Mastodawn

Rolio 0.1 Pre-Release

https://lemmy.world/post/4787241

Rolio 0.1 Pre-Release - Lemmy.world

I’ve made the 0.1 design available to the public now. Ive been using it for a few weeks myself and its quite nice to use, particularly with the aluminium chassis (the GitHub repo has FDM and CNC designs). In any case, for those curious the GitHub is here: https://github.com/MickiusMousius/RolioKeyboard [https://github.com/MickiusMousius/RolioKeyboard] I am working on the V1.0 model, PCB’s should arrive in a few days. I think the V1.0 release should best good enough for others to make. The current model is nice, but there are a lot of improvements in the pipeline particularly regarding aesthetics. V1.0 sample below: [https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/cede008f-cd8b-4507-91d6-1d19ba6d8886.jpeg]

cRazi_man Sep 10, 2023

That’s so awesome. In amazed you’ve put it all out there for others to sell. I’m sure it’s going to show up on AliExpress pre-made soon. I’d happily buy this.

MickiusMousius Sep 10, 2023

Thanks.

I think it’d be great if they started showing up on AliExpress.

hellweaver666 Sep 10, 2023

This is a super cool keyboard. I love the “roller”. I could be tempted to make one of these if it had the number row.

Followupquestion Sep 10, 2023

Exactly this. I need a number row for work or gaming which limits the split and ergo keyboard options significantly.

Siegvar Sep 11, 2023

Does the Lily58 or Iris fit your needs better then? Or is there something else about this board that trumps those other 2?

The primary difference to me seems to be roller vs rotary encoder and number row. And while I too, prefer rollers over rotary encoders :D… if the number row is critical to your use case those boards seem to be a better option.

Followupquestion Sep 11, 2023

The Iris looks good, as does the Lily58, but my ideal board for work would be a split with a trackball on the right and a scroll wheel on the left, preferably with a bit of a dactyl style tilt for better ergos. I’m pretty new to mechanical keyboards in general, so if a roller or rotary encoder is what I really need to get those, I humbly apologize for using the wrong terms.

Siegvar Sep 11, 2023

Ah, okay good to know you’ve seen those. Just wanted to check in case you missed something that suited you perfectly. It sounds like you have a clear image of what your ideal keyboard would be. 👍

Also I have no idea if I’m using the terms right either but I think the roller is the same as the scroll wheel? And rotary encoders would be those dial knobs.

I’m with you on having a trackball on the right half and a scroll wheel on the left, that sounds amazing. Something I’d like to work up towards in my collection too. 😁

Followupquestion Sep 11, 2023

I can visualize it, I just don’t have the necessary skills to bring it to life. Oh, and ideally it would have hot-swappable switches, LED lighting, and be quiet so if I put in silent switches the board wouldn’t interrupt my podcast listening. You know, simple things like all of the above at a reasonable price.

moonsnotreal Sep 10, 2023

It looks awesome! Does it have flip-out feet? I have to have a slight angle on my keyboards.

Siegvar Sep 11, 2023

This is lovely. I’m currently using a lilty58 while leaving the number row empty, and have been looking for a board to downsize to. I don’t feel ready to go down to as low as 42 keys, so the corne is still a bit intimidating.

This? This looks like the Goldilocks medium I need at the moment. 😆

MickiusMousius Sep 11, 2023

Nice, I’m glad it resonates with you.

In a month or so I expect having a properly refined release.

drkhrse96 Sep 11, 2023

Awesome looking board. Thanks for the files!

MickiusMousius Sep 11, 2023

No worries, you’re very welcome.

If you’d like I can share the V1.01 files to you too. The improvements are also electrical as well as mechanical (eg some caps to smooth out the rollers). Otherwise I anticipate publishing in about 4ish weeks time.

drkhrse96 Sep 11, 2023

Sure. I built a sofle a while back so I am looking for a new project to try some chocs on.

UndeadLeech Sep 11, 2023

It’s interesting to see these rollers popping up some more, especially with two posts about them in such a short period of time(lemmy.world/post/4760068?scrollToComments=true). They’re much better than the normal rotary encoders and I’ve enjoyed using mine a lot. Though sourcing them is unfortunately a bit tricky (and thus on the more expensive side).

I’m currently making a new board using the Nintendo Switch joysticks to replace them, I’m curious how the two compare.

First Working Prototype Complete - Swirl Split Keyboard - Lemmy.world

It’s not done yet, but I figured I’d show off a little bit since I have been using this for a few weeks now. This is the “swirl”. It’s heavily inspired by the helix with some notable changes: - mbk Choc Spacing (Dimensions are about 12.5cm x 8.5cm on either half) - Reversible roller encoders on the top inner switch https://github.com/vmorganp/swirl [https://github.com/vmorganp/swirl]

MickiusMousius Sep 11, 2023

I’d love to see that.

I have a design I’m tinkering with as an idea that has two 5 way sticks. The actuation force is too high IMO, but I could not find a suitable digital switch.

Are you interfacing to the switch sticks using analog or do you have some nice low power digital solution?

UndeadLeech Sep 11, 2023

I’m using the ADC pins to make use of QMK’s joystick feature. Or at least that is the plan.

MickiusMousius Sep 11, 2023

Ah, sadly I don’t have this with ZMK, going wireless very much limits what can be done. I’d love to add a small trackball for example (PIM447 maybe) but the energy budget is a big factor.

TeXitoi Sep 11, 2023

That’s an original stagger. Why?

Otherwise, beautiful board.

MickiusMousius Sep 11, 2023

Thanks.

I took some hand measurements and this is what it came out with:

I didn’t add the splay, I started to add it, but decided that in practical terms it likely doesn’t make much difference but it made things quite unwieldy looking.

In practice I’ve found the pinky column needs to drop by about 3-4mm which is a change I have in the newest iteration.

TeXitoi Sep 11, 2023

Be careful that, with this tool, you are naturally reproducing the habits you already have. I’ve seen this tool used by Ben Vallack (www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoBjVhJY4io&list=PLCZ…) and you can see, in his progression, that at first he was for no pinky stagger, and now he is for aggressive pinky stagger.

This Keyboard Lets You Put Keys ANYWHERE!

YouTube

MickiusMousius Sep 11, 2023

Ah, yes, I did suspect this was muscle memory at work.

The stagger is very similar to that of a Sofle though, and, inline with goals it should hopefully be usable by other newcomers.

Siegvar Sep 12, 2023

Also wanted to chime in that I appreciate a more conservative pinky drop, as a compromise between ergonomics and keeping it useable while gaming with minimal rebinding (keeping the vertical stagger between the a and s keys in the usual wasd navigation cluster within a reasonable threshold since it’d be used with the ring finger instead of the pinky in those context)

I feel this is also inline with the apparent (I’m making some loose assumptions here) goals of being a little more newcomer friendly, along with the fact that it has a bit more thumb keys than what many consider optimal for ergonomics and other details. It really feels like the intermediate step between the typical entry point split ergo boards like the Lily and Iris and the more optimal ergo boards.

Pushing those additional eronomic quality of life tweaks may improve the board, but it also brings the board much closer in target demographic to existing boards like Hillside or Cantor/Piantor for example, and arguably makes this board less uniquely appealing.

I hope I don’t come off too strong with my opinions here; The design middle grounds picked in this board so far really resonates with me in a way few others have that I can’t help but get excited. 😁

MickiusMousius Sep 12, 2023

Thanks. The loose assumptions are dead on.

Funnily enough after implementing the “math mode” I realised I’d made a gaming half board.

If you use szxc instead of wasd in math mode you have all your numbers still. The left side has a USB mode so you can avoid lag that come from BT (though that hasn’t been an issue for me). SZXC could easily be remapped to WASD on the firmware.

It got me to thinking whether I should tinker with a games mode…. But I don’t play enough PC games to have the right perspective for that. I suspect it’d be a very poor fit and more the kind of thing best left to people that like to make their own stuff to update the keymap who do a bit more of that than me.

choas Sep 13, 2023

no one has asked about the very detailed key caps … but you have a link in the github repository to fkcaps

MickiusMousius Sep 13, 2023

I expect once it’s at a “now it’s done” stage that might come up more.

Right now this is little more than a nice POC. I think the refined version will be quite a bit better…. And easier to make all going well.

unmoored Sep 15, 2023

Beautiful board! I thought the thumbnail might be a render, that’s crazy

MickiusMousius Sep 17, 2023

Thankyou.

I’ve started assembling V1 today. Which means I can finish the mechanical design this week. I’m looking forwards to having it, I think it’s going to look very nice.

peanutman Sep 17, 2023

Looking forward to an update (hopefully with lots of pics :)!