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

Keebin’ With Kristina: The One With The Split With The Num Pad

January 26, 2026 by Kristina Panos 5 Comments

I love, love, love Saturn by [Rain2], which comes in two versions. The first, which is notably more complex, is shown here with its rings-of-Saturn thumb clusters.

A brightly-colored split with a built-in num pad on the right half. — Image by [Rain2] via reddit

So what was the impetus for this keyboard? It’s simple: a friend mentioned that ergo keyboards are a no-go if you need a num pad really bad.

Saturn has one built right in. The basic idea was to add a num pad while keeping the total number of keys to a minimum. Thanks to a mod key, this area can be many things, including but not limited to a num pad.

As far as the far-out shape goes, and I love that the curvature covers the thumb cluster and the index finger, [Rain2] wanted to get away from the traditional thumb cluster design. Be sure to check out the back of the boards in the image gallery.

Unfortunately, this version is too complicated to make, so v2 does not have the cool collision shapes going for it. But it is still an excellent keyboard, and perhaps will be open source someday.

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Keebin’ With Kristina: The One Where We Embrace The Jank

April 7, 2025 by Kristina Panos 17 Comments

Yeah, yeah — not a keyboard. But one keyboard-adjacent topic I’m certainly interested in is that of finding a satisfying mouse. Why settle for ticky micro-switches when you could have full-on thock in both peripherals?

My own personal peripherals. Banana mat for scale.

I’ve been using a Logitech Ergo M575 for a couple of years now. As you can see, it’s a trackball with two extra buttons, which come programmed for forward and back. I find this next to useless, so I employed AutoHotKey and changed them to Ctrl+C on the up switch, and Ctrl+V on the down switch.

[Aknup] commented on the previous Keebin’ and brought up MMO mice, which, I didn’t know those things had a name other than maybe ‘multi-button mice’. And yes, there are a few trackball MMOs out there. I’ve got my eye on a couple already.

Does anyone have a trackball MMO? I hate to spend $100+ on something I won’t like. I’m intrigued that the one I found that’s the most attractive is less a thumb trackball and more a two-fingers-at-once kind of situation. That will take some getting used to, but the way my trackball moves sometimes, it could be a really positive change.

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Keebin’ With Kristina: The One With The Typo

November 18, 2024 by Kristina Panos 15 Comments

Ceci n’est pas une keyboard, sure. But it’s keyboard-adjacent, and how. [Joshua Bemenderfer]’s wrists are tired of moving off the keyboard in order to mouse, and he decided to create a trackball that can sit just below the Space bar. The idea is to get rid of the regular mouse entirely if this works out.

A split keyboard with a DIY trackball beneath the Space bar. — Image by [Joshua Bemenderfer] via Hackaday.IO

And sure, the Ploopy family of open-source mice would welcome him with open arms, but they don’t come cheap. [Joshua]’s plan here is to make something for under $10. Ideally, less than $5.

Starting with an off-the-shelf trackball, the first BOM came in around $25 if you throw in $5 for the 3D printing of the case. [Joshua] added some cheap ceramic bearings to make it better. Since this was still too high, he turned to the internals of cheap mice.

Trial and error has resulted in a 99-cent special from Ali being the idea candidate. There are even cheaper mice to be had, but this one has an ideal layout for doing a bit of surgery. It also requires remapping since [Joshua] is flipping the sensor upside down and using a POM ball on top of it. Now he just needs to figure out how to add buttons and make them split keyboard-friendly.

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2023 Cyberdeck Challenge: Crosberry Pi Loves Lo-Fi Hip Hop

July 22, 2023 by Kristina Panos 1 Comment

As far as we can tell, the only real selling point that any portable record player offered was, well, its portability. To be clear, the sound is never that great. But perhaps a selling point for this crowd is that they usually come in hinged cases with handles, and you know what that means — cyberdeck that thing!

[Mx. Jack Nelson] started gutting this Crosley CR40 record player to make a Raspberry Pi housing, but it quickly turned into a cyberdeck project with the addition of a 10.1″ portable monitor, a Planck ortholinear keyboard, and a gutted trackball mouse.

We love that [Mx. Jack Nelson] made use of the Crosley’s original speakers — this was the wife’s idea! — as well as the volume and tone knobs. But our favorite part has to be the clear acrylic top that both protects the electronics and provides a platform for the keyboard and mouse buttons. Be sure to check out the demo video after the break.

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