deskthority

Here is a little project that i started, I have trouble typing on a regular keyboard, well mainly get confused and have to look at my keyboard to type. I use a G13 game board http://gaming.logitech.com/en-us/produc ... -gameboard to play MMO's and various other game and noticed how much easier it is for me to find my place/ keys, and thought "If i had one for each hand to type that would be swell!" so the journey began...
I would go through each iteration but I would really like to just show off... I mean give a tour of what I have now.

It is similar to the ERGODOX and Key64 projects except it is simplified (I.E. fewer keys). I found that with the G13 that only 3 rows and 5 keys wide was really comfortable so I based the layout off of that. It of course uses a teensy (3.0) because it is small, cheap, and hs on board usb, and the switches are from an ole IBM keyboard i got for 2$ at a local used computer store, they are SMK switches and it took a long time to de-solder at first but i got the hang of it eventually. All the soldering is pretty much point to point and has diodes at every switch. The frame was laser cut and the thumb buttons are, the big ones change the key sets, the ones below the big ones are from left to right alt, shift, ctrl, and space bar the big ones are not in the matrix but the ones below them are (there is room for 6 more switches in the matrix). The code is rather boring but I'll link it any ways https://gist.github.com/DurzoO/5829182 the code is kinda long and simple but it works really well and didn't take that long to write, I did it this way because the non-printable characters (shift, alt, ctrl, delete, the function keys)don't seem to work very well in the standard keypad matrix, and I found this solution on the prjc forums some where (haven't been able to find the post that i ctrl-c, crtl-v'ed it from again). I am going to change some of the keys that are defined as space bar to media keys but they don't work right at the moment, and possibly a layout tweak after i use it for a while.

The main layout is set up like a regular qwerty key layout (the keys as they are labeled) except / is enter.

While I hold down the right key set button

The top row keys are from left to right, arrow keys up, down, left, right, tab, delete, home, end, page up, page down
The home row keys are from left to right numbers 1-0
The bottom row from left to right is, / \ [ ] - = ` , . BACKSPACE.

While I hold down the left key set button
The top row keys are from left to right page up, page down, home, end, space, space, space, cap lock, space, esc.
The home row keys are from left to right F1-F10
The bottom row keys are from left to right F11, F12, space, ,space, space, space, space, comma, period, gui

Here are some pictures

From the top



The soldering job in the back



A perspective on the thickness



The glorious mess and Teensy 3.0

nice job, though you definitely don't get points for beauty ;-D
would it be more reasonable looking if the switches had diodes in 'em?

Beauty is of a lesser concern when you are prototyping...

Why did you choose to use a Teensy 3.0 and not the Teensy 2.0 with ready-made firmware?

A glorious mess indeed. This is everything a prototype should be!

For the final product, I'd consider a detachable central cable as its a likely point of failure if tugged (it will always be, accidentally, someday). That way you can experiment with shoulder and arm ergonomics, and get creative about mounting these halves to chair arms or other sneaky installations!

Yup its messy that's its "charm" >:D, there are diodes at every switch in the matrix you can kinda see them in the mess on the back, and all the hot glue is to prevent a wire "tugging" loose. The Teensy 3.0 can use all the same code as 2.0 (this code works on every computer that accepts standard keyboard input), it is just faster has more i/o and I had on hand from a previous project. i have plenty of room on the Teensy so i am looking at adding a Wii nunchuck as a mouse or a small lcd for rss/irc/asii art , but first I want to use this for a while to make sure that I like it.

Good job!