Hooray, the system works! [Sasha K.] wrote to let me find out about their Thumbs Up! keyboard, which is the end result of a protracted journey down the DIY rabbit gap to finish recreation. (Critically, it’s type of a wild journey, and there’s a ton of images).

Thumbs Up! is available in each monoblock and full cut up variations, however each are designed for Kailh chocs. Followers of the Kinesis Benefit will dig the important thing wells and probably the thumb cluster, which on this case is raised up a bit from the mainlands. I’m fairly keen on the bare PCB method to keyboard constructing, particularly after they’re stacked and look nearly as good as these do.

Whereas the total cut up solely is available in RP2040 (not that there’s something unsuitable with that), the monoblock cut up is on the market in Professional Micro, ATmega Mini, and RP2040 variations. You’ll find the STL for the lean stand and different goodies on Thingiverse.

The Shift Occurs Marketing campaign Is Dwell

They are saying everybody has a guide in them, they usually additionally say that it is best to write the guide you need most to learn. It has been a very long time coming, however Marcin Wichary’s venerable 1200+ web page tome entitled Shift Occurs has reached the Kickstarter stage. I’m happy to see that it has already been funded 279% previous the unique $150K purpose, which at $150 per good-looking two-volume set, equaled out to only one,000 copies. It could be a disgrace if the guide turned out to be that uncommon.

So what is going to you discover between the covers? Marcin spent six years researching the 150-year historical past of the keyboard, from the earliest typewriters to the most well liked keyboards of immediately. He learn books, carried out interviews, visited museums, and typed on numerous keyboards. (Though let’s face it, he in all probability has the quantity saved someplace.) Removed from merely being top-shelf keyboard porn, Shift Occurs is filled with tales from the good battle for QWERTY to Typewriter Row in NYC to why there are such a lot of variations of Enter.

Whereas $150 could sound like rather a lot to spend on studying materials, that is no mere set of books. Shift Occurs represents all issues keyboard, and fairly indulgently so — simply look on the pictures and picture having these beauties on paper, in your house. Whether or not you’re into typewriters, mechanical keyboards, or similar to industrial design and tech historical past, that is the labor of affection we’ve been ready for.

The Centerfold: Clavert 1873

I’m undecided what it’s I like most about Clavert, which is a portmanteau of clavier and vertical. It has some very nice curves happening, that are uninterrupted by any keys bigger than 1u. Even the encoder matches properly with the 1u scheme, and the entire colorway can be improbable. About the one factor we don’t like is [stvneads] aka [thlintw]’s evaluation that handwiring is lame. By no means! Handwiring is freedom!

By way of KBD #112

Do you rock a candy set of peripherals on a screamin’ desk pad? Ship an image to Rattling Superb Keyboards alongside along with your deal with and all of the gory particulars, and you might be featured there and right here! Or ship it to me instantly!

Historic Clackers: The World Index Typewriter

Index typewriters, which print one character at a time within the method of an previous embossing label maker, had been as soon as nice rivals of two-handed typewriters.

Within the late Eighties, few folks might touch-type anyway, and the World 1 index typewriter was an affordable and cheerful substitute that was fairly small and transportable besides. With solely 30 items to them, they weren’t too sophisticated to repair, both.

Two fashions had been offered by a string of producers — the No. 1, which produced solely uppercase, and the No. 2 which stamped out each. A gushing article from 1887 said {that a} expert person might attain upwards of 80 WPM, which is hilarious to consider. Might anybody do anyplace close to 80 WPM on a label maker? I feel not.

ICYMI: Sol-20 Keyboard Restore

Right here’s one you truly could have missed as it was couched inside a complete teardown of a 70s pc that’s able to turning into a terminal in software program. About midway by the video, [Action Retro] advises that the froth within the foam-foil capacitive switches have turned to black mud, and because of this, the factor simply doesn’t keyboard anymore.

The answer? After utilizing naked fingers to confirm the PCB pads nonetheless despatched key presses, they resolved to take away the remaining foam mud and glue from each key and change all of it with the foam-foil bits from a Solar 4 keyboard. However on condition that these switches aren’t that a lot youthful, [Action Retro] was happy to find that there’s an organization on the market making model new foam-and-foil alternative pads. Nonetheless, it wasn’t a 100% drop-in repair — many keys repeated, and a number of other didn’t work in any respect. After eradicating a bodge wire from an previous key-repeat mod and cleansing the pads totally, they acquired many of the method there. Take a look at all the video, or bounce proper into the keyboard restore.

Acquired a scorching tip that has like, something to do with keyboards? Help me out by sending in a link or two. Don’t want all the Hackaday scribes to see it? Feel free to email me directly.