from Hacker News

A mechanical keyboard with programmable knobs and full color screen panel

by _justinfunk on 2/29/24, 7:38 PM with 89 comments

  • by nottorp on 2/29/24, 9:25 PM

    Why does anything fun end up as a compact keyboard with no numeric pad and cramped navigation keys?

    How am I supposed to write code or even play a game on this?

    And tbh... people who would be interested in this have multiple monitors, or one very large monitor. There should be plenty of space in front of it for a full size keyboard.

  • by timkpaine on 2/29/24, 9:47 PM

  • by bloopernova on 2/29/24, 10:46 PM

    I'm still using and enjoying my Keychron Alice-layout 75% Q10[1], Q0 Plus[2], and the 3D printed fully open source Ploopy Mouse[3].

    All are configured via QMK, although I only custom compile a firmware for the mouse. For the keyboards I just use VIA, which is plenty capable.

    For the numberpad, I have the macro keys and the numlock key assigned to A through F, so I have a hexadecimal keypad when I want it. On the Q10 main keyboard, I have macro keys assigned to ctrl-r and ctrl-t for fzf, plus alt-x, ctrl-g, and ctrl-x ctrl-s for Emacs.

    The ploopy mouse is a marvel, although I wish its wheel was sticky/stepped and not freely-rotating. I wish I had the skills to design a vertical version of the mouse and transfer the guts to that, but I'm a complete idiot when it comes to 3D stuff. Having QMK on a mouse is game-changer though; you can use one button as a layer switcher, and expand the number of functions each button performs. Being able to do a plain text paste in macOS, or use the side buttons for page up/down and home/end, is really useful.

    I highly recommend customizing your macro keys! Especially if you use something like Emacs or work in the terminal a lot.

    [1] https://www.keychron.com/pages/keychron-q10-customizable-mec...

    [2] https://www.keychron.com/products/keychron-q0-plus-qmk-custo...

    [3] https://ploopy.co/mouse/

  • by aethr on 2/29/24, 9:42 PM

    One thing that's keeping my hand on the mouse and stopping me from going full keyboard, is the free scrolling mousewheel on logitech mice. I find it such an ergonomic and natural way to get to the right place in long documents (and code).

    What I would really love is a keyboard with this sort of scroll wheel embedded just on the edge of the keys. All the keyboards I see with knobs / rotary encoders look cool but I can't see myself using a vertical knob for scrolling a document. Do any custom keyboard builds feature a mousewheel?

  • by AdamH12113 on 2/29/24, 9:52 PM

    I've been thinking it would be fun to make a big console-like keyboard with a whole other set of keys above the normal keyboard for things like Greek letters, mathematical symbols, additional punctuation marks, etc. If I used OLED keycaps, there could be a big scroll wheel on one side that would select which character set was used for the supplemental keyboard.

    Simplicity and portability have their uses, but I've always had a fondness for the aesthetics of those complicated-looking industrial control consoles. (The ergonomics are much better, too!)

  • by stevenicr on 3/1/24, 3:11 AM

    Interesting. First thought is that the knob and screen should be on the left.. this would be more usable (could actually keep mousing and use left hand to spin and slide easily)

    Then I think that if you made the knob and screen as separate thing you'd likely sell more of those.. and you might as well make a 10 key add on thing too. (similar to the /keychron-q0-plus-qmk-custom-number-pad someone else mentioned)

    More I think of it, I'd not mind keeping my ergonmoic keyboard and adding a couple of each the knob/screen and knob/keys.. could make video editing and music making interesting.. maybe I just need a streamdeck and Traktor X1 or PreSonus ioStation + PreSonus ATOM Production & Performance Midi Pad Controller or something.. maybe Traktor Kontrol F1.. now I'm thinking I like the smaller size of knob.design thing first..

    I like the idea of experimenting with easier slide and spin/turn to control things.

  • by jwells89 on 2/29/24, 9:41 PM

    A couple of other similar low profile keyboard projects some may be interested in:

    https://monokei.co/systems https://electronicmaterialsoffice.com/

  • by airstrike on 2/29/24, 9:40 PM

    Looks great. There aren't enough low profile keyboards around and my wrists really prefer them

    But I'd trade the useless screen and slightly-less-useless knobs for home/end/pgup/pgdn/del/ins any day of the week

    And the keycaps seem like bad ergonomics but I can't really bash them without trying

  • by bqmjjx0kac on 2/29/24, 9:47 PM

    The name might need revising for the UK market.

  • by interstice on 2/29/24, 9:24 PM

    I like that one but I'm holding on for this one https://worklouder.cc/nomad-e/

    I also love my Nuphy 96, but it's knobless

  • by k8svet on 2/29/24, 9:30 PM

    Looks neat. Seems entirely impractical from keycaps, to the staggered layout, complete with non-existent ergonomics and the odd choice of non-knurled knobs. But, neat.

  • by paholg on 3/1/24, 12:31 AM

    I don't know what I'd do with the knobs or screen, but I really like this. I just need it in an ergodox-like form factor!

  • by tagyro on 2/29/24, 9:48 PM

    The keyboard is nice (ish) but the keys layout is wrong for macOS (command-option/alt-control order).

    Personally I also prefer to have a numpad.

  • by jasonjmcghee on 3/1/24, 12:44 AM

    Am I understanding it right it's supposed to be pronounced "Kenobi" (1)?

    But they also say "the year of the knob is upon us" and it's got two knobs (weird for keyboards) and took the domain "knob.design"?

    This all seems quite confusing lol

  • by quatrefoil on 2/29/24, 9:25 PM

    My first thought: gosh, these knobs don't seem at all comfortable to operate.

  • by j_crick on 3/1/24, 4:03 AM

    I don’t know if that’s just my OCD, but if they care about the looks so much, then it seems like the arrow right key, the screen and the knobs are not aligned or even at the same margin from the right edge…

  • by natpalmer1776 on 2/29/24, 10:00 PM

    I wish there was an OEM or Cherry profile keyboard that offered the same features. It seems that all the innovative features are getting slapped exclusively onto low-profile keyboards.

  • by PhyllisEngine on 2/29/24, 10:35 PM

    Compact is kinda frustrating, for years I used a full size board and finally swapped to a 60%. Even though you can remap keys, it's pretty annoying compared to my last setup.

  • by Rafuino on 2/29/24, 9:28 PM

    Not a fan of those low profile and also circular pad keycaps. Gives you even less room to hit the right key! Not for me, but maybe someone else likes that

  • by jerlam on 2/29/24, 9:46 PM

    Too bad that Apple never made a standalone keyboard with Touch Bar. It along with the Elgato Stream Decks do show there's a demand for these things.

  • by smrtinsert on 2/29/24, 9:45 PM

    Lower is achy for me. Even the premium magic keyboard for macs hurts. I'd much rather have a nice comfortable bounce

  • by sonicanatidae on 2/29/24, 10:53 PM

    Without Tenkey, they can keep it.

    For those that don't need/use tenkey, it might be a cool toy.

  • by reustle on 3/1/24, 1:06 AM

    I’ve always wanted to replace my mouse with etch-a-sketch style knobs!

  • by mgarfias on 3/1/24, 2:29 AM

    Gimmie a split version thst tents and I’ll buy two.

  • by rfwhyte on 3/1/24, 1:51 AM

    Based on the fact it looks like a Teenage Engineering product, I can already tell it'll be wildly overpriced. I'm betting >$500, which is flat out insane given you can get a pretty decent mechanical keyboard for $50 these days.

    I for one am sick and tired of these conspicuous consumption status symbol products that offer no real improvements in utility, but are just expensive so people can say the spent more money.

  • by redder23 on 3/1/24, 6:42 AM

    Oh wow, knobs "programmable" can't w8 to buy this useless shit for an insanely overpriced price.