Split ergonomic keyboard project

[dirge]

Give it a few months and someone will be organising a lego group buy...

He was banned

[hoggy]

ha ha ha ha!

...Not that he was banned(!), but that you've instantly thought of him...

[justcallmecrash]

R.I.P.




ster.

[The_Ed]

His lego collection was burned with him in the end.

[justcallmecrash]

Where's that blasted +1 button?

[The_Ed]

There ain't one.

In other news - GH mods deleted another one of my Ripster posts.

[dirge]

There ain't one.

In other news - GH mods deleted another one of my Ripster posts.

Really? That's pretty sad, so they are trying to remove all trace he ever existed..

[WRXChris]

Really? That's pretty sad, so they are trying to remove all trace he ever existed..

They call it MiniTrue in Newspeak!

[dirge]

think he even used this one himself....

anyway back on topic, who's going to do the eurodox? I think the American's want to look after themselves and we'll need to sort ourselves out

[gilsoriano]

Hi guys,

which is the problem with the old country?

If everything is ready to go, why we cannot pay for the PCBs, at least?

Cheers,
Carlos

[The_Ed]

There ain't one.

In other news - GH mods deleted another one of my Ripster posts.

Really? That's pretty sad, so they are trying to remove all trace he ever existed..

I believe they deleted his account and all his posts too...

Sorry for the off-topic Ripster shit...

[fossala]

My account is deleted, but all my post's are still their. Didn't they do the same with webwit and wellington?

[The_Ed]

Take a look for yourself. I can't find anything but people quoting him, and not the posts of his they are quoting.

[fossala]

Yeah, I'm not disagreeing with you.

[ic07]

(to a couple posts above):

I dunno exactly what people are thinking for distribution and such, but I'm in the US, Dox is in Canada, and bpiphany's in Sweden IIRC - so I don't think anyone needs to be really worried about being left out.

Also, the boards aren't ready for full production yet, AFAIK. Getting there though!

[mSSM]

Since I am going be located in Sweden (Stockholm) starting next week, I'd be more than happy to help bpiphany with distribution and such.

(BTW: Stop the offtopic about ripster... It's kinda leading the whole thread awry.)

[justcallmecrash]

What's new with this? I'm way too excited about it.

[abenjm]

I just discovered this thrilling project. I've been looking for a keyboard optimized for programming (at least the kind of programming I do daily) and providing better layout to minimize stress on my weaker fingers when reaching for those peripheral keys. I had been thinking I'd need to start considering how to do a custom keyboard when I found out about ergodox.

Where may I add my name for the group buy?

[Icarium]

It's fine where it is. Somebody will contact you but it will probably take a couple more months.

[abenjm]

Cool, that gives me time to start collecting the components and start thinking about designing the key layout.

I'm going to drop a question here, to see if others have feedback, about the type of key caps. All of my keyboards use the standard cylindrical keys, but I'm intrigued by the spherical keys. At a first glance they seem easier for my fingers to center on them by feel, possibly resulting in less force imparted on fingers over the long term.

Are they worth the cost or there is no difference compared to cylindrical ones? I've never used them before so I may need to hunt for a sample device so I can experiment.

[Icarium]

I don't know of any benefits. Allegedly the idea was to avoid off-center presses on old keyboards which is not that relevant anymore today.
People seem to only get them for the looks.

[damorgue]

Cool, that gives me time to start collecting the components and start thinking about designing the key layout.

I'm going to drop a question here, to see if others have feedback, about the type of key caps. All of my keyboards use the standard cylindrical keys, but I'm intrigued by the spherical keys. At a first glance they seem easier for my fingers to center on them by feel, possibly resulting in less force imparted on fingers over the long term.

Are they worth the cost or there is no difference compared to cylindrical ones? I've never used them before so I may need to hunt for a sample device so I can experiment.

If you hurry, there may be some left over spherical caps from Round 4.

[Ochief]

I would be very interested in more information. I'd be keen for the entire keyboard including the case and am UK based. Thanks

[Jim66]

Anymore updates?

[ic07]

I haven't seen much activity recently from Dox or epiphany (though, that doesn't mean there hasn't been any). I'd assume that we all got kind of busy...

I finished buying stuff to put my prototype together though, and once I do, more testing (primarily of the firmware) shall ensue . Hopefully followed by some more firmware updates (because software's never done.. ), after some of my school projects get done.

[litster]

bpiphany enlisted me as his beta tester. I soldered diodes and a teensy on to the right hand PCB (no connectors or resistors). After I flashed the firmware from github on to the teensy, the keyboard is not recognized by Windows at all when I plug it in.

Do I need to connect the two halves together in order for the teensy to boot correctly? Do I need to flash both .hex and .eep files onto the teensy? the 1.06 loader doesn't seem to know how to flash the .eep file.

[ic07]

bpiphany enlisted me as his beta tester. I soldered diodes and a teensy on to the right hand PCB (no connectors or resistors). After I flashed the firmware from github on to the teensy, the keyboard is not recognized by Windows at all when I plug it in.

Do I need to connect the two halves together in order for the teensy to boot correctly? Do I need to flash both .hex and .eep files onto the teensy? the 1.06 loader doesn't seem to know how to flash the .eep file.

Oh grr. From the usb_keyboard.c file from PJRC:

Code: Select all

// Mac OS-X and Linux automatically load the correct drivers.  On
// Windows, even though the driver is supplied by Microsoft, an
// INF file is needed to load the driver.  These numbers need to
// match the INF file.
#define VENDOR_ID		0x1d50  // Openmoko, Inc.
#define PRODUCT_ID		0x6028  // ErgoDox ergonomic keyboard

I'm pretty sure this is the problem :/ . What the INF file should look like, I'm not sure. I'm also not sure how to get Windows to load the driver automatically (which must be possible, since lots of commercial boards do it...). And I don't have a Windows machine to test on...

I'll be testing my board on OS X once I finish getting it soldered (hopefully in the next couple days) - so if the problem's not what I suspect, it should show up there too.

[litster]

Thanks ic07. I don't have the same problem with Phantom teensy firmware. Maybe ErgoDox's firmware can do whatever the same thing Phantom's firmware does to get work recognized on Windows?

Also, you mean the right hand side should work without connecting the left hand side to it?

EDIT: And do I also need to load the .eep file in addtion to the .hex file?

[dox]

I had the same problem at first. you need to put the two 2.2k resistor and everything should work fine.

Just loading the hex file should work fine.

[ic07]

Thanks Dox .

Also, just to be more clear:
- It should work without the left hand side plugged in. I haven't actually tested that in a while, but If it doesn't work I'll fix it as soon as I can.
- The .eep file is for initializing the EEPROM. I might use it later, for implementing user macros or something, but there's nothing in there right now, so it doesn't need to be loaded.