Release New Address Of Your Thumbs!

[Wolfsclaw]

So in conclusion, does this now mean that craig (or someone else) has now all the parts together and that we should be able to see some pics / videos of the complete pandora in a few hours / days ?

 

[PoisonedV]

This is great news! I'm very excited... and to those of you acting surprised, this is the way it was gonig to be and they've been saying it all along

 

[renegadechic]

So in conclusion, does this now mean that craig (or someone else) has now all the parts together and that we should be able to see some pics / videos of the complete pandora in a few hours / days ?

I wondered this too, but I am expecting that the picture we saw was possibly a prototype rather than final production model. The big Q is whether we will see an unpainted unfinished prototype put together or if they will hold out for the final painted, bells and whistles product that we will be ending up with.

I'm happy for either, but I wouldnt want them to spend tooo much time on it.

 

[Balzac2m]

Rubber keys? Meh. I'm really hoping they are any good. I can't think of any device where rubber keys where any good. I surely hope so, but I really doubt there is a possibility to make it any good. Well, external BT-keyboards aren't that expensive.

edit: PoisonedV, this has nothing to do with acting. Not everyone has the time to read everything on the forums but if you can provide a link where this was said, I'd be happy.

 

[RajTakhar]

I'm a little confused as to where they said it was rubber all the way too

If you look at the original keyboard matt post here

http://www.openpandora.org/blog.php?o=5

That kind of implied the matt was to be a membrane between the plastic keys and keypads

ANYWAY - ITS RUBBER WITH AN OVERLAY FOR D-PAD

The main thing is that the missing piece is nearly there - so its just down to someone sticking the first Pandora together - we can live without seeing the full keyboard, I think most of us would just die to see a near complete one in action

Possibly with ED running some YouTube vids of different emulators on the near complete Unit

 

[Vorporeal]

Hmm... does this mean that we'll be able to change the positions of the game buttons so that they can be in whatever order we want? Meaning we could have them SNES style instead of this weird thing that they're probably going to be as default?

Thats fine until you get confused with homebrew software that tells you to press the A button and it's changed position Emulators will allow you to software-remap, but all homebrew? I doubt it.

I was thinking that myself. Seeing as the game buttons aren't "keys" and are instead additional input devices, wouldn't one be able to switch the "events" thrown when they are pressed on a linux level, so that the changes are the same for all applications? (Could totally be wrong here...)

 

[kin]

Dunno how the rubber feels like...

the main problem I have with rubber keys is the unpredictable amount of force you need to press in order to touch the circuit.

But there are two types of rubber buttons:

- soft mat squishy ones (yuck!)
- ones hardened on the outside having a smooth surface. (quite acceptable)

 

[craigix]

What you are seeing here, as others have said, is a bare membrane for the whole unit.

They Dpad & ABXY buttons are not there (they are separate bits of plastic), the actual keys have a second coating which isn't shown here made from hard plastic (just like your phone - in most cases) then the letters are printed on top of that.

We did think about using separate keys but the assembly and size issues stop that pretty much right away. The design you are seeing means easy assembly and modding for you all - and very little to go wrong.

 

[techFreak]

Dunno how the rubber feels like...

the main problem I have with rubber keys is the unpredictable amount of force you need to press in order to touch the circuit.

But there are two types of rubber buttons:

- soft mat squishy ones (yuck!)
- ones hardened on the outside having a smooth surface. (quite acceptable)

"- ones hardened on the outside having a smooth surface. (quite acceptable)"

This is the one we are actually doing. I think this is the best option for thumb typing. We tear apart a lot of devices to decide the keyboard structure.

Another concern is the cost.

1 - We could make the cheapest version of the computer keyboard which will cause a lot of problems during assembly and it wouldn't be very durable for your strong thumbs! All of the buttons would be ready to jump off from your Pandora.

2 - We could make the best of rubber keymat with high quality coating for the same budget. This is much more durable, easy to assembly, easy to replace, mod etc.

 

[TaG]

Thanks mfk and craigix for update and clarification. That's pretty much as I was expecting and sounds like quite an acceptable solution and compromise.

We tear apart a lot of devices to decide the keyboard structure.
Now that sounds like fun.

 

[RajTakhar]

Think of it this way

You put a normalish keyboard then after a few years usage - things wear down a bit - the cost to replace is high, and possibly difficult to get hold of as it may entail special connectors (its happened to me on numerous laptops)

With the keyboard matt they are using you simply order the matt from OpenPandora, open up Pandora and replace the matt

This open seems most sensible just have to wait and see how it will actually perform - but as CraigX and MFK have said its the same type of rubber as used in mobile phones

What could be fun is when someone starts to mod the Keyboard matt with backlighting or paints over letters on bare keyboard with the glowing paint - cool

Anyways - lets just hold our breaths a wee minute and await seeing a fully assembled Pandora - it should well worth the wait

 

[mali]

After thinking about it for a while, the biggest problem with plastic keys would have been grinding in the gap between case and button. A little bit of dust and some months of usage would have been enough to to grind the surface to make the buttons hard to press or get stuck completely(hard surface/dust/hard surface). With rubber this won't happen with the same intensity(hard surface/dust/soft surface), so it was a very good decision IMO Someone who has disassembled an old remote control with plastic buttons, knows what I mean A non-intrusive keyboard like used on Notebooks isn't possible in such a small device.

 

[jakewastaken]

This is a great update, but does this picture mean you have the final membranes or not? Is this a prototype?

 

[lvyelion]

Think of it this way

You put a normalish keyboard then after a few years usage - things wear down a bit - the cost to replace is high, and possibly difficult to get hold of as it may entail special connectors (its happened to me on numerous laptops)

With the keyboard matt they are using you simply order the matt from OpenPandora, open up Pandora and replace the matt

I don't see your point here. You got the same pain when ordering any type of keypad which has very limited production - like pandora. You are not building a keypad, you just order one, no matter how it's made, the availablity doesn't change as long as the very limited production of the unit itself.

And for my experience, rubber keypads are more likely to be weared out soon because the nature of the material. Rubber are much more sensitive to heat, cold, sunlight, UV, chemicles, dust etc..

However, I have faith that the pandora team will have the best keypad they can get. Rubber or not, I wasn't planned to do any heavy tying at all.

 

[fusion_power]

They Dpad & ABXY buttons are not there (they are separate bits of plastic), the actual keys have a second coating which isn't shown here made from hard plastic (just like your phone - in most cases) then the letters are printed on top of that.

Sounds good enough. As long as the printing is very durable and made for long-life there shouldnb't be huge problems. Transparent plastic tops and the printing at the underside would be even more durable I think but maybe this was not possible or easy to do.

...Now we just need a graphic or a sketch of the FINAL Button-Printing...

"- ones hardened on the outside having a smooth surface. (quite acceptable)"

This is the one we are actually doing. I think this is the best option for thumb typing. We tear apart a lot of devices to decide the keyboard structure.

Uh, some examples of existing devices maybe? ^_^ I have a Nokia 6310i mobile phone and I think the buttons are made out of plastic or at least out of very hard rubber...and the printing seems to be indestructable.

 

[cb88]

hmm those franklin devices have keyboards that sound similar to this...

my dad had one that was a bible dictionary + addon cartridge for mediacal dictionaries etc...

I would say this sounds acceptable


EDIT: kinda like this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/ShowImage.as...%20Holy%20Bible

 

[CandidStan]

It looks to me like the directional pad and game buttons are not as high as the keyboard, meaning they have control risers which would be modified if the action buttons are able to be switched around. In that case you can just re arrange them.

This opens up the question, there could be multiple versions of the keymat for sale for english, german, spanish, japanese and other languages.

I really like the keypad, I've always hated those hard plastic keys on top of those rubber contact switches. This is great for stealth typing since it would make next to no noise.

I'm really glad they didn't go with tact switches as with some devices which tend to wear out and are really annoying to hear someone type with.

 

[ashdjones]

Can somebody post some definite examples of this type of keyboard please?

 

[CandidStan]

Think of it this way

You put a normalish keyboard then after a few years usage - things wear down a bit - the cost to replace is high, and possibly difficult to get hold of as it may entail special connectors (its happened to me on numerous laptops)

With the keyboard matt they are using you simply order the matt from OpenPandora, open up Pandora and replace the matt

I don't see your point here. You got the same pain when ordering any type of keypad which has very limited production - like pandora. You are not building a keypad, you just order one, no matter how it's made, the availablity doesn't change as long as the very limited production of the unit itself.

And for my experience, rubber keypads are more likely to be weared out soon because the nature of the material. Rubber are much more sensitive to heat, cold, sunlight, UV, chemicles, dust etc..

However, I have faith that the pandora team will have the best keypad they can get. Rubber or not, I wasn't planned to do any heavy tying at all.


No one uses real rubber anyone, it's all synthetic except for some high end erasers.

 

[mazza558]

So will there be a definite "click" when pressing the buttons on the keyboard mat down?