Different keyboards for Pyra?

[mrpalmtop]

Hi ED,


Would it be possible for there to be more than one type of keyboard for the Pyra?


There is a pretty large number of people who have MIDs like the Viliv N5 or the Psion Series 5, Sony Vaio P who love the idea of an ultra portable word processing machine. As it is, the gaming oriented controls of the Pandora don't have the appeal that the Pyra could have if there were an ability to have a keyboard with no nubs and instead a 5 or 6 row keyboard.


Would you ever consider (after launch) the idea of a productivity oriented keyboard that one could specify at order time?


I believe there are more people out there who would want a keyboard like this than you might think.

 

[EvilDragon]

Well, that would be possible with a complete redesign of the lower case, the keymat and the main PCB.


It would trigger about 80,000 EUR additional costs - so if someone would order a couple of thousands of those units (production costs about 300 EUR, so with a sales price of 500 EUR, it would need 4000 sold units without making profit), then it's possible.

 

[_jr_]

In theory...if somebody raises the neccessary funds for let's say 5.000 units - through crowdfunding or whatever - could this somebody contract you and your team to handle the actual redesign? And the production? And even the distribution?

 

[EvilDragon]

Yes, that would be possible.

 

[Orkekum]

Or ÅÄÖ buttons for nordic people?


Cant write in my two motherlanguages(finnish and swedish) since i forgot how to do ÅÄÖ.


would need to tape a small booklet o to my panda with good things to remember

 

[mrpalmtop]

Yes, that would be possible.

That's very good to hear. Now for another question: How feasible do you think it would be to execute a multi-keyboard idea? Would it be possible to have the keyboard be a separate layer that is swappable and not directly connected to the PCB?

That would make creating other alternate keyboards easier and would also make it easier to service broken ones since you could just put in another one.

Obviously it's too late to do this with the current design but perhaps if there were a "rebirth" version?

Would it be easier to have a swappable keyboard or to just have a single alternate keyboard?

 

[Granitehead]

The keyboard /is/ the mainboard. If you wanted to make that modular then you would probably need to make the device some 2mm or so bulkier.

 

[elw3]

If you open any cheap PC keyboard you will see that all those buttons are actually just printed on a tin foil. 

It should be possible to simply place a foil between the pcb and your new keyboard design.

You only need to connect it somehow...  

 

[Christoph.Krn]

Or ÅÄÖ buttons for nordic people?

Cant write in my two motherlanguages(finnish and swedish) since i forgot how to do ÅÄÖ.

would need to tape a small booklet o to my panda with good things to remember

If you want, you can use this image (originally from this source post) as a wallpaper on your Pandora, and maybe you will know by heart sooner or later.

 

[Orkekum]

Or ÅÄÖ buttons for nordic people?


Cant write in my two motherlanguages(finnish and swedish) since i forgot how to do ÅÄÖ.


would need to tape a small booklet o to my panda with good things to remember

If you want, you can use this image (originally from this source post) as a wallpaper on your Pandora, and maybe you will know by heart sooner or later.

Thank you!