Play along - create a PinePhone keyboard

[dallytaur]

Has anyone muck around with this with a nice case it could also connect to the pongo pings I'm not a very good programmer so ill have no idea how to make an I2c driver for it.

I had actually had one of these M5Stack I2C keyboards onhand and tried interfacing the I2C pogo pins and all worked out great. Would be pretty simple to make the device driver as well - just havn't gotten around to it yet / want the case built out beforehand.

The keyboard itself is pretty much the perfect size to fit vertically on the pinephone (which I would prefer in anycase). I was thinking maybe doing something like a swivel / 180 degree mechanism so part of the screen is covered when using the keyboard and then rotate it back when not in use. Really using this thing would be more a matter of case design / 3D printing. Unfortunately, have lost my access to a 3D printer.

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Also another potential is: https://www.tindie.com/products/arturo18...oard-pmod/ though these are a lot less readily available.

When you get the chance ill love to get my paws on the code.

[don570don570don570]

I made an animation  using  Blender.
I'm not sure  how to attach  the  pinephone  to the  keyboard
so I just showed  the pinephone  sliding into a slot.
Download: pinephone-keyboard-animation-simple.zip    2mb

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lk4ZL-X...sp=sharing

[Eugene Sanderson]

Hexagon style 6 Row QWERTY keyboard with directional buttons

Hexagons are used since they are the best space filling geometry for 2D designs, giving greater area per key than normal square designs

[BronzeBeard]

Friend of mine just sent me a link to the clockworkpi, I'm really digging it's keyboard layout.

Physical trackball too, an absolute godsend, as I HATE touchscreens...

https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3833f...fig01.webp
https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3833f...fig02.webp
https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3833f...fig09.webp

[nas]

Good news from today's blog update: the psion design is back on track.

[eFqLLnGo]

I don't understand the psion design. Can it be removed quickly? I'm imagining myself trying to answer a text message while standing up or walking down the street. How is it supposed to work? (I'm not being sarcastic)

[CharlieGordon]

How is it supposed to work?

You take it out of your pocket, open the lid, type, close the lid and put it back in your pocket.

What's supposed to be the difficulty here?

[wibble]

How is it supposed to work?

You take it out of your pocket, open the lid, type, close the lid and put it back in your pocket.

What's supposed to be the difficulty here?

For anyone who's not used a Psion or similar, you unfold then hold the keyboard a bit like a gamepad, and type with your thumbs. The Psion made a very quick note-taking device as it was awake as soon as you opened it, and slept on close.

I'm more worried about answering a call with it - it looks like it would be really awkward holding it to your ear. @Jame5's yoga-style hinge would be a real advantage for that. It would also be good to have at least an indicator LED on the outside of the keyboard or back cover since the one on the screen side will be hidden. If we can have it supervised by a low power microcontroller we can have flashing, pwm etc. while the main processor is sleeping too.

[knapik]

Would it be possible to get a hole to hold a stylus integrated into the new keyboard case? Or is there an issue given there's no existing stylus design?

[captainmorgan]

As I pointed out before, this is a stupid design for a PHONE. You cannot hold it comfortably against your ear to take calls.