Keebin’ with Kristina: the One with the Cheap-O Keyboard
All right, I’ll cut to the chase: Cheap03xD is mainly so cheap because the PCB falls within a 10 x 10 cm footprint. The point was to make a very affordable keyboard — all the parts come to ~40 Euro (~$47). So it would seem that [Lander03xD_] succeeded.
Those are MMD Princess silent switches, which I wouldn’t choose, but [Lander03xD_] is taking this board to the office, so I get it. They sure are a nice shade of pink, anyway, and they go really well with the pastels of the DSA keycaps and the bezel.
One cool thing to note is that the PCBs are reversible, like the ErgoDox. This isn’t [Lander03xD_]’s first board, and it won’t be the last.
Now, let’s talk batteries. [Saixos] pointed out that the design doesn’t appear to include a protection circuit. In case you can’t tell from where you’re sitting, those are nice!nano clones that [Lander03xD_] is using, and they expect a protection circuit.
[Lander03xD_] is going to look through the docs and see what’s what. The goal is not to have any daughter boards, so this may take some rethinking.
Via reddit
Arc Raiders Keyboard Looks the Part
So Arc Raiders is this cool-looking, stripe-logoed, multiplayer extraction shooter that just came out a couple of months ago for all the platforms. It’s not something I could personally play as it’s way too immersive (read: time-consuming), but it definitely looks good, much like this keyboard that [RunRunAndyRun] designed to play it.
No matter; just make a new one. Why not? This rustic beauty runs on the Waveshare RP2040 Zero. The case was 3D printed on a Prusa Mk4, which you’d never know unless you blew up the picture. And then [RunRunAndyRun] gave it that nice patina using Panduro hobby acrylics and a bit of weathering powder.
For now, it’s working pretty well, though [RunRunAndyRun] is still perfecting the keymap. If you’d like to build one yourself, the STLs are available here, and the firmware is on GitHub.
Thanks for the tip, [John]!
The Centerfold: Witch’s Brew
Do you rock a sweet set of peripherals on a screamin’ desk pad? Send me a picture along with your handle and all the gory details, and you could be featured here!
Historical Clackers: the Keystone
This spartan beauty was named after the state in which it was made, Pennsylvania. Manufactured between 1898 and 1903, the Keystone was invented by William Prehn Quentell.
Quentell was living in Kansas City, MO when he first applied for a patent, and later moved to the east coast. At the time, the machine was nameless. The patent looks nothing like the finished product pictured here, but the genesis of the key feature of this “poor man’s Hammond” is there — the swinging type sector.
What this means is that the Keystone has its type on a half wagon wheel, which is evident in the patent drawing. The glyphs are molded around the outside edge of the wheel, which gets rotated into the correct position with each keystroke. This type wheel could be easily changed out for different fonts.
To imprint the paper, a spring-driven hammer strikes from behind, pushing the paper and ribbon against the type wheel. The paper is loaded into a cylindrical holder in the rear, and unfurls as one types.
So, why was it a poor man’s Hammond? Well, for one, the patent image looks like a Hammond. But the poor part is felt the hardest in the makeup of the typewriter.
In the early Keystone examples, the carriage rails were made of pig iron. Why? It’s a simple case of lateral integration. The factory that was retrofitted to manufacture the machine had previously been the Lochiel iron mill, a producer of pig iron. They were just using up old stock, I imagine.
The Keystone featured two Shift keys on the left, one for Caps and one for Figures. It was a comparatively inexpensive at $40, and then later, $35 (around $1,200 today).
Production was supposed to begin in May of 1898. But by June of ’99, “the company has been unable to fill the orders which are piling up at the works.” Sounds like your average Kickstarter. Quentell was already working on his next project by 1902, the Postal typewriter.
Finally, a Keyboard That Charges Your Phone
So this article mainly centers on the new little Blackberry-esque number from Clicks which might just be my next phone, except that it doesn’t actually telephone. Clicks is meant to be your second phone, the one you use for emailing and such. You can pre-order it for $399 if you put a $199 deposit down before February 27th. If you decide to drop the full four hundo as an early bird, you’ll get two additional back covers, which slightly change the look of the phone.
But I’d like to talk about the add-on Power Keyboard for smart phones that Clicks is also dropping at CES this year. Do you miss your Sidekick? Well, here’s a sliding keyboard with multiple positions for differently-sized smart phones, tablets, and even smart TVs. (Because forget typing with the remote control.)
It uses a 2,150 mAh battery and attaches via MagSafe or Qi2, but it also can be used with the case on. When paired with a smart TV, you just use it by itself. Honestly, it looks kind of hard to type on without the phone for support. But I don’t use the smart features of my TV, so whatever.
Honestly, I will probably start by getting the keyboard, which is $79 for early birds through their site, and $109 later on. Pre-orders started a week ago, so I guess I should get on that.
Got a hot tip that has like, anything to do with keyboards? Help me out by sending in a link or two. Don’t want all the Hackaday scribes to see it? Feel free to email me directly.