If there’s a next time, I’ll use two MCUs and a TRRS like a normal weirdo.
Go RJ45 or go home! ;) With a Japanese duplex matrix you should have plenty of wires to have that layout working, I think. And if you go with two MCUs it’s even less of an issue.
Fun writeup, and you ended up with a functioning keyboard as a bonus! How’s the double row of thumb keys working out for you? Or do you only use your thumbs for the lower two and index/middle for the other ones, or…? I’ve never tried a board with two rows of thumb keys and somehow I don’t see myself liking them, but I see them around enough to give me FOMO.
So I’m not using it much, because as it turns out I may like tinkering and making more than I like typing practice. My parallel project was an ultra-budget mod (like sub $50 total) of the cheapest hotswap 1800 I could find.
So that said, the upper thumbs (or lower indexes, as you say, LOL) are definitely not as convenient, but also not problematic with careful key mapping. Currently they have the arrow keys (with the other four nav keys on the second layer), the layer toggle, and the delete (as opposed to backspace). none of those should be particularly necessary for “proper” typing. Then, like I said, if it doesn’t quite come together, there are plenty of keys to spare if I wanted to cover over some of them with POS keycaps and then remap. KMK is the real rockstar here. hold down escape while plugging it in and it turns into a flash drive with one relevant python file to edit.
Go RJ45 or go home! ;) With a Japanese duplex matrix you should have plenty of wires to have that layout working, I think. And if you go with two MCUs it’s even less of an issue.
Fun writeup, and you ended up with a functioning keyboard as a bonus! How’s the double row of thumb keys working out for you? Or do you only use your thumbs for the lower two and index/middle for the other ones, or…? I’ve never tried a board with two rows of thumb keys and somehow I don’t see myself liking them, but I see them around enough to give me FOMO.
So I’m not using it much, because as it turns out I may like tinkering and making more than I like typing practice. My parallel project was an ultra-budget mod (like sub $50 total) of the cheapest hotswap 1800 I could find.
So that said, the upper thumbs (or lower indexes, as you say, LOL) are definitely not as convenient, but also not problematic with careful key mapping. Currently they have the arrow keys (with the other four nav keys on the second layer), the layer toggle, and the delete (as opposed to backspace). none of those should be particularly necessary for “proper” typing. Then, like I said, if it doesn’t quite come together, there are plenty of keys to spare if I wanted to cover over some of them with POS keycaps and then remap. KMK is the real rockstar here. hold down escape while plugging it in and it turns into a flash drive with one relevant python file to edit.