Search found 391 matches

by Hak Foo
14 Jan 2024, 04:37
Forum: Keyboards
Topic: Generic-ify a gaming keyboard?
Replies: 6
Views: 6034

Re: Generic-ify a gaming keyboard?

My experience with a large custom board, on EasyAVR and possibly QMK, was that the random cheapo KVMs I used didn't like the NKRO modes. They would work, but it wouldn't sniff the "type control-control-2 to switch to the other machine" for example. I wasn't really testing some of the other devices, ...
by Hak Foo
25 Aug 2023, 23:23
Forum: News
Topic: MX2A
Replies: 13
Views: 6600

Re: MX2A

Bold move to mention a specific trademark when describing the lubrication - I assumed companies did not make direct comparisons with named competing products. I was wrong? Does this mean 1 ms, or do this mean "probably 1 ms, but if you set set the debounce protection to less than 5 ms in your firmw...
by Hak Foo
18 Jul 2023, 05:14
Forum: Mice & other input devices
Topic: Rollermouse Free2 cleanup/checkout
Replies: 3
Views: 27106

Re: Rollermouse Free2 cleanup/checkout

Okay, after slopping the unit down with alcohol and poking at it for 20 minutes, I feel like I'm stuck in a "you're holding it wrong" loop. The rolling mechanism is nice, but I can't figure out placement. I sort of want to treat it like a Trackpoint, although obviously with way more play, but the po...
by Hak Foo
17 Jul 2023, 03:35
Forum: Mice & other input devices
Topic: Rollermouse Free2 cleanup/checkout
Replies: 3
Views: 27106

Rollermouse Free2 cleanup/checkout

Today at the junk shop I found two things I was in need of: a set of ~3.5kg dumb-bells and a complete-looking-in-box RollerMouse Free2. While it looks like it had limited use before being boxed back up and discarded, I want to clean it off from the shop of who-knows-who sneezing and coughing on it. ...
by Hak Foo
06 Apr 2023, 06:47
Forum: Group buys
Topic: Beam Spring 104+SSK Reproduction Project! First Batch In Stock, Shipping early next year after New Model F Project
Replies: 772
Views: 3565776

Re: Beam Spring 104+SSK Reproduction Project! First Batch In Stock, Shipping early next year after New Model F Project

I just saw the new F122 desig. I really like how it embraces modern layouts for editing and windows keys, rather than copying the 1984 design. The top left badge opening with the drill hole makes me think very much of my current board which has an encoder in that position. It would be an interesting...
by Hak Foo
02 Apr 2023, 06:09
Forum: Reviews
Topic: Pop It Keyboard review (rubber domes)
Replies: 6
Views: 3926

Re: Pop It Keyboard review (rubber domes)

I'm concerned about the lack of stabilizers on the shifts.
by Hak Foo
29 Mar 2023, 05:25
Forum: Keyboards
Topic: Unicomp New Model M is going to use a controleer with a Raspberry Pi Pico on it?
Replies: 15
Views: 2399

Re: Unicomp New Model M is going to use a controleer with a Raspberry Pi Pico on it?

I'll just say that's a remarkably forward-thinking product design from Unicomp.

Although the execution is a bit surprising-- at a commercial scale, you'd think they'd go straight to soldering a RP2040 microcontroller down rather than having the extra cost and complexity of the carrier board.
by Hak Foo
22 Mar 2023, 01:26
Forum: Reviews
Topic: Hyper 7 keyboard review (Kailh BOX Burnt Orange)
Replies: 25
Views: 27299

Re: Hyper 7 keyboard review (Kailh BOX Burnt Orange)

What I'd actually advise is Soarer's Controller . If you know his Converter, his Controller is all that plus the easiest to use keyboard controller software I've encountered. Excellent documentation too. I've used it a bunch over the years and it remains my go-to for (non-capsense) controllers. It ...
by Hak Foo
08 Mar 2023, 03:27
Forum: Keyboards
Topic: Are newer Kailh BOXs cap killers, too?
Replies: 38
Views: 6727

Re: Are newer Kailh BOXs cap killers, too?

I have one board with Box Navies; it did stretch the caps I put on it (Domikey SA sets)-- they fit too loosely on the other board with Box Pale Blue and tend to pop off. I have a container of Box White v2 waiting for a new PCB, and I don't know what to expect. I know at least one keycap design-- som...
by Hak Foo
03 Mar 2023, 04:45
Forum: Workshop
Topic: Experimenting with a RISC-V controller
Replies: 16
Views: 3484

Re: Experimenting with a RISC-V controller

The purpose was "I had spare PCBs that were designed for a Teensy++". By mounting the nanoCH32V305 to the interposer, I can mount to a board I already have handy. This let me prove that 1) yes, enough GPIOs work to drive a full 130% board and 2) work out some of the software and scanning weirdness t...
by Hak Foo
25 Feb 2023, 22:30
Forum: Workshop
Topic: Experimenting with a RISC-V controller
Replies: 16
Views: 3484

Re: Experimenting with a RISC-V controller

Spending two minutes playing with footprints in EasyEDA shows it might be doable, but a tight fit. Basically, the footprint for the MCU is large enough that pins extend to the Teensy++ pin footprints. clearance issues.PNG Possibility 1: Modify the footprint with shorter leads. Not sure if this actua...
by Hak Foo
25 Feb 2023, 01:59
Forum: Workshop
Topic: Experimenting with a RISC-V controller
Replies: 16
Views: 3484

Re: Experimenting with a RISC-V controller

It feels like for small keyboards, there ended up being a fair number of different controllers that had a Pro Micro analogous pinout. There was never a standard for larger ones. I suppose you could basically design a CH32V305 breakout with a "native" Teensy++ style pinout, but that's more surface-mo...
by Hak Foo
23 Feb 2023, 02:13
Forum: Workshop
Topic: Experimenting with a RISC-V controller
Replies: 16
Views: 3484

Re: Experimenting with a RISC-V controller

Personally, I’d like a break out for the USB pins so you can attach your own socket without having to bend an awkward USB C cable through the tight internal confines of your case and PCB geometry. Often, the hardest part of a controller replacement for an existing keyboard is the damn USB cable to ...
by Hak Foo
22 Feb 2023, 05:56
Forum: Workshop
Topic: Experimenting with a RISC-V controller
Replies: 16
Views: 3484

Experimenting with a RISC-V controller

I feel like I'm a bit of an anomaly in the "modern" mechanical keyboard scene. When most people are building 40%, 30%, single switch boards, I've latched on to a 130% layout and keep dragging it through revision after revision. It features an incredibly naive matrix design that's 23 rows x 7 columns...
by Hak Foo
19 Feb 2023, 18:49
Forum: Keyboards
Topic: How important is programmability to you?
Replies: 25
Views: 4135

Re: How important is programmability to you?

I ended up using a handful of canned macros. As a lark, I was considering trying to develop a macro which generated dynamic content (i. e. a random number fitting certain range constraints) but the use case suggests I'd be better off with a fixed constant.
by Hak Foo
25 Dec 2022, 21:36
Forum: Want to trade
Topic: [WTT] NOS Alps SKCC Keyboard [WTTF] Any keyboard
Replies: 2
Views: 3065

Re: [WTT] NOS Alps SKCC Keyboard [WTTF] Any keyboard

You might want to cross-check with some of the less keyboard-enthusiast and more vintage-computing crews.

There's a lot of interest in those Nabu machines now that a hoard of them has been released into the wild; there's probably someone who has one and wants a spare keyboard.
by Hak Foo
18 Dec 2022, 08:23
Forum: Gallery
Topic: Hengyu/Technics HY-8006 [MX Blues replaced with Gat Yellows]
Replies: 6
Views: 4822

Re: Hengyu/Technics HY-8006 [MX Blues replaced with Gat Yellows]

That's not the audio company logo. Maybe it was a middleman distributor or local retailer. You used to see a lot of stickers on CPUs/mainboards/expansion boards from the retailer they were bought through for warranty tracking, these would often be marked for date of sale.
by Hak Foo
17 Dec 2022, 19:24
Forum: Gallery
Topic: Hengyu/Technics HY-8006 [MX Blues replaced with Gat Yellows]
Replies: 6
Views: 4822

Re: Hengyu/Technics HY-8006 [MX Blues replaced with Gat Yellows]

I was intrigued when you mentioned the 'Technics logo on the back'? As in the fancy audio division of Panasonic? One would think they would have no need to outsource to random Chinese keyboard firms. Though there might be some historical excuse-- some of the larger-capacity CD changers have a PS/2 p...
by Hak Foo
16 Dec 2022, 21:46
Forum: Keyboards
Topic: Does anyone else feel the lack of a fullsize option ruins the Model F repro?
Replies: 63
Views: 17134

Re: Does anyone else feel the lack of a fullsize option ruins the Model F repro?

Matias tried to appeal to the enthusiast market with their Alps line being fitted in modern layout keyboards, but you still hear about people buying original Alps boards and not even using the modern Matias switches. The only real selling point the modern Alps has now is getting 200 of the damn thi...
by Hak Foo
16 Dec 2022, 01:36
Forum: Keyboards
Topic: Does anyone else feel the lack of a fullsize option ruins the Model F repro?
Replies: 63
Views: 17134

Re: Does anyone else feel the lack of a fullsize option ruins the Model F repro?

But the problem is that this is not product designed for the general public, this is an enthusiast product. By the time someone is seriously considering dropping half a grand on a computer keyboard I don't think concerns over layout accessibility for a keyboard that you can't even use in your workp...
by Hak Foo
15 Dec 2022, 07:58
Forum: Keyboards
Topic: Does anyone else feel the lack of a fullsize option ruins the Model F repro?
Replies: 63
Views: 17134

Re: Does anyone else feel the lack of a fullsize option ruins the Model F repro?

If I had to go for a non-fullsize, I'd want a SSK-style layout. The thing is, the layouts of boards like the 4704 Model Fs make sense within the use-cases and software designs they were paired with. Love or hate it, a modern keyboard is likely being paired with a Windows/MacOS/modern UNIX system, wh...
by Hak Foo
08 Dec 2022, 04:40
Forum: Group buys
Topic: [GB] Tai-Hao White on Black and Vintage Alps
Replies: 40
Views: 76679

Re: [GB] Tai-Hao White on Black and Vintage Alps

I can agree with that. I finally went back to Matias switches, and went with the Tai-Hao Cubics not out of a specific preference, but because they're about the best-available for new-stock Alps caps. They look like what you'd get if you asked someone in 1989 to draw what a keyboard would look like i...
by Hak Foo
28 Nov 2022, 07:40
Forum: Mice & other input devices
Topic: Unbranded "Anker" ergonomic mouse
Replies: 7
Views: 21747

Re: Unbranded "Anker" ergonomic mouse

Practically, I'd wonder if most "sophisticated" mice also present as keyboards, because the pack-in software lets you bind buttons to keystrokes.

Both my Adesso iMouse T50 and Logitech G502 claim to have keyboard and mouse functionality, and so does my QMK-VIAL powered keyboard.
by Hak Foo
06 Nov 2022, 19:58
Forum: Keyboards
Topic: Is there something about Cherry MX switches that make them more "clonable" than other designs?
Replies: 66
Views: 30241

Re: Is there something about Cherry MX switches that make them more "clonable" than other designs?

It seems like in the MX universe, the iteration around linear and tactile designs is almost constant-- every week a new brand with 63 permutations of spring weight, housing plastic and colour, and flavour and quantity of lubrication-- but clicky switches tend to move in lurches. I can recall the big...
by Hak Foo
27 Oct 2022, 07:23
Forum: Reviews
Topic: New Tai-Hao Cubic Alps-mount keycaps review
Replies: 5
Views: 5401

Re: New Tai-Hao Cubic Alps-mount keycaps review

I just got a set in. My four cents (due to inflation): I like the diversity of stuff in the box. It feels like I'd have to go out of my way to come up with something it doesn't support in a US layout, even though it's not quite as vast as, say, the Akko 170+ key sets. There's not much for internatio...
by Hak Foo
12 Oct 2022, 05:30
Forum: Keyboards
Topic: Alps Appreciation
Replies: 4210
Views: 1142427

Re: Alps Appreciation

I did a respin of my 130% PCB design to accept ALPS switches, and added an OLED feature. This was a mistake; I implemented before research, only to discover that the OLED can only be wired to specific pins on the controller. I had to cut the tracks to the OLED and two of the lamps and bodge it toget...
by Hak Foo
11 Oct 2022, 04:29
Forum: Keyboards
Topic: Are Alps keycaps harder to take off than Cherry keycaps?
Replies: 39
Views: 4241

Re: Are Alps keycaps harder to take off than Cherry keycaps?

Adding VIA or VIAL atop QMK might do it.

I'm not sure it can do a FK-9000 style "push to record macro" on the board, but you can define them in an app.
by Hak Foo
12 Sep 2022, 05:54
Forum: Keyboards
Topic: Alps Appreciation
Replies: 4210
Views: 1142427

Re: Alps Appreciation

Trolling aside, isn’t there some lingering doubt about what exactly Alps’s secret was in their best designs? The later, simpler stuff is uninteresting, as Matias has seen. The good stuff, meanwhile, always seemed to involve some kind of voodoo no one ever quite defined. Is it really, or is this mem...
by Hak Foo
07 Aug 2022, 05:44
Forum: Keyboards
Topic: IDENTIFY THE KEYBOARD thread
Replies: 5297
Views: 1500749

Re: IDENTIFY THE KEYBOARD thread

I recall there was some interest a long time ago about TVS "Gold" keyboards from India, because they were cheap and offered MX Blue when it was a rare choice on the market. They appear to have a similar looking case, although now in black.

https://www.tvs-e.in/keyboards-and-mice/gold/
by Hak Foo
30 Jul 2022, 20:55
Forum: Keyboards
Topic: Toshiba T3200 Alps Keyboard
Replies: 24
Views: 5701

Re: Toshiba T3200 Alps Keyboard

I strongly suspect those caps are actually "G-MKY AFSA" (or in turn whatever product they rebadged). The MG WAHTSY product was a very specific thing that this is supposedly a clone of (notice the lack of novelties specific to the set) I bought the same set off of Aliexpress, where it's like $5 cheap...

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