A while back I was frustrated when wanting to buy a keyboard that there were no triangle-shaped keyboards or circle-shaped keyboards. This lack of peculiar keyboard shapes gave me the idea to make a keyboard that could be reconfigurable into any shape my heart desired. I’m still working on the firmware and making more keys but I wanted to share my progress so far. Heres the source if anyone’s interested in how I made it: https://github.com/notaroomba/keybytes
If anything it needs more light to force the camera to turn down the exposure because the LEDs on the keys are bright. Almost all indoor home videos, youtube or zoom, could be improved by more light.
It's a reasonable demo, I could envision variable length wire/flex ribbon spacing segments for different arrangements. Also would be fun for custom buttons for custom panels - big red buttons, buttons w/ guards, etc.
It’s really rigid with 2 keys so far but I have yet to test with longer configurations. At a higher order quantity, each key comes out to be around 6 USD but I’m trying to minimize that as much as possible with future revisons!
This is a really neat idea for a macro keyboard. If it supported staggered rows and row heights, not to mention structural rigidity it would be good for everyday use too.
There isn’t a mouse module yet, but I am going to make more modules that include screens, finger print sensors, and I’ll add in a mouse one too :D. Currently there isn’t support for a staggered manner but I am going to work on it for the next revision.
I looked over the PCB and schematic and it looks well polished. Not a first draft obviously.
I sort of don’t get the 4x I2C busses. I’m probably missing something obvious but it isn’t immediately apparent how the units all have addressing worked out.
The 4x I2C busses were mainly there to reduce parasitic capacitance and also allows me to know where each key is physically relative to each other in software. I’m still working on the firmware for it, but currently the plan is for each of the keys to remember its “parent”, the neighbor that is closest to the main board, and forward events repeatedly to the main board.
Sometimes my keyboards get dropped and lose a keycap or two, but never anything serious. If this is dropped on the floor, my trusty keyboard will turn into a bag of puzzle bits, right in the middle of heated gameplay or a meeting...
perhaps you could add optional magnetic rails for extra support
or even 3d-printed "grids" of arbitrary shapes, with magnets embedded at the junctions, to interface with the keys' magnets while being separate from them
I like the idea but I could only find an image of two keys. It would be great to see a demo of a full layout. With only two keys it's a very early POC and hardly a keyboard.
Does communication work well and feel snappy with a full set of keys? How is the structural integrity of a full one? Can it be easily moved around? That type of questions could easily make this unusable at scale.
I am waiting on some key switches to make more keys (5 in total), but for now I just wanted to show the progress on the mechanical/electrical side. I don’t have enough PCBs for a full set of keys yet, but when the key switches arrive and I assemble the 3 other boards I’ll let you know how it goes :D
I would assume you could have a custom support the keys rest on, that itself is split eg in the middle, so you can easily split the whole keyboard and have it stored in a compact way (trading length for depth).
- How much does it cost? Sell price, not BoM price. I expect something like $10'000 for a full 104-key layout.
- How heavy would it be?
- Can you lift a 104-key layout from the table without it breaking in 2 (or more) pieces? Can you even lift or move a 40% layout with one hand?
- How do you arrange it in a non-ortholinear layout? If you can't, then anyone can just buy an ordinary ortholinear for $100 and switch layouts in software.
- How does the spacebar key look like? Enter key? Shift? I can't type if those big keys aren't big.
- How do you make spaces between key groups?
- There are a lot of pogo pin connections. It's statistically impossible for all of them to work. Is there any redundancy for those connections? Alternate signal paths with automatic rerouting? Any debugging tools/indicators to find where the bad connections are?
- If you have a MCU in every key, and at that price, I would expect them to have a mini-display in the keycap plus lots of other fancy features.
- How about automatic function assignment for each key based on it's location? Can it do that? If not, then any drop on the floor becomes a half-hour puzzle-solving problem.
These are great points, however, who said anything about buying a 100% keyboard in this style, or buying anything at all? I didn’t see a sales page, so it’s likely not intended as an off-the-shelf product.
I think not-a-keyboard is probably the better use case. A modular plug and play, configurable keypad would be pretty useful for sim enthusiasts or various workstation uses. You could solve the "picking up" problem by putting the modules on a baseplate.
The MCU in each module is probably one of the cheapest parts in that build $0.2-0.25 a piece. It's the mechanical parts which are expensive. The switches+keycaps which you need anyway depending on how nice you want them to be can cost $0.4-1.5 per key. The most expensive part is probably the pogo pins $0.5/per pair x 8 = $4 and magents.
I'd suggest also adding blank modules without a switch on them for empty space on the keyboard (for example around arrow keys), that would still provide the interconnect to adjacent keys. Cool project.
Very good point. I wonder whether the communication would work with rows of connected keys, only joined to other rows at one end? You could then just create simple connection blocks for different row offsets.
good idea!
the other day was doing a roundup on keyboards to see whats new and got a striking realization, how nobody has ever slapped a nvme slot into on the back/core part of the enclosure to use as external drive since lot of us comute everyday with extra peripherals
Fantastic work, I'm always excited to new modular input device projects like this.
Are the connectors actually direction-agnostic? Looking at the layout it seems like depending on which side you connect you have a 50% chance of having the pin order reversed, and there don't appear to be any additional switching components correcting for it.
Do you have plans to address this so that any side can connect to any side? Or can they already and I've missed something?
I think maybe the most difficult part will be cost. As far as I know, it will cost more than 5 dollars per item. But if the quality is good enough, I think maybe some gaming user will buy it. Customize layouts is really important for gaming user.
For a gaming user it would be cheaper to generate a keyboard PCB, plate and case, then manufacture it with JLCPCB and put in your desired switches and keycaps. There are generators online for any custom layout.
Neat project, given how cheap the ch32v003 is there are lots of opportunities to do fun distributed things with them (assume you have seen bitluni’s projects [1]) - even if they aren’t really practical!
I didn’t see the ch32 firmware in the repository - the ch32v003 only has 1 i2c peripheral - assume you are bit-banging the others?
OT but I'd like to see circuits of this type, on this scale, available for every loco or car (or building or structure) in a model railroad. An interface to DCC. Every car addressable and effects controllable. Much more cheaply than the current SOTA.
With such complexity per key, are there other advantages besides the modularity? Are there per key customizations this could enable that regular keyboards couldn’t do in firmware alone?
[OP] NotARoomba | a day ago
darksim905 | 6 hours ago
stavros | 4 hours ago
luplex | 3 hours ago
frangonf | 3 hours ago
jdiff | an hour ago
pjc50 | an hour ago
If anything it needs more light to force the camera to turn down the exposure because the LEDs on the keys are bright. Almost all indoor home videos, youtube or zoom, could be improved by more light.
sleepybrett | 2 hours ago
pjc50 | 2 hours ago
But yes, just eyeballing that it's going to be hard to get it below $5/key and probably more like $10 for the first run.
pipe01 | an hour ago
broken-kebab | an hour ago
digikata | an hour ago
trollbridge | 8 hours ago
The real breakthrough would be reprogrammable key legends in something like e-ink.
kaipereira | 8 hours ago
How does the rigidity of the keyboard hold up with many keys and what's the cost of the materials at higher order quantity?
[OP] NotARoomba | 7 hours ago
It’s really rigid with 2 keys so far but I have yet to test with longer configurations. At a higher order quantity, each key comes out to be around 6 USD but I’m trying to minimize that as much as possible with future revisons!
fitsumbelay | 8 hours ago
jasonjmcghee | 8 hours ago
It needs spacers / extensions so it can be laid out as desired.
aghuang | 8 hours ago
pparanoidd | 8 hours ago
thenthenthen | 5 hours ago
bitwize | 3 hours ago
IllIIlIlIlIIIIl | 8 hours ago
[OP] NotARoomba | 7 hours ago
eviks | 8 hours ago
[OP] NotARoomba | 7 hours ago
SV_BubbleTime | 8 hours ago
I sort of don’t get the 4x I2C busses. I’m probably missing something obvious but it isn’t immediately apparent how the units all have addressing worked out.
[OP] NotARoomba | 7 hours ago
The 4x I2C busses were mainly there to reduce parasitic capacitance and also allows me to know where each key is physically relative to each other in software. I’m still working on the firmware for it, but currently the plan is for each of the keys to remember its “parent”, the neighbor that is closest to the main board, and forward events repeatedly to the main board.
kvakvs | 7 hours ago
[OP] NotARoomba | 7 hours ago
tensegrist | 3 hours ago
or even 3d-printed "grids" of arbitrary shapes, with magnets embedded at the junctions, to interface with the keys' magnets while being separate from them
voidUpdate | 3 hours ago
Agentlien | 7 hours ago
Does communication work well and feel snappy with a full set of keys? How is the structural integrity of a full one? Can it be easily moved around? That type of questions could easily make this unusable at scale.
[OP] NotARoomba | 6 hours ago
Agentlien | 5 hours ago
What's the production cost of this per key?
mentalgear | 4 hours ago
I would assume you could have a custom support the keys rest on, that itself is split eg in the middle, so you can easily split the whole keyboard and have it stored in a compact way (trading length for depth).
wcchoi | 6 hours ago
The keys are attached to a board so it can be in any orientation
mrheosuper | 5 hours ago
Maybe using CAN is better.
ehnto | 4 hours ago
childintime | 4 hours ago
mrheosuper | 4 hours ago
>https://www.nxp.com/products/LPC11C00
dm319 | an hour ago
M95D | 4 hours ago
- How much does it cost? Sell price, not BoM price. I expect something like $10'000 for a full 104-key layout.
- How heavy would it be?
- Can you lift a 104-key layout from the table without it breaking in 2 (or more) pieces? Can you even lift or move a 40% layout with one hand?
- How do you arrange it in a non-ortholinear layout? If you can't, then anyone can just buy an ordinary ortholinear for $100 and switch layouts in software.
- How does the spacebar key look like? Enter key? Shift? I can't type if those big keys aren't big.
- How do you make spaces between key groups?
- There are a lot of pogo pin connections. It's statistically impossible for all of them to work. Is there any redundancy for those connections? Alternate signal paths with automatic rerouting? Any debugging tools/indicators to find where the bad connections are?
- If you have a MCU in every key, and at that price, I would expect them to have a mini-display in the keycap plus lots of other fancy features.
- How about automatic function assignment for each key based on it's location? Can it do that? If not, then any drop on the floor becomes a half-hour puzzle-solving problem.
tourmalinetaco | 4 hours ago
sleepybrett | 2 hours ago
Jasp3r | 2 hours ago
pjc50 | 2 hours ago
ehnto | 4 hours ago
sleepybrett | 2 hours ago
M95D | 39 minutes ago
Karliss | 34 minutes ago
9dev | 4 hours ago
stavros | 4 hours ago
O_H_E | 4 hours ago
vim-guru | 4 hours ago
childintime | 4 hours ago
mft_ | an hour ago
rebooot | 4 hours ago
pjc50 | 2 hours ago
aveday | 3 hours ago
Are the connectors actually direction-agnostic? Looking at the layout it seems like depending on which side you connect you have a 50% chance of having the pin order reversed, and there don't appear to be any additional switching components correcting for it.
Do you have plans to address this so that any side can connect to any side? Or can they already and I've missed something?
pinyen_cheng | 2 hours ago
rjh29 | 50 minutes ago
_paulc | 2 hours ago
I didn’t see the ch32 firmware in the repository - the ch32v003 only has 1 i2c peripheral - assume you are bit-banging the others?
[1] https://www.youtube.com/@bitluni
euroderf | an hour ago
nkrisc | 28 minutes ago