I want to add to Kabouik: the N900 keyboard was good. I'm not very familiar with hardware keyboards on phone, I had a detachable one for the Galaxy S3, which made very hard clicks. It wasn't perfect, because it worked on BT and switching it on/off took too long to have advantage concerning typing.

The strong point of the N900, and if I can remember it has been mentioned in one of the reviews was the keys weren't flat, but concave, so keys next to it weren't easily pressed. I also like soft keys (no CLICK, CLICK!, CLICK!!) and a very soft backlight, and even better: switchable. A hard backlight can be just as bad as no backlight, because I don't want to lit the bedroom when I'm typing in bed.

Concerning thickness I want to say:
I would try to make it thin and use metal. It's good to make it a bit heavy, so the keyboard/screen are balanced a bit. Using metal can also make it stiff. To make the design more easy, you could try to build it in two parts: a "drawer", where stiffness and a good sliding out is important (not angled), and the real keyboard part (screwed upon, thus repairable?)

Another simple yet effective design (I've made it once from plastic and glue) is making a room with four "walls" and making an "X" in the middle.
I've graduated for mechanical engineer, so if you want a good design regarding stiffness/size, maybe I can help. robnas at gmail.com (dutch).

I agree that the n900 KB was pretty much perfect, so something similar would be nice. The droid KB in the prototype OH is good enough in principle, only negative thing is that some keys (in my OH) require very hard presses, this means it's not possible to type really fast and almost blind like with the n900, because you have to constantly check if the keys registered. But it's still a very good, working prototype.
The thickness is a bit too much, I can carry it around when I have some kind of jacket on, but I don't like putting the Jolla with HWKB in my jeans back pocket, also the plastic is not exactly the most comfortable thing in the world. Some kind of thinner metal version sounds great. I don't have any problems with added weight, only bulk.

Looking forward to whatever new you will think of

OK, I know I am harping on an old song, but I still believe in the idea: A capacitive touch screen with silicon markers for where the keys are. A touch screen is really quite fast, as long as you look at the keys. The problem is that as soon as you take your eyes off the keys, you have no way of knowing where you are. By adding a thin silicon grid or other overlay, you will get enough feedback to keep your fingers in place.

You can easily test what I mean on the TOHKBD or any other mobile phone keyboard; just imagine that the key would react when you just touch the key, rather than having to push it down. Do some pretend typing. Isn't that fast? Even faster than having to push the keys?

And of course you can change between any keyboard layouts you like whenever you like. :-)

Added to first post.


(spoiler)

@stefanmohl, it just does not work that way sorry.
You cannot get "tactile feedback" that way, no way. There needs to be a definite action of a key being physically pressed to get that, if you just have a touchscreen with silicone lumps on it you will not achieve that; when your finger touches the lump it is already too late, you have already mistyped...

@stefanmohl: I've also got the problem of doubletapping on touchscreens. If a touchscreen with silicone cover would be that good, why isn't it already existing and/or widely used on pc's?

All good points, but since this feature will not be made by me, this is *kind of* cluttering this thread. Please do continue this discussion in this thread. You can discuss options and explore possibilities there!


In other news: the bottom-pcb for TOHKBD-rev2 has typed her first words! It has some new features that are under testing now. Waiting on some other pcb's that should arrive this week, then I can maybe do a short demo.

Other thing: kinda running low on dough -if you know what i mean- for developing keyboard stuff... Ordering stuff from FunkyOH is most practical for me, but if people are not interested in that I could open another donation account like in Rev1? With the donations turned into discount coupons if/when Rev2 goes into production?

I like the idea of using the N900 keyboard, because it's great. Being able to use the actual keyboard of my/our N900 for the Jolla OH would make it cheaper, although I would prefer to maintain my N900...

N900 keyboard size would let space for the camera, and something like an FM transmiter, infrared, and an maybe optic for the camera could be added in the space left.

Moreover, adding two "legs" to the cover, will let you put it tilted in your desk to see the screen easier.

This could be called the N900 OH Yes yes, I am asking for too much, but let me dream.

How about getting access to a cnc-mill and milling it out of aluminum? A bit old-tech, but very high quality for small production runs.

way too expensive.

you also need to make it way thicker.

you also need to cram some electrical insulation into it

>or do a workaround which adds more thickness.