#qmk

More messing with keyboards:

1. A biblically accurate 2% Milk macropad

2. A Bongo Cat 2% Milk I built for a customer

3. A Dissatisfaction30 macropad

4. A pair of Dogtag macropads connected with a TRRS cable, and with LED lighting added.

I designed two original keyboards, the Peridot and Titan. I wrote a bit about the experience here. It was interesting, fun, and occasionally frustrating, and I have entirely too many ideas for more keyboard designs.

Peridot on GitHub

Peridot PCBs on Etsy

Titan on GitHub

Titan PCBs on Etsy

Hello QMK Community,

I've been an amateur mechanical keyboard user for years and an even more amateur electrician for even longer. I had learned about the existence of a Dactyl Manuform keyboard and had to make one for myself. With a few trials and helpful guides I eventually made two pairs, one for work and one for home. I named them Enki and Namma after the Sumerian creation gods. They were made with Gatreon Green and Kaith White switches respectively.

Pictured: Wiring process top, Enki left, Namma right

I even went so far to make my own keyboard layout combining the "Workman" layout and the "M-system" layout to make a keyboard optimized for English and Japanese typing.

Pictured: Workman / M-system Hybrid Layout

All of these projects above would not be possible without QMK (Quantum Mechanical Keyboard) an open source firmware used in hobbyist mechanical keyboards. Despite all of that, QMK currently has no support for my next ambitions. There are two primary features I am looking for: -Analog Hall Effect Switches -PS/2 Support

The first feature I would like to implement is analog hall effect switch support. Hall effect switches are switches that utilize the "Hall effect". Basically, they are a sensor that can detect when a magnet is moving over them. In keyboards, this means you can create a switch that is literally just a magnet on a spring. This simplicity makes the switch very durable. These switches can even be analog meaning they can detect the intensity of a key press and be adjusted in software. The one downside for most consumers is that they are only offered as linear switches, in other words, switches with little or no click. Personally, this is not a downside because I'm looking to move to linear switches anyway.

Pictured: Hall effect sensor left, Hall effect process right

Hall effect switches already have support to a certain extent. Hall effect sensors can be digital instead of analog, meaning the switch can be used as a normal switch plugged in the normal way. I see this as wasted potential and will not be using these for my project. Only one analog Hall effect QMK keyboard exists to my knowledge, the Keychron Q1 HE. I do not intend to buy this keyboard but may reach out to Keychron to see how they pulled this off.

Pictured: Keychron Q1 HE

The second feature I want to implement is PS/2 support. I imagine very few of you know what I'm talking about, some of you think I'm trying to make a keyboard compatible with a 25 year old games console, and the ones who do know what I'm talking about probably think I'm crazy.

Pictured: PS/2 Port

Above is a PS/2 port, a standard introduced by IBM in 1987. Now I suspect the entire audience is on the same page of thinking I am nuts. Hear me out, there is a reason you can still find computer's made with this port today. When using this port with a keyboard or mouse, the device interfaces directly with the hardware of the machine. USB devices have a polling rate, they effectively send their data by waiting for the bus. With a PS/2 port, there is no waiting so the speed of data is dramatically increased. There are several other features exclusive to PS/2 but the latency decrease is my primary objective

Pictured: Passive PS/2 Adapter

Some of you may find a device like the one pictured above and think there is no need for this direct support, you can just plug the keyboard into this adapter and it will just work. You are wrong. Only certain keyboards play well with these adapters. There is a protocol built into a normal keyboard's firmware that can detect if it's plugged into an adapter like this. This protocol does not currently exist in QMK to my knowledge. My intention is to introduce this protocol into QMK's firmware for use with these passive adapters. This way, I don't need to introduce a new port to my existing keyboards or get PS/2 wires and plugs.