Spyke
sopuli.xyz

I read this on hacker news awhile back, and enjoyed it quite a bit. The unrelated trivia part about USB keyboards needing at least 103 keys or they're just a keypad especially stuck with me, and has been cited in discussions of a certain meme:

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And I went past full sized keyboard with that 110% sh#t with extra programmable buttons and color profile modes (aka going back into mental disorder territory)

11
caurvoreply
lemmy.blahaj.zone

I'm so mentally disordered that I'm not even pictured on the graph...

Prime_E and Southpaw Candybar 4 lyf. I'm not even that deep in the water compared to some.

7
Sludgereply
sh.itjust.works

This totally custom or did you buy the kit from somewhere? I picked up a hot swappable plank to mitigate the need for soldering but stuff like this makes me feel like I need to dive back in. What is this? 30%?

5

Soldering is zen. It's slow and careful, but satisfying. Like coloring with a 350°C iron. You gently heat the pad with the iron, and slowly introduce the solder. Flux will guide solder to the pads. Don't worry if you mess up a couple, by the 72nd pad, it's becomes second nature. Micro controllers are a little trickier, but planning and slow pace really takes care of it. You might burn off a pad if you keep the iron too hot for too long, but not long enough and you might get a cold joint that isn't complete. Look up tutorials for a beetter idea.

I went for handwired initially, but didn't have a great seat for the knobs or board. Hot glue got annoying, so I got splitkb aurora corne and snapped off columns.

I used QMK to do stuff. You can use python pip to install qmk.

python3 -m pip install qmk

qmk setup # after installing

Then config with

qmk config compile.keyboard=splitkb/aurora/corne/rev1 compile.keymap=default

Flash to each half with

qmk flash # double click reset to flash

There is a ton of amazing customization options. I have layers and combos for passwords, pins, shortcuts, macros, gaming, etc...

https://splitkb.com/collections/keyboard-kits/products/aurora-corne

https://www.littlekeyboards.com/collections/corne-cases/products/mini-corne-technician-keyboard-case?variant=40212013449283

3

I think you mean laptop keypads

(Actually the 103+ keys thing is specifically USB standard stuff, so if it doesn't connect via USB I don't know if it counts)

4

This is great and I appreciate it being posted.

I really want to figure out how to get into at least some linux development, purely for my own greedy purposes of wanting to have a working machine.

17

This is a delightful article. Parts of it had me giggling to myself, and I honestly learned more about some linux basics than I expected.

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You reached the end

Writing a basic Linux device driver when you know nothing about Linux drivers or USB | Spyke