Self-built slider

[EskeRahn 5,471]

2 hours ago, FlyingAntero said:

Current idea is cheap and simple.

So something like this cut through in the length direction?

or more like this?

[FlyingAntero 871]

43 minutes ago, EskeRahn said:

So something like this cut through in the length direction?

or more like this?

The slider mechanism has the same thickness than the keyboard. So it more like below (had to make picture on mobile, sorry).

Edit: Now I get it. It the first one

Edited March 30 by FlyingAntero

[EskeRahn 5,471]

2 minutes ago, FlyingAntero said:

The slider mechanism has the same thickness than the keyboard. So it more like below (had to make picture on mobile, sorry).

 

Ah OK, that was what i TRIED to draw with the first one. 😉

The cut being in the long direction (QWERTYUIOP)

[FlyingAntero 871]

Rii 518BT keyboard arrived to today. The quality is better than I expected. The keys do not wobble around but is quite loud when typing compared to Pro1. The feel is very "clicky". Also, the layout will take some time to get used to it. Especially the back key is on weird location. Android automatically manages Scandic layout quite well.

Here is first mockup with iPhone 11 Pro case that I had in a drawer. It is too short but I am still waiting couple cases that I ordered earlier for this project. The camera bump of Zenfone 9's gimbal camera causes some trouble so I cannot put the keyboard to the middle so it will not be placed symmetrically. Also, the right sliding mechanism will be narrower.

Luckily, the power switch and USB C is on the left side where I have more room to play with. I ordered some 90 degree USB C adapters, so I can access those when the whole keyboard case is ready.

 

 

Edited April 3 by FlyingAntero
Added picture

[claude0001 1,352]

8 hours ago, FlyingAntero said:

Rii 518BT keyboard arrived to today.

Thanks for sharing. That keyboard looks quite interesting.

I've bought this one some time ago, but the rubber keys are mushy, and the lack of a TAB key reduces its usefulness for terminal work quite a lot. Despite the similar "square" layout, which certainly requires some getting used to, yours looks much more functional

Good luck with your slider project.

Edited April 3 by claude0001

[FlyingAntero 871]

I did some prototyping today. I think that I am able to tackle down gimbal camera bump. There is enough room to move the keyboard to the right so the gimbal camera can go lower than surface of the keys. I just need to flip around my sliding mechanism on the left side (not in the pictures). However, the second ultra wide angle camera now touches the keyboard with current Zenfone 9 case but I will use different case in the final version where the bottom is on the same level than the secondary camera. Total thickness will be about 22mm which is a lot but ok for me. I carried the prototype in my pocked today and is was not bad.

Also, the gap between left sliding mechanism and keyboard seems to be enough for the USB C adapter so no issues there. 

 

Edited April 4 by FlyingAntero

[jakfish 133]

This is so much fun to watch unfold (so to speak). Thanks for keeping the forum posted.

[FlyingAntero 871]

My prototype is starting to look promising. Here is a video how the sliding works. I have added magnets for the closed position since filming. I like how it works now even so it not anything like Pro1.

https://youtube.com/shorts/1MKx5WJQYBY?si=EVlCHOW1qPO22pJX

I flipped the left side sliding mechanism so it is more durable. For the right side I had to use narrower mechanism so I could not fit circle magnets to the upper part. I used magnetic stripe/tape instead. It is not as strong but good enough.

Now I am thinking if I can identify keyboard position (closed or not) with NFC. You can see my test below

ALERT: flashing GIF! The flash light is turned on when NFC tag detected. Same could be used for keyboard.

https://imgur.com/a/KtCUqPi

[SchattengestaIt 559]

It's so much fun seeing new prototype phones getting built and your sliding mechanism really turned out great. Thanks for sharing and experimenting!

I have installed the app Key Mapper which allows you to remap any key to any action. I've assigned the button [previous song] to portrait mode and [play/pause] to landscape mode. [Next song] activates auto rotation again.

The app is also useful to reassign useless keys (like Win) to more useful keys (like right shift). It's a great addition for such a keyboard.

[SchattengestaIt 559]

On 3/11/2024 at 10:38 PM, jakfish said:

This was my rig. I pulled the custom shell for S5 to substitute a Pixel 4a, and the fishing line is my own primitive workaround to keep it from flipping over.

The type on the handle are my key remappings for em dashes, etc. 

 

You may laugh but currently this is my best solution to prevent the phone from tipping over. I've tried expandable and flippable supports and I'd love to have a side arm on the left side but I didn't find good solutions for mounting it.

The wire is great. I've superglued it onto the hinges and it holds the phone perfectly. It also makes the tilting mechanism way stiffer as the top part is now supported from both sides (the other side is a magnet).
My only fear is that the fishing line could lengthen over time.

If it doesn't work, I might try a stiffer wire. For example, I've found 0.2mm steel cable online (https://www.schmuckclub.de/aufreihmaterial/aufreihdraht-stahlseil/edelstahlseil-02.php)which would be great for such a purpose.
 

[jakfish 133]

What great work. My own fishing line has stayed within its original length, no noticeable stretching. Over at hpcfactor.com, there's a similar exploration:

https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=21351&posts=13

Jake

[FlyingAntero 871]

I have been trying to develop tilting mechanism to my prototype case. The idea is to put a wedge inside the rail for tilting. However, I have still not managed to make it strong enough. Maybe I can figure out how to build a support for the phone so that it will stay stable. Still needs some tinkering...

Edited April 15 by FlyingAntero

[SchattengestaIt 559]

This is my final phone. As mentioned, I've used a fishing line to hold the top part in place. This makes the entire phone much stiffer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUZs2xNawWE

 

Keymapping:
Play/Pause = fixed landscape mode
Play Next = enable auto rotate
Play Previous = toggle flashlight
Win (Meta) = ctrl right
# = Shift right
since I used # key for right shift, we have to find a substitute:

Ctrl left + Ö = type text: #
Ctrl left + Ä = type text: '
 

So far, I'm very happy with it and I fully switched from my Pro1 to the self-assembled phone. Slowly I'm also getting used to the new keyboard layout.

[FlyingAntero 871]

I received the USB adapter so my QWERTY phone is pretty much ready. It was quite a tight fit to add the adapter so I had to shave it little bit. You can find picture attached.

Regarding software, I made an automation with MacroDroid that changes the virtual keyboard based on orientation. For landscape I am using NoKeyboard app so there is no virtual keyboard at all and Gboard for portrait. It is working very well. You just need to perform easy ADB hack to allow WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS.

And the funniest thing is that I ended up using FinQwerty app for the keyboard layout. After testing I figured out that layout made originally for Galaxy S Relay 4G is working almost perfectly with Rii keyboard. I have Scandic Ö and Ä letters available but other characters are as "printed" on the keyboard. Kudos to the FinQwerty developer once again!

20 hours ago, SchattengestaIt said:

This is my final phone. As mentioned, I've used a fishing line to hold the top part in place. This makes the entire phone much stiffer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUZs2xNawWE

Thanks for the video! The mechanism that you have used is very clever. I started to wonder if I could copy it. Maybe it is possible to split hinges to two pieces for both edges like I have rails? I would just need to find thinner hinges for the project.

Edited April 21 by FlyingAntero

[SchattengestaIt 559]

@FlyingAntero The adapter looks very nice, have you glued it in place? Do you plan to cover the open spaces with something?

 

Regarding software: I feel that Samsung is very restrictive, that's why I used the keymapper for a fixed landscape orientation. You only need it when lying in bed anyways. The virtual keyboard hides automatically when a physical keyboard is connected, you just have to enable the setting in Android as we had to with the Pro1.
Your solution with the keyboard layout is more professional though.

 

I decided to use a single hinge for a reason: when typing and holding the phone, it won't be in your way. With the wide hinge design of the Pro1, it often felt uncomfortable for me when I was watching a movie or so.
Obviously, you could use smaller hinges, the only reason I used them was the availabiliy in the hardware store. There are plenty of smaller hinges available in the internet but they'd probably be less magnetic. But you could add some metal plates to fix that.

The magnet will also be used as a phone holder in my car since it's way faster than mounting it with the standard phone holder.

[FlyingAntero 871]

1 hour ago, SchattengestaIt said:

@FlyingAntero The adapter looks very nice, have you glued it in place? Do you plan to cover the open spaces with something?

I did not need to glue it since the keyboard and rail is keeping it on place very good. Like I said, it was tight fit. Probably I will leave to bottom camera hole open since it quite easy way to access the keyboard's power switch if needed. Also you can use flashlight in closed position. But maybe I will use somekind of mass to fill the gaps later on. I just don't know what is suitable material.

1 hour ago, SchattengestaIt said:

Regarding software: I feel that Samsung is very restrictive, that's why I used the keymapper for a fixed landscape orientation. You only need it when lying in bed anyways. The virtual keyboard hides automatically when a physical keyboard is connected, you just have to enable the setting in Android as we had to with the Pro1.
Your solution with the keyboard layout is more professional though.

There is indeed a possibility leave automation out and toggle virtual keyboard on if needed. I just wanted to have virtual keyboard on automatically since some times I might even use it (portrait). But atleast Gboard has an icon in the lower right corner that opens pop-up to toggle virtual keyboard on/off when physical keyboard is connected. The icon is there also when virtual keyboard is off.

1 hour ago, SchattengestaIt said:

I decided to use a single hinge for a reason: when typing and holding the phone, it won't be in your way. With the wide hinge design of the Pro1, it often felt uncomfortable for me when I was watching a movie or so.
Obviously, you could use smaller hinges, the only reason I used them was the availabiliy in the hardware store. There are plenty of smaller hinges available in the internet but they'd probably be less magnetic. But you could add some metal plates to fix that.

The magnet will also be used as a phone holder in my car since it's way faster than mounting it with the standard phone holder.

I have some extra cases so most likely I will do some prototyping with them to copy your mechanism but with splitted hinge. Let's see how it will work out. Tilted hinge would of course be better than my approach. Thanks for the comments.

Edited April 21 by FlyingAntero

[SchattengestaIt 559]

As I'm getting used to the new phone and mainly the keyboard, I've done some typing tests. At the moment, I am getting 300-320 (340 peak) characters/minute (German, including capital letters). This is good news since on my Pro1 I was at 320-330cpm with 370 peak (only English) and I'm only using the keyboard for around two weeks now.
Especially the reprogrammed keys Ctrl right / Right shift help a lot.

Currently, I'm already typing blindly quite often but I have to 'recalibrate' my position after deleting characters.

The keyboard definitely has potential!

Edited April 26 by SchattengestaIt

[jakfish 133]

Even in my mind, I can't type that fast.

[dlmarquis 20]

You guys might be interested in similar work done over on the XDA Blackberry forums and Hackaday.

[GameboyRMH 18]

Some cool builds in here, I think I will be going the "hack a keyboard onto a phone" route in the future, probably with a Furi FLX1.

[FlyingAntero 871]

This is not 100% related to the topic but close enough I think. I found a quite funny mini "BlackBerry" style bluetooth keyboard with a tiny display, named as Lilygo T-Keyboard. There is also a different version Watch-Keyboard-C3 that is intented to use with smartwatch.

• https://www.lilygo.cc/products/t-keyboard?
• https://www.lilygo.cc/products/watch-keyboard-c3-v1-0

Would be interesting to dissasembly the keyboard and figure out if it could be bundled with a phone. I found one video where the T-Keyboard is opened. It seems that you can remove display if needed.

 

Edited September 8 by FlyingAntero

[SchattengestaIt 559]

I like the idea although the layout is very simple. But I fear most of us don't have the knowledge to connect a non-standard keyboard ribbon cable to a phone. With bluetooth, it's obviously much easier.