Post your keyboard/keycaps!

[Menuhin]

OMG did KBDFR visit Sweden around 9 months before you were born?

Perhaps KBDFR has a long lost twin sibling.

Spoiler:

https://www.verywell.com/stories-of-twi ... th-2447136

[pixelheresy]

OMG did KBDFR visit Sweden around 9 months before you were born?

I think you might be right.

He *was* the source of the two matrix boards.

We had a good chitchat during the whole process. Found a few new old stock MID QUERTY units for dirt cheap and thought "Go big or go home". I figured, since I had space, leaving blanks and having split layouts on the sides may be convenient. Also, since I am a developer and use VIM, I have a lot of plugins and custom functions I use regularly and hate always typing them out or doing absurd sequences (like making a single split basically fullscreen for example Ctrl+W _ Ctrl+W |... that is now one button, as is reset and stepping all expansion/contraction/resizing options by 10). I also save test data (dummy account info for use on the local test server... since I don't feel like memorizing or cutting and pasting) and shortcuts to everything. Disabled my Dock ages ago, so all my frequent apps/tools (besides games, since this is my work setup) are all assigned to F16+[something] which is picked up by BetterTouchTool to launch or bring into focus. Likewise there are navigation shortcuts on the Rollermouse and the board to change between Swedish and English, switch and slide Spaces desktops on all three monitors, etc. etc.

I actually have been in touch with some guys at Tipro... they dug up some limited amounts of caps and keysets they have for the MID series (as well as blanks/blind keycaps for the dead spaces in the layout) and are arranging how to charge me for them and ship them to me in Sweden. So once the damn thing is programmed, labeled, and all the caps are in place and looking pretty, it should be an awesome workstation setup.

Also of note, the spacebar is a 6.25 bar and the posts line up with all three switched (formerly the ALT keys on the standard MID QUERTY). It is really nice and stiff, using 3 Cherry MX blacks [but only triggering on the center]. Feels really nice, but it taking a little bit to get used to. Likewise the spaces, enter on the left, backspace on the right board, etc. for the split layout feel nice and springy and resisting, while resting on two switches... When all is said and done, I am getting the hang of it and almost never bottoming out on any key.

[seebart]

I was only the spiritual father

luke-go-away-i-don-t-care-if-i-m-your-father.jpg (105.16 KiB) Viewed 11289 times

[pixelheresy]

Also of note, for those who like Tipros and Macs... VirtualBox will happily capture the USB HID device (if a USB control board) and allow you to use ChangeMe in a virtual Windows machine. Actually changed the layout on the side boards and tweaked the layout other places several times in the last few days since I initially set this up, and even though annoying to fire up the virtual machine, something I can do on the fly at my desk without having to borrow some Windows machine from somewhere...

[pixelheresy]

OMG did KBDFR visit Sweden around 9 months before you were born?

Perhaps KBDFR has a long lost twin sibling.

Spoiler:

https://www.verywell.com/stories-of-twi ... th-2447136

Actually, funny enough, we are both expatriates. I'm American and moved to Sweden and he's French and moved to Germany. Kind of funny how this stuff works...

[Menuhin]

Those do look like happy faces.

I believe Japanese use quite different style of emoticons instead:

Spoiler:

One reason I really love Ascii art is: it shows how creative people can be with simple elements.It's the art of minimalism.
(*^·^*)

I heard there are people who create an entire animation in ASCII too. Unimaginable.

[Wodan]

I've watched movies done in the Quake1 engine ... and cried.

[seebart]

I heard there are people who create an entire animation in ASCII too. Unimaginable.

I heard there are people who collect really old keyboards.

[Menuhin]

OMG did KBDFR visit Sweden around 9 months before you were born?

I think you might be right.

He *was* the source of the two matrix boards.

We had a good chitchat during the whole process. Found a few new old stock MID QUERTY units for dirt cheap and thought "Go big or go home". I figured, since I had space, leaving blanks and having split layouts on the sides may be convenient. Also, since I am a developer and use VIM, I have a lot of plugins and custom functions I use regularly and hate always typing them out or doing absurd sequences (like making a single split basically fullscreen for example Ctrl+W _ Ctrl+W |... that is now one button, as is reset and stepping all expansion/contraction/resizing options by 10). I also save test data (dummy account info for use on the local test server... since I don't feel like memorizing or cutting and pasting) and shortcuts to everything. Disabled my Dock ages ago, so all my frequent apps/tools (besides games, since this is my work setup) are all assigned to F16+[something] which is picked up by BetterTouchTool to launch or bring into focus. Likewise there are navigation shortcuts on the Rollermouse and the board to change between Swedish and English, switch and slide Spaces desktops on all three monitors, etc. etc.

I actually have been in touch with some guys at Tipro... they dug up some limited amounts of caps and keysets they have for the MID series (as well as blanks/blind keycaps for the dead spaces in the layout) and are arranging how to charge me for them and ship them to me in Sweden. So once the damn thing is programmed, labeled, and all the caps are in place and looking pretty, it should be an awesome workstation setup.

Also of note, the spacebar is a 6.25 bar and the posts line up with all three switched (formerly the ALT keys on the standard MID QUERTY). It is really nice and stiff, using 3 Cherry MX blacks [but only triggering on the center]. Feels really nice, but it taking a little bit to get used to. Likewise the spaces, enter on the left, backspace on the right board, etc. for the split layout feel nice and springy and resisting, while resting on two switches... When all is said and done, I am getting the hang of it and almost never bottoming out on any key.

Do you type more on the QWERTY or more on the 'split' 128?
This split is pretty ... huge compared to the common ergo boards.

[pixelheresy]

Currently, the QWERTY. I touchtype rather quickly and am getting used to the split board. Generally, if I am programming, I am sticking to the QWERTY, but if typing prose, trying to acclimate myself to the split.

[Menuhin]

I heard there are people who create an entire animation in ASCII too. Unimaginable.

I heard there are people who collect really old keyboards.

Like this one, arguably the eariest:

[seebart]

Well that's truly historical. Abstract really.

[Ratfink]

Those do look like happy faces.

I believe Japanese use quite different style of emoticons instead:

Spoiler:

One reason I really love Ascii art is: it shows how creative people can be with simple elements.It's the art of minimalism.
(*^·^*)

I heard there are people who create an entire animation in ASCII too. Unimaginable.

Pretty imaginable for me, since I made quite a few in my younger days.

[Menuhin]

...

One reason I really love Ascii art is: it shows how creative people can be with simple elements.It's the art of minimalism.
(*^·^*)

I heard there are people who create an entire animation in ASCII too. Unimaginable.

Pretty imaginable for me, since I made quite a few in my younger days.

I'm entertained enough by the cowsay / fortune app - hope someone's going update them as so many interesting things are happening these days.
Can't imagine going further to make more than just some ASCII emoji.
Now, I remember - the ASCII Star Wars animation? I have Never watched it myself yet.

[Menuhin]

Well that's truly historical. Abstract really.

Look very Steam-punk style.
That's supposedly an early day electrical music synthesizer.
I believe 150-200 years ago, that was what people used for partying / DJ-ing in Berghain.

[dupham]

Raw Material

[pixelheresy]

Do you type more on the QWERTY or more on the 'split' 128?
This split is pretty ... huge compared to the common ergo boards.

A little update: I did a little experiment, not because of it necessarily being too wide, but because the lack of offset on the right-hand Row 4 was severely throwing off my touch-typing. So, I scooted my ass over a little and using the left-hand split and the QWERTY with my right hand, it is working *extremely well*. I think the muscle memory on my right hand is too put off by the N being directly under the H and Y, but the left hand is perfectly comfortable, if I merely move my elbow out about an inch or two, to put the slightest angle on my hand, relative to the board. Touchtyping on this setup nearly full speed with just playing with this for about an hour.

Another thing I did is switch out the F & J keys on the split from the Tipro POS set to the stock SE/FI QUERTY set... doesn't match, but has the homing bump.

[pixelheresy]

Oh, and I can totally use the roller mouse from this position, with my right hand. Only need to move my left over if I am doing lots of dragging and dropping (which is rare, since I am usually in VIM or the command-line and moving windows short distances is easy enough one-handed).

[Puree]

Wow, what a pretty industrial collection

Thanks for sharing

[pexon]

Silenced Novatouch with DSA Deep Space (which works surprisingly well on Topre)

[zslane]

That's not too surprising. Back in 2015 (I believe), Muirium reported that Granite on his Hypersphere'd NovaTouch was one of his favorite setups.

[alh84001]

potato pic time!

(I'm sorry for the quality, but I just have this crappy almost-feature phone with me. Lighting is equally as bad.)

I don't know why, but I never thought much of this board, and I got it almost as an after-thought. I must say I couldn't have been more wrong. It's case may be all-plastic, but it's a very hard XT-like plastic (which shouldn't come as a surprise, really), which makes it very sturdy. It's almost unbelievable that this was a portable/luggable keyboard at one point.

This completes the XT layout model F trifecta for me

P.S. another keyboard of portable origin arrived in the mail today as well. Here's two of 'em together

Spoiler:

[pixelheresy]

I little bit of an update with my massive Tipro setup:

The whole thing is built and need only put on labels. Most of the programmable keys on the left and center modules are programmed and working great.

Here is the final setup, having received the colored keycaps and key blanks shipped directly from Tipro:


I went back to "stock" flat caps for the middle board (as opposed to the borrowed profiled caps in the last posting). I have got used to typing with all modules, although the most common and comfortable is left hand on left module and right hand on the center module. This allows a comfortable split and 100% access to the RollerMouse.


The 8x3 column on the far left are all VIM shortcuts and custom functions, the two rows along the top from column 4 onward are shortcuts to applications [which brings them into focus if already open]. The numpad is standard [Num Lock, /, *, -, and the large ones are + and enter]. With the split, the keys are what you expect (except the ESC is in the CapsLock position) and on the right of the set, the large one is an extra Enter and the little one immediately above is a backspace. The one in the far upper right of the left split board is actually to move a desktop to the left.


The layout is pretty much what you see is what you get, except CapsLock is ESC as well and the little on near the arrow cluster is the actual CapsLock. At the top, you have Screensaver, Media keys, Volume controls, Trash, etc. etc. will go through them more once labeled and fully filled out. Below that is a proper ESC and F1-F15. I have F13 toggle between Swedish and English in the OS, so the board working 100% in both configurations [and the labels are proper for Swedish].


The right split is what you expect... but again the far left of it are the desktop right (to match the left split), the small one is Enter, and the big one is Backspace [so opposite of the left split board]. Included some navigation in the extra spots, mainly, since if I am touch-typing, I can do some movement without lifting up. It works ok, but then again, rarely use this board. The little grey one above Right-Ctrl is Right Shift. Since the black set has 1.25 " and \ keycaps, so those are just blank by necessity. There is an arrow cluster and the very lower right 6 are Ins, Del, Home, End, PgUp, and PgDn. All the programmable keys are not assigned yet.

[gogusrl]

Those 2 color keycaps look amazing. Do they come on Tipro boards ?

[pixelheresy]

Those 2 color keycaps look amazing. Do they come on Tipro boards ?

Basically, the caps are two-part, the cap and the base. The bases (most commonly) are shipped as all black or all cream, with the caps being all black or transparent or cream, with beige modifiers, and transparent. So if you find a stock board (with QWERTY/QWERTZ/etc. caps) in the MID series, they will either have all black bases or all cream bases [so in the case of the latter, the modifiers will be two-tone].

I had three cream boards, but got a whole bunch of random POS cap sets from kbdfr (which accounts for the grey numbers and arrows) when I bought the left and right modules from him. The black US QUERY set, the grey 1x1s, the red 1x1s, the grey 1x2s, and the black 1x1s and 2x1s I ordered directly from Tipro along with the black "blind" keycaps, which fit on the switch housing, rather than the slider mount. The two-tone caps, I think, look pretty cool, and it wasn't worth my time and effort to get x number of red bases, x number of black bases in varying sizes, x number of grey bases in varying sizes. And I think it would loose a little personality as well.

It also visually helps them stand out from the solid black blind keys. It particularly like how the F-keys turned out. Even without labels, they stand out beautifully.

[kbdfr]

Nice setup
I had something similar in the beginning, then I reduced the side units to 8x8 each instead of 12x8, that's still enough for me and I even have a few unassigned keys and several which I constantly reprogram depending on the job I am just on.

The RollerMouse is of course the ideal companion.

[pixelheresy]

Nice setup
I had something similar in the beginning, then I reduced the side units to 8x8 each instead of 12x8, that's still enough for me and I even have a few unassigned keys and several which I constantly reprogram depending on the job I am just on.

Thank you, sir!

16x8 mind you...

I figure I have room to grow and since I can script anything in BetterTouch tool with Automator or AppleScript (which in turn I can fire off shell scripts and Python scripts off to infinity), literally any button can be anything...

If I would pare down, it would only be on the right, since I rarely use that keyset nor have much programmed, but since it helps the symmetry and it's there, I'll probably wind up using it enough.

It also looks badass being so big.

Besides my coffee, basically nothing else needs to be on my desk, so not a space concern.

The only mod, perhaps sometime down the road, since I am really liking the look of all official keycaps, is potentially desoldering the switches in the keyboard areas and soldering in Cherry MX or Gateron blues (and putting o-rings under the caps). But that can certainly wait for now.

The RollerMouse is of course the ideal companion.

I agree. No need to reach for a mouse. Hands can stay on the home row nearly constantly.

Question: does yours, like mine, have a piece that goes under the keyboard? I wind up having to prop the other pieces up. Currently with extra mouse pads. Do you have a more elegant solution in your setup?

[kbdfr]

[…] It also looks badass being so big.

You bet!

[…] Question: does [your RollerMouse], like mine, have a piece that goes under the keyboard? I wind up having to prop the other pieces up. Currently with extra mouse pads. Do you have a more elegant solution in your setup?

Wood. Not really elegant, I reckon. But as i) you don't see it and ii) my keyboard is dirty anyway, it does not matter much

[Slom]

I little bit of an update with my massive Tipro setup:

This would sooo fit, colorwise


https://www.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de/s-anz ... 8-250-4114

[pixelheresy]

Wood. Not really elegant, I reckon. But as i) you don't see it and ii) my keyboard is dirty anyway, it does not matter much

Haha! I was thinking of taking measurements and mounting some non-skid feet on some custom-cut wood [stained or painted black] but I want to find a suitable wrist rest first, in case the piece needs to hold the wrist rest too . After making it look so cool, and designing the various icons and labels as I write, I don't want to bring down the whole effect.

Since the tray part is not necessary [since I secure stuff with double-sided 3M foam pads as it is], I was thinking of cutting off the superfluous part with a Dremel tool. The cable comes out there but from opening the RollerMouse up to fix it, when I initially picked it up from a thrift store, it is merely there for cable-management and could easily be routed out the side. The only problem, however, is that it would change how high, relative to the board, the roller is, which may prove to be completely uncomfortable and unusable in practice, so decided against that.