Category: Keyboards⌨️

  • 2020-22 K.C.4 Controller ⌨️

    2020-22 K.C.4 Controller ⌨️

    ⏱️Overview

    This is my newest keyboard controller software (based on my previous one) used in my keyboard CK9 (upgraded CK6), running on Teensy 4.0 with a 2.8″ color LCD display (320×240, ILI9341 chip).

    📷Gallery

    Album with pictures here.

    ▶️Videos

    Here are videos of keyboard CK9, showing most of K.C.4 on its display:

    • View – Short video of keyboard and closeup at display.
    • Demos – Showing all demos (in auto mode): Plasma, 3D Polyhedrons with diagonals, Wave, Fire (meh), 2D waving CK Logo with shadow, and old Rain.
    • Features – A detailed look at features, no voice or commentary though. Editing mappings, sequences, testing etc.

    Link to my channel with all keyboard videos so far here.

    📂Sources

    My firmware sources are on github.
    It’s called K.C.4 (“Kacey”) simply from Keyboard Controller and 4 from Teensy version.

    The readme with all key features is visible on github. Here is more practical description.
    At end of page I wrote a comparison from my previous version (for Teensy 3.2) and quickly with other controllers / keyboards.

    📊Features

    The current code features are (and were mostly present in my previous K.C. version):

    • Display with menu, where you can edit everything possible.
    • Mapping (key binding).
      So which USB code will the physical key send to PC when pressed. There is a pick list with all common keys (and internal functions, sequences, etc) to choose from when binding. It has group colors and group filter for easier orientation.
    • Keyboard layout drawn on display.
      Shown when editing mappings (for currently chosen layer). Has a cursor to move around between keys. It’s also possible to jump to a key by pressing it.
    • Layers.
      If you hold a key, whole keyboard layout changes giving you other keys. Kind of like the Fn keys on laptop but much more useful and customizable. A common feature of custom controllers.
      Locking layers is also possible, either by lock/unlock key, tapping layer key fast or holding it for longer. Of course can be disabled and delay parameters are changeable.
    • Mouse keys.
      Keys that will move mouse, press mouse buttons or scroll mouse wheel. Also featuring acceleration with parameters for it and speed in GUI.
    • Sequences aka Macros.
      Basically any key combinations (for key shortcuts) and any sequences of key presses (for e.g. passwords). I am showing sequence previews where possible too, so when editing Mappings (for a sequence key), when picking a key from list or Testing pressed keys (if a key runs a sequence). I am also showing in sequences View, all mapped keys that run selected sequence.
    • Sequence commands are just a further extension.
      • They are special commands (beside sequence keys), that e.g. wait for few seconds (0.1s resolution), or change how slow the sequence will run (1ms resolution, useful e.g. for putty).
      • Others allow putting comments (for sequence purpose), and hiding sequence from preview (e.g. for passwords).
      • There is also a command to run other sequence(s) from this one. Also a repeat command that will do sequence (keys) continuously, until interrupted. This is e.g. useful e.g. if you want to watch a video faster, skipping parts with arrow keys after a short delay or take screenshots while watching etc. Normal keys can be used when a sequence runs too.
      • All mouse actions are available as commands too. So for example you can press a key (for a sequence) that will press button or move mouse etc. I have this way a mouse gesture done.
    • Internal functions.
      Keys to e.g. dim brightness, toggle GUI, toggle LED light, quit sequence, lock/unlock layer, change default layer etc. This a direct way, faster than adjusting parameters in GUI.
    • Testing and Setup pages.
      Useful when developing and to check if everything is working properly. Scan setup is advanced and adjust which strobe delay, scan frequency, debounce time I need. Matrix page shows the 18×8 keyboard matrix, with my anti-ghosting code working and any issues from too low strobe delay.
      It now also features X marks on keys that are available in matrix but not present on layout, this makes locating new extra keys very easy.
    • Demos and Game.
      Were already present in previous version and even on the first tiny display I used (128×64 mono). Since I have a display, and a powerful MCU, they show their drawing possibilities.
      They got extended to new resolution with few added extras. Best shown on videos, links below.
    • Clock.
      With date (uses internal RTC, needs 3V battery).
      Also showing Temperature, read from attached DS18B20 1-wire sensor (optional).
    • Statistics.
      Clock also displays (on its extended pages) keyboard use statistics:
      • Uptime.
        Time since power on or plugged in USB.
      • Late hour background.
        Will start slowly showing top of display orange at 22:00 and every 0:30 min going more visible, being yellow after 0:00 (midnight). This is to notify and motivate me to go to sleep when I sit too long at night.
      • Active time.
        I.e. how long I use keyboard without a break (at least 5 min, can be adjusted). Changes color from value.
        This is helpful to know if I’m doing something too long on PC. After all, it is recommended to take 5 min breaks every hour, it is healthy for spine and hands.
      • Inactive time.
        The opposite. Useful to know how long was I away from PC (keyboard). Also changes color when over 1 hour. Meaning I probably should have turned it off, to save power.
      • Press/min.
        Typing frequency, so how much key presses are done every minute. A colored value on left, going e.g. red at 120, yellow starting at 50.
        Also a second value below with total average since power on, with slowly changed value. So it is useful and directly corresponds to how tired will hands be. It’d be great to keep this value below 50, but sadly writing any text (e.g. chat, email etc.) or playing a game makes it go even above 150.
    • Graphs.
      As a part of clock, they show history of using keyboard (key presses/minute in the past hours). Second one is for temperature history. There are 320 points on display width and parameters for how often a value is added to graph.

    ⌨️Keyboard CK9

    I upgraded my 2018 keyboard CK6 with this bigger display and K.C.4 and it became CK9. I also added tiny extra keys, lots of them. Above Numpad, 2 rows of 8 or in other words 4 groups of 4. Surely will come handy for e.g. internal functions or could be extra F13-F24 keys for OS.
    The keyboard has visible tear on few keys already, well I use it since 2016 (was CK3 first). Nothing yet, compared to the 14 year old one (CK7/4/2).

    ✍️Motivation

    My previous version of KC and keyboards with it were quite useful and the 1.8″ color display was good too. The keyboard drawn on screen was minimal. Keys with one letter/digit/symbol had a 5×7 font, but 2 letters needed a tiny 3×5 font. It worked, but didn’t look great.
    So the new display is bigger 2.8″ and has about 2x resolution (320×240 vs 160×128).

    The main reason for this upgrade though was the new Teensy 4.0 with a MCU that runs at 600MHz. It seems to be the fastest one available (on a board with USB, ready to use). And is even way faster than all previous. I already didn’t like Arduino in 2014 when I got interested in MCUs (again), seemed like a stone age relic compared to Teensy 3, but today I can say they probably have computational power of a rock, when compared.

    The result is constant 45 frames per second almost always. This is what 600MHz MCU with SPI set at 60MHz for this display does, while using DMA for transfers and double buffered drawing (one buffer is being sent by DMA to display, while MCU draws new frame in second buffer, at the same time).

    ⚖️Comparisons

    Of course, there were many projects of using a big display with slow MCU even. A MCU not having enough RAM for screen buffer. But this means very low refresh rate (low Fps) and flickering (blinking when redrawn).

    There are few open source keyboard controllers, I think none of them even have a display, and some still use ATmega 8bit MCUs. Their requirements for program and RAM (memories of a MCU) are minimal, way lower than mine. And the price will be lower too. But the main flaw coming from it, is having to compile on PC and upload to MCU after any change. This is a big nope for me.

    📢Rants

    So for me, this is now the present (not the future anymore). And well honestly, whenever I see a custom keyboard picture I’m just asking: “where’s the display?”. In addition, seeing Cherry MX or any switches turns me away immediately.

    Because there is one more very important thing that is the light press modification. All my keyboards since 2005 have it and it’s just the default for me. Sadly all commercial keyboards are garbage in this matter and people continue to produce keyboards that have a tactile feel, 4mm travel and around 50 gram force to press. Well for me this is the middle ages era. This can cause injuries (Carpal Tunnel Syndrome). And I guess it feels awful for those having pain from using such keyboards.

    For my modding process (of reducing rubber dome keys press force and travel) pictures are in this gallery and I made a video of it recently (it is CK5).

    ✅Summary table

    For reference, here is a table with current status of all my keyboards, since start until present day:

    NameAssembly yearOriginal keyboardKeys actuation
    [gram force]
    Notes
    CK3 > CK6 > CK92016 > 2018 > 2020A4 Tech KX-10023 gCheaper, bit wobbly, but more keys
    CK2 > CK4 > CK72005 > 2016 > 2018Logitech Ultra X Flat33 gStiff foil, old, extra keys
    CK5, CK5b2015, 2020A4 Tech KV-300H9-18 gThe lightest foil
    CK12004Logitech Ultra X Flat25 gFirst, old, had extra keys,
    now only for testing, 1 row dead 💀
  • 2018-19 K.C. Controller ⌨️

    2018-19 K.C. Controller ⌨️

    ⏱️Overview

    This is my own keyboard controller software used in my keyboards CK6 and CK7 (upgraded CK3 and CK4), running on Teensy 3.2 (or 3.1) with a color LCD display (160×128, ST7735 chip).
    It is continued in newer version with Teensy 4 and bigger display.

    📷Gallery

    Album with pictures here.

    📂Sources

    My firmware sources are here.
    I called it K.C. (aka “Kacey”) simply from Keyboard Controller. A catchy cool name for software is a thing, isn’t it.

    The readme with all key features is visible on github too. Here will be a more practical description.

    ✍️Motivation

    My previous keyboards CK3 and CK4 were quite useful.
    But there were few flaws that I wanted to improve. They had a very tiny display, sure it did the job, but wasn’t convenient to look at for longer. Since I based my code on existing kiibohd controller software, there were few problems. Any change in key bindings had to be done on PC, needed to build binary and upload it to MCU. That’s a long way to e.g. check if it’d be better if I swapped some keys. Not to mention doing it at work. Lastly, there were few bugs which I couldn’t spend more time trying to fix.

    So, it’d be better indeed to start writing my own code. And that’s what I did. Right now I can’t find a reason not to use my controller code. Sure, it was easier back then to get started, knowing there is an open source keyboard controller and it runs on Teensy 3.1, this is how I got into it. My code surely doesn’t have stuff present in kiibohd like NKRO support, keyboard LEDs animations and other fancy things I will likely never need. But it now does have features I wanted and it wasn’t that difficult to code them.

    📊Features

    So the code features are:

    • Display with menu, where you can edit everything possible (that I needed so far).
    • Key bindings (mappings), i.e. what USB codes will the physical key send to PC when pressed. There is a pick list with all common keys (and internal functions) to choose from when binding. It has group colors and group filter for easier orientation.
    • Keyboard layout drawn on display. Shown when editing mappings. Has a cursor to move around between keys, can also jump to key by pressing it.
    • Layers. If you hold a key, whole keyboard layout changes giving you other keys. Kind of like the Fn keys on laptop but much more useful and customizable. Surely a common feature in custom controllers (like tmk or kiibohd).
    • Sequences aka Macros. Basically any key combinations (for key shortcuts) and any sequences of key presses (for e.g. passwords). Not typing passwords myself, when my keyboard could do it, was my first reason when starting with keyboard controllers back then. Sadly even in kiibohd you couldn’t change them without rebuild and upload. This then was possible in my fork of kiibohd. To be convenient, I am showing (short) sequence preview where possible. So when editing Mapping (for a sequence key), when picking a key from list or Testing pressed keys (if a key runs a sequence). I am also showing in sequences view any mapped keys that run selected sequence.
    • Sequence commands are an even further extension. If you have an editor on display (basically a simpler editbox) one could put special commands (beside sequence keys), that e.g. wait for few seconds, or change how slow the sequence will run (useful for putty). Newest ones allow putting comments, useful if you have lots of sequences and want to rather see what it’s for, not what it will press. And hiding sequence from preview, useful if you don’t want to show important passwords on GUI.
    • Mouse keys, i.e. keys that will move mouse, press mouse buttons or scroll mouse wheel. Also featuring acceleration and even parameters for it and speed in GUI.
    • I now even have mouse commands with all mouse actions possible to add in sequences. Some stupid programs don’t allow everything using keyboard and specifically want you to click with mouse. But hey, now even this could be done automagically by my keyboard.
    • Testing and Setup pages. Those are quite useful when developing and in normal use to check if everything is working properly as intended. Scan setup is nice e.g. to check which strobe delay, scan frequency, debounce time I need. Matrix page shows the 18×8 keyboard matrix, with my anti-ghosting code working and any issues from too low strobe delay.
    • Demos and Game. Were already present in my fork of kiibohd. Now extended with new presets to color display. Best shown on videos, links below.
    • Clock with date (internal RTC, needs 3V battery) optionally also showing Temperature, read from attached DS18B20 1-wire sensor.
    • Internal functions, e.g. to dim brightness or toggle GUI, by keys on other layer.

    ⌨️Keyboards CK6 and CK7

    I then upgraded my 2016 keyboards CK3 and CK4 with bigger, color display (160×128 LCD, ST7735) and K.C. They now became CK6 and CK7. Apart from the new displays and my software, the keyboards are the same.

    The CK7 is the oldest one, comes from CK4, which in fact was done from CK2 (2006) and is now 12 years old… Still doing fine. Well this proves then, that cutting and gluing rubber domes is nothing that would decrease the lifespan of a keyboard. Even recently folded keyboard foil since CK4 works okay.

    ▶️Videos

    There are a few videos of my keyboard CK7, showing most of K.C. on its display:

    • View – Short video of keyboard and closeup at display.
    • Plasma – Quick and colorful show of presets of plasma fullscreen effect. It runs at 10-30 frames per second. Note that I overclocked Teensy 3.2 here at 120 MHz, HW SPI runs at 30MHz. My other keyboard CK6 has Teensy 3.1 at 144MHz, SPI at 24MHz, it gives about 1.5 Fps more here.
    • Demos – Showing rest of demos: 3D Polyhedrons with diagonals, Wave, Fire (not real) and the older ones: 2D waving CK Logo, Space, Balls, Fountain, Fonts.
    • Game – falling blocks (Sixtis), or my version of it. It has 11 game presets, generated blocks, possibly diagonal, with many parameters for custom games.
    • Features – A detailed look at features, no sound or descriptions though. Editing mappings, sequences, testing etc.

    Link to my channel with electronics videos here, just from my keyboards.

    ☑️Summary

    For reference, here is a table with current status of all my keyboards, since start until present day:

    NameAssembly yearOriginal keyboardKeys actuation
    [gram force]
    Notes
    CK3 > CK6 > CK92016 > 2018 > 2020A4 Tech KX-10023 gCheaper, bit wobbly, but more keys
    CK2 > CK4 > CK72005 > 2016 > 2018Logitech Ultra X Flat33 gStiff foil, old, extra keys
    CK5, CK5b2015, 2020A4 Tech KV-300H9-18 gThe lightest foil
    CK12004Logitech Ultra X Flat25 gFirst, old, had extra keys,
    now only for testing, 1 row dead 💀
  • 2017 Crystal Keys

    2017 Crystal Keys

    ⏱️Overview

    This is the last version of my program for showing pressed keys. It now also shows keyboard layouts.

    📜History

    The oldest version of it was useful already in 2005, when I was first tinkering with my first keyboards, later named CK1 and CK2. Program showed a list with the Virtual Key and Scan Code values of pressed (held) keys (and their names). It was useful for adding my extra keys on regular keyboards. First by finding which matrix combinations (shorting row and column) give key presses besides the present keyboard keys. Next for finding their codes and using them for binding in e.g. my audio player.

    ❌Why Qt and QML failed

    I previously did the same program using Qt and QML for GUI. Just to get a bit familiar with it and get my own opinion. The repository with it is here. I finally abandoned it after realizing that I would need extra 55 MB in over 100 extra files just to start the program anywhere else. That’s insane ?, surely for such a tiny program. Maybe a huge editing tool or other big application could benefit from Qt (and QML) and hide that size in its own resources. But definitely none of my own programs. Even my Track Editor, but for slightly different reason: to not add Qt as extra dependency for building, when we already have MyGui.

    ⌨️Layouts

    Now my keyboards CK3 and CK4 have different layouts. Hence drawing keyboard layout is a nice feature and visual addition to the list of pressed keys.

    There already is a website where you can edit keyboard layouts, for many other keyboards including ergonomic ones, link here. So I decided to save time and not create my own and just used the output from it. It saves layouts in JSON format. Thus I needed a library for C++ that parses .json files. I decided to go with JSMN which is small and fast(est), at just doing what I needed and not much more.

    🪟Program

    The program is simple and it was easy to code, right after getting familiar with SFML and ImGui. Which I already used in my previous program Color Center.

    Graphics and Gui turned out to be good, even if simply one colored and rectangular. The look wasn’t important here anyway, rather to code and use it fast. I made it basically in 2 days. But of course using parsing code and basic application with Gui from the other 2 programs and pressed keys detection from my older program.

    Additionally it features a very fast scaling of the layout through slider and can also fit window to it. And a combobox to change layout for other keyboards.

    📂Sources

    Located here. Including Windows Releases.
    Should also work fine on GNU/Linux, after building from sources.

    📖Tutorials

    The first 3 versions of the program were aimed to be educational and can serve as basic tutorials for simple applications like this one.

    Namely cross-platform C++ programs using SFML, built with CMake. With possible interface using ImGui and settings saved in XML with TinyXML2.

    See archives in Releases, or use Git to get tags 0.1, 0.3 and 0.5.

    Other resources for learning are in SFML tutorials.

  • 2016 Keyboards CK3,4 ⌨️

    2016 Keyboards CK3,4 ⌨️

    ⏱️Overview

    The newer two of my heavily modified keyboards. This time having Teensy 3.1 (or 3.2) as microcontroller with a tiny 1″ monochrome OLED display. Firmware was based on Kiibohd, it was a fork with my extensions. I added display support (with a library), menu for editing e.g. macros/sequences, few demos and a game.
    I did improve them further in my newer firmware, with bigger display.

    🛠️Modifications

    The first operation I did, was cutting off most of all rubber domes. This makes the keys much softer to press, so needs less effort or fatigue. The result is minimized pressing (actuation) force and distance. Simply more pleasant and comfortable. Also healthier, since the risk of keyboard injuries decreases. I already did that earlier on my two oldest keyboards in 2005 and 2006.

    ✍️Motivation

    Originally most keyboards need about 50 gram force needed to press keys, and probably 4 mm distance. After cutting, the distance is about 1-2mm, the force is at 23 gram for CK3 (top), 33g for CK4 (bottom) and 9-18g for CK5. This can also be varied per key (more detail can be seen on pictures (galleries below), but ultimately the lowest value depends on keyboard’s foil thickness.

    ⌨️Additional keys

    For CK4 there are also few small extra keys. Which were present already in my earliest keyboards CK1 and CK2. Those are glued on top and are made from lightest 0,5N switches available. The row above numpad is used for my audio player control. Rest is custom. This part is optional and I didn’t do it for CK3. The disadvantage is the difference in pressing those switches and much lighter normal keyboard keys. They are smaller so you can fit more, but are less convenient to press. Lastly, regular keys can be used to switch layers instead.

    ⚙️Microcontroller (MCU)

    The second step was replacing the keyboard controller board, with my own. The hardware is composed of Teensy 3.1 (or 3.2) with a tiny 1 inch OLED display (SSD1306, monochrome, 128×64) and a bunch of wires to connect to the original keyboard’s matrix.

    The reason for this was to take advantage of already made open source Kiibohd controller allowing any imaginable keys assigned and layers. Also possible are macros, key combinations and even mouse buttons and movement simulation. But changing any of this required rebuilding controller software and uploading to controller, through already present USB.

    It was a bit simpler to start at the time, instead of writing my own later.

    📊Features

    After getting it to work, I implemented my own menu where you can edit sequences, stored in memory (remembered after power off). The sequences are very useful for not typing passwords or simply binding some useful macro combinations or commands dynamically. Which needed a display and menu for entering.

    Once I’ve done the useful stuff, I got carried away and implemented several demos on display and even a falling blocks game.
    I also wrote about it in this forum post.

    📂Sources

    The code is in my fork here with some more detail.

    📷Galleries

    There are picture galleries below, also from assembly and videos.

    All galleries up to now, from my keyboards are as follows (newest first):

    Most pictures have some description text (explaining what I did there).

    1. CK4 final (18 Apr 2016)
    2. CK4 assembly (Apr 2016)
    3. CK3 final (11 Apr 2016)
    4. CK3 assembly (Apr 2016)
    5. CK3 rubbers cut and glued (Apr 2016)
    6. CK5 / Ultra light press mod 9-18g (2015)

    And the older ones:

    1. CK2 final (2008)
    2. CK1 and 2 making of (2005 and 2006)

    ✅Summary

    For reference, here is a table with current status of all my keyboards, since start until present day:

    NameAssembly yearOriginal keyboardKeys actuation
    [gram force]
    Notes
    CK3 > CK6 > CK92016 > 2018 > 2020A4 Tech KX-10023 gCheaper, bit wobbly, but more keys
    CK2 > CK4 > CK72005 > 2016 > 2018Logitech Ultra X Flat33 gStiff foil, old, extra keys
    CK5, CK5b2015, 2020A4 Tech KV-300H9-18 gThe lightest foil
    CK12004Logitech Ultra X Flat25 gFirst, old, had extra keys,
    now only for testing, 1 row dead 💀
  • 2005 Keyboards CK1,2 ⌨️

    2005 Keyboards CK1,2 ⌨️

    ⏱️Overview

    This is an older topic with less information, just for history purpose. If you’re interested see my newer keyboards or the newest ones, with more explanation, own controller and display.

    These were my first modifications for keyboards.

    They were both done on a Logitech Ultra X Flat, a well done, solid keyboard. Surprisingly different for same model made after 1 year.

    ✍️Motivation

    Originally most keyboards have about 50 gram force needed to press keys, and probably 4 mm distance. After first step of cutting rubber domes the distance is about 1-2mm, the force was about 22 gram for CK1 (bottom) and 33g for CK2 (top). This can also be varied per key.

    📊Features

    The second step was removing the middle part with arrows. Which I find unnecessary and worse (less keys) than the same from numpad. In CK1 I’ve bent the foil and hid it under. It was risky, but the foil survived. The CK2 was different, it was made from two identical keyboards, thus no need to bend, only cut the metal and foil. That too was risky since the foil could have connections around the cut off part. It was only for numpad, the bigger part had whole foil under.

    Years later I modified CK2 further and bent the foil to create CK4 keyboard. And that’s 11 years already, so this would answer any doubts for longevity of such modifications. The number of times I disassembled it, changed something, and put it together is also quite high.

    The third step was adding extra keys. Using my oldest program for showing pressed keys and their codes, I figured out that there are more possible keys in keyboard matrix, that are just not connected. So I added them with wires and glued on keyboards. First as regular switches with metal domes, small and hard to press. Later using rubber switches, lighter to press. But turned out to be an even bigger fail since they wear out and stop connecting. They have some resistance too (like maybe 300 ohm) in addition to the resistance of foil traces (maybe 150 ohm). So finally I ended with the smallest metal dome switch I found, with force 0.5 N (50gf). It feels different than other keys but otherwise is good.

    📷Galleries

    The old galleries from my keyboards:

    1. CK2 final (2008)
    2. CK1 and 2 making of (2005 and 2006)

    Most pictures have some description text (explaining what I did there).