- #1
Xezlec
- 318
- 0
Hey, does anyone think this is a good idea?
There's a really legendary old Lisp Machine keyboard with lots of buttons colloquially called the "space cadet" keyboard. http://world.std.com/~jdostale/kbd/SpaceCadet.html" .
These things are totally impossible to find (believe me, I've tried!) and it isn't even clear if any still exist. However, I desperately [strike]want[/strike] need one of these so that I can assign all the keys and modifiers and stuff to do crazy things in emacs or whatever and therefore be awesome. So, I've decided maybe the thing to do is build a replica.
I was thinking about making my keyboard with the exact same keys as the original keyboard, plus the standard F1-F12, Print Screen, Scroll Lock, Home, Insert, Page Up, and Page Down keys we've all come to expect on PC keyboards. While I'm at it, I might move the direction keys into a more comfortable arrangement. The keyswitches would be the widely loved "clickey" type like those on the old IBM Model M, or something similar. I'd probably go with USB for the interface.
Being an engineering ninja, I can do this project easily enough, but the startup costs needed to have the plastic keycaps and housing manufactured are somewhat expensive, so I can only do it if I can find some people to go in on it with me. My goal is to get the cost per keyboard down to around $175, but that's only going to happen if I can find maybe 10 to 20 people who are interested in buying one off me at that price. Maybe I'm being hopelessly optimistic, but I've got nothing to lose by trying, and this isn't the only forum where I thought I might find someone interested.
So, any takers?
There's a really legendary old Lisp Machine keyboard with lots of buttons colloquially called the "space cadet" keyboard. http://world.std.com/~jdostale/kbd/SpaceCadet.html" .
These things are totally impossible to find (believe me, I've tried!) and it isn't even clear if any still exist. However, I desperately [strike]want[/strike] need one of these so that I can assign all the keys and modifiers and stuff to do crazy things in emacs or whatever and therefore be awesome. So, I've decided maybe the thing to do is build a replica.
I was thinking about making my keyboard with the exact same keys as the original keyboard, plus the standard F1-F12, Print Screen, Scroll Lock, Home, Insert, Page Up, and Page Down keys we've all come to expect on PC keyboards. While I'm at it, I might move the direction keys into a more comfortable arrangement. The keyswitches would be the widely loved "clickey" type like those on the old IBM Model M, or something similar. I'd probably go with USB for the interface.
Being an engineering ninja, I can do this project easily enough, but the startup costs needed to have the plastic keycaps and housing manufactured are somewhat expensive, so I can only do it if I can find some people to go in on it with me. My goal is to get the cost per keyboard down to around $175, but that's only going to happen if I can find maybe 10 to 20 people who are interested in buying one off me at that price. Maybe I'm being hopelessly optimistic, but I've got nothing to lose by trying, and this isn't the only forum where I thought I might find someone interested.
So, any takers?
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