keyboard

445 Articles

The Blackberry Keyboard: How An Open-Source Ecosystem Sprouts

June 4, 2025 by 18 Comments

What could happen when you open-source a hardware project?

No, seriously. I hold a fair few radical opinions – one is that projects should be open-source to the highest extent possible. I’ve seen this make miracles happen, make hackerdom stronger, and nourish our communities. I think we should be publishing all the projects, even if incomplete, as much as your opsec allows. I would make ritual sacrifices if they resulted in more KiCad projects getting published, and some days I even believe that lightly bullying people into open-sourcing their projects can be justified. My ideal universe is one where companies are unable to restrict schematics from people getting their hardware, no human should ever hold an electronics black box, by force if necessary.

Why such a strong bias? I’ve seen this world change for the better with each open-source project, and worse with closed-source ones, it’s pretty simple for me. Trust me here – let me tell you a story of how a couple reverse-engineering efforts and a series of open-source PCBs have grown a tree of an ecosystem.

A Chain Of Blackberry Hackers

Continue reading “The Blackberry Keyboard: How An Open-Source Ecosystem Sprouts” →

ZX Mechtrum Deluxe keyboard close-up

The Keyboard Sinclair Never Made

June 2, 2025 by 17 Comments

For those of us who’ve spent far too long hammering rubber keys into submission, a glorious solution has arrived. [Lee Smith] designed the ZX Mechtrum Deluxe, the ultimate keyboard upgrade for your beloved ZX Spectrum 48k. Thanks to [morefunmakingit], you can see this build-it-yourself mechanical mod below. It finally brings a proper spacebar and Spectrum-themed Wraith keycaps into your retro life.

The Metrum Deluxe is a full PCB redesign: no reused matrices or clunky membrane adapters here. [Lee Smith] got fed up with people (read: the community, plus one very persistent YouTuber) asking for a better typing experience, so he delivered. Wraith keycaps from AliExpress echo the original token commands and BASIC vibe, without going full collector-crazy. Best of all: the files are open. You can download the case on Printables and order the PCB through JLCPCB. Cherry on top (pun intended): you’ll finally have a spacebar your thumbs can be proud of.

So whether you’re into Frankenstein rigs or just want your Spectrum to stop feeling like an air mattress, check this video out. Build files and link to the keycaps can be found on Youtube, below the video.

Tip: if you foster a secret love for keyboards, don’t miss the Keebin’ with Kristina’s series on all sorts of keyboards.

Continue reading “The Keyboard Sinclair Never Made” →

A New Mechanical Keyboard For An Old Computer

April 10, 2025 by 9 Comments

As computers age, a dedicated few work towards keeping some of the more interesting ones running. This is often a losing battle of sorts, as the relentless march of time comes for us all, human and machine alike. So as fewer and fewer of these machines remain new methods are needed to keep them running as best they can. [CallousCoder] demonstrates a way of building up a new keyboard for a Commodore 64 which both preserves the original look and feel of the retro computer but also adds some modern touches.

One of the main design differences between many computers of the 80s and modern computers is that the keyboard was often built in to the case of the computer itself. For this project, that means a custom 3D printed plate that can attach to the points where the original keyboard would have been mounted inside the case of the Commodore. [CallousCoder] is using a print from [Wolfgang] to get this done, and with the plate printed and a PCB for the keys it was time to start soldering. The keyboard uses modern switches and assembles like most modern keyboards do, with the exception of the unique layout for some of the C64 keys including a latching shift key, is fairly recognizable for anyone who has put together a mechanical keyboard before.

[CallousCoder] is using the original keycaps from a Commodore 64, so there is an additional step of adding a small adapter between the new switches and the old keycaps. But with that done and some amount of configuring, he has a modern keyboard that looks like the original. If you’re more a fan of the original hardware, though, you can always take an original C64 keyboard and convert it to USB to use it on your modern machines instead.

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A Foot Pedal To Supplement Your Keyboard

March 18, 2025 by 24 Comments

It’s 2025, and you’re still probably pressing modifier keys on your keyboard like a… regular person. But it doesn’t have to be this way! You could use foot pedals instead, as [Jan Herman] demonstrates.

Now, if you’re a diehard embedded engineer, you might be contemplating your favorite USB HID interface chip and how best to whip up a custom PCB for the job. But it doesn’t have to be that complicated! Instead, [Jan] goes for an old school hack—he simply ripped the guts out of an cheap USB keyboard. From there, he wired up a few of the matrix pads to 3.5 mm jack connectors, and put the whole lot in a little metal project box. Then, he hooked up a few foot pedal switches with 3.5 mm plugs to complete the project.

[Jan] has it set up so he can plug foot pedals in to whichever keys he needs at a given moment. For example, he can plug a foot pedal in to act as SPACE, ESC, CTRL, ENTER, SHIFT, ALT, or left or right arrow. It’s a neat way to make the project quickly reconfigurable for different productivity tasks. Plus, you can see what each pedal does at a glance, just based on how it’s plugged in.

It’s not an advanced hack, but it’s a satisfying one. We’ve seen some other great builds in this space before, too. If you’re cooking up your own keyboard productivity hacks, don’t hesitate to let us know!

Building A Ten-Hundred Key Computer Word-Giving Thing

March 14, 2025 by 17 Comments

From the styling of this article’s title, some might assume that the Hackaday editors are asleep at the switch this fine day. While that might be true — it’s not our turn to watch them — others will recognize this tortured phrasing as one way to use the 1,000 most commonly used words in the English language to describe a difficult technical project, such as [Attoparsec]’s enormous and enormously impractical ten-hundred word keyboard.

While the scale of this build is overwhelming enough, the fact that each key delivers a full word rather than a single character kind of throws the whole keyboard concept out the window. The 60×17 matrix supports the 1,000 most common English words along with 20 modifier keys, which allow a little bit of cheating on the 1-kiloword dictionary by letting you pluralize a word or turn it into an adjective or adverb. Added complexity comes from the practical limits of PCB fabrication, which forces the use of smaller (but still quite large) PCBs that are connected together. Luckily, [Attoparsec] was able to fit the whole thing on five identical PCBs, which were linked together with card-edge connectors.

The list of pain points on this six-month project is long, and the video below covers them all in detail. What really stood out to us, though, was the effort [Attoparsec] put into the keycaps. Rather than 3D printing his own, he used dye sublimation to label blank keycaps with the 1,000 words. That might sound simple, but he had to go through a lot of trial and error before getting a process that worked, and the results are quite nice. Another problem was keeping the key switches aligned while soldering, which was solved with a 3D printed jig. We also appreciate the custom case to keep this keyboard intact while traveling; we’re going to keep that build-your-own road case service in mind for future projects.

This mega-keyboard is a significant escalation from [Attoparsec]’s previous large keyboard project. The results are pretty ridiculous and impractical, but that’s just making us love it more. The abundance of tips and tricks for managing a physically expansive project are just icing on the cake.

Continue reading “Building A Ten-Hundred Key Computer Word-Giving Thing” →

Soviet ZX Spectrum clone on a table

ZX Spectrum, Soviet Style: A 44-IC Clone You Can Build

March 10, 2025 by 12 Comments

If you’ve ever fancied building a ZX Spectrum clone without hunting down ancient ULAs or soldering your way through 60+ chips, [Alex J. Lowry] has just dropped an exciting build. He has recreated the Leningrad-1, a Soviet-built Spectrum clone from 1988, with a refreshingly low component count: 44 off-the-shelf ICs, as he wrote us. That’s less than many modern clones like the Superfo Harlequin, yet without resorting to programmable logic. All schematics, Gerbers, and KiCad files are open-source, listed at the bottom of [Alex]’ build log.

The original Leningrad-1 was designed by Sergey Zonov during the late Soviet era, when cloning Western tech was less about piracy and more about survival. Zonov’s design nailed a sweet spot between affordability and usability, with enough compatibility to run 90-95% of Spectrum software. [Alex]’ replica preserves that spirit, with a few 21st-century tweaks for builders: silkscreened component values, clever PCB stacking with nylon standoffs, and a DIY-friendly mechanical keyboard hack using transparent keycaps.

While Revision 0 still has some quirks – no SCART color output yet, occasional flickering borders with AY sound – [Alex] is planning for further improvements. Inspired to build your own? Read [Alex]’ full project log here.

You Know This Font, But You Don’t Really Know It

February 15, 2025 by 18 Comments

Typography enthusiasts reach a point at which they can recognise a font after seeing only a few letters in the wild, and usually identify its close family if not the font itself. It’s unusual then for a font to leave them completely stumped, but that’s where [Marcin Wichary] found himself. He noticed a font which many of you will also have seen, on typewriter and older terminal keys. It has a few unusual features that run contrary to normal font design such as slightly odd-shaped letters and a constant width line, and once he started looking, it appeared everywhere. Finding its origin led back well over a century, and led him to places as diverse as New York street furniture and NASA elevators.

The font in question is called Gorton, and it came from the Gorton Machine Co, a Wisconsin manufacturer. It’s a font designed for a mechanical router, which is why it appears on so much custom signage and utilitarian components such as keyboard keys. Surprisingly its history leads back into the 19th century, predating many of the much more well-know sans serif fonts. So keep an eye out for it on your retro tech, and you’ll find that you’ve seen a lot more of it than you ever knew. If you are a fellow font-head, you might also know the Hershey Font, and we just ran a piece on the magnetic check fonts last week.

Thanks [Martina] for the tip!