[Makers] What is everybody making?

Amanda Babcock Furrow alb at quandary.org
Mon Jun 15 03:31:30 UTC 2015


On Sun, Jun 14, 2015 at 03:44:40PM -0700, Michelle Murrain wrote:

> Can you describe the project in more detail? I don't really know what you
> mean by GKOS chording.

A chording keyboard is one where you press multiple keys at a time to make
letters.  Stenotypes are one old-fashioned example.  GKOS is a six-button
arrangement named after its first four two-key chords - letters a through f
are one button each, g is d+e together and h, i and j are g plus one each
button on the other hand, k is e+f together and l, m and n are k plus one
each button on the other hand, o is a+b together and p, q and r, well, you
can guess, and then s is b+c together and gives us t, u and v.  W is d+f
and also provides x, y and z.  That still leaves a number of unused key
chords for shift, control characters or missing international letters.
See http://gkos.com/gkos/gkos-charset.html.

GKOS is usually implemented on touchscreens now, but I've been interested 
in it since before iphones :)  

Actually, I'm interested more in the basic approach than the actual layout; 
last time I was working on this I made up a chorded Dvorak-like layout that 
I wanted to implement.  I may also have added a button on each side?  That
would also make for great chording gloves, but the sensors for those were
on the expensive side last I checked.

> I have to admit, one of the things I did really well in embarking on this
> process of getting into these electronic projects was to set up my space
> and buy a lot of stuff. :) It's nice to know I'm almost ready for anything,
> although there seem to always be little things I don't have, though. Like I
> was doing one exercise in the electronics book, and I realized I didn't
> have any 100uF capacitors - so I had to wait a few days until they came.

I have the stuff.  I don't have the space!  

> Where do people get their stuff? (I'm imagining US folks and non-US folks
> are going to have different sources.) My favorites are Adafruit and Mouser
> electronics. I've also gotten a couple of things from sparkfun.

Sparkfun, Adafruit and Allelectronics for me! :)

Amanda



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