Has anything ever happened in your life when you wanted something strange for a long time? It doesn’t matter what, because everyone has different tastes and preferences. My passion sat inside me for a long time, but one day it finally burst out. I like to do unusual things, and I've always liked modding as a means of self-expression. A few years ago I was inspired by the products of modders from different countries and began to think about several of my projects. In particular, I really wanted to make a nineteenth-century style keyboard.

After studying the works of such famous modders as Filimon and Datamancer, I got to work. I want to say right away that although I am not complaining about complete absence imagination, but I like to get a predictable result. Therefore, before taking up the instrument, I tried to model what I wanted to get in the end. Another feature of this project is that everything software, which I used in my work, is open and free: OS - Debian testing, software - Blender, LibreCAD, Inkscape.

Since my idea was to make a keyboard in a wooden case, first of all I needed to know the cross-sections of the wooden blanks that I would need. Having carefully measured the donor keyboard, I sat down to drawing and modeling.

Having drawn two-dimensional projections, I began modeling in 3D.

So, the appearance of the device has emerged and it’s time to translate it into wood and brass. Ash was chosen as the body material and oak veneer for the linings.

The final donor keyboard should be located between two veneered MDF plates. The key locations were carefully measured and, based on the data obtained, a drawing was drawn up in LibreCAD. According to it, holes will be cut in the MDF plate.

The green LEDs were removed and larger LEDs were soldered in their place, giving a warm, lamp-like glow. To make the LEDs look even warmer and more lamp-like, a brass trim was made for them.

According to the drawings were ordered wooden blocks the necessary sections, which were subsequently processed by the hands holding the tool. According to the drawings.

By the way, the device was supposed to have a USB hub, the holes for which were immediately milled. A brass plate was also made for it.

The entire structure will be tightened with studs, but I absolutely did not want the nuts and ends of the studs to stick out from my piece, so I decided to make decorative brass plugs.

As for the keys themselves, I had the option of making them from buttons, but I decided that this was not true. Therefore, the round keys were machined from a brass rod, and the oblong ones were forged from a brass plate.

The space bar was made separately. It consists of three soldered blanks.

The keycaps were cut out of glossy black plastic. Letters and symbols are applied using laser engraving.

After all preparatory work, the parts were carefully sanded, sanded, covered with several layers of stain and polished (also in several layers). After assembly, everything began to look something like this.

Additionally, a case was also made.

The dream has come true, but now there is an irresistible desire to raise the bar higher. There are a lot of ideas, and it’s also very interesting to challenge yourself. Wish me success.

CatBoard is an open source, homemade, ergonomic compact keyboard that has many non-standard solutions, such as: non-standard hardware layout with standard keyboard shortcuts; quick auto-repeat of a pressed key; Fn layer with cursor keys, number pad, function keys; separate keys for switching layouts; more convenient location of Ctrl and Shift; separate AltTab button; Macintosh compatibility mode, allowing you to work on it in the same way as on a PC; Possibility of flashing without additional equipment; Possibility to install on top of a laptop keyboard. Thanks to open source, you can do anything with the keyboard, new firmware It pours in a matter of seconds, so you can experiment on the go.

Long historical part

It all started back in 2005, when I wanted to work with a truly ergonomic keyboard, but was not ready to order an expensive keyboard from abroad. I decided to develop the keyboard myself, because what’s easier is to buy buttons, take a controller from any cheap keyboard, and just connect the buttons in the same way as it is done in this keyboard. At that time I really liked the Kinesis Advantage keyboard, it was almost perfect, but I thought it was worth starting production with a flat keyboard, like the Maltron Flat.

Maltron Flat Keyboard

I already knew how to touch-type, I learned it thanks to a keyboard trainer Stamina. Before that, I tried to learn in Solo, but it annoyed me so much that I never finished learning, I went through all the exercises, but I still didn’t start touch typing. But Stamina was easy to learn, and when the typing speed reached 200 characters per minute, I was able to start working without looking at the keyboard. I learned to type both Russian and English text, went through the exercises one by one, thanks to this I was able to immediately start working fully using the blind method. I rearranged the buttons on my keyboard, thereby trolling my colleagues, it was even interesting to come up with different inscriptions on the keyboard, because the button caps are different on different rows, so I had to rearrange them only on my own row, and it was advisable not to touch the fj, which had serifs (and they are important for touch typing, so that you can put your hands in the starting position of typing without looking).

Keyboard Stamina Trainer

Before doing anything, I found a Moscow company where I bought buttons Cherry MX Black with a reserve, and a programmable keyboard for trading terminals KBM-105 for experiments (index 105 is the number of buttons, matrix 15x7). Having drawn a diagram of the buttons, I began to think about how I could make a case at home. Collected from scrap materials different designs, which now it’s a shame to show, in general nothing worked, it was both crooked and flimsy. Work on manufacturing the case stalled, but on the programmable KBM-105 I began experimenting with layouts.

Programmable keyboard KBM-105

At that time, a very unusual keyboard was produced NSK 535, everything about it was revolutionary, both the alphabetical layout and the shift keys on the thumbs. Looking at such a miracle, I even decided to try typing with just such shifts, but it seemed very revolutionary, and I returned the shifts back to the little fingers, fortunately, flashing the KBM-105 keyboard is very fast, you can change the location of the buttons several times a day.

Keyboard NSK 535 R

I worked on this programmable keyboard at home for several years, while at work I had a completely standard keyboard, there were no problems with working on two completely different keyboards, only it was much more pleasant to work on mine.

For quick development I even wrote an online keyboard trainer for new programmable keyboard layouts Klavarog(http://klava.org/), so that you can work from any computer connected to the Internet without installing any programs, now everyone has started doing this, and at that time, if there were online simulators, they were only in Flash, and they did not work in Linux with Russian letters. At first it was a very simple simulator, there was not even a hint about the keys to press, just a picture of the keyboard. Although it still remains the simplest simulator, it is also very effective, because it was made for oneself. Beginners are offered a mode that allows them to literally master the location of all the letters in a day; there is no need to spend a week or two going through lessons that add one studied button at a time, as is done in almost all simulators.

Keyboard trainer Klavarog

At some point in time I decided that I would develop a new keyboard, and the project would be open. Created Wiki the site http://kbd.klava.org/, where I began to collect information about different keyboards, and began to look for any information on the development of a keyboard, because for my keyboard I already had to make my own controller, the standard one was no longer suitable. It turned out that I knew nothing at all about making keyboards.

What also happened was that I quit the office and began working at home, and even on a laptop; the matrix programmable keyboard was used less and less. Over time, the ardor disappeared; ordinary worries and affairs pushed the development of the keyboard into the background. But the idea was too intrusive, and I began to slowly think about how I could remake the keyboard in the laptop, because it was physically impossible to remake it, so software was used. First, I moved the cursor control keys to the main alphabetical block, if you hold down AltGr (right Alt), then some letters became arrows, at first they were VIM buttons hjkl , then I made a more familiar and convenient ijkl , it turned out that when you held down AltGr the arrows as if they were jumping under your fingers. Then I placed the Ctrl key to the left of the spacebar, moving Alt to the left by one key, this turned out to be a very good solution. I even learned to work in Emacs for this purpose, it turns out on ancient keyboards Ctrl was located in the place of modern Caps Lock, it’s clear why I didn’t like this editor before, it’s because of the inconvenient location of Ctrl. It is necessary to take into account that this all applies only to touch typing; when typing with two fingers, the location of the keys does not matter of great importance, it's just a matter of habit.

Improved laptop keyboard layout

At one time it turned out that there was no work, and I decided to change the hated QWERTY layout (how my little fingers hurt from it when learning touch typing) to a more ergonomic one Dvorak, and with the help of his simulator began to study it. Just at this time, I created a special mode in Klavarog, in which you are asked to type one short word many times in a row, first slowly, then quickly, driving the new layout into your memory, very effectively. I’ve been studying for about a week now, things were going slowly, the speed was growing very slowly, and for some reason I forgot how to work in QWERTY, others didn’t have this problem, but I was scared, what if I had to do something urgent, and I forgot how to type , but I haven’t learned how to use Dvorak yet. And at this moment of timelessness I came across my old computer BK-0010/01, which had a phonetic layout JCUKEN, in it the Latin letters are located in the same place as the similar-sounding Russian letters in the standard YTSUKEN layout. The nostalgia for the times of BC was so overwhelming that I decided to make myself this layout and try to study it. It didn’t work out one on one, some frequently encountered letters were very poorly placed, and I ended up changing it quite a lot, and I have good reasons for rearranging each key. But in general, it still remained phonetic, and for the most part coincided with the old one. Having made the layout and flashed it into my operating system (at that time I had already started working in Ubuntu Linux), I began to study it in the simulator. And then a miracle happened, the process went so quickly that I increased my typing speed to 200 characters per minute (these 200 again) in five days, and started working in the new layout.

Soviet computer keyboard BK 0010-01

Improved JCUKEN layout

Now I was satisfied with everything except the location of the keys, and I was not satisfied with the long space bar, although on the laptop it is shorter than on conventional keyboards due to the additional keys on the bottom row. The time has come to make a keyboard, but it should be compact so that it can be placed on top of a laptop keyboard, and as small in height as possible. Since the keyboard should be located on top of the laptop, and on my Thinkpad there is a touchpoint right in the middle of the keyboard, which is higher than the level of all the buttons, I decided to make a hole on the bottom of the keyboard body, at first it was round, then I just added cat ears. From that moment on, my keyboard began to be called CatBoard =^.^=

I decided to make the case from aluminum, and began to look for a production facility where I could laser cut holes for the buttons and the outline of the case. Nobody wants to deal with small orders, most honestly write about the minimum order amount, some talk about it only after the order. To cut aluminum you need quite powerful laser, it’s not easy to find one, so I decided to make the case from sheet plastic or plexiglass. And then, thanks to Habr, I found a mention of the first one opened in Russia fablabe. I contacted the head of the FabLab77 laboratory, we met, I talked about my project, and I got access to equipment with which you can do anything, limitless possibilities opened up. It was also lucky that at that time the Americans from MIT came and held a week-long seminar where they taught how to work with all their equipment, only open-source software was used.

Last day of the MIT workshop at FabLab77

In search of an ergonomic button layout, I made many plywood mockups, on which I found the most best location, and it turned out to be almost the same as in the Truly Ergonomic and ErgoDox keyboards (I didn’t know about its existence at that time). Well, this is not surprising, people’s hands are almost the same.

After the case was ready, and the layout of the buttons completely satisfied me, I began to study how I could make a controller. At the same time, I began to assemble a mini home laboratory for soldering. I bought a soldering iron with power adjustment, assembled a box in which I placed a Dremel 300 with an attachment that turns it into a small drilling machine- Dremel Workstation 220. In this box I made a hinged lid on which you can work. Now the box always stands under the table, not taking up space in the apartment, and when I need to do something, I take it out and put it on the table.

At first I decided to assemble the controller myself, at the same time assembling the programmer, and made it in the fablab on a Modela milling machine printed circuit boards, soldered them, but nothing worked, since the working programmer was only in the fab lab, I didn’t want to buy a new one, and I could only tinker with the boards at home. I found out that there are microcontrollers with a hardware implementation of the USB protocol, further search led me to ready-made controllers, such as Teensy, and our similar developments from Microsin, from whom I purchased AVR-USB162.

I decided to solder the wires not directly to the controller, but through a connector that I installed inside the case. Having gone to the fablab again, I laser-cut the case, which I decided not to have rounded edges; I drew straight lines around the blocks with buttons and got the current keyboard design. The controller was placed directly on top of the case, it is held on by a screw with a nut and washers, and the connector prevents the board from spinning. To prevent the wire from touching the laptop screen, I placed the controller closer to the middle of the keyboard. But this is what happens when you don’t think about this problem:

Richard Stallman and his OLPC laptop with HHKB keyboard

When developing the circuit, I realized that the buttons needed to be connected through diodes, so that there would be no situation where, when pressing several buttons in different rows and columns, the controller began to think that a button from intersecting rows was pressed. Everyone knows this, but I didn’t know about it then. Cherry MX buttons have empty space, into which you can install either a diode or an LED. In order not to solder the diodes from the outside, I installed a small KD522B diode in each button, although I mixed up the polarity, it turns out that the location of the mark is not unified, you need to look in the reference book to see where the anode is and where the cathode is, so when connecting the buttons to the controller, I took my mistake into account.

When everything was assembled, all that remained was to flash the controller. At first I used the LUFA library, but I could not figure it out, because I had never programmed in C, and in fact I do not know this language. While looking for another solution, I found a simple keyboard scanning code that used a library from Teensy. The code turned out to have many errors, but it was no longer difficult to fix them; the most important thing was that it worked. I made the firmware in a couple of days, and the keyboard worked; I never thought that I could create it so quickly. Then, of course, there were weeks of fine-tuning it, correcting errors, adding previously unseen functions. And I did all this on a new keyboard.

Since the keyboard turned out to be divided, the hands are further apart from each other, and the palm rest on the laptop is not designed for this, so the hands began to rest on the corners of the laptop. I solved the problem by using two mouse pads with gel pads, cut off the excess part of the mat, and got comfortable palm rests for the keyboard. Thanks to the straight line of the body, the pads were installed just perfectly.

CatBoard keyboard on top of ASUS EEE PC 701 laptop

What a pleasure it was to finally start working on something that I assembled with my own hands, and does not have those shortcomings that I am simply tired of, because I work on the keyboard every day, and every day it oppresses me. Go to any computer store and try to buy a keyboard that doesn’t have staggered rows, a legacy of mechanical typewriters, they simply don’t exist. I would understand if standard keyboards were perfectly ergonomic, but no, this standard is based only on the habit of people, and all new users learn again on these keyboards made in the old days (not in appearance, essentially).

At the same time, my main requirement was to use it on top of a laptop keyboard; my new keyboard fulfilled it; it will fit even on the smallest netbook - ASUS EEE PC 701, which has a screen diagonal of only 7 inches, as can be seen in the photo just above. Although I don’t work on this netbook, it’s quite possible that I’ll start using it somewhere on the road now, because now I don’t need to use its small keyboard when I have to squeeze my fingers together to place them on small keys.

Initially there were flat caps with a transparent cover, purchased along with the programmable keyboard, later I installed black caps from WASD Keyboards when I ordered new buttons, this time Cherry MX Blue (with a click) and Cherry MX Red (like the black ones without clique, but softer).

I decided to assemble the second keyboard because of the tightness of the Cherry MX Black, they have a pressing force of more than 60 grams, for blue and red ones from 45 grams. Pressing them was still normal, but holding them pressed, which is often required due to the presence of the Fn layer, no longer works, the finger gets tired.

Colleague suenot, whom we met at a meeting of Clavo Racers, joined in the production of CatBoard ][, and they asked to make one copy for the fablab. Therefore, instead of soldering with wires, I decided to make printed circuit boards, two pieces for each keyboard, a connector is installed on the edge of the board into which the controller is inserted, connecting both boards, although due to the lack of ports I had to connect the boards with five wires.

Evgeny collects his white CatBoard ][

Milling such large boards takes a long time, so I decided to etch them. Usually they prepare for etching using a photoresist or LUT, but I decided to do it using a laser, glued a vinyl self-adhesive film to the foil of the board, laser cut the film along the contour of the tracks, removed the excess, and etched it in an ammonium persulfate solution. The boards were made of gettinax, and my mistake was to cut them with metal scissors, they are quite fragile, in one place a piece broke off along with the track. I was already drilling at home with a Dremel, I didn’t want to bother with milling.

Board etching

Drilled board

The use of 1.5 mm plexiglass along with 3 mm colored plastic made it possible to make the keyboard body slightly thinner than in the first keyboard, made only from 3 mm sheets, which is why it was necessary to mill the protrusions for the button latches. The controller took a different model, more compact ( AVR-USB162MU). Installed two LEDs, blue and red, which show the current keyboard layout.

Bottom view

The keyboard layers are fastened with M3 threaded rivets with a notch and countersunk screws. Instead of threaded rivets you can take more affordable exhaust ones, knock a nail out of them, and cut an M3 thread inside.

CatBoard ][

CatBoard Keyboard Features

The most important thing is the Fn layer, the one that works when you hold down the Fn button under the right thumb. Its presence made it possible to make the keyboard very compact, and at the same time fully functional. I did the same on a regular keyboard, reconfiguring the operating system, although this did not work in all programs, such as Skype and Sublime Text. Now, not only has it become more convenient to work with the Fn layer, due to correct location the Fn button also works in absolutely all programs, and even in the BIOS, because when Fn is held down, the keyboard sends completely different key codes, instead of ijkl, arrow keys are sent, uo is Home and End, p; these are Page Up and Page Down, h - Enter, nm - Backspace and Delete, - Insert. The entire digital series becomes functional, i.e. Fn+1 is F1, Fn+0 is F10, and Fn+-= is F11 and F12.

I've been pressing the spacebar for a long time now right hand, so it was decided to use the left space as a shift. This turned out to be very convenient, because you can hold it while typing with the same hand, you don’t need to alternate your little fingers, the letter on the left is the right little finger, the letter on the right is the left little finger. With this shift you don’t even need Caps Lock, keep it pressed and type for as long as you like.

In place of the freed shifts, I installed a language switching function, on the left - RUS, on the right - LAT, just like on old Soviet computers. At the same time, I left the shift function on these buttons; if you press it quickly once, the desired layout will be turned on, and in other cases it is shift, and in some certain cases there may even be Ctrl.

To the left of the Tab button I placed a separate AltTab button; when pressed, Alt is pressed, Tab is pressed and released, and Alt is held. To switch to the next windows, just press the regular Tab next to it, which is very convenient. However, if this new button is pressed while Alt or Ctrl is pressed, it will work like a regular Tab.

Ctrl and Alt now press against the spacebar, with Ctrl being closer to it. Thanks to separate buttons for enabling layouts, and a separate AltTab button, I almost stopped using the Alt buttons.

There is a fixed mode, called by Fn+AltGr, in which a number pad appears on the right half of the keyboard, and the same block with arrows appears on the left.

I have long dreamed of trying a quick auto repeat pressed key, which Jeff Raskin wrote about a long time ago. But I did it even better, for it to work it requires not a triple key press, but a double one, and it works thanks not to a fixed time, but to automatic adjustment to the user. The faster you press the button twice and then hold it, the faster the auto-repeat of the keystroke will begin and occur. At the same time, false positives are very rare and do not depend on the speed of the user. Tests show that this auto-repeat is twice as fast as usual. At the same time, I got used to it so quickly that I stopped using the regular one, it seems to me too slow, it starts slowly, it works slowly, although of course the second parameter can be easily adjusted, but the first one will not work, otherwise there will be false positives during normal printing. The only drawback is that turbo auto-repeat does not work in games where auto-repeat is not needed at all, but just a pressed key is needed, so for such cases I made it disabled using Fn+Esc.

In place of the Russian letter E I placed the letter E, which will be typed while holding Fn. Now I always type E, because now I don’t have to reach for it. In addition, ~ in the English layout turned out to be more convenient to type in this way.

Since I print not in QWERTY, but in JCUKEN, and there are separate buttons for switching languages, then I made my own non-standard hardware layout, and thanks to this it became possible to do something that no one had thought of doing before me, namely, keyboard shortcuts from QWERTY. After all, in order to keep the convenient Ctrl+XCV, they made the Colemak layout, and I get not only keyboard shortcuts for working with the clipboard, but also all the others. After all, in my JCUKEN I placed V in place of W only because Ctrl+W was very inconvenient, and I often pressed it accidentally, which led to unpleasant consequences. Now I’m returning back to FYWA, and this became possible precisely because of the standard keyboard shortcuts.

With the advent of additional LEDs that display the current layout, they are clearly visible with peripheral vision, and at the same time do not interfere with work, yet I made a function to turn them off, press Fn + Y, and the keyboard no longer lights up.

I often need to leave the computer, but since my keyboard does not allow me to close the laptop without removing it, I made a function blocking keyboards. By pressing Fn+RShift, the keyboard turns off the LEDs, stops accepting any presses other than the same combination, and sends the Win+L press to the computer, a combination that locks the operating system with a password so that someone else cannot use your computer while you are away.

Keyboard modding is rarely written about. This is understandable - it’s easier to buy a keyboard with backlighting and additional keys (for example, Saitek Eclipse or Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard). Today we will convert a regular keyboard into a multimedia one.

Was taken as a basis Genius KB-10X V2. The choice fell on her for a reason. I used to think that this was a rejection of the multimedia model Genius KB-12m, it turned out - no. After some manipulation, the KB-10X V2 became the KB-12m with a unique design!

What do we need?

First you need to get a Genius KB-10X V2 keyboard, fabric for upholstery of sofas, double-sided tape, spray paint (green and silver metallic), varnish, primer, gel pens, plexiglass 5 mm and 1 mm thick, glue, LEDs (15 yellow, 6 red) and thin wires. Nothing supernatural.

From the tools I used a screwdriver, a jigsaw, needle files, sandpaper, masking tape, a soldering iron with accessories, scissors and hand drill with drills.

Standard precautions: you need to act carefully; not everything will work out the first time. The main thing is patience and work!

Closer to the body

The first step is to completely disassemble the keyboard. This procedure is simple and painless. It is important not to lose spare parts, especially screws. The film with graphite tracks and the rubber lining with pads should be put aside in a secluded place. If the tracks are torn during disassembly, you will have to restore them using conductive varnish. I decided to combine business with pleasure and clean the entire keyboard up and down. So now she looks like new!

The main task that I set for myself was to turn an ordinary, unremarkable keyboard into a multimedia monster. To implement the idea, you will need a bar that will guide and hold the buttons in place. I made it from 5 mm plexiglass, dimensions - 220 mm by 13 mm (l/w). I drilled 11 nine-millimeter holes in it and two more with a diameter of 1 mm. The first 11 are for buttons, two additional holes are for pins on the keyboard itself.

It sounds outrageously simple, but it’s not that easy to do, so I’ll go into more detail at this stage. To begin with, I sawed off a piece of plexiglass slightly larger size and processed it with a file, bringing it to the required dimensions. Before drilling, you need to mark the workpiece. I placed the strip in its intended place, after drilling the holes for the pins. As mentioned earlier, the KB-10X V2 is a stripped-down multimedia version of the KB-12m. The lining and graphite tracks are identical, it’s just that the case does not have holes for additional buttons, and there are no buttons themselves, of course.

So, in order to accurately mark the future holes, using a black gel pen, I painted over the rubber pads responsible for the multimedia functions and placed them on the bar. It's that simple. All that remains is to mark the strip along the marks and drill the holes. This is a painstaking task: if you rush, the bar will be broken. So I drilled 4mm holes to start with and then switched to a 9mm drill bit. In this case, it is better to use a hand drill, since it is difficult to control the force on an electric drill.

But we were not parting with the bar yet; we had to drill blind holes in it for five LEDs - one LED is enough to illuminate two buttons. That's it, the plank is almost ready, all that remains is to give it a matte finish with sandpaper so that the light is diffused.

It’s easier to make holes for future buttons in the keyboard itself: I installed the bar in its rightful place and marked the places for future holes with an awl. I marked the marks properly and took the drill. You should not immediately use a large-diameter drill - you may break a piece of plastic. To begin with, I used a smaller diameter drill, only then switched to a larger diameter drill. The holes in the keyboard should be slightly larger than in the bar. This is done so that the light spills around future buttons.

Button by button

Let's now start making buttons. Another surprise - I made them from gel pens! 11 buttons took two housings. At first I planned to use buttons from game console gamepads. But the problem is that they are signed (X, Y, Z) and they have different heights. So I had to give it up.

First, you need to saw off the rear threaded part with two rings with a jigsaw, then file the cut area. Next, take a square piece of 1-mm plexiglass, which is slightly larger than the diameter of the handle, apply glue to the treated end of the handle and carefully glue it. I hope there is no need to explain where to get 1-mm plexiglass - you always have it at hand. It is enough to sacrifice one disc box.

After the glue has dried, you need to apply new uniform glued square piece of plexiglass - bring it to a round shape using a file. Then cut off a semi-finished product 1 cm long from the handle itself, file the end of the cut part and glue a round piece of plexiglass of a slightly larger diameter to it. So we got a transparent button.

I made the remaining 10 buttons in the same way. You can also paint them from the inside fluorescent paint, and then illuminated with ultraviolet LEDs - it would turn out beautifully. Alas, I didn’t have anything like that on hand, so I painted them on the inside with regular paint.

Having sorted out the multimedia buttons, I decided to replace the Sleep key as well. It was easy to make - I took a piece of 3mm plexiglass and marked two circles on it. One with a diameter of 12 mm, the other 14 mm. In the latter, I sawed through the notches with a needle file, just as it was done in the original button. They are needed to hold a button on the keyboard. Then I glued the round pieces together and installed them in their rightful place.

Attention, competition!

If you are not indifferent to modding, like to experiment or just want to get one prize from the company Floston (www.floston.ru ), take part in our competition! Make modding your keyboard as interesting, unusual and beautiful as possible, and if you still manage to expand the capabilities of the keyboard in any way, then blame yourself - victory is guaranteed. The first place prize is a transparent acrylic case and a power supply with modular cable connections. The vice champion will also receive a power supply and a couple of radiators for RAM. As for the honorable third place, here we can offer an external box for hard drive and a small transparent mouse with bright backlight. Conditions of the competition: send photos of the keyboard that has been modded, and don’t forget to add a couple of photos of the modding stages. Don't skimp on the quality and size of pictures. See the results of the competition in the September issue of the magazine. Send your creations by email floston@site , or to the editorial office: 111524, Russia, Moscow, st. Perovskaya, 1, “Gaming” with the note “Keyboard modding competition”.

Chic and comfort

One great thing that comes with the keyboard is a wrist rest. It is needed for a more comfortable position of the hands when typing. There is only one “but” - the stand is made of plastic, and this is not the most best material. This is where the fabric came in handy. Any one will do, the main thing is that it is pleasant to the touch. It is worth understanding that the pattern on the fabric will determine the color of the keyboard.

I took fabric with a tiger skin pattern. The stand must first be covered with double-sided tape. I don’t recommend using glue as a base, as it will saturate the fabric and it will be impossible to replace it in the future.

Now carefully, with a little tension, glue the fabric to the stand. It is important not to forget about the allowances around the edges. Then you need to secure them with glue with reverse side stands. That's all - the stand is ready.

All the colors of the rainbow

Actually, from this moment the modding itself begins. Let's start with painting. Everything is as usual here. First, we treat the surface of the keyboard to be painted with sandpaper, cut squares from adhesive tape and seal the holes from the buttons with them so that the paint does not get in. The next step will be priming (to level the surface). After this you can start painting (I used silver paint). Two or three layers are enough.

Now on the keyboard we need to continue the drawing that began on the wrist rest. Let me remind you that my stand is covered with fabric with a tiger skin pattern. We need to transfer this drawing to the keyboard. To do this, you need to cut out strips of tape, like on fabric, and glue them to the keyboard. This is how it turned out to be a kind of stencil. And, of course, it is necessary to seal the areas of the keyboard located under the buttons. You can start painting with a different color. In my case it's green. I painted it unevenly so that the right side of the keyboard was lighter.

The final stages were applying varnish and drying. I did not paint the bottom keyboard cover. Still she is not visible. After drying, you need to peel off all the tape. Painting is finished!

Without backlight, no mod is possible. This is an axiom. The keyboard used 15 yellow LEDs and 6 red ones. The main keys were highlighted first. I used red LEDs to illuminate the multimedia buttons. At the same time, to maintain style, I replaced the green LEDs for Num Lock, Caps Lock and Scroll Lock with yellow ones. The connection of the lights is series-parallel. That is, every two series-connected diodes were connected in parallel to another pair. Since the number of LEDs is large, resistors were not needed. The entire circuit was powered by 5 volts. I took it from the keyboard controller board (in my case, black (-) and red (+) wires).

Holes were drilled for the LEDs. It is advisable to do this before painting, as there is a chance of stripping off the paint. The LED illuminating the sleep mode button is located opposite this button and is not secured by anything. But it should at least be secured with glue. Also, a small switch was built into the bottom cover of the keyboard to turn the backlight on/off. I deliberately did not use high-brightness LEDs, since they would be blinding and distracting.

Keyboard software

Without drivers, multimedia keys will not work. Below I will briefly talk about programs that will allow you to use them. Multimedia Keyboard 7.2 Developer: WayTech Development, Inc. Language: English Distribution type: for free Multimedia Keyboard 7.2 only supports keyboards Genius. This means that our hybrid is compatible with this program. The utility is simple and unpretentious, with minimal capabilities. This version is not yet compatible with Windows Media Player 10. In general, the program is suitable only as a basis. Center of Management Winamp 2.20 Developer: Denvas Language: Russian, English Distribution type: freemium ($15) Center of Management Winamp 2.20 is a plugin for the well-known media player. It allows you to assign keys and assign combinations to hot keys that are necessary to control the player. If Winamp is “your everything,” then you can’t do without Center of Management Winamp 2.20. KeyTweak 2.2.0 Developer: Travis Krumsick Language: English Distribution type: for free KeyTweak 2.2.0 is a utility for reassigning keys. For example, if a button is broken, you can use this program to reassign it to another. Or you can make fun of a friend by changing the Enter and Esc values. Only works in Windows 2000 And XP. If you dig a little deeper, it will become clear why the list of supported operating systems is so small - only they have the function of modifying the codes that the keyboard sends. The program simply modifies one branch in the registry. It is possible to reassign the actions of multimedia buttons. MediaKey (MKey) 0.9.6.1 Developer: SerioSoft Language: Russian Distribution type: for free MediaKey 0.9.6.1(aka MKey) supports all multimedia keyboards, is compatible with popular media players, and can also control volume, power, browser, etc. The utility allows you to emulate keystrokes and send them to windows of other programs. You can create settings profiles. Visually the program looks up to par, and the help file is informative. Extra Keys Assigner 2.5 Developer: Dmitry Maslov Language: Russian, English Distribution type: for free Launching for the first time Extra Keys Assigner 2.5, I thought I had seen her somewhere. In its interface and functions, the program is very similar to the previous one (and maybe vice versa). The peculiarity of Extra Keys Assigner is that the main functions are located in the main window - everything is intuitive. The program has a Dial-Up plugin, which is responsible for connecting and disconnecting from the provider. Overall, Extra Keys Assigner offers slightly more features and functionality than MKey. SlyControl 2.7.12 Developer: Dmitry Vasiliev Language: Russian Distribution type: shareware (20 euros), for residents of the former USSR - free SlyControl 2.7.12- a universal program for managing anything using a computer. The number of settings is amazing. SlyControl controls any program using any remote control remote control, keyboard or joystick. Can emulate keyboard and mouse from the remote control. There is a scheduler that can not only launch a program at the appointed time, but also perform the necessary actions with it. There is also a function to turn off the computer by a timer or by a specific event. Configuration is carried out through scripts. This is the main disadvantage of the program. It is very difficult to master. You will have to spend a lot of time to adjust everything to your liking. But if you understand it, many opportunities will open up.

Finish line

The final stage of the mod is assembly. First you need to return all the buttons to their places. I hope you wrote down the location of all the keys. If not, you will have to painfully remember their location. Or you can borrow a keyboard from a neighbor. Then we install the strip with LEDs in place and fix it with a few drops of glue. The same must be done with all LEDs. It is important not to forget to check everything electrical circuit for short circuits. If this is not done, there is a possibility of burning the PS/2 port or keyboard controller. Then we install the multimedia buttons in their places, the controller board and films with graphite tracks. We close all this with a lid on top and tighten it with bolts. Ready. The first switching on is an exciting moment. Everything will either work or not. It's working!

Well, Genius has made a great gift for modding fans in the form of the KB-10X V2. At first I thought that this was a rejection from the KB-12m and not all multimedia keys would work. But no, everything went well.

In principle, the mod is not too complicated or expensive. But it turned out to be a very interesting keyboard.

If you want to work, then you can do everything yourself. It's quite an interesting experiment because all the things you've done with your own hands, will delight you for a long time, and your eyes will not notice their flaws. It's like your own website design that you made yourself in Photoshop. I often come across such sites on the Internet, I think their authors can be proud of their works of art. At all, DIY things those made bring more positivity and energy into a person’s life than purchased ones. This short article begins a series of unique articles on creating things with your own hands. A good and interesting experience that will help you create unique things that attract attention. For example, you are sitting at home, and you have a wooden keyboard that you made or a mouse pad that you beautifully designed with your own hands. Spare no effort in creating truly unique things. Creative ideas come quite often, energy boils in your hands and a natural desire appears to do something with your own hands.

How to make a keyboard out of wood

You get a job, say, a standard one, as a sales manager. Come, take out a keyboard made of wood, varnished and clear, and that’s it – personality, interest, understanding. Which board would you like to play backgammon on: a regular plastic backing, or one varnished with the warm aroma of wood. It is the little things that determine everything that happens in life. Individuality and practicality are valued. And with chess it’s the same picture. It’s much more enjoyable to play on an expensive board made by a master. Making keyboards from wood is a whole business that can become yours; there will be no end to those interested. In this regard, it is enough to cut out the main elements of the keyboard case and transfer the mechanism from another keyboard to it.
More details, how to make a keyboard out of wood, shown in this video.

If you know how to work with wood, you will easily understand the simple set of steps that were shown in this video. It is better to organize a small workshop to create wooden keyboards. And remember: the first pancake will lie in a lump, and then it will go as if along a well-worn path. In general, the demand for wooden keyboards will grow, because these products can be classified as elite. Any respectable person would want to buy a wooden keyboard. Moreover, you can organize the production of wooden keyboards to order, because everyone has different preferences.

Making a mouse out of wood with your own hands

A wooden keyboard will look flat if the composition on the table is not complemented by a wooden mouse. Actually, these two videos will show how to carve a mouse from wood, naturally, with your own hands. I also plan to write about creating cases for monitors.

We have already made a similar homemade product on our own, only in it we coordinated the joystick from the Dandy console with the computer hardware using a special program. Here we will simply convert an ordinary computer keyboard into a joystick.

What do we need? Any keyboard (preferably with a USB bus for convenience), but of course a working one. Any joystick from any console, from any manufacturer, even a non-working one is possible. The main thing is that another board on top fits inside it.

I took this “chubby” joystick.

I’ll tell you our problem briefly, I think you’ll understand everything.

I don’t know whether you know or not that the keyboard and joystick work in a similar way. Namely, each of these devices uses the principle of command encryption. This is done so that you can output as much as possible less wires from the device. For example, if you connect at least one wire to each button on the keyboard, you will end up with a lot. And so it was decided to encrypt them and convert them into impulses.

In the keyboard, unlike the joystick, the principle of cross-connection of buttons is used, that is, about a dozen buttons go to the keyboard board, and 4 or 5 from the board, depending on the device interface.

Let's get down to action. We take out the board from the joystick and use a screwdriver to cut off all the contacts from the original microcircuit.

Accordingly, you need to find out in advance which contacts on the board are responsible for which buttons.

The work is a bit complicated, it requires careful attention.