deskthority

I recently got a sample of Zeal Clickiez to try out. They have a relatively high actuation point, about 1mm, with a sharp tactile click. The peak tactile force is much higher than the spring force so it’s almost impossible to avoid bottoming out. If you want a light initial force that increases a lo...

It’s a matter of personal preference and people are allowed to differ, of course I have been converted to the way of the sculpted profile for a few practical reasons I wrote about earlier this year https://dotat.at/@/2023-08-05-keycaps.html

A couple of places to look for switches are https://www.serpentkeys.co.uk/ and https://mechbox.co.uk/ - the latter has chosfox and arctic fox in sample quantities.

I get the impression that ai03 aims for the higher echelons of keyboard design :-) I’m a fan of matt3o’s work: I have a nightfox keyboard, and I am currently waiting anxiously to get hold of MTNU Susu. (I missed the groupbuy, d’oh, so I am hoping to pick up extras.) Both ai03 and matt3o’s design gui...

Progress has been slow 💤 I’ve retreated from the idea of a profiled top (whether Model F or AEK style) because I think it works best with fairly rectangular key blocks, and I would like to get away from samey rectangles. I have since found out about the Lunar II which does an impeccable job of match...

Aha, I thought there must be something like it already, thanks!

I have been wondering about switches whose tactile event is due to the way the switch is actuated. Are there any old switches that have a curved vertical leaf spring that snaps side-to-side between two bistable positions? I am thinking something like this: buckling leaf spring.png The leaf spring (l...

Magnificent, thank you! So for the Model M it’s 171mm wide and 12.5mm high, so it subtends an angle of 33° and has a radius of curvature of 300mm, or 11.8 inches (35 barleycorns or shoe size 12 for Chyros’s leftpondian fans). The bigger angle is not too surprising because it has to cover the F key r...

I don’t have any myself, which is why I ask :-) I have scrawled on some pictures from clickeykeyboards.com … New Note.png I guess the easiest way to measure the curvature is to measure the width w and the distance between the straight line and the middle of the curve h New Note 2.png For the angle, ...

What is the radius of curvature of an IBM Model F plate? (Are they all the same? Is the Model M the same?) I found a post on Reddit that said “about 10.9 inches”. That implies (very roughly) the main block of a keyboard subtends about 20°, which is close to the typical difference in angle of the top...

Findecanor wrote: ↑

02 Oct 2023, 20:04

The link does not work.

I blame Apple for being weird.

I just found an interesting description of how it works on Apple’s site https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/security/secf60513daa/web I usually wake up my Mac by bopping a key, then I have to wait for the external monitor to wake itself up (to avoid messing up the window placement), then I make su...

Limentic is posting about their mechanical magic keyboard project on GeekHack https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=120964.0

yep purple is the best colour - tho this photo makes it look pinker and less imperial than it is in real life

TBH I don’t know why you would need a key shortcut to toggle boot mode. Normally a USB keyboard will advertise boot protocol and report protocol support, and it is up to the host to choose which it wants to use. (The keyboard may use the boot protocol report format in report protocol mode so it only...

Yes, it’s a place for quick reference cards. The little nipples next to the escape and power keys are for stopping the card from getting wedged between the case and keycaps. You can see an example in this video: https://youtu.be/DxSpNJdwuWE That’s also why there is a lip above the f keys on Model M ...

Ohhh I think it’s the <<< which is supported by your interactive shell (usually zsh on macOS) but not by /bin/sh (a POSIX sh derived from FreeBSD’s Almquist shell). I guess you can just delete the <<<$0 bit because bc will read your calculation from stdin by default. I guess the 0 comes from bc repo...

Dunno why it isn’t working, but you can probably bypass the problem using `bc -S 4` to set its scale to 4 instead of passing through printf

I gather STM32 controllers are a sweet spot, fairly capable and don’t need as much support circuitry as the RP2040. But I like the fantasy that I might do something more adventurous with the RP2040…

I am using QMK, since it seems to be the most popular. I get the impression it grew support for RP2040 in the last year or so (I have not checked). I wrote some brief notes on the firmware at https://dotat.at/@/2023-08-09-kbpcb.html#firmware I previously used CircuitPython on my Pimoroni Keybow 2040...

Thank you for the kind words!

IMG_2089.jpeg I recently finished my second keyboard build . I call it "Keybird69" because it is a keyboard for a Finch, and it has 69 keys. * sandwich case made from LEGO Technic beams and FR-4 plates * unix69 layout * PCB designed by me * Waveshare RP2040-Tiny controller * Cherry MX Clear switche...