The Birdy44 Keyboard Is Something To Crow About

October 18, 2023 by Kristina Panos 6 Comments

The funny thing about keyboard end game is that it usually involves more than one keyboard. Rare is the board that is great for both home and away. Having finished their dactyl build, [RalphCoder13] was looking to build something slimmer and more portable, and the Birdy44 was born.

This hand-wired beauty uses a pair of Waveshare RP2040 Zeros and features a pair of 40mm Cirque track pads that were salvaged from a Steam controller.

As you may have guessed, there are 44 Kailh Chocs that sit underneath a combination of MBK and 3D-printed keycaps. Our favorite part might be the tenting legs, which are optional and connect magnetically.

Part of portability is how you decide to carry the thing. You probably don’t want it naked and loose in your backpack if you can avoid it, right? To that end, he designed a nice little case for the halves. The original plan was to use magnets to hold them in place inside the topless case, but that didn’t work out so well, so he added wide elastic bands to stretch around the case.

Is this still not portable enough for you? Check out this folding split keyboard.

Via KBD

Crabapplepad Folding Keyboard Is Actually Pretty Sweet

October 13, 2023 by Kristina Panos 10 Comments

[Sergei Silnov] was quite attached to the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic 4000 keyboard, an updated version of their Natural keyboard that brought so many into the split fold. But once [Sergei] started writing notes in coffee shops, it was time for something portable.

The trouble with many portable keyboards, especially folding ones, is that they’re not often comfortable to type on. However, the Crabapplepad, a sleek, elegant offering, looks as though it begs to differ.

[Sergei] truly thought of everything and packed it into this 2cm thick wonder. There’s a little kickstand to hold your phone, or you can just throw an Apple trackpad between the halves and it magnetically attaches. Inside there’s a Seeed Studio XIAO nRF52840, and the switches are the extremely thin and hard-to-find Kailh PG1425 X, a sweet-looking scissor switch.

The only problem with X-switches is that there is only one type of keycap for them at the moment, and there aren’t any homing bums for F and J. To get around this, [Sergei] designed some 3D-printed frames to go around the keycaps and make them more distinct. Yes, this beauty it is open source, so go forth and be comfortable in absolute style. Don’t forget to check out the demo after the break.

To be honest, there once was a pretty good folding keyboard — the Palm Portable. Don’t worry; someone made a Bluetooth adapter for them.

Continue reading “Crabapplepad Folding Keyboard Is Actually Pretty Sweet” →

Hats Off To Another Weird Keyboard From Google Japan

October 7, 2023 by Kristina Panos 10 Comments

As portable as keyboards have gotten, you still need some place to put the thing — some kind of bag for travel, and a flat surface for using it. Well, it doesn’t get much more portable than a hat keyboard, now does it?

Every October 1st, Google Japan likes to celebrate the 101-key keyboard by building something revolutionary off the top of their heads. (10/1… 101… get it?) This year was no exception — they created the GCAPS, a ballcap-like device with a single switch inside.

In order to use it, you spin the hat left and right until the desired character is reached, and the rotation is detected by a gyroscope. Then you press down on the top of the hat to send the key codes via Bluetooth.

Under the hood, the hat uses an M5Stick C Plus and, to our dismay, a micro switch that wasn’t even made by Cherry. Oh well — we landed on the clicky side, so that’s great in our book. Surprisingly, there exists a skull cap/hat skeleton thing on which to build a platform for pressing down on the switch. Just like the teaboard and the long boi keyboards, this thing is completely open source.

Since it types in Japanese, there’s no word on whether it types in all caps, though we like to think that it would given the object it represents. Be sure to check out the product reveal video after the break.

Continue reading “Hats Off To Another Weird Keyboard From Google Japan” →

We’d Sure Like To Strum The Chrumm Keyboard

October 5, 2023 by Kristina Panos 12 Comments

If you want something as personal as a keyboard done right, you have to do it yourself. Not quite satisfied with the multitude of mechanical offerings out there, [summific] decided to throw their hat into the ring and design the Chrumm keyboard. And boy, are we glad they did.

Between the lovely tenting angle and tilt, the gorgeous flexible PCBs, and the pictures that could pass for renders, [summific] has given us something beautiful to behold that we can only dream of thocking on. Even the honeycomb plate is nice. Oh, but this monoblock split is completely open source.

This Raspberry Pi Pico-powered keyboard features a 3D printable case design without visible screws, and a rotary encoder in the middle. Those palm rests are firmly attached from the underside. Why are the thumb cluster keycaps upside down? It’s not meant to drive you insane; it’s because the contour is more finger-friendly that way, according to some people.

[summific] makes this look easy, but it doesn’t matter, because all the hard work is already done. If you want something easier, start with a macropad. Or a macro pad, even.

Via reddit

Single-Button Keyboard Has Multiple Uses

September 26, 2023 by Kristina Panos 13 Comments

Well now why would I want a single-button keyboard, you might be asking yourself. We say it all depends on how you build the thing, and how you program it. Would you believe that the MagiClick by [Modular] is capable of showing live weather information or the date and time, acting as animated dice, or being a stopwatch and Pomodoro timer? Now you’re beginning to understand.

Before we get much further, yes, this bad boy has two additional buttons on the sides. But the spirit of the thing is in the single large switch in the middle. It’s hiding beneath the 0.85″ 128×128 display, which is protected from pressure and fingerprints by that Pop-o-Matic bubble over the top. While the big button is the main operator used to access the function options, the side buttons are used as auxiliaries to exit and return to the home screen.

MagiClick is based on the ESP32-S3 and is designed to run on CircuitPython. In addition to everything else packed into this thing, there are blinkenlights and a small speaker inside, plus a GPIO expansion header around back. Everything is available on GitHub if you want to build your own.

Not enough keys for you? Well, here’s one with two.

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

Keebin’ With Kristina: The One With The Busy Box Macro Pad

September 21, 2023 by Kristina Panos 7 Comments

Well, I must admit that Google Translate completely failed me here, and thus I have no real idea what the trick is to this beautiful, stunning transparent split keyboard by [illness072]. Allegedly, the older tweets (exes?) hold the key to this magic, but again, Google Translate.

Based on top picture, I assume that the answer lies in something like thin white PCB fingers bent to accommodate the row stagger and hiding cleverly behind the keys.

Anyone who can read what I assume is Japanese, please advise what is going on in the comments below.

Continue reading “Keebin’ With Kristina: The One With The Busy Box Macro Pad” →

This Keyboard Doesn’t Work Without Game Boy Cartridges

September 11, 2023 by Kristina Panos 9 Comments

Just when we though we’d seen it all when it comes to custom keyboards (or most of it, anyway), along comes [Stu] with the TypeBoy and TypePak. Like the title implies, TypeBoy and TypePak are inseparable.

Let’s talk about TypePak first. Somehow, some way, [Stu] managed to fit the following into an aftermarket Game Boy Advance cartridge: a XIAO BLE microcontroller, a Sharp Memory Display, a shift register, and a LiPo battery. It’s all there in [Stu]’s incredibly detailed blog post linked above.

Amazing, no? And although [Stu] claims that the TypePak is mostly for aesthetics (boy howdy), it will make swapping microcontrollers much easier in the future.

If this looks sort of familiar, you may remember a likely render of [mujimaniac]’s board called the GIGA40 that also employed a cartridge system. Allegedly there is now a working prototype of the GIGA40.

Would you like to give the TypeBoy and TypePak a go? Files are available on GitHub, but this doesn’t seem like a project for the faint of heart.

Speaking of stuffing things in to Game Boy cartridges, check out this SNES cartridge turned hard drive enclosure.

Via KBD