Behind the Scenes of Issue 61

Lots of small developments, new vendors, new discount codes, Videoton terminal, etc.

Hello everyone,

I spent the past week with a lot of research before purchasing the Videoton VDN-52500 terminal, then with collecting, disassembling and cleaning it. This last part is still in progress… Other than that, I'm working on some interviews with various community members and are sending out dozens of emails daily regarding this and the vendor database.

Lots of small developments

I've been planning to simplify the posting process for a long time and since I stopped doing those long-format entries on r/mk with all the titles and contributors, the time has come for ditching one of the lead formats.

I mean, I've done at least three versions of the lead in the past simultaneously:

• a standalone lead with a link to the original Reddit post (used on r/mk and blog inner pages)
• a "clean" one without any links (blog front page, meta description, etc.)
• and a third one for the newsletter: complete without the title

This week I ditched the first one so I have to prepare only one lead working with a title (blog, Twitter, etc.) and a standalone version (newsletter).

In addition, there will be some occasional guest appearances on the blog – authors from all over the keyboard scene – so I have to rework the inner pages reflecting the specific author, date of publication, etc. right at the top of the page.

I haven't updated the vendor database for a long time – there wasn't any reason for that – but Shirogane and an inquiry by mechboards directed my attention back to this part of the site.

A small change in the interface: "real" shops, the brick and mortar kind, can have a photo displayed on their profile page now. E.g. check Yowkees' Shirogane Lab.

And the "Other shops in the region" list at the bottom of vendor profile pages will list shops in an improved order, incorporating the country and distance instead of randomly choosing from the whole region – which may work perfectly for some regions like the US or Europe but not for Asia. I have to make some more test before rolling out this feature.

Finally, I also added a few major currencies (other than USD) to the donation page. This was suggested by a donor but I can't find the email or PM, sorry. Thanks for the idea anyway.

Donations

I'm still far away from the monthly donation level I had before the BMC vs PayPal calamity, but a new regular donor joined the ranks of supporters:

Welcome FFKeebs! And thank you. These predictable monthly donations mean a lot.

And I had a generous one-time supporter this week: David Yang – you are awesome!

New coupon codes, new vendors

So as already told, I haven't done much update to the vendor database in the past few weeks but there are some news now:

Mechboards created a 5% discount code for you. Use the code "KBDNEWS5" to get 5% off for your first purchase.

In addition, customkeysco.com is now included in the database, and Roy offered a 5% for you too – use the discount code "KBDNEWS".

Thank you guys!

Also, Meckeys in India was added – and I'm pretty sure I forgot some updates. Anyway, check the vendor database before purchasing anything, there might be a discount code around.

New acquisition: Videoton terminal

Now you know what I spend your donations on. :D After a lot of research I bought a Videoton VDN-52500 terminal. Help! Why am I buying these?! It makes no sense at all. This specimen doesn't even work and is dirty as hell. But it's mine now. :D [Gollum SFX]

At least the model is quite rare. This retrofuturistic terminal was manufactured in Hungary from 1983 and only 5000 pieces were made if the resources I found are right. I have a hard time with the disassembly but couldn't find any labels or stickers to reveal the exact date of manufacturing.

Anyway, I spent the weekend with trying to clean this but it's still very dirty on the inside. I try to be very careful because some years ago I pretty much ruined the painting of an old keyboard by using household detergents which turned out to be much more aggressive than I anticipated.

I will post a more detailed entry about the intestines later.

Logical layout switching with data

I like when somebody logs his/her improvement with a new logical layout. This week Tanukishouten published some hard data on switching to Colemak.

There are plenty of science papers out there on getting accustomed to ergonomic/split physical layouts. (Only about 1-2 hours are needed to get to (usually 90% of) your original speed and accuracy.)

However, understandably, proper data on learning alternative logical layouts is very scarce. The stats and graphs provided by Tanukishouten, while still sporadic, suggest that only about 22 hours (net) were needed to get back to a (pretty average) original speed.

That's way less than I thought and if muscle memory would work that way, a successful transition to a new logical layout could be done in a weekend – at least to a point where you could do your job with an average typing speed.

–-

Well, that's it for today.

Thanks for reading, thanks for your support.

Feel free to ask and comment in this issue's r/mk thread, and as always: keep learning and building.

Cheers, Tamás

Little Big Scroll

Little Big Scroll is an open-source macropad with encoder designed by Tweetydabirdie.

A low-cost and easy to build macro pad intended for among other things media controls – TweetyDaBird.

Github repo: https://github.com/TweetyDaBird/Little-Big-Scroll

Specs:

• Promicro/Elite C or equivalent controller
• Programmable with QMK and VIAL
• Cherry MX style keyswitches
• Kaihl hot swap sockets
• Clickable Rotary encoder with up to 40mm wheel
• Optional 0.91" 128x32 OLED screen
• Optional Per Key RGB
• Designed with a complete sandwich case for an easy build

PD40 ortho

The PD40 is a 40% handwired wireless ortho by Peter Dye – with case files and build log.

The PD40 is a 40% ortholinear keyboard that I designed and built from scratch. It has a 3D printed case, has Bluetooth BLE capability, runs the QMK firmware, and uses Kailh Choc low profile switches. It is now my everyday keyboard that I use whenever I am at a computer – Peter Dye.

Github repo: https://github.com/peter-dye/pd40-keyboard

Swoop

A lobster-themed open-source Sweep/Ferris derivative by Jim Merricks White.

I made this keyboard for my brother who likes lobsters – jamesmnw.

Altough there is a Choc version in the repo, as of writing this only the MX version (dubbed Swoop Tall) is tried and tested.

GitHub repo:

https://github.com/jimmerricks/swoop

Inspired by the Ferris and the Sweep, the Swoop Tall is a split ergonomic keyboard with 18 keys per half (one of which can be an EC11 rotary encoder).

The Swoop Tall uses MX switches and has Kailh hotswap sockets. It supports OLEDs, per key LEDs and an LED strip, and "has rudimentary support for Bluetooth".

The cover hides the Pro Micro, reset switch and TRRS jack.

The case is an FR4 sandwich. On the switch plate I added a copper mesh fill. The lobsters on the cover and base plate were made using only the copper and silkscreen layers – jamesmnw.

More photos in the original post.

X-2: a Lumberjack-style ortho

A Lumberjack-inspired ARM-powered 5x12 ortho by Richard Goulter, compatible with the GH-60 case.

I really liked the look of peej's Lumberjack keyboard. One downside to it is that DIP microcontrollers are relatively weak. Development boards are a spiritual-successor to DIP microcontrollers, so I wanted to adapt the striking Lumberjack design to a more powerful devboard. With a more powerful devboard, you can include more features that QMK firmware allows – richardgoulter.

Design goals:

• Using STM32 dev board. (ARM-powered).
• Adapt the Lumberjack design.
• Exposed, "show the components" style.
• Fits in tray-mount GH60 case.
• (Relatively) easy to solder.

The board can be assembled with either a Bluepill devboard, or a WeAct Studio MiniF4 "Blackpill". The PCB supports either MX or Choc switches. (Hot-swapping can be achieved using PCB rivets.)

The board also has 4 RGB LEDs, which was intended to be used as status indicators (to indicate which layer is active, etc.), but currently is used for the knight-rider effect.

Gerbers and lasercutting assets can be found at:

https://github.com/rgoulter/keyboard-labs/releases/tag/x2-rev2021.1

(With sources to generate these made available in the main repo.)

After using it as his main keyboard for a few weeks, here are some of the designer's remarks:

• Compared to the 4x12-ish BM40, the number row is useful to have for gaming; and useful for one-handed number input for e.g. Windows PIN sign-in. (Although it's not difficult to have a one-hand-able numpad layer on a 4x12).
• The BM40's per-key RGB is useful to have for feedback of "my keyboard is plugged in", if you have an effect which reacts to keypresses. Although, since you don't really look down while using the keyboard, per-key RGBs aren't really missed.
• The PCB could have been designed with per-key RGB lighting; but the author didn't felt it were in the spirit of the exposed design which presents almost all the components in the middle.

One-handed Mist

The Mist by defiant00 is a one-handed, mirrored keyboard with an own firmware and chording layout.

The name MIST comes from the board's primary design goals: MIrrored and STaggered – and German speaking folks were apparently not consulted before the naming. :D

Anyway, Mist is a one-handed symmetrical and columnar keyboard, with mirrored thumb keys providing 17 usable keys for either hand. It was designed for anyone needing to type with one hand, or those wanting a staggered one-handed macropad that can be used with either hand.

The keyboard is built around an Adafruit Feather RP2040 and CircuitPython. It has choc spacing and slightly further thumbs compared to the Ferris Sweep to reduce thumb tuck.

Mist exists because accessibility should be more accessible. Commercial one-handed keyboards can be prohibitively expensive, and there are very few open source keyboards designed specifically for one-handed use. Through this and the purple firmware/layout project we hope to provide another option – defiant00.

Speaking of firmware and layout, the author is currently using it with purple his own custom firmware (and both Artsey) and Soar, his own attempt at a one-handed layout.

Purple is a CircuitPython firmware for one-handed chording keyboards based on the KB2040 and other RP2040-based boards from adafruit.

Files in the repos:

• Mist – the keyboard/macropad
• purple – the CircuitPython chording firmware
• Soar – the one-handed chorded keyboard layout

Btw, this is the first PCB defiant00 has ever designed.

Blawb's ZMK Atreus

A ZMK Atreus by blawb with resin keycaps.

This is my first ZMK board. It was great to work with and I found the documentation very helpful. I'm definitely noticing some latency when using it in bluetooth mode, so I still need to look into that – blawb.

Github repo is pending but the author sent me his Gerber files and keymap:

• gerbers
• firmware

The keycaps are resin printed and the designs come from KeyV2. Here are some more close ups: https://imgur.com/a/MxNug4e

At first I printed 3x each at different scaling and used the scaling that worked best for me (3x at 99% scale, 3x 100% scale, 3x 101% scale….). The ones I have on right now are a little looser than I liked and I’d like some legends so I’m going to print a new batch soon. I’ve also found that using the same scaling but at different print orientations can make a difference – blawb.

Thumb paddle

Open-source thumb paddles by Troy Fletcher – for activating switches with less thumb motion.

People ask me if I'll stop making ugly hardware, and I will look down and whisper, No – unusedredditname.

Well, this post is not about the keyboard Troy posted on r/ergomechkeys but the little innovation you can observe at the thumb keys – as it turns out, these thumb paddles are nothing new, they were published in late 2018, early 2019.

But despite including the author's Signum keyboards into my split keyboard database around that time I entirely missed these paddles somehow.

If you can't imagine how these work here is a short video:

It took a while to figure out a no-glue way to mount these thumb paddles, but I'm very happy with the result! I have designs for the Signum 3.0 and the Signum 3.1, and now you can activate your thumb switches with less motion, and more speed! – Troy Fletcher.

Github repo with STL/SCAD files and some more photos:

https://github.com/TroyFletcher/mx_paddles_3d_print

And here is an earlier video from 2018:

What about preventing the paddles from falling in towards the key?

Paddles falling forward was an issue in the pictured [ed.: earlier] models more than the later versions. Originally I had little protrusions that stuck out 1mm to hold the paddle back, but small enough that you could overpower them and push them forward for transport. Later models simply tilted the upper paddle away from the thumb slightly and increased the weight of the part that rests on the switch stem which moved the center of balance enough. Paddles falling forward hasn't been enough of an issue for me to redesign anything since then – Troy Fletcher.

Switching to Colemak

The main stages and impressions of Tanukishouten switching to Colemak during the holidays.

I will start with a tldr: "cold turkey" switching over the holiday was perfect for me. After a bit of struggle the first week, I could use Colemak at work without issues of productivity.

Now for a more detailed account of how it happened:

Background

I was typing on a 36-key keyboard with Miryoku qwerty layout and while becoming efficient with this layout, I kept thinking I should altogether switch to Colemak and step up my ergonomy game. What I was looking for is the satisfaction of advanced ergonomy, and although I want to reach 70-80 wpm at some point, I am happy with 50ish at first.

Why cold turkey

I thought about the different transitions methods and decided that cold turkey was most appropriate for me for 3 main reasons:

1. I did not need to retain qwerty touch typing muscle memory (I hunt and peck qwerty and seldom type on others' keyboards)
2. I do not have the patience for a slow transition and I prefer to handle change in short intense burst with high drawbacks at first (while still motivated) but fast payout (before I loose interest)
3. I had 10 days off during winter holidays and I thought I could make enough progress to not have to go back to qwerty after returning to work

I really think that if these three points apply to you, make the cold turkey switch when you have the chance!

Basically, I could divide the learning period into three phases:

Day 0 to 3: Learning the layout (0→10-12 WPM)

I intensively used keybr.com to learn the position of the keys. I did not change the actual keycaps of my keyboard and I do not recommend doing it, it prevents any temptation to look at the keyboard and you are so tempted to look at this stage…

Sadly, I do not have the [keybr.com] graph as I did practice with different accounts. I did not follow the keybr slow introduction of new keys though, I practiced by batch of 5-7 keys for about 15 minutes before adding more "manually". Total time is about 5 hours I would say.

This stage is terrible because for any other use of your keyboard (simple web search, chat, etc…) you are extremely slow.

I actually used my phone if I needed to use internet as using Colemak on my desktop was so painfully slow.

Day 3 to 12: Becoming proficient (10→30 WPM)

Here I switched to monkeytype.com to track my progress, on average I spent 1 hour on monkeytype every day. Here the feeling is great as once you break the 20 WPM, you start feeling why Colemak rocks: the rolling of fingers and the general comfort of reduced travel distances compared to qwerty.

There are still some frustration but once nearing 30WPM I knew I would not go back, even at work (I do not need to urgently type text at work).

Day 12 to day 20 (now): Improving (30→45 WPM)

I started to feel the progress getting slower and less regular once I hit 40 WPM, that said, this is a speed where I am already frustration free and you have the occasional speed burst that feels good. I keep practicing but with less dedication than previously, I want to reach 70 WPM in Q1 2022, let's see how it goes!

I feel that generally, it is important to focus on accuracy but not too much. You have at some points to "let go" and let your muscle memory take over or you cannot make progress as it will be your conscious part of the brain learning. Especially at phase 2, I was OK with 90% accuracy on some days, as I felt it allowed me to stimulate the muscle memory.

Most of the time, you should aim at 95% though, and I sometime go for sessions where I aim at 97+%.

Here is my account of the switch, I hope it will help people considering to switch and google stuff such as "switching to Colemak in 1 week" as I did during phase 1 frustration moments!

Happy typing to all!

Custom PCB design workflow

Ben Vallack's video demonstrates a workflow of making your custom PCB with Ergopad, Ergogen and KiCAD.

A nice video demonstrating the use of:

• Pavel Glushkov's Ergopad
• MrZealot's Ergogen and
• KiCAD

Videoton VDN-52500 terminal

My latest acquisition is this quite rare Videoton terminal made in Hungary in the early '80s.

Now you know what I spend your donations on. :D Battered, bruised, dirty, slightly yellowed, but it's mine. [Gollum SFX]

This model deserved a much more detailed write-up but here is a quick post with some photos, at least for now.

The VDN-52500 was the successor of the VDN-52100 I was eyeing with earlier (BTC #46).

The main development goal with this model of the Videoton terminal family was the improvement of ergonomics and cost-effectiveness. Considering the two designs the first goal was definitely achieved.

Cost-effectiveness? I'm not sure about that. Both the display unit and the keyboard are very heavy with thick plastic shells and lots of metal parts inside.

I'm not really sure how the CoCom list affected these developments but apparently Eastern countries were able to manufacture most electronic components by this time.

Some specs (source):

• produced: 1983-1990
• total items manufactured: 5000
• display: 24 row; 80 chars/row; 10x7 raster
• charset: latin/cyrillic
• interface: 20 mA; V24
• circuits: TTL
• processor: Zilog Z80A

Development began in cooperation with the Bull company in 1979 but the French partners quit and the product development was finished by the display department of Videoton.

The display tilts and rotates, the keyboard is relatively low profile – according to the international standards.

In the picture below, the Videoton VDN-52500 is featured on the cover of Mikroszámítógép Magazin (Microcomputer Magazine) in 1985. This is the assembly line at Videoton factory, Székesfehérvár, Hungary. Unfortunately, there isn't any info in the magazine issue on the specific product itself, just the cover photo.

(Source)

The Videoton terminal in an advertisement – yeah, we are in the age of the wardrobe-sized computers:

And the terminal in use:

Btw, source of this picture is holdcomputers.com, a site dedicated to a personal collection in my hometown. Check it out if you like Eastern technology from this era.

The VDT-52500 was one of the last terminals with a cool high-pro keyboard before all the boards became DIN-compliant… and practically the same-looking. Its successor, the VDX-52600 was shipped with a meh keyboard.

FYI, Videoton (the company) was privatized in 1991 and is still around: https://www.videoton.hu/?lang=en.

Hakkei HX-S1 keyboard

A classy detachable split prototype with slightly scooped case/plate.

Hakkei's HX-S family (the HX-S1 and its RGB alternative HX-SR1) would be just another wireless split project with classic staggering and a rotary encoder – without their most distinctive trait: the scooped shape providing a slight tilt and negative slope.

Developed in conjunction with ergonomic researchers, our own research, and personal experiences, the HX-S Series features the Metaflex Curve® – our patent pending ergonomic curve supports the hand in a natural sloping angle that places the wrist in a neutral position.

According to the latest development update in August last year, the first functional prototype is ready and "we are redesigning some of the internals because critical components are unable to be sourced".

We are close to the production prototype, which should be ready in a couple of months. One thing to note – the prototype was manufactured using injection molded plastic. Our production model will be die-cast aluminum or CNC, depending on the costs – Jonathan Lau, Strategy & Product Lead.

Both keyboard models are wireless, feature low-profile Choc switches and run their ZMK-based firmware.

More pics and some interesting blog posts at https://www.hakkei.co/

By the way, Hakkei won a GOODDESIGN award with the HX-S1 in 2021. The "Riven keyboard", referred to as their first product in the laudation, is in fact the HX-S1 – they had a trademark issue, and the previous name used on the award page will be updated soon.