Keyboard One Is An Ear Of Corne

November 4, 2022 by Kristina Panos 16 Comments

There are all kinds of avenues into the mechanical keyboarding hobby, and one of the more well-traveled ones runs between coworkers. [crsayen] aka [DrJamesOIncandenza] has one such relationship, and was turned on to the CRKBD a while back by an office mate. For the uninitiated, that’s short for Corne keyboard, which is a column-staggered 3×6 split keyboard with three thumb keys per hand.

While [JOI] liked the Corne well enough, especially with chocs, he got the occasional craving to slap (that’s what we’re calling typing on linears from now on — slapping vs. clacking) on some silent MX switches and so built this Corne-derivative monoblock split called Keyboard One. Aside from the more obvious differences,

We think this looks rather spanking for a first keyboard, sort of like a slightly smaller Alice or something. But you don’t have to go to great lengths to obtain [JOI]’s knowledge, for everything is on GitHub. [JOI] says they sort of regret going 3×6, but are already planning another build with more keys. See, that’s the spirit.

Via KBD #101

Chonky Palmtop Will Slide Into Your Heart

April 29, 2022 by Kristina Panos 41 Comments

You probably know what a cyberdeck is by now, but you’ll find that people’s definitions differ. Some use the term rather loosely, applying it to things that are luggable at best. But we think you’ll agree that the “Chonky Palmtop” created by [Daniel Norris] AKA [a8ksh4] is without a doubt, quite cyberdeckian.

One of the hallmarks of a cyberdeck is that it folds up, often like a laptop in the screen-over-keyboard sense. Not only does chonky palmtop do that, but the split keyboard (more on that later) has this impressive pivot geometry and really satisfying slider mechanism thing going on. The whole thing folds up into a little brick, which [Daniel] says is about the size of an old Asus EEE laptop. (Remember those bad boys? Those were the days.)

Inside the brick is some stuff you might expect, like a Raspberry Pi 4 and a 7″ touchscreen. [a8ksh4] also packed in an AmpRipper 3000 LiPo charger, which is especially good for high voltage projects. Speaking of, there is a voltage button to check the battery level, which is then displayed on a trio of 7-segment displays that are smack dab in the middle below the screen.

Now about that split keyboard — that’s a Corne, which is kind of a happy medium between a lot of keys and too few, and 42 is probably enough keys for most people. Considering the overall size, we think that is a great amount of keys.

Not that you can tell by the keycaps on those Chocs, but [a8ksh4] is rocking the Miryoku layout and firmware. Slide past the break to watch chonky palmtop unfurl, boot into Ubuntu, and close back up in a brief demo video.

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