I made a FOSS physical keyboard for my Fairphone 4 ( feddit.de )

geteilt von: https://feddit.de/post/3049646

geteilt von: https://feddit.de/post/3048730

Github link: https://github.com/Dakkaron/Fairberry

Here's a video of it in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDb8_ld9gOQ

I've been using it for almost two years now, and I'm not going back.

It's based on a spare Blackberry Q10 keyboard and a custom Arduino-compatible board that reads the keyboard matrix and outputs it as USB HID to the phone. From the viewpoint of the phone, it's just a regular USB keyboard, so no special software is needed.

But I do use a custom virtual keyboard to have just two rows of symbols that are not natively on the keyboard, as I didn't want to add another layer of rarely used symbols that I'd have to memorize.

https://feddit.de/pictrs/image/e5240b79-0f10-4dfd-9bd6-2833300f49fc.jpeg

(On the image you can see Ubuntu with XFCE4 running on it. I chose Ubuntu because it's what was easiest to get running in a chroot jail on the phone. I'm using VNC to display the GUI. I even managed to get FEX (x86/x64 emulator) and Wine running, so it runs x86/x64 Linux and Windows apps.)

Btw: Is there maybe someone who wants to make a little side money? There are tons of people who say they'd buy this, but I don't want to make them.

The designs are all online and I'm happy to help. So if someone wants to make and sell them, that would be really cool! (I don't want or need any financial compensation. I'd just be happy if people have access to this.)

Crozekiel ,

Is it possible to do something like this that can be left on 100% of the time, with some sort of USB pass-through for further connectivity and charging? Or is that too asking too much of the board?

squaresinger OP ,

Pass-through charging would be possible, but I determined that if I put everything in that I want, the project would never be finished^^

I also considered adding a headphone jack, but that was also cut.

Passing through more than charging gets complicated fast. That would require a fitting hub. USB2 would be possible, USB3 would be difficult, stuff like display port would be really hard.

Also, afaik, a single USB port cannot be in host and device mode at the same time, so I believe it would be impossible to have the keyboard attached and connect the phone to a PC at the same time.

In the end I settled for a quickly detachable design to avoid all that added complexity.

Another option would be to use a phone with wireless charging and wireless connectivity.

JokeDeity ,

I would make them for you but have zero to invest right now. :(

squaresinger OP ,

Minimum order quantity for most of the device is 2, and it costs ~€40-50 per piece if you make 2 of them. If you make 10, this drops to ~€20-30 per piece. If you want to, I can link you up with some people that might be willing to pre-pay, so that you can get the funding to make an initial batch.

From what people told me, they'd be happy to pay €50-150 per piece, with most people being at €70-100.

Required skills would be soldering (same pitch as TQFN44) and 3D printing (PETG) for making them, and Blender or OpenSCAD for adapting the design files to other devices than the FP4.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • random
  • libre_hardware@lemmy.ml
  • test
  • worldmews
  • mews
  • All magazines
    •