deskthority

Some updates.

The good:

I worked out this layout incorporating arrow keys and the usual qwerty staggering:

layout.png

(OpenOffice spreadsheet file attached if you want to play around).

There's two keys I'm not sure about (marked with ????), one of them 1.5 wide. I have a few notes about them ...

The first thing you notice about the old-style Symbolics keyboard is how big it is:

IMG_0386.JPG

The second thing you notice is that the keyboard is angled more aggressively than today's keyboards, the rise from the bottom to top rows being more reminiscent of typewriters and old teletypes. Not ...

My old-style Symbolics keyboard just arrived this morning. Going to take the calipers to the keycaps and post measurements and pictures.

I also have thought a lot about the layout, and have a pretty good idea of what would work well. Need to make a layout diagram now.

Do you want to put single keys into the top row?

It sounds like you want to do 2 units keys only.

Yes, the top row needs wide keys. Here's the relevant quote from Rainer Joswig's description as to why this is important:

groups the keys in an inner zone where you have letters and numbers. the ...

The layout that will get made will have ABSOLUTELY NO FUNCTION KEYS. The Function key modifiers will be there to work in conjunction with the numeric keys to send F1-F12. Maybe the circle can be F5 for convenience.

The keys will also fill a rectangular area, like the Symbolics keyboards.

END ...

Haha, absolutely not! What I meant is adding labels on the side of the Square Circle Triangle keys with "Front, Stop, Props" written on them, or something like that.

The Compose key is done in software (you can map it on your keyboard right now, if you use X11), but it would be nice to have a label ...

I have two questions about Cherry MX switches:

1. What is the jumper wire option for the Cherry MX switches, and what is it used for?

2. What is the Cherry MX Leveling Mechanism Kit?

20,000 switches at 90 keys per keyboard comes out to 220 keyboards. Definitely not that many pre-orders yet, but I can probably sell the excess switches.

I was hoping to get switches with diodes in them. Having diodes on the PCB would mean having a ton of surface-mount components, which would raise ...

Also, feedback from the wait-list:
* Almost everyone wants clicky switches. Existing Symbolics keyboard owners complain about the linear switches.
* Cursor keys
* USB connector and Symbolics layout "out of the box" on any PC (this is where the keyboard controller becomes important)
* Swappable ...

The KBC Poker design is ingenious! http://deskthority.net/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=125 Thanks a lot for the link to Brian's case mod.

I'm definitely leaning to a Poker-style keyboard now. This cuts the parts and assembly to a minimum: one PCB and a single one-piece case. The Poker style case can also be ...

Hi Brian. Very nice case design! You said you used CNC to make the case - was there any molding involved, or was the case made from one solid piece of plastic?

To be honest, typing this on PCB mounted switches, I would not care if the price would be significantly lower.

I think plate mounting is the way to go. Exposing the PCB board would be ugly and the keyboard would flex a lot, and it seems that having a plastic plate made to go over the switches ...

Here are the quotes I received from http://www.screamingcircuits.com/ and http://www.sunstone.com/:

$25 USD each for PCB
$80 USR each for soldering/assembly (no idea if they can do plate mount)

I suppose putting together a kit with different kinds of key switches is an option, that will certainly ...

Agree 100% about the cursor keys. I think they can go into the repeat/mode lock/scroll space, but the constraint should be that the shape of the the key block remain rectangular. If you make the space bar shorter on the right, it looks like everything will fit nice.

For the Japanese-style space bar ...

After the really strong response on Hacker News and the many page views the Lisp Keyboard topic has gotten, it seems there is strong demand for a Lisp Machine-style keyboard from programmers. I've wanted one when I first heard about it a few years ago, but thought it was impractical to build one ...

Ah, got it. Thanks for listing the vendors that use plate mounting. Keyboard flex is definitely one thing I despise in cheap plastic ones.

I'm going over the Cherry MX spec sheet (http://www.cherrycorp.com/english/switches/key/mx.htm), and I notice one of the mounting options is "metal frame." Are there any keyboards that actually use those? I imagine it would add a ton of weight, and flex less when you're banging your head against it.