Haptic feedback in a mechanical board?

[Darkshado]

Has such a thing ever been attempted?

On a keyboard with linear switches, provide a slight vibration at actuation along the lines of what's done on cellphones.

There's been multiple instances of solenoids and speakers to give audible feedback, but I wonder if tactility in this way has ever been tried.

[seebart]

I'm assuming you mean on modern keyboards, not sure if I've ever seen that? I know I've never seen that on anything older. The idea behind linear switches is obvioulsy not to have any feedback in the switch itself which is why the beepers are such a great option. You do know that many tactile switches are practically silent?

[Darkshado]

On modern or old.
What I have in mind is a short vibration that you would be able to feel through the caps, versus tactile bumps; might produce a more subtle but "sharper" result, though this is just speculation really.

And yes I am aware there are silent tactile boards out there: one board in my rotation is an AEK II with "tape modded" damped cream SKCMs. Another, not as quiet but still reasonable in that respect, is a WASD V2 ISO TKL with d-i-y landing pads.

[y11971alex]

Dampened solenoid + linear would come close imo.

[banarne]

We did a test on a haptic feedback in a touchscreen in a car, and actually it was impossible to sense with the fingers. The time in contact when finger tapping (palm facing forward) was too short for the latency in the actuators. Don't remember now but something like 70 ms vs 100+ for actuation. When you sense a vibration from your phone, it is actually in your hand holding the device.

[Findecanor]

There has been talk about prototypes of prototypes of switches where the resistance would be from electromagnetism.
I think something like that would be able to provide a tactile event as a response to input, dropping electromagnetic resistance on actuation. That would be in combination with a light spring whose only purpose would be to provide rebound.
I have still not seen anything done. There have been a couple with static magnets. The force curve is exponential, which is a bit unusual.

[Lynx_Carpathica]

The force curve is exponential, which is a bit unusual.

Actually, linear Foam and Foil is exponential imo.

[just_add_coffee]

Holy cow! I just got done asking about this same thing here!

I'm working on a keyboard that has a buzzer/speaker and am wondering what happens when I replace the speaker with a cheap vibration motor.

It's nice to know that I'm not the only crazy person around here!

[Darkshado]

We did a test on a haptic feedback in a touchscreen in a car, and actually it was impossible to sense with the fingers. The time in contact when finger tapping (palm facing forward) was too short for the latency in the actuators. Don't remember now but something like 70 ms vs 100+ for actuation. When you sense a vibration from your phone, it is actually in your hand holding the device.

Thanks for the information! I stumbled upon a setting I had forgotten about in Swype on my phone while looking for something else: vibration duration. Turned it back on at different durations and made a quick little test, and I'm leaning towards the same conclusion your team has reached.

Which leads to a follow-up question: how long are a typist's fingers in contact with the keycap while typing out various words? (That plus de-bouncing, not so sure this is a viable proposal after all. Oh well, I don't have the time nor equipment to experiment with this.)

just_add_coffee: great minds think alike so... what you're saying is that you're one or two solder joints away from a protype?

[just_add_coffee]

just_add_coffee: great minds think alike so... what you're saying is that you're one or two solder joints away from a protype?

LOL! Pretty much. Just gotta figure out which 5v motor to order.

[just_add_coffee]

Fixing to purchase one of these vibration motors.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=vi ... v&_sacat=0

They seem to come in different sizes, from cell phone-sized to old pagers to something called a "beauty instrument," whatever that is.