Am 03.05.2012 um 10:03 schrieb Butrus Damaskus: > Very interresting, but I'm a little bit puzzled as how it should work > in the real life...
That is a task for further study and optimization. We have just built one unit and we need some 3D printed cases to do a better evaluation. Some more general thought: I am not sure how we should handle such ideas and how this community sees its role. Should we announce/publish immediately as soon as we have a prototype? And ask the community for comments and participation in improving it? Or should we silently finish some design and work with beta testers not on this list... I think this is a fundamental difference to open software development. There we can have a stable, a testing and an experimental branch and everyone can download the one he/she likes. With hardware we have to build physical protoypes and make experiments (which are not for free) to find out what a good solution is. Nikolaus > > On Tue, May 1, 2012 at 6:06 PM, Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller > <h...@goldelico.com> wrote: >> Hi, >> >> we have developed a prototype for a 80 button QWERTY keyboard PCB >> that could eventually be connected/integrated into the GTA04. It should fit >> into a specially designed battery cover so that you can easily stow it away >> if not needed. Such battery covers could be produced individually through >> 3D printing solving the issue of manageing and stocking 20 different key >> layouts. >> >> But watch yourself how we think it can look like: >> >> http://youtu.be/WM94%5fR5eKcc >> >> There is also a new video showing a comparison with some other keyboards: >> >> http://youtu.be/wGASnE1zGh4 >> >> Pleas tell us if you like this idea and what you would like to pay for such >> an >> extension unit through the Wishlist function of our shop: >> >> http://www.handheld-linux.com/wiki.php?page=GTA04%3AKeyboard >> >> Two issues are still to be developed: >> >> a) how to reliably connect it to the GTA04 PCB (soldering copper wires or a >> FFCs is a little difficult so it should have a tiny, flexible but robust >> B2B cable). >> >> Maybe, we can use a micro-USB socket or similar (we need to connect 6 >> wires). >> This may also need a redesign of the GTA04 board (for a nice plug) >> >> b) design a 3D printable case with key-caps that is robust enough >> >> If you want to support us for developing this idea, please give us a >> kickstart >> donation. >> >> >> Nikolaus >> >> PS: the keyboard driver for the TCA8418 is already part of Linux 3.3 - and >> has >> been backported to the 2.6.32-kernel. This has been tested to work on a >> BeagleBoard XM. >> >> http://git.goldelico.com/?p=gta04-kernel.git;a=commit;h=f19d5c430458bbce8955bc9e04dd161f6a80347d >> >> It just needs platform data in the board file: >> >> http://git.goldelico.com/?p=gta04-kernel.git;a=blobdiff;f=arch/arm/mach-omap2/board-omap3gta04.c;h=8a7e4b0803920f635e7101bfbd5a60b6b84b1107;hp=3e49efef2de0b42cd419a46a9cd45448fd04a44c;hb=4b2de3db742abce9212c1af2cc576e2a3a64b0d9;hpb=1d7c6b5f043661621ec374d96c3c4a4454f9bb7b >> _______________________________________________ >> Gta04-owner mailing list >> gta04-ow...@goldelico.com >> http://lists.goldelico.com/mailman/listinfo/gta04-owner > _______________________________________________ > Gta04-owner mailing list > gta04-ow...@goldelico.com > http://lists.goldelico.com/mailman/listinfo/gta04-owner _______________________________________________ Openmoko community mailing list community@lists.openmoko.org http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community