Re: new topic discussing small keyboards & altoids tin Propeller computers
Dennis Ferron
Posts: 480
Paul Baker suggested we move the "small keyboards" thread out of the YBox announcement. Sounds good to me.
Next someone will suggest this get moved to The Sandbox! (Because it's about keyboards not the Propeller.) So let's narrow the topic to "small keyboards specifically for Propeller-based portable computers, especially ones in altoids tins."
Graham brought up a good point - it's not about about the keyboard specifically so much as it is the interface. For instance, I have a very old Palm keyboard (pre-USB, uses the old serial Palm spec). It would be about the right size for a portable Propeller PC, but I'm not sure how hard it would be to interface to the signals and codes. Anyone know?
Another candidate is the keyboard TI makes for its graphing calculators. It's rather expensive ($40) but since it uses the serial link for a TI, the pinout is known (3 conductor stereo plug) and I assume that the codes have either already been reverse engineered, or could be done so using a PC serial port.
Link: education.ti.com/educationportal/sites/US/productDetail/us_ti_keyboard.html
Of course, neither of these gets us to the holy grail - something inside an altoids tin that you can type text on. Minty-FemtoBasic, anyone?
The trouble with many PDAs is that the keyboard is likely to be tightly integrated to the main board. You would have read the key matrix yourself; in that case you might as well solder your own keyboard with those tiny clicky-buttons.
I'm not really wild about the idea of making my own keyboard from scratch. It would be exceedingly tedious to solder, and I'm not sure my skills are up to making it thin enough to not use up too much of the available depth in the tin, which needs to be shared with a screen, batteries, and a chopped-up Propeller protoboard. Perhaps someone has thought of a way to make a custom keyboard that is thin and reliable?
What about a touch-screen and a stylus? (Text input the way Palm pilots do.) The Propeller is fast enough to recognize Graffiti, I'm sure.
And how about an accelerometer, to make it possible to make games that work by tilting the altoids tin or shaking or swinging it?
Next someone will suggest this get moved to The Sandbox! (Because it's about keyboards not the Propeller.) So let's narrow the topic to "small keyboards specifically for Propeller-based portable computers, especially ones in altoids tins."
Graham brought up a good point - it's not about about the keyboard specifically so much as it is the interface. For instance, I have a very old Palm keyboard (pre-USB, uses the old serial Palm spec). It would be about the right size for a portable Propeller PC, but I'm not sure how hard it would be to interface to the signals and codes. Anyone know?
Another candidate is the keyboard TI makes for its graphing calculators. It's rather expensive ($40) but since it uses the serial link for a TI, the pinout is known (3 conductor stereo plug) and I assume that the codes have either already been reverse engineered, or could be done so using a PC serial port.
Link: education.ti.com/educationportal/sites/US/productDetail/us_ti_keyboard.html
Of course, neither of these gets us to the holy grail - something inside an altoids tin that you can type text on. Minty-FemtoBasic, anyone?
The trouble with many PDAs is that the keyboard is likely to be tightly integrated to the main board. You would have read the key matrix yourself; in that case you might as well solder your own keyboard with those tiny clicky-buttons.
I'm not really wild about the idea of making my own keyboard from scratch. It would be exceedingly tedious to solder, and I'm not sure my skills are up to making it thin enough to not use up too much of the available depth in the tin, which needs to be shared with a screen, batteries, and a chopped-up Propeller protoboard. Perhaps someone has thought of a way to make a custom keyboard that is thin and reliable?
What about a touch-screen and a stylus? (Text input the way Palm pilots do.) The Propeller is fast enough to recognize Graffiti, I'm sure.
And how about an accelerometer, to make it possible to make games that work by tilting the altoids tin or shaking or swinging it?
Comments
Here's the thread... The keyboard is rs232 out of the box, so it would be prop compatible,
but the thread details a pic ps2 conversion.
jledger.proboards19.com/index.cgi?board=dtvhacking&action=display&thread=1167783024
Oldbitcollector
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The comments and code above are proof that a million monkeys with a million propeller chips *could* write Shakespeare!
seems i've seen those for $10 or so
then you just have to have it pointing to a IR reciever and decode it
dan
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Paul Baker
Propeller Applications Engineer
Parallax, Inc.
Bluetooth required.
If so, other than a projected keyboard... the only truly altoids compliant option would seem to be an inflatable keyboard...
It would be nice if the inflatable keyboard had two options... typing and air-to-sea rescue[noparse]:)[/noparse]
I use to travel all the time... and the first question I sometimes had in the morning was "where am I today?" It would be nice to have my Altoid prop report my last known location... when I booted up and typed in "?".
We need cheap sensors.... what is the cheapest form of either a switch or sensor/emitter that would work as a switch?
Has to be LEDs? Seems like a loose array of light sensing LED's inside an inflatable keyboard/prop life-boat would do the trick... multiplexing seems like the only issue...
How about a contest... sensing keystrokes with the fewest number of LED's. I'll offer an Altoids can and a proto board to the winner[noparse]:)[/noparse]
Rich
Two hands, 4 bits per hand = 8 bits of input! Maybe add one more switch for a latch. Tap with thumb, input chord, tap again to accept char and reset the input state to wait for the next char. Court reporters use a device like this, maybe it's not that hard to learn this kind of input. They get very rapid input of common words, etc... With 8 bits, one could include all the common chars, then provide for common words that are two chord combos. Would not take too much to really get some speed, given the user does some learning.
Rapid mode would be just hitting all the switches within 100ms or something, and the user has just gotta be good!
Could be done in an Altoids tin, no problem.
With some small display, the switches could be positioned such that the hand holding the tin and the other hand are both providing input. Maybe pack a lot into the one free hand chord, or use the latch mode (with the input complete signal) to allow for most of the work to be done with the free hand, signaling input complete with hand holding tin, and that same hand completing some chords to make the most of ready human bandwidth.
This could be extended with an analog input or two, thumbwheel, etc... thus providing for a very wide range of potential inputs.
Graham
Just need a mouse and a good screen for pretty fast text input.
my two cents,
Marty
Leon
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Amateur radio callsign: G1HSM
Suzuki SV1000S motorcycle