Building A Raspberry Pi inside An Apple Extended Keyboard.

[ezrahilyer]

I built a Raspberry Pi inside an Apple Extended Keyboard. This is my project:

http://straypoetry.com/project/raspberr ... -keyboard/


I also did a model M, and probably will make some more, I am thinking of making a dedicated Emacs machine with one of the smaller ALPS boards that has Control where the caps lock button usually is.

[ShawnMeg]

That's very sweet.

[Willwas]

http://preamp.org/mods/raspcherry-pi
Here's something similar with a Cherry G80-3000 [english and german text].

I like the idea to have a portable mini computer with a decent keyboard on hand.

[andrewjoy]

that is very cool,

[Madhias]

RaspCherry Pi sounds pretty awesome!

[ezrahilyer]

http://preamp.org/mods/raspcherry-pi
Here's something similar with a Cherry G80-3000 [english and german text].

I like the idea to have a portable mini computer with a decent keyboard on hand.

That Cherry board was my inspiration, I saw that on hackaday a while back, and had wanted to do one myself.
I really love this little computer, feels great, I am becoming more and more of an ALPs fan.

[Muirium]

Smart work. The damped Alps in AEK IIs are a nice subtle switch, if they're in good shape. Amusing to see a Teensy (clone) in there just to handle ADB conversion, but I'll admit that's the way I'd do it as well. Can't argue with readymade code!

My brother (who works in processors for a living) wonders why we all use ATMega when ARM is right there, improving at full pace, and already ahead in power efficiency, let alone performance. He'll be baffled by the sight of a full ARM computer inside a keyboard that's still using ATMega. Of course, I await his implied ARM port of TMK! If he's ever inspired to it…

[andrewjoy]

i have always wanted to try dampened alps like the ones on an SGI

[Muirium]

I've got an SGI (waiting for me at my brothers, from Cindy of course) but it's not the PS/2 version Granite. So I'll likely get inventive with it.

This one I think:
http://deskthority.net/wiki/SGI_Granite#041-0136-001

The upside is nice thick PBT caps.

[mr_a500]

I've got an SGI granite, cream AEK II and orange ALPS original AEK. The original AEK is the best of the three. (AEK II by far the worst)

[andrewjoy]

I've got an SGI (waiting for me at my brothers, from Cindy of course) but it's not the PS/2 version Granite. So I'll likely get inventive with it.

This one I think:
http://deskthority.net/wiki/SGI_Granite#041-0136-001

The upside is nice thick PBT caps.

i guess you could see if its possible to switch controllers with a AT101 after all its just a matrix going into a controller


mmmm PBT

regarding the AEK yes i have seen that around that its far superior to the AEK2 but they are much harder to find

[Muirium]

I'll open it up and see if the controller is modular or not. Then the multiverse splits, where one version of me starts planning a Teensy replacement controller, and the other one swears for a while and starts looking for Sun protocol converters.

[Findecanor]

Hasn't someone not written a keyboard controller driver for the Raspberry Pi's GPIO pins / Raspbian already?

[ezrahilyer]

Hasn't someone not written a keyboard controller driver for the Raspberry Pi's GPIO pins / Raspbian already?

Yes, I looked into that when I was planning this, but if I did that, I wouldn't be able to add a switch to change between sources, and have this just function as a regular keyboard when I don't need or want the Rpi.

Plus that would probably take me a week just to make and debug, and I was anxious to get this up and running.

On that same idea, I have been thinking that if I used a Raspberry Pi A+ I could use the GPIO header and essentially build a keyboard on-top of the Rpi, and make a very very compact version of this by just making a PCB with the matrix, and directly mount that PCB onto the GPIO header. Then solder the switches in.

Think of a dedicated Emacs box.

-Ezra

[andrewjoy]

its a shame you cannot get the old beta version of the rasberry pi that was the size of a usb stick then you could fit it inside a HHK Pro 2

[ShawnMeg]

i have always wanted to try dampened alps like the ones on an SGI

In my opinion, the dampened cream ALPS on an AEKII feel horrible. I removed the dampers and modded the click leaf, to make it a clicky switch. It is much better (to me).

[andrewjoy]

I have been experimenting with modded alps as well , you can make the generally crappy black alps nice by totally removing the tactile leaf turning it into a liner switch and it feels very nice , weight is between MX black and MX red and its far smoother than both the modern alternatives

[Cherry1990]

You probably made the first Raspberry PiK computer in the world...