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DIY mechanical keyboard switch lets you set its actuation point

arstechnica.com

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Re: DIY mechanical keyboard switch lets you set its actuation point

#71

Post by dimatura »

cttet wrote: post #63
z_zetetic_z wrote: post #50

If you want something you can actually buy, check out the wooting he https://next.wooting.io/wooting-60he You can set per key actuation points, and bind multiple different inputs to the same key but different depths, etc. Great review here https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=glQNEbh79xg You can even mod it into another case for the DIY crowd.

I used it for a midi keyboard and it was fun

Cool, I've dabbled in this with ordinary mechanical switches. What's the hardware interface like for the Wooting switches?

Re: DIY mechanical keyboard switch lets you set its actuation point

#73

Post by billconan »

cttet wrote: post #63
z_zetetic_z wrote: post #50

If you want something you can actually buy, check out the wooting he https://next.wooting.io/wooting-60he You can set per key actuation points, and bind multiple different inputs to the same key but different depths, etc. Great review here https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=glQNEbh79xg You can even mod it into another case for the DIY crowd.

I used it for a midi keyboard and it was fun

Can it detect speed or force? I googled, and it seems to be a binary sensor.

Re: DIY mechanical keyboard switch lets you set its actuation point

#74

Post by nomel »

adrianN wrote: post #70
mannykannot wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With an electromagnet, you could take that control of feel far enough give it a buckling-spring ‘click’ feel.

You might also need active cooling to be able to pump enough juice through your electromagnets to get the desired force.

The force for a cherry red switch is only around 50g. A brake, rather than direct electromagnetic force, could be used most of the time (see Playstation 5 controller [1]).

Regardless, this will be one expensive keyboard.

1. https://hackaday.com/2021/09/13/how-the-ps5s-genuinely-cleve...

Re: DIY mechanical keyboard switch lets you set its actuation point

#75

Post by amelius »

atoav wrote: post #3
gaudat wrote: post #2

Next step: Add a tiny motor inside the key switch for force feedback

I think force feedback (and or haptic feedback) is truly the future of interaction design. To see an amazing example of this, check out the smartknob project: https://github.com/scottbez1/smartknob

This knob would be nice as an alternative "zoom in/out" knob for users of Wacom tablets, since you don't have the scroll wheel of a mouse.

Re: DIY mechanical keyboard switch lets you set its actuation point

#76

Post by highduc »

Karliss wrote: post #60
highduc wrote: post #23

seems like wasted potential by not reading the sensors with an ADC. you could have analog keys this way, which opens up a whole new world.

I assume you are referring to the part where article says that (hall effect sensor) "output being used to trigger MOSFETs". I have no idea where that came from, but in the schemeatics and code I looked at hall effect output was read using ADC like you would expect. Otherwise how else would you change the actuation point? You could digitise it by comparing it against adjustment pot with a discrete comparator IC, but t…

I haven't looked at the schematics but I suppose you could set a trigger level with the mosfets? Past a certain threshold it turns on the fets.

Re: DIY mechanical keyboard switch lets you set its actuation point

#77

Post by highduc »

Majromax wrote: post #56
highduc wrote: post #23

seems like wasted potential by not reading the sensors with an ADC. you could have analog keys this way, which opens up a whole new world.

For a macro pad, maybe. For a full-sized keyboard, that would be a lot of ADC channels. Looking at Digikey, ADC chips seem to be about $0.50 per input in bulk, and that would add a lot of BOM cost to the keyboard. You might be able to do better if you instead feed the Hall output into a sample-and-hold filter constructed out of a much cheaper op-amp. I suspect that would be an interesting engineering challenge.

Couldn't you mux them?

Re: DIY mechanical keyboard switch lets you set its actuation point

#78

Post by z_zetetic_z »

billconan wrote: post #73
cttet wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used it for a midi keyboard and it was fun

Can it detect speed or force? I googled, and it seems to be a binary sensor.

I believe it measures distance, so possibly speed as well, and force could be computed with knowledge of spring resistance. However, I don't think I saw anything in their material relating to these two terms.

Re: DIY mechanical keyboard switch lets you set its actuation point

#79

Post by z_zetetic_z »

dimatura wrote: post #71
cttet wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used it for a midi keyboard and it was fun

Cool, I've dabbled in this with ordinary mechanical switches. What's the hardware interface like for the Wooting switches?

I believe it's custom, because the mechanical part is actually just part of a sensor (it's just a magnet in a slider). The other part is the hall effect sensor which is soldered on the board. So, you can't drop these mechanical parts on to another board, they aren't self contained switches.
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