy with it, but has some ideas for revision. Yep, that sounds about right. The Lobo is all hand-wired, and there’s a PCB with hot swap sockets in its future. If you’re interested in the case files, GitHub is your friend.

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Keebin’ With Kristina: The One With The C64 Keyboard

December 9, 2025 by Kristina Panos 2 Comments

[Jean] wrote into the tips line (the system works!) to let all of us know about his hacked and hand-wired C64 keyboard, a thing of beauty in its chocolate-brown and 9u space bar-havin’ glory.

A C64 keyboard without the surrounding C64. — Image by [Jean] via GitHub

This Arduino Pro Micro-based brain transplant began as a sketch, and [Jean] reports it now has proper code in QMK. But how is a person supposed to use it in 2025, almost 2026, especially as a programmer or just plain serious computer user?

The big news here is that [Jean] added support for missing characters using the left and right Shift keys, and even added mouse controls and Function keys that are accessed on a layer via the Shift Lock key. You can see the key maps over on GitHub.

I’ll admit, [Jean]’s project has got me eyeing that C64 I picked up for $12 at a thrift store which I doubt still works as intended. But don’t worry, I will test it first.

Fortunately, it looks like [Jean] has thought of everything when it comes to reproducing this hack, including the requisite C64-to-Arduino pinout. So, what are you waiting for?

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Keebin’ With Kristina: The One With The Pretty Protoypes

December 4, 2025 by Kristina Panos 2 Comments

Some like it flat, and there’s nothing wrong with that. What you are looking at is the first prototype of Atlas by [AsicResistor], which is still a work in progress. [AsicResistor] found the Totem to be a bit cramped, so naturally, it was time to design a keyboard from the ground up.

The case is wood, if that’s not immediately obvious. This fact is easily detectable in the lovely render, but I didn’t want to show you that here.

This travel-friendly keyboard has 34 keys and dual trackpoints, one on each half. If the nubbin isn’t your thing, there’s an optional, oversized trackball, which I would totally opt for. But I would need an 8-ball instead, simply because that’s my number.

A build video is coming at some point, so watch the GitHub, I suppose, or haunt r/ergomechkeyboards.

Flat as it may be, I would totally at least give this keyboard a fair chance. There’s just something about those keycaps, for starters. (Isn’t it always the keycaps with me?) For another, I dig the pinky stagger. I’m not sure that two on each side is nearly enough thumb keys for me, however.

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Keebin’ With Kristina: The One With The Elegant Macro Pad

November 24, 2025 by Kristina Panos 9 Comments

Some people are not merely satisfied with functionality, or even just good looks. These persnickety snoots (I am one of them) seek something elegant, a true marriage of form and function.

Should such a person be in the market for a macro pad (or ‘macropad’ if you prefer), that snoot should look no further than [YANG SHU]’s 8-key programmable stream deck-like device.

The main goal here was the perfect fusion of display and feel. I’m not sure that an FDM-printed, DIY macro pad can look any better than this one does. But looks are only half the story, of course. There’s also feel, and of course, functionality.

Yes those are (hot-swappable) mechanical key switches, and they are powered by an ESP32-S2. Drawn on the 3.5″ LCD are icons and text for each switch, which of course can be easily changed in the config app.

There’s a three-direction tact switch that’s used to switch between layout profiles, and I’m sure that even this is satisfying on the feel front. Does it get better than this? Besides maybe printing it in black. I ask Hackaday.

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Keebin’ With Kristina: The One With The Cipher-Capable Typewriter

November 17, 2025 by Kristina Panos 23 Comments

I must confess that my mouth froze in an O when I saw [Jeff]’s Typeframe PX-88 Portable Computing System, and I continue to stare in slack-jawed wonder as I find the words to share it with you. Let me give it a shot.

[Jeff] tells us that he designed Typeframe for his spouse to use as a writer deck. That’s good spousing, if you ask me. Amazingly, this is [Jeff]’s first project of this type and scope, and somehow it’s an elegant, yet easy build that’s quite well documented to boot. Whatever Typeframe’s design may borrow, it seems to give back in spades.

The Typeframe PX-88 Portable Computing System. — Image by [Jeff] via Typeframe.net

Use Typeframe for what you will — cyberdeck, writer deck, travel PC — this baby can handle whatever you throw at it. And of course, it’s open source from front to back.

This Raspberry Pi 4B-based productivity machine has all sorts of neat features. The touch screen flips upward at an angle, so you don’t have to hunch over it or carry a mouse around. Want to sit back a bit while you work? The aesthetically spot-on keyboard is detachable. Yeah.

If that’s not enough to get you interested, Typeframe is designed for simple construction with minimal soldering, and the sliding panels make maintenance a breeze.

A little more about that keyboard — this is Keebin’, after all. It’s an MK Point 65, which boasts hot-swap sockets under those DSA Dolch keycaps. See? Minimal soldering. In fact, the only things you have to solder to make the Typeframe your own are the power switch and the status light. Incredible.

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