[WIP] OneHand - 20% Keyboard

[GSimon]

Looks great! Can't wait to hear more and updates on releases of the PCB

[PJE]

Looks great! Can't wait to hear more and updates on releases of the PCB

After stating that I had run out of things to change...

I'm currently 75% of the way through changing from a SIL to an IDC connection for the cable linking the two units. This allows an off-the-shelf 10-way ribbon cable to be used to link the two halves. These can be bought cheaply from Digikey.

The main issue is the distance from the connector to the edge of the board which is throwing off the flood fill function. Hopefully I'll have it completed tonight.

As a side benefit, the additional DIO connector may be able to be moved up to the top of the PCB.

[PJE]

Here's the 'finished' PCB! ;0)





It uses a 10-Way IDC connection to link the two PCBs when used in a TwoHand arrangement. These can be either plugged into a header soldered onto the PCB, or soldered permanently to the PCB for maximum relability and minimize the height.

Moving to the IDC header also allowed the second DIO connector to be relocated. It's getting a little busy at the top, but the headers would only need to be mounted as needed. By keeping the connections towards the top, it should still be possible to mount the PCB in such a way that the bottom of the keyboard can be close to the desk for added comfort.

Hopefully I will not find any more things to change, so I can place an order for the PCBs!

[JotaCe]

Quick, and maybe silly, question: will it be possible to get the PCBs with the smd components already soldered? I'm really not comfortable with soldering things that small :/

[PJE]

Quick, and maybe silly, question: will it be possible to get the PCBs with the smd components already soldered? I'm really not comfortable with soldering things that small :/

I'll see what I can do.

I will borrow the rework station from work and see how quickly I can solder the components. I should be able to mount the diodes, resistors and LEDs using a hot air rework tool pretty quickly.

It's going to be a few weeks before I get the PCBs back, and the Grove connectors are currently on backorder... At least it will give me some time to work on the firmware.

[JotaCe]

I'll see what I can do.

I will borrow the rework station from work and see how quickly I can solder the components. I should be able to mount the diodes, resistors and LEDs using a hot air rework tool pretty quickly.

That would be great!

[Muirium]

Indeed it would! Does the TwoHand configuration use the LEDs much, Peter? And is a OneHand (v 2.0) smart enough to know when it is in fact a TwoHand, so can adapt its layout at power on?

[PJE]

Indeed it would! Does the TwoHand configuration use the LEDs much, Peter? And is a OneHand (v 2.0) smart enough to know when it is in fact a TwoHand, so can adapt its layout at power on?

It depends if the TwoHand is two inter-connected OneHand units, with their associated CPUs communicating over I2C. If it's a single CPU, then it could default to the OneHand design until one of the second PCB keys were pressed, at which point the code could switch. If two CPUs are used, a message would be sent to determine if the CPU were connected to the USB, or as an expansion to the first board, and the code could switch as required.

I placed three LEDs on the bottom of the board, to allow function layers to be indicated more easily. The PCB layout was simpler, and it doesn't require the modification of the keycaps.

I'm going to check out the design a little more, possibly moving the four Grove connectors up slightly to give more clearance to the fifth connector, but don't expect any significant changes. Obviously, I'll find the error, like I did with the V1 board, as soon as I place the order!

With regard to the PCB and components, I may be able to supply part built units - with everything installed bar the Teensy and switches - but a small charge may be required for these versions if the cost/quantity becomes too great.

[Muirium]

All sounds good to me! I'd like a pair so I can try the TwoHand, which I'll run with a single Teensy, using the logic you described above. Press a key in the shadow side and One becomes Two!

[PJE]

I was playing with OpenSCAD to generate some 3D layouts, when I noticed that the bottom 1.5 switches need to be rotated 90deg to be able to use ErgoDox modifier caps! Thankfully I hadn't ordered the PCBs!!!!!







Thus, I changed the PCB once again... I rotated K17B, K18B and K19B to allow standard 1.5x ErgoDox modifer caps. I also centered the 10-way IDC connection between the keys to even out the spacing. I also re-routed a few of the less aesthetic tracks, resulting in a simpler bus across the middle of the board.



This has some of the holes getting a little close, but it should work. Now a few final checks, before ordering.

[GSimon]

Awesome progress, very excited!

[aardappel12]

New to the forum and this project got me insta-excited!
Just had to register to the forum and post this reply

Keep up the good work!

[futaris]

The biggest reason is that nRF51822 is a mega-overkill for a keyboard. It's a 32bit ARM microcontroller, with 128KB or 256KB of flash and 16KB of RAM. My first two personal computers were less powerful than that MCU.

CC2541 Bluetooth V4.0 HM-11 BLE Module is only $12.90.
nRF51822 Seeed Micro BLE Module is only $16.90, and supports upgrading over the air.

[Muirium]

Very nice! If they can do HID, that is. And have reasonable power consumption. Anyone care to investigate?

Never be afraid of overkill. Moore's law ensures that it will always come, soon enough.

[futaris]

For HM-10 / HM-11:

http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=62236.0
https://github.com/rampadc/cc2540-hidKbdM

For the nRF51822:

http://www.seeedstudio.com/wiki/BLE_Micro
https://github.com/Seeed-Studio/mbed_bl ... tdevice_v6

The nRF51822 seems to require less overall power than the HM-10 / HM-11.

[Muirium]

Intriguing. If I was the least bit technically minded, I'd look into the nRF51822 BLE Micro as an all in one Bluetooth keyboard controller. 23 pins is competitive with the Teensy 2, and easily enough for 60% layouts, and you could squeeze a TKL out of it with a little inventiveness on the PCB. We need this!

[kile]

Soldering those Seeed studio modules would be a very painful process. Pad pitch is 1.27mm, and from the pictures it looks like there are no pin holes, only flat pads. And they don't have the edges of the PCB plated so that you can solder the contact to the edge. And they cost $17 + shipping.

There are nRF51822 modules on ebay for $7.50 shipped with 2mm pitched pin headers. The downside is that they don't have bootloaders, as far as I know. Now, if I only manage to gather enough motivation to make my nRFburner programmer work for these chips too...

But I still think these things are overkill for keyboard controllers. On the other hand, I can't think of another project which would be big enough to need these chips.

[Muirium]

SMD looks pretty good for fiddly stuff like these. Xwhatsit's successfully making capsense controllers with his reflow oven, and I must say I really like his work. (Especially the no assembly required part!) If we made a standard little board for custom controllers that takes one of these and handles the battery/power/USB programming (and charging) port, we're on to something.

[Muirium]

A thread of interest for The Bluetoothening:

http://deskthority.net/workshop-f7/blue ... t8812.html

I think Halvar's right: the Model M SSK is the perfect testbed for Bluetooth controllers. A highly valued board (that many of us have) with a compact layout but plenty of space inside, and easy access to the bare matrix.

[Tyvar1]

Will this be a GB in the future? Would be a cool keyboard for my phone!

[PJE]

Will this be a GB in the future? Would be a cool keyboard for my phone!

I've been busy on other things (like my day job), but I'm about to pull the trigger on a batch of 20 Mk2 PCBs...

I've just been sending out the PCBs to people who've asked, but if I need to spend money adding components I may need to charge a little for the parts.

The last change I made was to add an I2C EEPROM footprint to allow for lots of macros, mappings, etc.

I've used the OneHand and TwoHand on my Nexus 7 with an adaptor cable. I'd need to work on getting the power consumption down using sleep modes, to reduce the power drain on the phone/tablet.

Regards,

Peter

[Tyvar1]

Will this be a GB in the future? Would be a cool keyboard for my phone!

I've been busy on other things (like my day job), but I'm about to pull the trigger on a batch of 20 Mk2 PCBs...

I've just been sending out the PCBs to people who've asked, but if I need to spend money adding components I may need to charge a little for the parts.

The last change I made was to add an I2C EEPROM footprint to allow for lots of macros, mappings, etc.

I've used the OneHand and TwoHand on my Nexus 7 with an adaptor cable. I'd need to work on getting the power consumption down using sleep modes, to reduce the power drain on the phone/tablet.

Regards,

Peter

Cool! So is there any chance that you will build a complete working one(I can't do it myself )of course I will pay extra for that

I2C EEPROM footprint sounds promising!

I have a USB OTG already for my phone
And I don't worry about the battery drain issue

[PJE]

Cool! So is there any chance that you will build a complete working one(I can't do it myself )of course I will pay extra for that

I2C EEPROM footprint sounds promising!

I have a USB OTG already for my phone
And I don't worry about the battery drain issue

I was planning on ordering extra switches, so I could build one (less keycaps) for the cost of the components. I'll work out a price - it's going to be around $50 for a OneHand, and $80 for a TwoHand as a first guess for a built unit.

What type of switch do you prefer? I'm leaning towards BROWN as a decent compromise. My wife dislikes my BLUE OneHand as being too noisy!

I'm looking at adding a ring of WS2812 LEDs for a bit of bling.. [SMILING FACE WITH OPEN MOUTH]

[PJE]

Cool! So is there any chance that you will build a complete working one(I can't do it myself )of course I will pay extra for that

I2C EEPROM footprint sounds promising!

I have a USB OTG already for my phone
And I don't worry about the battery drain issue

I was planning on ordering extra switches, so I could build one (less keycaps) for the cost of the components. I'll work out a price - it's going to be around $50 for a OneHand, and $80 for a TwoHand as a first guess for a built unit.

What type of switch do you prefer? I'm leaning towards BROWN as a decent compromise. My wife dislikes my BLUE OneHand as being too noisy!

I'm looking at adding a ring of WS2812 LEDs for a bit of bling.. [SMILING FACE WITH OPEN MOUTH]

[PJE]

Cool! So is there any chance that you will build a complete working one(I can't do it myself )of course I will pay extra for that

I2C EEPROM footprint sounds promising!

I have a USB OTG already for my phone
And I don't worry about the battery drain issue

I was planning on ordering extra switches, so I could build one (less keycaps) for the cost of the components. I'll work out a price - it's going to be around $50 for a OneHand, and $80 for a TwoHand as a first guess for a built unit.

What type of switch do you prefer? I'm leaning towards BROWN as a decent compromise. My wife dislikes my BLUE OneHand as being too noisy!

I'm looking at adding a ringing of WS2812 LEDs for a bit of bling.. :0)

[Tyvar1]

Cool! So is there any chance that you will build a complete working one(I can't do it myself )of course I will pay extra for that

I2C EEPROM footprint sounds promising!

I have a USB OTG already for my phone
And I don't worry about the battery drain issue

I was planning on ordering extra switches, so I could build one (less keycaps) for the cost of the components. I'll work out a price - it's going to be around $50 for a OneHand, and $80 for a TwoHand as a first guess for a built unit.

What type of switch do you prefer? I'm leaning towards BROWN as a decent compromise. My wife dislikes my BLUE OneHand as being too noisy!

I'm looking at adding a ringing of WS2812 LEDs for a bit of bling.. :0)

Awesome news!
Well I have 3 keyboards now, two MX blues and one MX red, I could try MX brown
So what do you recommend? OneHand or TwoHand?
The led thingy sounds cool!

[PJE]

Awesome news!
Well I have 3 keyboards now, two MX blues and one MX red, I could try MX brown
So what do you recommend? OneHand or TwoHand?
The led thingy sounds cool!

The OneHand is a definite conversation starter, the TwoHand is basically a split 40% keyboard, and is much easier to learn. The way the PCB is designed you can always add the second half at a later date.

I was only joking about the LEDs… I'm building a clock using a ring of WS2812B RGB LEDs, and thought about trying to add a ring to the OneHand as a prototype! The benefit is that you only need one pin to drive the ring - although it needs complex software.

I'll have a look at the PCB tonight.

[Tyvar1]

Awesome news!
Well I have 3 keyboards now, two MX blues and one MX red, I could try MX brown
So what do you recommend? OneHand or TwoHand?
The led thingy sounds cool!

The OneHand is a definite conversation starter, the TwoHand is basically a split 40% keyboard, and is much easier to learn. The way the PCB is designed you can always add the second half at a later date.

I was only joking about the LEDs… I'm building a clock using a ring of WS2812B RGB LEDs, and thought about trying to add a ring to the OneHand as a prototype! The benefit is that you only need one pin to drive the ring - although it needs complex software.

I'll have a look at the PCB tonight.

Haha I understand
So TwoHand can also be used as a OneHand if you split it?

[PJE]

Haha I understand
So TwoHand can also be used as a OneHand if you split it?

Yep! On power up it looks for the other hand running as an I2C device, and it always scans both sides of the matrix periodically. Pressing a key on the second half would switch the mapping mode. You can even use two OneHand units, each with their CPU, and if interconnected and only using one USB cable, it will automatically switch to TwoHand mode.

The only limit is that the TwoHand seems to work better if the two halves are mounted on a common base, but I haven't tried the V2 hardware…

[Tyvar1]

Haha I understand
So TwoHand can also be used as a OneHand if you split it?

Yep! On power up it looks for the other hand running as an I2C device, and it always scans both sides of the matrix periodically. Pressing a key on the second half would switch the mapping mode. You can even use two OneHand units, each with their CPU, and if interconnected and only using one USB cable, it will automatically switch to TwoHand mode.

The only limit is that the TwoHand seems to work better if the two halves are mounted on a common base, but I haven't tried the V2 hardware…

This is so freaking cool!
Would do anything to own this awesome keyboard!

So you could build a complete working TwoHand with MX Brown without key caps and USB cable for 80$+shipping?