Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery - Charles Caleb Colton Inspired by the Ergodox and Oobly

The Beginnings

Initial key layout plan was born one night, during some discussion about discomfort while typing amongst some friends. A few days later, a secondary spark of inspiration hit, and this was born: keyboard mock-up done with coffee can parts And yes, it’s a coffee can cut into pieces, with the keycaps arranged using blue poster-tack. Now, this is well and fine, but I can’t seem to find the plugin anywhere, and it’s certainly not connecting to bluetooth. So I fear I must go further.

This is my donor board, a Poker II that will be sacrificed for switches, and the metal will be repurposed to suit my needs. Poker II, waiting on the alter

Stay tuned for updates!

Carving My Place In The World

I found a piece of curved wood at work that I’m going to attempt to use as a housing, for the initial version of this. (Future versions, some time in the future will end up as milled aluminum) My wood that I chose to make the initial version of my keyboard

My next step is desoldering my old keyboard, then start shaping the cases.

Desoldering was held back for lack of a solder pump, so I’ve been working a bit on shaping out the cases. I did a test-fit of my keycaps into the wood - looks pretty good!

Side profile of left hand of keyboard

Top profile of left hand of keyboard

Both sides ready to hollow out for electronics

Rough cut out

Well, This Is Interesting.

We have a little bit of an update! I completed the left half… ok maybe not. I couldn’t wait to see it together, still waiting on the electronics.

Switches in place, just waiting for elecronics

Gratuitous shot of the subtle curves

This is not the funnest thing to ever have to do

Both sides mocked up

Update: Thu Jun 1

O-rings and feet arrived, feels great now!

Hopefully I see my Teensy, diodes, and I/O expander in the coming few days.

A Small Numpad Maybe?

Hand-cut another coffee can plate

Chiselling away at another case

I couldn't resist the urge to solder some in place

Case is mostly ready to form now

This will go on the left hand side of the split keyboard, for numeric input. I have been hanging on to this GH10 PCB for over a year. It’s finally time to use it!

Ready for stain

I realised this was shockingly similar to the tools I used to build the keyboardin color. Among friends

I Dream Of Eight-balls

Having seen the three pieces, I was reaffirmed in my long-standing want for a trackball. It seems like it’ll fit so well among the others - so I started planning one out. Trackball-in-planning Preparing the piece of ABS I'm going to use as the socket Made due without a hole saw The mock up Another shot Built the plate for the trackball

The Parts Are Trickling In!

The ball bearings arrived, and are now installed: Ball bearings installed

…And only the ball bearings. So… then I got bored. Making a phone stand And just needs stain Found some parts for my trackball finally

Keycaps Arrived

And switches, and the I/O expander. My first Teensy came DOA, so I have to now wait for the next one to come in to finish wiring. Also waiting to buy some stain to finish the phone dock, but it still looks pretty good! The Family Photo

This Has Been A Painful Wait

I still haven’t received a working Teensy, so my keyboard is still in stasis. Painful, painful stasis. Though I did stain up everything, and it’s all but done besides the electronics! Shot in full dress

I Forgot To Mention…

It works fine. I’ve been typing on it for over a year now, and it’s just wonderful! I have some pictures of the wiring, and some schematics that I plan to write up about when I have more time (and money) to replace a dead optical sensor for the trackball - so there will be a follow up blog posting to look forward to specifically about the trackball, and a final posting about the wiring and programming involved to make this happen. Until then, thanks!