deskthority

Good morning DT community,

As some of you know we have a Cherry MX Switch tester available on our own CM Store (http://www.cmstore.eu/cm-storm/keyboard ... ch-tester/). This product actually got some great feedback from the communities worldwide and there have been many mods to this switch tester to make it actually functional..

We of course see all these mods and great feedback and got us thinking.
Switch tester turned into multimedia controller: http://imgur.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/aKBvrhn
Mutli media mod (couple of China fans): http://www.pcwaishe.cn/thread-543318-1-1.html




What would YOU want to see us do with this? What if we want to make programmable media board?
- How big would you like it? 6, 9 or 12 keys or a full numpad?
- What kind of switch? (which cherry MX color)? Or membrane??
- Wireless (Bluetooth technology) or wired?
- LED backlight or no LED backlight?
- Programmable (assign keys and macro keys/profiles)

Anything else?
-Wristrest? (razer nostromo, saitek commando)
-include directional thumb button/trackball?
-Ergonomic shape or just square? (for picking up like remote control)?

Please share your thoughts

okay. you know what would be totally cool?

A DIY kit.

You choose:

1) Case size: 6, 9, 12 keys
2) Each key type (you can have all greens or 3 greens and 3 red, or all different keys)
3) If you want the controller inside so you can actually use it as simple key tester OR a real keyboard companion
4) LEDs number and color

Everything should be plug and play, arduino (or lego) style.

AND NOW THAT you talk about wireless.

How the hell do we have to wait to get a wireless keyboard!?!??!?!? shoot!

CM Switch Tester V2

CM Bram wrote:Or membrane??

You're seriously asking this in a community dedicated to mechanical keyboards?

But seriously, DIY would be cool, but I'm not sure how good it fits into this concept. I would definitely like to have it hardware-programmable, as in the programming is stored on the board and not on the computer, so it's independent from the computer and the OS.

RC-1140 wrote:

CM Switch Tester V2

CM Bram wrote:Or membrane??

You're seriously asking this in a community dedicated to mechanical keyboards?

But seriously, DIY would be cool, but I'm not sure how good it fits into this concept. I would definitely like to have it hardware-programmable, as in the programming is stored on the board and not on the computer, so it's independent from the computer and the OS.

Perfect Arduino/Raspberry PI keyboard?

I think the 6 switch mixed type is fine. Being able to reuse the current case should help keep the price lower I would guess since something new won't need to be developed. Just adding a pcb so it's a functional keypad is good enough for me. It should be hardware programmable, with easy to use utility to assign any key or macro string. The utility should work on 64bit Windows, and support for other OS would probably be nice too. Bluetooth would be great, but wired usb is fine also.
Ideally it should still remain as close to possible as the current ones price. It should still serve it's purpose as the current one, just being functional will make a better value after it serve it purpose as a decision helping tool.

Hey, I'm the guy you linked to via imgur. Glad my mod is getting some attention from the bigwigs
As for what I would look for in a commercial product, the ability for users to program it themselves easily should definitely be the top priority. I think that's what makes the mod I did so cool, you can use it as a WASD cluster, or media controls, or use it to browse the internet, or anything else you can think of. I'd love to see wireless functionality as well (whether that means Bluetooth or RF.. I hear good things about the new Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) protocol). If I could design the product myself, for my uses I would want a Bluetooth, programmable, completely backlit (white LED's are ideal - if you want to take it a step further, include the plastic LED color changers currently available on the Chinese market) device. Size wise, I would say either the current 6 keys or a full numpad. If you really wanted to go all out you could also incorporate a scroll wheel that could act either as a volume control or actual scroll wheel depending on user preferences. As for key type, maybe just have the unit use PCB mount switches, so users could switch them out easily.

Forgot one Still planning on making a small board ppl can put in themselves (w/ a Teensy 2.0 on it, talked to an EE yesterday for some help.) I'm running full blown keyboard firmware on it, so it can do whatever you come up w/. TMK should work too.




As for a product, a progammable num-pad would be great !

matt3o wrote:okay. you know what would be totally cool?

A DIY kit.

You choose:

1) Case size: 6, 9, 12 keys
2) Each key type (you can have all greens or 3 greens and 3 red, or all different keys)
3) If you want the controller inside so you can actually use it as simple key tester OR a real keyboard companion
4) LEDs number and color

Everything should be plug and play, arduino (or lego) style.

AND NOW THAT you talk about wireless.

How the hell do we have to wait to get a wireless keyboard!?!??!?!? shoot!

Alright nice feedback !!

Grendel wrote:Forgot one Still planning on making a small board ppl can put in themselves (w/ a Teensy 2.0 on it, talked to an EE yesterday for some help.) I'm running full blown keyboard firmware on it, so it can do whatever you come up w/. TMK should work too.

As for a product, a progammable num-pad would be great !

Normal numpad with +, -, *, / and enter? Or just the 9 numbers?

A programmable 4x5 matrix of 1U Keys would be an incredible product. If aligned vertically, it could be used as a full numpad with operators, or aligned sideways could be programmed as a moba controller / gaming pad. To allow vertical/horizontal use it would make sense to keep the pcb in the case flat so keys can be realigned.

ok a step back.

a switch tester must be cheap, otherwise it lose it purpose.

Why don't you just offer the box and the switches already connected together, with enough room inside to place a teensy or an arduino? Maybe with the hole for the USB port already

Ascaii wrote:A programmable 4x5 matrix of 1U Keys would be an incredible product. If aligned vertically, it could be used as a full numpad with operators, or aligned sideways could be programmed as a moba controller / gaming pad. To allow vertical/horizontal use it would make sense to keep the pcb in the case flat so keys can be realigned.

QFT. I'd get two to use them as an portable split matrix keyboard (like this).

CM Bram wrote:

Grendel wrote:[..]As for a product, a progammable num-pad would be great !

Normal numpad with +, -, *, / and enter? Or just the 9 numbers?

Normal pad that one could use along w/ a QFR or similar TKL -- allows for a full set of keys when needed and a smaller footprint for leisure activities. Make it smart (independent num-lock), but be smart about it (ie. always send NUM codes, unlike eg. a certain [cough]Leopold[/cough].)

matt3o wrote:ok a step back.

a switch tester must be cheap, otherwise it lose it purpose.

Why don't you just offer the box and the switches already connected together, with enough room inside to place a teensy or an arduino? Maybe with the hole for the USB port already

^^ This ! Would have spared me making my own board

Grendel wrote:

CM Bram wrote:

Grendel wrote:[..]As for a product, a progammable num-pad would be great !

Normal numpad with +, -, *, / and enter? Or just the 9 numbers?

Normal pad that one could use along w/ a QFR or similar TKL -- allows for a full set of keys when needed and a smaller footprint for leisure activities. Make it smart (independent num-lock), but be smart about it (ie. always send NUM codes, unlike eg. a certain [cough]Leopold[/cough].)
^^ This ! Would have spared me making my own board

Alright, good stuff...

What would be most important in this case the fact that it is a seperate numpad for going with your TKLs or as a dedicated macro box for gaming or would it be most important to have it like a 'tester' ?

matt3o wrote:ok a step back.

a switch tester must be cheap, otherwise it lose it purpose.

Why don't you just offer the box and the switches already connected together, with enough room inside to place a teensy or an arduino? Maybe with the hole for the USB port already

Would that then be more important that it remains a tester and you can do some making it functional yourself or would it be more interesting like the comment above to make a full seperate numpad/macro box?

It pretty much depends on what your company will make out of it.
Ideally a switch tester is as cheap as possible, as there will be people who won't buy your keyboards (or Cherry keyboards at all) when they had the chance to test. However, what would be nice is
a) A Numpad that is the size of the one of a standard keyboard, as in 9,5 x 8cm key area, programmable, Macros/ App starter/ media keys - something along the line of these. There aren't that many modern Numpads around and TKL is a growing trend. But if it's too expensive it'll fail it's purpose as a tester.
b) A customizable small pad, where people can go all out on their modding, having all the options available from you.

So, making it as simple as possible on delivery and being able to add everything later is the key here I guess.
Something along the line of: full numpad size, plate mounted switches, a case with a screwed in plate, no electronics. As a addon kit, being available for further purchase, maybe the PCB with LED option and preloaded firmware, different switch kinds, a nice cable and caps that match your boards.

CM Bram wrote:Alright, good stuff...

What would be most important in this case the fact that it is a seperate numpad for going with your TKLs or as a dedicated macro box for gaming or would it be most important to have it like a 'tester' ?

A separate numpad that would go w/ the TKL is more important in my case. Well, additional programming sure wouldn't hurt

A numpad is and should be a totally different product than a switch tester. The current tester is good... making it so it actually does something as an input device would simply be a bonus value add. It for sure should still serve it's primary purpose a cheap way to find out what switch would be preferred. I think it would be important that such an extra capability to have some functional macro/media key pad should not add very much to the current ones price.
A fully programmable (or at least 2nd layer programmable) numpad would be another cool product, perhaps more polished with more feature extended version of the tester, and that can have a higher cost.

There's a niche a small four to six key device like this could also fill: providing programmable hotkeys to be used with art programs on a tablet PC like the Surface. Ideally it would clip or fasten to the side of the tablet so you could hold the tablet and work the keys with one hand while painting with the other. ZBrush in particular would be much more usable on a tablet like this. Right now people rely on software for the touch screen or DIY solutions to do this.

Pads like the Nostromo are marketed towards gamers but they're much beloved by artists who don't want to wrangle a tablet (monitor) and full size keyboard but still want to make use of keyboard shortcuts. I'm surprised Wacom hasn't come out with one, honestly.

I don't think there's enough market for a full DIY kit, just making the current switch tester "hacker friendly" would be a huge step forward imho.

That being said a little kyepad/kyeboard-companion is something you may explore (gamers could use it for macros for example), but I believe it's a completely different project and I don't think you want an harlequin of switch colors on it.

matt3o wrote:I don't think there's enough market for a full DIY kit, just making the current switch tester "hacker friendly" would be a huge step forward imho.

That being said a little kyepad/kyeboard-companion is something you may explore (gamers could use it for macros for example), but I believe it's a completely different project and I don't think you want an harlequin of switch colors on it.

Very good feedback. 2 completely different ways to go indeed.
1. we go with switch tester and make it 'usable' but make it as price friendly as possible.
2. we go with separate numpad/game pad with profiles for macro's and such towards gamers and multimedia device.

Keep the good feedback coming guys !