Building the Developer's Dream Keyboard

New submitter mondalaci writes: This article is about building the Ultimate Hacking Keyboard step by step, starting with an Arduino. Lots of pictures and nerd talk included. It's a mechanical keyboard that can split down the middle and re-merge, and it has four layers of keymappings to keep the design compact. It will support custom keymaps as well. They're planning to release the firmware and design files under the GPLv3, and they're working on repair instructions, too.

Comments

Re:Manufacturer?

[mondalaci]

It's not 1 manufacturer but about 10 all over the world, some of them located in Hungary, the most critical ones being in close proximity so that we will be able to do final QC on the spot and directly communicate with them. Andras is a mechanical engineer, having an established workshop nearby and many connections in the industry. Final assembly will take place in the workshop.

Re:My dream keyboard

[ihtoit]

stenography uses what, sixteen keys? No less than two of which (the thumbs I guess) are exclusive control characters, which puts you down to 14. With a dedicated stenotype board you can hit 255wpm with no problem once you get used to the shorthand (some people can hit 300. I do just fine at 110 on a standard QWERTY). That's fast enough to transcribe a lively debate in real time. There are open source stenotype packages out there that allow you to remap a standard QWERTY and with a little creative keytop swapping you can be a stenographer in the comfort of your mom's basement. Plover is one such package.