6 ms·

Is there a place a someone could go to buy something like this?

by zadkey 6y ago

babo 6y ago
You mean there is a need for this?
- Vivtek 6y ago
  Maybe not for 450 keys (!), but I would dearly love to be able to type all the diacritical marks and at least select Unicode ranges (Cyrillic and Greek). It's been a really low-priority desire (I won't dignify it with "need") and so I haven't even really worked out a layout or even carefully defined what I'd like, but yeah, the Really Big Keyboard would fill at least a small need.
  - Vivtek 6y ago
    In A.I. War (book by Daniel Keys Moran), Trent uses a "custom 240-point Unicode board" to code in SuperLISP, which originally put the idea in my head. I asked Moran about this. He made it up whole cloth. No such keyboard exists. Of course, we still have ample time to invent one before the time of that story.
  - JdeBP 6y ago
    If you persuade your operating system to load up keyboard maps with the ISO 9995 common secondary group, you will get all of the combining diacritical marks at least. They're mostly on level 3 of group 2.
- slim 6y ago
  As a Tunisian (north africa) I write mixed texts containing both arabic and latin scripts. I have an azerty/arabic keyboard, arabic letters are on the same keys as latin letters so I constantly need to switch layout when I'm typing. A ~200ish keys keyboard would be Ideal for me. And i suppose it's the same for all non-latin keyboards
  - Vivtek 6y ago
    Even Latin, if you use enough languages with enough diacriticals. Or want to code in APL. Or use Greek letters when typing math.
    - ardy42 6y ago
      > Even Latin, if you use enough languages with enough diacriticals. Or want to code in APL. Or use Greek letters when typing math. I've always wanted something like the space cadet keyboard with a couple of extra modifier keys vs. what's typically available today for typing unusual characters (and the keycaps for making that easy). https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Space-cadet.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Space-ca...
      - myself248 6y ago
        That's pretty straightforward to DIY with the TMK firmware. Or even just with Autohotkey and your existing board; pick a key you don't use much (Caps Lock, right-Win, etc) and make it one of your meta keys. Print your own keycap labels with Avery sheets for starters, and once you've got the layout nailed down, you can send off to have custom caps made by whatever process you like.
      - JdeBP 6y ago
        Only 3 extra modifiers, really (a PC keyboard having 4, discounting left and right variants) and fewer actual keys (a mere 100) than an old U.S. 101-key Model M keyboard, let alone a modern U.S. 104-key Windows keyboard.
  - driverdan 6y ago
    Why not use two separate keyboards?
  - dsr_ 6y ago
    Have you considered having two keyboards plugged in at the same time, and switching between them according to your needs?
bjoli 6y ago
I have an old IBM F122. A 122-key keyboard is pretty much peak keyboard when it comes to easily purchased commercial offerings. The smaller less sturdy sibling of the F122, the M122 (yes, M as in model M) can still be purchased relatively easy, but then you lose about a kilo of weight, nicer switches and N-key rollover. The prices for model F keyboards are bonkers today though. Your option when it comes to a lot of keys (as the one posted here) is either to build it yourself or try to find some very specific offerings, maybe aimed at video production.
- JdeBP 6y ago
  It's fairly easy to buy a "multimedia" European keyboard with 124 keys. It's somewhat harder, outwith Brazil, to get hold of a "multimidia" ABNT2 keyboard with 126 or more keys, but they are commercially available there, at least. Here's one with 127 keys: https://mcinformatica.loja2.com.br/715631-Teclado-Multimidia-Jetline-Usb-ABNT2-Preto-Prata-Ref-T8850 https://mcinformatica.loja2.com.br/715631-Teclado-Multimidia...
  - bjoli 6y ago
    Of course! I was never a fan of those flimsy hard plastic keys, so I didn't include them in the peak keyboard. This is more my taste: https://i.redd.it/hkb7kvqpob431.jpg https://i.redd.it/hkb7kvqpob431.jpg There is a guy making "new" model F keyboards out there, and if he ever makes an f122 clone I will probably buy it, regardless of price.
afandian 6y ago
Tipro keyboards, designed for POS systems are similar. E.g. this one: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Digipos-Tipro-Black-Keyboard-MID-AM-KM128A-RA-012-TIP-27162-EPOS/380931539257?hash=item58b14a0139:g:jjIAAOSwVupToWoq https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Digipos-Tipro-Black-Keyboard-MID-... Look out for PS2 and a hard requirement to program them via a real PS2 (not a USB emulated port). I've bought one (cherry switches sans keycaps), filled it with blank keycaps and now I need to put together some electronics to make it useful (it looks like it uses something like SPI internally). But first, I'm stuck trying to remember why I thought it would be cool. Because it's just an 8x16 grid of switches.
- myself248 6y ago
  Yesssss, I'm waiting for one of these to show up: https://www.ebay.com/itm/264811664552 https://www.ebay.com/itm/264811664552 Point-of-sale hardware is so much fun to play with, and there's so much of it out there!
  - afandian 6y ago
    At least that hybrid model with QWERTY has aplausable use case. But mine is just a grid. As for mine, there's only so many shortcuts you can assign to 128 anonymous keys...
wonderfool 6y ago
Assuming you are able to assemble it yourself, you can do as the author did - use two scrabblepad PCBs: https://donutcables.com/products/scrabblepad-pcb-extras https://donutcables.com/products/scrabblepad-pcb-extras

Is there a place a someone could go to buy something like this?

by zadkey 6y ago

Is there a place a someone could go to buy something like this?

babo 6y ago

You mean there is a need for this?

Vivtek 6y ago
Maybe not for 450 keys (!), but I would dearly love to be able to type all the diacritical marks and at least select Unicode ranges (Cyrillic and Greek). It's been a really low-priority desire (I won't dignify it with "need") and so I haven't even really worked out a layout or even carefully defined what I'd like, but yeah, the Really Big Keyboard would fill at least a small need.
- Vivtek 6y ago
  In A.I. War (book by Daniel Keys Moran), Trent uses a "custom 240-point Unicode board" to code in SuperLISP, which originally put the idea in my head. I asked Moran about this. He made it up whole cloth. No such keyboard exists. Of course, we still have ample time to invent one before the time of that story.
- JdeBP 6y ago
  If you persuade your operating system to load up keyboard maps with the ISO 9995 common secondary group, you will get all of the combining diacritical marks at least. They're mostly on level 3 of group 2.
slim 6y ago
As a Tunisian (north africa) I write mixed texts containing both arabic and latin scripts. I have an azerty/arabic keyboard, arabic letters are on the same keys as latin letters so I constantly need to switch layout when I'm typing. A ~200ish keys keyboard would be Ideal for me. And i suppose it's the same for all non-latin keyboards
- Vivtek 6y ago
  Even Latin, if you use enough languages with enough diacriticals. Or want to code in APL. Or use Greek letters when typing math.
  - ardy42 6y ago
    > Even Latin, if you use enough languages with enough diacriticals. Or want to code in APL. Or use Greek letters when typing math. I've always wanted something like the space cadet keyboard with a couple of extra modifier keys vs. what's typically available today for typing unusual characters (and the keycaps for making that easy). https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Space-cadet.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Space-ca...
    - myself248 6y ago
      That's pretty straightforward to DIY with the TMK firmware. Or even just with Autohotkey and your existing board; pick a key you don't use much (Caps Lock, right-Win, etc) and make it one of your meta keys. Print your own keycap labels with Avery sheets for starters, and once you've got the layout nailed down, you can send off to have custom caps made by whatever process you like.
    - JdeBP 6y ago
      Only 3 extra modifiers, really (a PC keyboard having 4, discounting left and right variants) and fewer actual keys (a mere 100) than an old U.S. 101-key Model M keyboard, let alone a modern U.S. 104-key Windows keyboard.
- driverdan 6y ago
  Why not use two separate keyboards?
- dsr_ 6y ago
  Have you considered having two keyboards plugged in at the same time, and switching between them according to your needs?

bjoli 6y ago

I have an old IBM F122. A 122-key keyboard is pretty much peak keyboard when it comes to easily purchased commercial offerings. The smaller less sturdy sibling of the F122, the M122 (yes, M as in model M) can still be purchased relatively easy, but then you lose about a kilo of weight, nicer switches and N-key rollover. The prices for model F keyboards are bonkers today though. Your option when it comes to a lot of keys (as the one posted here) is either to build it yourself or try to find some very specific offerings, maybe aimed at video production.

JdeBP 6y ago
It's fairly easy to buy a "multimedia" European keyboard with 124 keys. It's somewhat harder, outwith Brazil, to get hold of a "multimidia" ABNT2 keyboard with 126 or more keys, but they are commercially available there, at least. Here's one with 127 keys: https://mcinformatica.loja2.com.br/715631-Teclado-Multimidia-Jetline-Usb-ABNT2-Preto-Prata-Ref-T8850 https://mcinformatica.loja2.com.br/715631-Teclado-Multimidia...
- bjoli 6y ago
  Of course! I was never a fan of those flimsy hard plastic keys, so I didn't include them in the peak keyboard. This is more my taste: https://i.redd.it/hkb7kvqpob431.jpg https://i.redd.it/hkb7kvqpob431.jpg There is a guy making "new" model F keyboards out there, and if he ever makes an f122 clone I will probably buy it, regardless of price.

afandian 6y ago

Tipro keyboards, designed for POS systems are similar. E.g. this one: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Digipos-Tipro-Black-Keyboard-MID-AM-KM128A-RA-012-TIP-27162-EPOS/380931539257?hash=item58b14a0139:g:jjIAAOSwVupToWoq https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Digipos-Tipro-Black-Keyboard-MID-... Look out for PS2 and a hard requirement to program them via a real PS2 (not a USB emulated port). I've bought one (cherry switches sans keycaps), filled it with blank keycaps and now I need to put together some electronics to make it useful (it looks like it uses something like SPI internally). But first, I'm stuck trying to remember why I thought it would be cool. Because it's just an 8x16 grid of switches.

myself248 6y ago
Yesssss, I'm waiting for one of these to show up: https://www.ebay.com/itm/264811664552 https://www.ebay.com/itm/264811664552 Point-of-sale hardware is so much fun to play with, and there's so much of it out there!
- afandian 6y ago
  At least that hybrid model with QWERTY has aplausable use case. But mine is just a grid. As for mine, there's only so many shortcuts you can assign to 128 anonymous keys...

wonderfool 6y ago

Assuming you are able to assemble it yourself, you can do as the author did - use two scrabblepad PCBs: https://donutcables.com/products/scrabblepad-pcb-extras https://donutcables.com/products/scrabblepad-pcb-extras