Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Making My Own USB Keyboard from Scratch

blakesmith.me

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–136 of 136 posts

Re: Making My Own USB Keyboard from Scratch

#131

Post by brokenmachine »

subjoriented wrote: post #119

Once I pulled a prank on a colleague by setting up a 555 timer inside their keyboard so that alt+f4 would constantly get pressed (every ~1 second). Because that friend was a software hacker, I knew he would look for rootkits and all sorts of nefarious software issues that could lead to this behavior. Anyhow, he did eventually figure it out (not after he was sure his BIOS was infected - yes this was 2007). What I lear…

If every key has a diode then you won't get ghost keys.

That's how NKRO keyboards work.

Re: Making My Own USB Keyboard from Scratch

#132

Post by bonestamp2 »

jon-wood wrote: post #98
bonestamp2 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could make it whatever shape you want. Then program it to emit whatever usb key codes you want (there are existing libraries to do this quite easily). This one happens to emit standard qwerty key codes, but there are many more that do other things. For example, there are standard key codes to launch a browser or the calculator (and some keyboards have buttons to do that too). You could also make it emulate any ki…

My Ergodox is configured so that hitting a particular key switches hjkl to mouse control, with clicks on the other hand. I can’t say I use it often, but it’s nice for times when you just want to click a single thing and then get back to typing.

That is great. I remember having a microsoft keyboard back in the day that had a mouse click button and it was surprisingly useful.

Re: Making My Own USB Keyboard from Scratch

#133

Post by cerberusss »

tapland wrote: post #92
masklinn wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shouldn't it be riskier & cheaper first? That way if you fuck up you haven't wasted your expensive components.

Components are not wasted or used up by being soldered to a board.

In a lot of keyboard designs, you'll solder an Arduino Micro Pro to the PCB. It has, I dunno, 18 pins or something. Without a professional desoldering station, it's almost impossible to remove. I tried with desoldering braid, wick and pump but still managed to damage the Arduino. A more experienced person tried with a heat gun, also damaged the Arduino.

Re: Making My Own USB Keyboard from Scratch

#134

Post by Mraedis »

afandian wrote: post #112
mncharity wrote: post #50

Has anyone seen keyboards with non-traditional touch surfaces? Such as trackpad keycaps? Backstory: My fingers slide smoothly across my ThinkPad laptop keyboard, so I was playing with optical hand tracking (with a surface mirror to better track touch) to make the entire keyboard (and surrounding laptop) into a multitouch surface. There were occlusion and jitter issues, even with fingernail markers, and I set it aside…

The Blackberry Passport had a keyboard like that. You could glide over the keyboard to scroll and other gestures. I don't know if the new breed of Blackberries have it, but it was a great feature.

The Key One and Key Two have it too.

Re: Making My Own USB Keyboard from Scratch

#135

Post by tapland »

pjc50 wrote: post #99
tapland wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Components are not wasted or used up by being soldered to a board.

They certainly can be if you're not very good at desoldering. Especially BGA parts which require laborious re-balling for reuse.

Luckilly you won't be installing BGA parts to begin with using a soldering iron at home.

Re: Making My Own USB Keyboard from Scratch

#136

Post by c17r »

samstave wrote: post #8

I have a design wish for people who make things like this: “row modules” Basically, as an example - i wouldnt be fond of the size of that spacebar, and would like other modules. What if each horizontal row of the standard length on a qwerty were its own module, and you can snap several together to make the board you want. Want a touchpad? Snap it to the base or side. Want a touchbar oled strip: snap it to the top. 9-…

Not exactly as comprehensive as you are looking for but there is this: https://ultimatehackingkeyboard.com/
Post reply on HN