Show HN: I made a 5-key keyboard • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: I made a 5-key keyboard

#101

Post by fsargent » Thu, Apr 15, 2021, 5:05 PM UTC

3bodyProblem wrote: post #80

wow this is really awesome. Actually was look at creating a novelty device for myself. Steam controllers touchpads, logitech MX's scroll wheel. ps5 haptics. Buttons with a great tactile feeling. If anyone knows community that like building things like this, I couldn't find anything. (mainly because i have no idea if it has a name)

Definitely check out the mechanical keyboards part of Reddit. There are a lot of ordinary keyboards with fancy switches but I’ve enjoyed getting into the ergo layouts like [Soufle](https://josef-adamcik.cz/electronics/let-me-introduce-you-so...) which I’m just about to build for myself.

The Romac is a numpad version. Same techniques all around. Use a Pro Micro chipset and install the QMK firmware and you’re off.

Re: Show HN: I made a 5-key keyboard

#102

Post by barbazoo » Thu, Apr 15, 2021, 5:09 PM UTC

> It took four hours

Love this guy's prototyping skills, I wish I could hammer out a project in that short a time. Takes me longer just to get the soldering right.

Re: Show HN: I made a 5-key keyboard

#103

Post by mromanuk » Thu, Apr 15, 2021, 5:09 PM UTC

StavrosK wrote: post #97

mromanuk wrote: post #36

I was disappointed at the end of the article, because there was no video of they using the keyboard. I love the project!

I don't think you'd very much want to see a video of me failing to type character after character for five minutes :P

60~90wpm is out of the question? congratulations!

Re: Show HN: I made a 5-key keyboard

#104

Post by _Microft » Thu, Apr 15, 2021, 5:21 PM UTC

CyberRabbi wrote: post #81

greenshackle2 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technically words can have more than one meaning. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thumb#Thumb_and_fingers Colloquially, for many (most?) English speakers, the thumb is a finger: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=4+fingers%2C5+... A strawberry is a berry. I don't care if biologists or botanists or whoever use a narrower technical definition in their research papers. The colloquial definition is just as valid…

Yes words can have any meaning at all. Also War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength. Edit: this is a 1984 reference for those who aren’t familiar with that book or haven’t read it.

From your user page: "My name is actually CyberRabbit. I made a typo when I made this account and HN won’t let me edit my user name."

There is no user "CyberRabbit" by the way, maybe dang would rename your account if you ask him?

Re: Show HN: I made a 5-key keyboard

#105

Post by CyberRabbi » Thu, Apr 15, 2021, 5:23 PM UTC

_Microft wrote: post #104

CyberRabbi wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes words can have any meaning at all. Also War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength. Edit: this is a 1984 reference for those who aren’t familiar with that book or haven’t read it.

From your user page: "My name is actually CyberRabbit. I made a typo when I made this account and HN won’t let me edit my user name." There is no user "CyberRabbit" by the way, maybe dang would rename your account if you ask him?

Yes he offered but I don’t use email and cannot contact him that way.

Re: Show HN: I made a 5-key keyboard

#106

Post by greenshackle2 » Thu, Apr 15, 2021, 5:23 PM UTC

CyberRabbi wrote: post #81

greenshackle2 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technically words can have more than one meaning. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thumb#Thumb_and_fingers Colloquially, for many (most?) English speakers, the thumb is a finger: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=4+fingers%2C5+... A strawberry is a berry. I don't care if biologists or botanists or whoever use a narrower technical definition in their research papers. The colloquial definition is just as valid…

Yes words can have any meaning at all. Also War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength. Edit: this is a 1984 reference for those who aren’t familiar with that book or haven’t read it.

I get the reference, but it seems like either a non-sequitur or a joke I'm not getting.

Re: Show HN: I made a 5-key keyboard

#107

Post by _dh54 » Thu, Apr 15, 2021, 5:33 PM UTC

greenshackle2 wrote: post #106

CyberRabbi wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes words can have any meaning at all. Also War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength. Edit: this is a 1984 reference for those who aren’t familiar with that book or haven’t read it.

I get the reference, but it seems like either a non-sequitur or a joke I'm not getting.

It’s not a non-sequitor nor a joke, the point is to highlight the danger of linguistic relativism. If we dismiss the idea that words must follow some standard meanings, things we value can be gradually shifted into weapons of oppression.

Re: Show HN: I made a 5-key keyboard

#108

Post by ravi-delia » Thu, Apr 15, 2021, 5:34 PM UTC

mgr86 wrote: post #100

ravi-delia wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Douglas Englebart is the proof to me that even if you could go back in time, it isn't necessarily true that you could leverage your knowledge of future technology. Poor guy messed up the timeline so much that even his stock market knowledge was useless!

>Poor guy messed up the timeline so much that even his stock market knowledge was useless! -- Without the time available to go down the Englebart rabbit hole can you distill the story down some and share?

Englebart famously demoed possible ways of interacting with computers that are now ubiquitous decades before they were actually popularized. I made a joke about him only having those ideas because he was a time traveler from the future, but tried to implement them too early. Then, after he already didn't make billions from his ideas, he couldn't use his future knowledge of investment because his demo was still big enough to change which companies got wealthy (explaining why he didn't make billions investing in the companies that actually invented those ideas in his timeline).

Re: Show HN: I made a 5-key keyboard

#109

Post by harrisonjackson » Thu, Apr 15, 2021, 5:38 PM UTC

I bet a lot of what the paramedic friend types is repetitive and industry specific. Could speed things up with some macros/text expander type of functionality.

The multi presses reminds me a lot text messaging back before smartphones. Most kids could type quickly without really looking and using just a thumb.

Re: Show HN: I made a 5-key keyboard

#110

Post by nicoty » Thu, Apr 15, 2021, 5:40 PM UTC

ljoshua wrote: post #12

Reminds me a bit of this really cool project I saw the other day: https://there.oughta.be/a/macro-keyboard Difference is one is generic for typing anything, and the link there is purpose-built on a per-application basis, but the idea of having a small amount of keys for a precise job is very interesting. (Side note, anyone remember the Optimus Maximus, where each key was an LED screen? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O…

It reminds me of https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BGGOn-H7s3Q