Key 64

[Gabriel Holmes]

Has anyone gotten a chance to play around with this?

www.key64.org

According to Nestor Diaz, the man behind it, it's NKRO.

And it's only $248 for all the parts.

[Danishkadah]

 It looks good, but not mentioned if it is NKRO
 I like separating the keyboard into two sides for two reason, easy to adjust the hand / arms and easy to pack in laptop bag, ordinary keyboard width not let it fit in the bag.
 
$248 price seems much higher than the MS sidewinder X4, but of course it is different thing than sidewander that we use to play with plover.

[Daiko]

I'm glad that this was brought up since it looks *really* intriguing, but I wonder if this can be used for Plover since it is already optimized for being a Coleman keyboard? -this hardware project IS Open Source so maybe the Plover project could be developed with this piece of tech too... I think that would be great, especially since people would then possibly have the option of using this as a default custom steno keyboard with any computer since this hooks up via USB... gosh that would be nice & a lot less pricey than actually buying a dedicated steno machine! 

I like the fact that it is a more ergonomically designed layout versus QWERTY & the standard steno layout too, this is almost like the kinds of ergonomic steno writers offered by the Gemini group (wish there actually were more ergonomic designs for steno machines...)

-is kind of a shame that this costs a lot more than the Sidewinder X4 (which I have just bought & like a lot, my favorite keyboard of all I've owned so far) but it makes sense since this is custom home-made stuff after all

I wonder how this would work if Plover could be implemented on to this hardware? I don't know how to code/read/use Python (yet, but want to learn) but would love to see this tried out so that Plover would be able to sell more great hardware from their shop+ more things!~

(there are so many cool technologies that I've become aware of thanks to the Plover project- shame they can't all be made use of by us just yet; also, it's kind of sad that there is no Wikipedia entry about Plover yet either- kind of want to start one...? )

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[Gabriel Holmes]

This looks even closer to steno (assuming it's NKRO over USB):

http://ergodox.org/

More thumb keys, all of which could then be used for vowels.

The middle rows could be used for the "crack."

[Brent]

It would be relatively simple to replace the keys shown with (3-D printed?) steno keys in the proper layout

Now, if we could just build Plover into the firmware, and make it wireless, we'd really have something!

[key6...@gmail.com]

Hi everybody,

I am developing a new revision of the key64, and just to clarify let me reply on this post.

On Tuesday, April 23, 2013 1:57:24 AM UTC-5, Danishkadah wrote:

 It looks good, but not mentioned if it is NKRO

 

Yes, It is NKRO, and defaults to 6KRO when plugged, you can switch to NKRO with the 64th key and the 'n' key.

Do you need it to be full NKRO ? For my needs 6KRO is more than enough, I don't know what are the requierements for pulver but 6KRO means 6 keys + modifiers (shift, control, alt, super*)

* super is not supported as a direct key on the key64, you can swap 'super' with 'control' in case of MacOS via software since control is rarely used as with a standard PC101 keyboard.

The fact it is not NKRO by default is that it is not a standard usb behaviour for keyboards, so in MacOS for example NKRO turn a keyboard into something useless.

 I like separating the keyboard into two sides for two reason, easy to adjust the hand / arms and easy to pack in laptop bag, ordinary keyboard width not let it fit in the bag.

 

The revision I am working will use the same i2c connector used by the ergodox, so it will be easy to carry and to adapt with a single 3.5mm audio (4 connectors) cable.

 

 
$248 price seems much higher than the MS sidewinder X4, but of course it is different thing than sidewander that we use to play with plover.

Well, let's compare apples with apples, the kinesis advantage which is the most popular ergonomic keyboard is over 300 U$, If you want something with quality you have to pay for it.

[Gabriel Holmes]

It would definitely need to be full NKRO for Plover. You might want to compare notes with some of the people working on the stenosaurus. Nestor, do you have a shopping list? Can you put up instructions on how to build this?

On Monday, April 22, 2013 8:28:07 PM UTC-4, Gabriel Holmes wrote:

[Gabriel Holmes]

I doubt anyone would feel prohibited by the price, especially compared with "real" steno machines.

[key64 org]

Anyway you can switch from 6kro to nkro when the machine is up, it is not problem, usually you are restricted to 6kro at the bios level, but once the machine is up, the operating system take care of usb communication, at least on GNU it is not a problem.
For the parts the problem is the PCB which is custom design and I am working on a new revision that I exepct to be finished before the end of the year as a christmas gift ;)

For the remaining parts the best thing you could do is to buy an already made keyboard and desolder all of its parts, like a Cherry G80-3800 w/ Red MX Switch Mechanical Keyboard is the best idea as it comes with 104 cherry switches and the same number of keys and also pcb mounted which is all that is needed to assembly a keyboard on top of a pcb, in fact you can build 3 keyboards with two of them.

Of course there are others thing you need to buy but for now those are the main ones.

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[Gabriel Holmes]

What about the keyboard stabilizers?

[Gabriel Holmes]

Once I have the PCB and the firmware and the necessary parts, could a competent jeweler do the rest?