Pinephone Keyboard feedback

[TAAPAye]

Just got by new cases and wanted to share my first impressions (just look and feel and not commenting of software support).

My first thought was how the case reminded me on a Nintendo DS. And the second was wishing there were shoulder buttons. I'm only half-kidding. If you are holding the case in your hand, you have about 8 fingers doing nothing. It would be nice if at least 2 could conveniently press a button. I believe in remapping keys in software so wouldn't have a strong preference on what the default is but some options that come to mind

• Volume keys - The only keys on the phone itself aren't easily accessible when holding the keyboard
  
• Scrolling UP/Down
  
• CapsLock - I think it the default functionality is useless so I had remapped it and now it is a pretty convenient key that I've lost. (Also think Super_L is important so would prefer to not just override that)
  

The other thing is that the keys don't decompress cleanly unless you press then head on. Perhaps I'm weird, but I noticed that I only hit the corners for a lot of keys (most notably O and P) and they want go down until re-adjust and press closer to the center.

Anyways that's my first impression. Overall I think I'll like the keyboard.

[drh]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts ad tips on the keyboard. Will pay attention to the angle that I press the keys and see if that reduces missed presses.

I have had bit of a rough start with my keyboard in that it would not charge the pinephone. With the help of others in this forum (Thanks!), I managed to address the issue by using a shim, which is fairly simple since it can be done with simple material readily available.

I normally type using my thumbs while holding the PP and keyboard, which is pretty comfortable.

I have not yet figured out how best to use the button on the right side of the keyboard. My understanding is that the PP needs to be in suspend mode for the keyboard battery to charge the PP. Does this mean that the keyboard battery will discharge when the PP is not in suspend mode and in use? When would the right side button of the keyboard be used?

If I figure it out, I will post if no one else has already.

Cheers!

[TAAPAye]

A week later and finally got the keyboard working. (Ran into a problem where I didn't update my board*.dtb files when installing the new kernel).

It didn't occur to me at first, but the extra symbols ('-', '|' etc) are really awkward to use and make actually use a terminal quite painful. I believe others have touched on how unintuitive it is. Like how Fn + 9 and Fn + 7 both yield '-' while some may have expected from the keyboard symbols that one would be a '_'.

I get why it is the way it is since the 2 characters generally share a keycode. I'm thinking of modifying my X keyboard layout such that AltG + 9 and AltG + 7 give '-' and '_' respectively. Or in general that AltG + {1..9} gives the listed key without needing the extra shift.

[Zebulon Walton]

You get a better layout for the special characters if you run the user-space keyboard daemon, ppkb-i2c-inputd, rather than the kb151 kernel driver.

[thechillhacker]

I also love my PP keyboard, but the only changes I would recommend would be:

* blocking off the internal USB connector of the phone entirely
* providing data line pass through on the case's usb port, or providing an external USB (maybe even A instead of C) port for hooking up drives, SDRs, or whatever else
* maybe the option of a rubber plug to make the DIP switches accessible? This would be a nice option for a "deluxe" backing plate as well.

That being said, I am fairly handy with various plastic cutting methods, a 3d printer, and my electronics lab, so may prototype some solutions to the problems myself.

Anyway, Even as is I still love the thing but for a more "ready for normies" version, those could be some killer features. I already get a lot of very interested people when I am using my chonky PPP microlaptop-with-LTE in real life.

PS/Edit: oh, and maybe a built on or detachable belt clip or optional holster. The whole thing fits perfectly in the front pocket of my Deluth jeans, but I am 6'4" - most people would probably have an issue carrying it. Again, this may be just another 3d printed thing. If I design anything, I'll make STLs and source files available.

[jurop88]

I waited for my keyboard to arrive for two months, ordered on January 1st and delivered on March, 2nd! After some days of usage I have to say that I am overall quite happy with it.

Things I've done and that I think needs to be done in general:
- install the userspace driver, much better keys configuration than the kernelspace one (I am using mobian)
- add the shim between connectors and the case
- install the userspace utilities to check battery case charge
- understand that the battery in the keyboard is to be used like a powerbank and get used to the 'click' and 'double click' to switch it on and off
- install some sort of command to switch on and off the virtual keyboard
- install a better terminal to take profit from the whole screen estate (I went with xfce4 terminal fullscreen)

Things that could/should be improved
- key feeling (specially the first row)
- led to indicate the power bank is on/off
- BACKLIGHT! That is my really single complain

I am still missing my good ol' N900, but in the end I am VERY happy to be able to carry around a pocket linux computer. I am slowly moving towards making the pp+kb my daily driver, main hurdle beign that I am still feeling uneasy with the usage of my BT headphone/mic combo for phone calls.