Short presentation about keyboards.

1. How does it work?
The keyboard

2. The keyboard
•
•
•
•
Oldest computer accessory (~1870)
Hasn't changed a lot
~104 keys
QWERTY

3. QWERTY
•
•
•
•
1873, Christopher Latham Sholes
to avoid jams
far from optimal
used everywhere, even on phones
Endless list of alternatives:
Dvorak, Colemak, Workman, ...

4. Common keyboards
•
•
•
•
Rubber dome "switches" + membrane
Low quality
Cheap
99%

5. Common problems
•
•
•
•
•
bottom-actuation
membrane is vulnerable
staggering
ghosting
max. 2-3 key rollover

6. Mechanical keyboards
•
•
•
•
•
•
PCB
Plate
Switches
Keycaps
Case
Controller

7. PCB

8. PCB

9. PCB

10. Plate

11. Plate

12. Plate

13. Plate

14. Keyswitches
Bulking spring, Hall-effect, mechanical, ...
Cherry MX family
Black - linear, 60g
Red - linear, 45g
Brown - tactile, 45g
Clear - tactile, 55g
Blue - clicky, 50g
•
•
•
•
•
... and endless customization: replaceable stems, custom springs, leds, lubing...

15. Keycaps
profile - SA, DCS, DSA, ...
color
material - ABS, PBT
captions - font, position, double
shot, laser-etched, dye-sub, ...

16. Keycaps
profile - SA, DCS, DSA, ...
color
material - ABS, PBT
captions - font, position, double
shot, laser-etched, dye-sub, ...

17. Case
•
•
•
•
•
old keyboard cases
made of wood
laser cut acrylic
3D printed
CNC cut aluminium (anodized)

18. Controller
•
•
•
•
•
mostly Atmel microcontrollers
ErgoDox: Teensy 2.0
Arduino compatible, Teensyduino
gnu avr toolchain
USB HID is well specified :)
(ATMEGA32U4, 16MHz)
https://github.com/dyuri/ergodox-firmware

19. ...

20. ...

21. ...

22. ...

23. ...

24. Thanks!
Written on an ErgoDox.
2013, György Horák
Images and most info from geekhack.org and deskthority.net.