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Comment by NotARoomba | Hacker News Reader

A while back I was frustrated when wanting to buy a keyboard that there were no triangle-shaped keyboards or circle-shaped keyboards. This lack of peculiar keyboard shapes gave me the idea to make a keyboard that could be reconfigurable into any shape my heart desired. I’m still working on the firmware and making more keys but I wanted to share my progress so far. Heres the source if anyone’s interested in how I made it: https://github.com/notaroomba/keybytes

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How about using a capacitive sheet under the keys, a software x/y map -> keystrokes and a simple passive blob under the keys? That might end up cheaper than this. Nice work though, at least you got the itch scratched :)

Ohh this does sound like a good idea. w tinker around with it and see but then I would also have to carry around a capacitive sheet thats the size of whatever keyboard I want. Thank you!

I know, carry around a keyboard-sized keyboard? How preposterous. :)

Everyone knows keyboards are carried in a hefty sack, like an old baron with their gold coins...

You're welcome, if you make it work let me know please it sounds like a very interesting thing you are doing.

Of course! I’ll probably make another hacker news post about it lol

Someone sent me a link to your project because I had done something similar earlier this year, I left a github issue with the links, if I had seen this I would’ve commented like a normal person.

https://www.jamesdysonaward.org/en-US/2026/project/input-nod...

My motivations were very similar to yours, I wanted to do some tests with ergonomic keyboards and not have to solder or get custom pcbs made, I opted for small cables between the modules so they could flex, but I had a lot of trouble with the connectors.

Woahh this seems cool, I did think of using cables but I didn't want to deal with the hassle of them adding space between the keys. Also the cpbergin link in the github issue doesn't work. Also, "I think the concept has legs", what do you mean by this?

Hmm, somethings wrong with my hosting, https://cpbergin.com/dyson2026 should work. It’s just the same video as in the submission.

I mean I think the idea is worth pursuing, this could lead to a useful product. I’d be interested in trying different connection strategies, my cables were way too fiddly and unreliable, and your solution, while very neat, only allows grid layouts. Maybe there’s something else?

Woahh this is cool, and I am working on an idea currently to allow 25% and 50% staggered layouts as well as hot swapping. I hope to make this next version even cheaper even with the added features and improved manufactureability.

That sounds interesting, I'll add some things I tried to the github issue.

But looking at demo, I see it can only be rectangular anyway?

It's a reasonable demo, I could envision variable length wire/flex ribbon spacing segments for different arrangements. Also would be fun for custom buttons for custom panels - big red buttons, buttons w/ guards, etc.

It should be relatively easy to add slightly angled connectors. It should be also not hard to make the key PCBs non-square.

here is the thing though. I can buy a 10$ board like a arduino pro micro or a rpi 2040. Cut out or 3d print a switch plate for whatever switch i want to use and then handwire the matrix, flash qmk/zmk on the board and I have a keyboard for FAR less than 6$ a key. Wiring that matrix is not rocket science, he'll it's barely harder than your typical baking recipie.

Just a small suggestion but... maybe re-record your demo without giant floodlights on your desk? :(

What's wrong with the lights? I like a well-lit video.

it completely clips when viewing on firefox (I use Zen btw). Like half the pixels are pure white. Looks fine on chromium.

Not the case in my Zen (macos) looks fine.

Firefox on my machines looks fine.

Looks fine on mine as well.

reading these comments are so interesting to me. I would've thought a video is a video, but I guess maybe there's some codec settings behind the scenes? On Firefox, I get the washout. On Brave/Chrome, it looks normal.

I think that might be a FF problem.

If anything it needs more light to force the camera to turn down the exposure because the LEDs on the keys are bright. Almost all indoor home videos, youtube or zoom, could be improved by more light.

I also see the washout on firefox. I think you can guess which is which - https://imagepaste.org/i/k2ect45t.png

at the cost of what per key? Congrats your removed all the efficiency from the system.

People are willing to spend quite a lot on regular old mechanical keyboards.

But yes, just eyeballing that it's going to be hard to get it below $5/key and probably more like $10 for the first run.

The key's circuit by itself is probably a few tens of cents, I can't imagine the rest of it being that expensive

OP confirms $6: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50239398

For reference, my heuristic for circuit price estimation is

    - passives and little SMT things are free
    - anything electromechanical ~$1: switches, connectors, in this case the pogo pins
    - fancy connectors up to $10 (ZIF sockets, RAM sockets, etc)
    - normal ICs $1
    - BGA or fancier ICs: check digikey or guess $10-$100
    - board area is "free" for small boards (up to hand-sized)

Is that for a certain order size? Because a lot of the cost can come simply from retooling or swapping components. Like if you have 100 x1 smt components vs 1x 100 smt components it's a huge different if you get what I mean. Also anything through hole I basically just give up getting assembled as a hobbyist.

you know what a spool of wire, a reel of diodes, a peice of plasticcard and a hobby knife (for a switch plate, assuming you don't have access to a 3d printer or laser cutter), and a rp2040 costs? Because that's all you need (aside switches) to build any size/geometry of keyboard you want.

These per switch pcbs are conceptually cool but just kinda stupid, there are tons of people selling these single switch pcbs without the magnets/pogopins out there.. people try them out and then decide that they are pointless.

Pogo pins are expensive. Somewhere around $0.15-$1 per pin. This design has four pairs of two pins. So just the connectors are over a dollar per key, possibly multiple dollars

That's fair, I didn't take that into account. I wonder if some alternative design that doesn't use them is possible

Inductive coupling could work for both power and data, but probably not at high enough power levels to have LEDs per key if you want to go through 10+ keys in a row...

Oh i've spent a lot prototyping keyboards, the pcb quite often one of the cheapest bit (if you even bother with one).

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