Iris Keyboard
posted in Journal Entries |A coworker has been fascinated lately by my ability to use the Dvorak keyboard layout and decided to do some research. Upon searching online for hours with strict criteria, he decided that he was just going to build his own. But it wasn’t just a sudden decision.
He has decided to learn the Colemak layout, but he likes ergonomic keyboards, and since it’s all switched at a software level, it poses several problems, things that I have dealt with for years since learning Dvorak. So to get the ‘perfect ergonomic’ layout, and have the ability to have the firmware determine the keyboard key maps, he decided to buy the parts for the Iris Keyboard, at keeb.io.
We have since talked and obsessed over keycaps, and other hardware to make this keyboard perfect, and while he has had a number of trial by fire errors, has finally completed this keyboard. It looks awesome. He brought it in and due to my excitement, put a Dvorak layer on so I could get a feel for how the keyboard is, and I was quite taken by it.
I decided when he was ordering his stuff, that this was probably something I wanted to do, after all, I have put up with the same problems, especially when working with Remote Desktop Connections, and VM’s where the keyboard layout changes back to QWERTY and messes up password entries.
So, I’ve decided to go ahead and start buying the parts, as they become available. I just ordered the PCB today, which is a kit that includes the diodes and other things that I’ll eventually have to solder onto the PCB. I’m so excited to start this project, but I know it’ll be a ton of work. I’m kind of glad that the parts are sold out, so I will be forced to space out the purchase over a couple of months, even though I’ll be dying to start working on it.
Once I get everything together, I’ll take some pictures and upload them so you can check it out.