deskthority

A simple internal conversion using the new handheld scientific BT-500 module and a cheap battery bank.

No profile, and covered power button. Easy and functional!









EDIT: The board itself is an ANSI PC122 from unicomp with some custom print, bonus buttons, and a full grid numpad. Still programming it, some of the membrane positions are missing from the source.

love this.

This keyboard is so big but you made it portable. Reminds me of those people who bring their pc/monitor/keyboard etc to a coffee shop.

Also can you show the detail on that capslock key? How did you make this key, why is it two colours.

Also how did you make this small spacebar?

The best thing about this beast is that I can lay my phone between the number row and the function row and it's a perfect phone stand. (will add a picture later after I have another phone with which to take the picture of my phone... or a series of mirrors?) All my designs are for travel, so fewer cords is always better. It's big, but it's got a good heft to it. Like a rifle that's heavy but well balanced.

I dislike the shouldered caps lock, but there are no unshouldered unicomp buttons available in that size, so I chopped a shoulder off one and glued it on. Same with the spacebar, just a chop job. I don't use my left thumb, so I prefer to have another key there, rather than the spacebar using the position to the left for stabilization. I normally run an ergo 40%, so I generally hate the waste-of-spacebar.

I don't have the bonus key to the left of the spacebar programmed yet, it's on the membrane, but it's a null on the matrix in the source code. I'll get that one fixed and fix up some of the unassigned keys on the full grid numpad.

FletchINKy wrote: 29 Jul 2019, 18:43 I dislike the shouldered caps lock, but there are no unshouldered unicomp buttons available in that size, so I chopped a shoulder off one and glued it on. Same with the spacebar, just a chop job. I don't use my left thumb, so I prefer to have another key there, rather than the spacebar using the position to the left for stabilization. I normally run an ergo 40%, so I generally hate the waste-of-spacebar.

Ellipse's project is producing non-stepped 1.75U keys, IIRC. That might be a better fit.

FletchINKy wrote: 29 Jul 2019, 18:43 I don't have the bonus key to the left of the spacebar programmed yet, it's on the membrane, but it's a null on the matrix in the source code. I'll get that one fixed and fix up some of the unassigned keys on the full grid numpad.

Don't know if Unicomp changed that, but back in the day, that position was strictly to support the space bar and wasn't usable at all. If not, a 2.5U key would be a nice fit to cover both barrels, but that doesn't exist (2.25U and 2.75U keys don't cut it, sadly).

I remember someone using a JIS right shift in lieu of the stepped Caps Lock but can't find a source link...

Darkshado wrote: 30 Jul 2019, 05:26 I remember someone using a JIS right shift in lieu of the stepped Caps Lock but can't find a source link...

You can do this .

Assuming you can get a JIS right shift.

andrewjoy wrote: 30 Jul 2019, 17:14

Darkshado wrote: 30 Jul 2019, 05:26 I remember someone using a JIS right shift in lieu of the stepped Caps Lock but can't find a source link...

You can do this .

Assuming you can get a JIS right shift.

Unicomp still lists a JIS keyboard with, indeed, a non-stepped 1.75U right Shift key (see https://www.pckeyboard.com/page/product/00UE4KPHA ). Perhaps you could ask them if they have spare keys to sell?

depletedvespene wrote: 30 Jul 2019, 17:23 Unicomp still lists a JIS keyboard with, indeed, a non-stepped 1.75U right Shift key

I did not know that.

So when i asked them for a blank none stepped caps lock key they said they did not do them.

Oh unicomp , you madlads !

depletedvespene wrote: 30 Jul 2019, 17:23

andrewjoy wrote: 30 Jul 2019, 17:14

Darkshado wrote: 30 Jul 2019, 05:26 I remember someone using a JIS right shift in lieu of the stepped Caps Lock but can't find a source link...

You can do this .

Assuming you can get a JIS right shift.

Unicomp still lists a JIS keyboard with, indeed, a non-stepped 1.75U right Shift key (see https://www.pckeyboard.com/page/product/00UE4KPHA ). Perhaps you could ask them if they have spare keys to sell?

You absolute geniuses. JIS right shifts are available in Pebble only as part number 1403091. It's not on the website, but you can order a caps lock and call (call, don't email, or open a service ticket) right after you place your order and have them change the part number to that.

I asked over a year ago if we made non-stepped caps lock keys and I was told no. Apparently, after a bit of digging with the warehouse manager and some disbelief, you all were completely right. It fits perfectly. I had no idea. There's a big bag of them.

Woah. Get me a couple of those, too!!!

Similarly, I recently found out that the 1.3u keys fits in the right position of the ansi enter, and allows a 1U key to the left of it, and the full 1.5 key above it. In case you wanted to do a hybrid ISO ANSI enter setup.

FletchINKy wrote: 30 Jul 2019, 19:31 Similarly, I recently found out that the 1.3u keys fits in the right position of the ansi enter, and allows a 1U key to the left of it, and the full 1.5 key above it. In case you wanted to do a hybrid ISO ANSI enter setup.

Actually... I'm going to recommend against this on Model M keyboards (F keyboards are probably fine).

Essentially, you replace the 2.25U ANSI Enter key with a 1U key (the one with #~ in the UK English keyboard) and a 1.25U key (like the ISO left Shift key) on the right side, which becomes the TIE Enter key... just like the 4704 keyboards (F62, F107, etc.) have right there, labeled as PD3.

Physically, it fits, BUT!... the scan codes that the "new" 1U key and the 1.5U \| key right above (on what would be the top half of an ISO Enter key) produce are the exact same. So you can have a Tiny Intersection Enter key and two \| keys in R2 and R3. Not actually a good trade.

depletedvespene wrote: 30 Jul 2019, 19:40 Actually... I'm going to recommend against this on Model M keyboards (F keyboards are probably fine).

Essentially, you replace the 2.25U ANSI Enter key with a 1U key (the one with #~ in the UK English keyboard) and a 1.25U key (like the ISO left Shift key) on the right side, which becomes the TIE Enter key... just like the 4704 keyboards (F62, F107, etc.) have right there, labeled as PD3.

Physically, it fits, BUT!... the scan codes that the "new" 1U key and the 1.5U \| key right above (on what would be the top half of an ISO Enter key) produce are the exact same. So you can have a Tiny Intersection Enter key and two \| keys in R2 and R3. Not actually a good trade.

Yes, this is true, it would need to be a custom layout by Unicomp. The firmware would have to be customized.

depletedvespene wrote: 30 Jul 2019, 19:40

FletchINKy wrote: 30 Jul 2019, 19:31 Similarly, I recently found out that the 1.3u keys fits in the right position of the ansi enter, and allows a 1U key to the left of it, and the full 1.5 key above it. In case you wanted to do a hybrid ISO ANSI enter setup.

Actually... I'm going to recommend against this on Model M keyboards (F keyboards are probably fine).

Essentially, you replace the 2.25U ANSI Enter key with a 1U key (the one with #~ in the UK English keyboard) and a 1.25U key (like the ISO left Shift key) on the right side, which becomes the TIE Enter key... just like the 4704 keyboards (F62, F107, etc.) have right there, labeled as PD3.

Physically, it fits, BUT!... the scan codes that the "new" 1U key and the 1.5U \| key right above (on what would be the top half of an ISO Enter key) produce are the exact same. So you can have a Tiny Intersection Enter key and two \| keys in R2 and R3. Not actually a good trade.

So there is ansi enter, and iso enter. Then if they are overlapped and combined they form big ass enter.

If we take them and exclude where they don't overlap they could be tiny intersection enter as you say. Do we call this tiny ass enter?

SneakyRobb wrote: 31 Jul 2019, 16:01

depletedvespene wrote: 30 Jul 2019, 19:40

FletchINKy wrote: 30 Jul 2019, 19:31 Similarly, I recently found out that the 1.3u keys fits in the right position of the ansi enter, and allows a 1U key to the left of it, and the full 1.5 key above it. In case you wanted to do a hybrid ISO ANSI enter setup.

Actually... I'm going to recommend against this on Model M keyboards (F keyboards are probably fine).

Essentially, you replace the 2.25U ANSI Enter key with a 1U key (the one with #~ in the UK English keyboard) and a 1.25U key (like the ISO left Shift key) on the right side, which becomes the TIE Enter key... just like the 4704 keyboards (F62, F107, etc.) have right there, labeled as PD3.

Physically, it fits, BUT!... the scan codes that the "new" 1U key and the 1.5U \| key right above (on what would be the top half of an ISO Enter key) produce are the exact same. So you can have a Tiny Intersection Enter key and two \| keys in R2 and R3. Not actually a good trade.

So there is ansi enter, and iso enter. Then if they are overlapped and combined they form big ass enter.

If we take them and exclude where they don't overlap they could be tiny intersection enter as you say. Do we call this tiny ass enter?

That's the "TIE" I mentioned earlier ("Tiny Intersection Enter", in the same sense that the BAE looks like the union of ANSI and ISO Enter).

Well, IBM called it "PD3"…



I'd call it Small Ass Enter, for symmetry's sake. Thanks to occasional ISO use, it's where I still habitually hit ANSI Return, too. In the safe zone.

Muirium wrote: 31 Jul 2019, 16:05 Well, IBM called it "PD3"…

Yeah, but back then, the Enter key is what we know understand to be RCTRL.

Muirium wrote: 31 Jul 2019, 16:05 I'd call it Small Ass Enter, for symmetry's sake.

And I'd avoid that, as those "ANSI with elbow" Enter keys in some older keyboards tend to be called "Medium Ass Enter" and I've seen somewhere a keyboard where the elbow is 0.5U, which would naturally get the SAE moniker... (I really need to finish that "field guide" to the Enter key sizes and shapes).

Muirium wrote: 31 Jul 2019, 16:05 Thanks to occasional ISO use, it's where I still habitually hit ANSI Return, too. In the safe zone.

That's the exact same reasoning I had for coining TIE in the first place — for several years, I used an ISO Model M at work and an ANSI Model M SSK at home, so I (inadvertently) trained myself to use the area common to both. And since, indeed, BAE is essentially ANSI∪ISO, it followed that the area common to both had to be thought of in terms of ANSI∩ISO.