Re: Designing and building QWERTY OtherHalf
 

They have been promising the CAD files for the Other Half, but they haven't materialized yet. I guess they are busy...

Re: Designing and building QWERTY OtherHalf
 

Uch..
1. Jolla phone is 3.8 volt. 3.8>3.6.
2. This chip does not have 16 i/o ports
3. I cannot order from farnell (only for companies)

Very true. But there is lots of work to be done before that point. So I am focussing on that, so when they deliver, I will be ready to go! But if you could spam Jolla for releasing the CAD, would be nice!

Re: Designing and building QWERTY OtherHalf
 

I checked where I got this information from, and yes, it was just a speculation. Other halfs surely can be stackable, I2C bus allows this and power pins can just be forwarded, but it would need every OtherHalf to have necessary connectors on their back side. Maybe just a few OtherHalfs, like an Extra Battery OtherHalf would implement that.

Thats why I think the qwerty-Otherhalf could have an extra battery integrated from the beginning. Besides, stacking Otherhalfs, although it would be technically possible, would make the device unpractically thick.

I also think the Otherhalf concept is not really as useful as some ppl think, because ppl will carry just one Otherhalf with them daily. So if Otherhalfs do not have multiple features combined, the idea is not as productive and luring as one may think.

Re: Designing and building QWERTY OtherHalf
 

Your arguments appear to be contradicting. But then again:

Re: Designing and building QWERTY OtherHalf
 

It may be doable, but we don't yet have any indication that stack-ability is part of the TOH spec, officially at least.
I guess if it's completely doable....
Then freedom to "stack or not" should be there for those who want to get into TOH business (commercially or otherwise).*
But yes, I can see how it's not terribly practical...

/off-topic
*but with some basic minimum guide-lines that one must obey

Re: Designing and building QWERTY OtherHalf
 

Didnt quite get it why contradicting, but

N900 with Mugen battery was not too thick,and SGS3 with 7000 mAh battery is not too thick, but thicker than those start to be too much.

Integrating extra battery feature to qwerty Otherhalf would make it thinner than having the two Otherhalfs stacked.

Re: Designing and building QWERTY OtherHalf
 

There seems to arise a thousand questions and suggestions around the Qwerty OH. Yes, the final keyboard layout, stackng of OHs, battery, holes for camera, etc are not yet topical for the first proof-of-concept. To help you concentrate on making the first Qwerty "prototype OH" for Jolla, my suggestion is to create separate threads for the layout-related debate, battery/connectors/camera-hole related debate, stacking and durability related debate, etc. What do you think about this kind of dispersing this debate to new threads?

The layout of http://i.imgur.com/jMYGijl.jpg seems to have an exceptionally good layout (for language-localizing etc), so perhaps I or someone else may soon start a new thread about the layout of future Qwerty OH(s). Does anyone know in what context that "artistic view" of the Qwerty was published?

Re: Designing and building QWERTY OtherHalf
 

@Egon: Yes, you totally understand what I want. This thread is just about getting a working prototype. Adding functionality and changing configurations is of later concern (or at least not my concern!). And please, no more discussions about batteries!

*ON-TOPIC starting point*
Okay, the first concept for pcb wiring of the keyboard is this:
http://s15.postimg.org/vmk19gpfv/13100007.jpg
http://s23.postimg.org/l3r2fgjgb/13100008.jpg

Don't know what all of these lines mean? Check out the links in the first post of this thread.

This will provide a working solution for a proof of concept. There maybe more efficient ways to organize the wiring and I challenge you all to design a better one! Next step is to use these drawings and the gpio chip manual to design a full pcb. This will be connected to my RPi, so it is all about getting it to work and not about smoothing the edges.

Re: Designing and building QWERTY OtherHalf
 

hmm why do you need as much as 16 ioports? AFAIK N900 did use around 4 form the HWKBD

However there is one with more pins than the one I gave. I still think that ARM is cooler to use because you can extend to not only HWKBD :)

Btw. 8/16bit Microchip sucks. They don't even have a compiler toolchain working in Linux means you must use windows when coding and whom want that? If using NXP or any other ARM manufactor you can use GCC toolchains and linux host :D

That could be solved there is other companys selling LPC its much used everywhere this days. Also there is people here that could help with getting it.

Re: Designing and building QWERTY OtherHalf
 

Yes, but if your proof-of-concept starts with a poor usability level (e.g. you would be forced to open the keyboard to take a photo), the project IMHO won't go anywhere.