Macro keyboards are mini programmable USB keyboards that can be pressed to trigger shortcuts, a sequence of keypresses etc. They can have several layers so switching to a different one will trigger different keypresses from the same key, so e.g. different IDEs can be represented.
I’ve just bought one with a view to setting up shortcuts for debugging. Each IDE has its own unique keys for navigating through the code, so I figure it’ll be nice to just press one key to start debugging and one key to step into instead of a combination of ctrl+whatever etc
Do you use one? If so, what do you use it for and what size do you use? Is it too big / too small?
I just have a 36 key split keyboard with layers and combo keys, don’t need a separate macro pad when my main keyboard just is one
Which keyboard is that?
Not sure if your interest is specifically the programmable split keyboard or rather programmable in general but my Launch Heavy has this programmable layers feature. Its not split though.
I’ve got a couple keyboards with VIA/QMK and layers, I’m specifically interested in the 36 key split keyboard they mention.
It’s called a chocofi https://github.com/pashutk/chocofi
It’s based on a corne. I’ve got a bunch of bare pcbs available still if you want some, will just have to pay postage, I’m not really going to be doing anything with them.
I’d definitely be interested. What else would I need to build it?
There should be a parts list on that GitHub. You’d need two microcontrollers, two batteries, all of the switches and keycaps you want a bunch of resisters and hot swap sockets if you want hotswappable switches.
The keyboard is a modification of the corne so if you can’t find a tutorial on this one specifically I’d you want to watch a video, a corne one would suffice.
Well, I can’t see a parts list in that repo, but I did find others. If the offer’s still open, I’ll definitely take a couple PCBs. Where did you buy the rest of the parts from?
Ahh, having a quick look around looks like I may have followed a corne build guide but just made sure I had choc stuff instead. (Don’t think there was an actual choc variant of the corne at the time).
I bought all of my parts here: https://mechboards.co.uk/
The machine pin socket was to hotswap the controller whilst also giving storage for the battery underneath. I think I followed a YouTube guide for that one. It’s not something you need to do though. If you are thinking of that and can’t find the video yourself I’ll try and look around for you.
But yeah if you give me an address I’ll try and see how much the postage will cost for you, and I’ll try and find where I’ve put them too. So don’t buy any of the extra parts until you know for certain I’ve sent pcbs your way. Just in case I don’t find them. Slim chance, but you never know.