NotARoomba

https://imgur.com/a/LjUajeX it might have some areas of improvement but it works lol (I also updated the readme to show the video). I got a lot of helpful feedback for the next revision (includes your original comment) and that was kind of the main reason for posting this so thank you for that!

Ohhh thank you this is perfect! I also just learned this in an ee lab I’m taking so I’ll ask my professor for more insight on this.

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.

Yes it is a relay hop and the latencies do stack. If a key is connected on all 4 sides then in the worst case scenario it will have to receive 4 and send out 1 to the best path to the master. Ideally the master doesn’t poll and an interrupt would be triggered on a keypress. there might be a way to batch them but it would probably run on a FIFO basis. I could turn it into a CAN bus but I still have to test out if that would be better than the current system.

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

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?

I love the idea of staggered keys and think that this would be worth tinkering with in a future revision. I would have to pass data and power through 2 pins and do some interesting circuitry but this should be possible! I'd also have to add more magnets so that it could snap together at an offset but in theory it should work. Thank you for this!

Each key bit-bangs I2C on all four sides which removes this limit so it can technically be infinite!

Thank you! While the connectors aren’t direction agnostic yet I can rotate the magnets on those sides so that it is almost physically impossible to connect them. I am planning on making another revision where this is fixed and they are direction-agnostic, inspired by USB-C connectors, but for now I’m adding in detections in the firmware to alert me in the case that a key is reversed.

Woahh this would be cool to tinker around with. I’d also want to take into consideration reducing the ammount of parts you have to assemble for a funcioning keyboard but this definitely would help with the structural support.

Around 800 currently but I’m trying to bring that cost down.

Ohh this would be cool, thank you for the idea!

Thank you! I am bit banging the others and I did see their videos about the ch32v003 and how it was cheap to use them. I am currently working on writing the firmware and haven’t pushed it yet.

Technically no, you it would provide the same functionality as even with a regular keyboard you could map out a keypress to do anything. This just adds more customizability in another dimension. There might be something else but nothing else is occurring to me right now.

Currently production cost is around 8-10 USD but I’m trying to bring that down!

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 am waiting on some key switches to make more keys (5 in total), but for now I just wanted to show the progress on the mechanical/electrical side. I don’t have enough PCBs for a full set of keys yet, but when the key switches arrive and I assemble the 3 other boards I’ll let you know how it goes :D

Thank you!

The 4x I2C busses were mainly there to reduce parasitic capacitance and also allows me to know where each key is physically relative to each other in software. I’m still working on the firmware for it, but currently the plan is for each of the keys to remember its “parent”, the neighbor that is closest to the main board, and forward events repeatedly to the main board.

There isn’t a mouse module yet, but I am going to make more modules that include screens, finger print sensors, and I’ll add in a mouse one too :D. Currently there isn’t support for a staggered manner but I am going to work on it for the next revision.

Thank you! I am currently thinking about adding those in the next revision and it would definitely make it more practical.

Thank you!!

It’s really rigid with 2 keys so far but I have yet to test with longer configurations. At a higher order quantity, each key comes out to be around 6 USD but I’m trying to minimize that as much as possible with future revisons!

The magnets are strong enough that most of it should survive lol. I will be doing drop tests to test that theory out soon

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