Support for Alternative Layouts
This is a summary of how alternative layouts have been supported by kits such as Colevrak and Homing. It is not a discussion of alt layout performance and development, but if that interests you I highly recommend starting with Pascal Getreuer’s A guide to alt keyboard layouts (why, how, which one?). It’s a concise and comprehensive overview with links to some great sites that go deeper. He also has a separate Links about keyboards page. The Keyboard layouts doc he recommends explains layout goals and metrics in detail, summarizing the alt layouts discussed here as well as more than one hundred others. Sculpted-profile The majority of custom keycap sets are sculpted-profile (Cherry, SA, MT3, KAT, etc. - more on profiles generally here) so let’s start there. Because each row has a unique keycap shape, alt layouts require a unique keycap for each legend that moves off its QWERTY row. At first there were two The Dvorak layout was patented in 1936 by August Dvorak & William L....
Apr 23, 2024
Since Arduino already has a keyboard class that does all the heavy USB lifting, I use it to make the Pro Micro appear to be a keyboard when it starts up. After that, I just need to sense keypress, and send that key over USB to the host. You can see my source code here: https://github.com/theimmc/six-key-pad
I wired one pin of each switch to an input pin, and the other pin to ground.
The code was originally written 2 years ago for an earlier version of the Arduino IDE. It may need some updating. I'll update it when I receive my tester later this week.
By the way, it was a real pain to open up the old case, not sure about this one. I highly recommend getting a spudger set, usually sold as tools for opening up phones - you can get a cheap set for a couple of dollars. You can use screwdrivers, spatula, butter knives, but you risk scratching the case and / or hurting yourself if you're clumsy like me.