Producing Qwerty OtherHalf --order counter: 75/75 --ordering closed
 

UPDATE 30-04-2014
http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instanc...x/49214712.jpg

FAQ:
Can I order a keyboard? -> No, sorry
Will you make more? -> No, sorry
Can you make the thread shorter so I can read all things and don't ask questions that have been asked multiple times before? -> No, sorry
Can you convince/force Jolla to produce 1 million keyboards for 10 euro's a piece? -> No



[edit]

VIDEO: https://vimeo.com/85450949
VIDEO 2: https://vimeo.com/85914466

PRE ORDERING

http://oi40.tinypic.com/b7ykv5.jpg

Okay, I have decided! I am going through with this and will try to make 100 pieces.

-The 22 heroes that have donated to me are first in line and their donation is converted in a 'qwerty-oh' voucher!
-The next 78 will go to the first people that complete their purchase via the donate button.

Price will be 100 euro's plus shipping. This is a summation of the components, bit of labour, return of investments and a safety factor.
Shipping: country-codes and costs

-If the demand is way higher, I will either make another (or more) batch of 100 or transfer the money back! Kind of like a kickstarter.
-No Paypal? Send me a PM

Questions? PM me with 'qwerty-oh question' as subject, then I will update this thread with the extra info!

The Qwerty OtherHalf
"Made in the bedroom, just like you"

[/edit]






Yes, I am the first one (nice, Jolla slogan used!) to open a thread about building an OtherHalf with a qwerty slider! In this thread I will post my ideas, pictures and ask questions to you guys.

The goal -for now- is to have a complete setup ready for when the first batches of Jolla phones is shipped. The qwerty slider is without a doubt the most anticipated extra feature and with some extra time on the hand, why not!?

http://i.imgur.com/jMYGijl.jpg

So, lets dive right in! The Jolla phone will have a I2C connector on the back. Luckily, my RPi has I2C as well, so the first prototypes and proof-of-concepts can be tested. The RPi and Sailfish both support Python, which makes the programming a lot easier. I don't have any experience with the Sailfish SDK, but that will come later on.

The keyboard itself will be taken from my old -and dead- N900. Nostalgia much?! The keyboard consists of the motherboard with the electrical connections, a plastic sticker with pieces of metal to make the connection and the *click*, and the actual buttons.
http://s2.postimg.org/cv4qdzz95/13100005.jpg

The motherboard will be scrapped. To complicate things, I will try to build my own pcb from scratch. This tutorial provides all the necessary steps. It will be a double-sided board.

On this pcb, there will be a button-matrix similar to the one on the motherboard. To connect the keys to the phone, a mcp23017 i2c gpio port expander will be used.

Next step, pcb design. The N900 keyboard had some issues with NKRO, perhaps someone can shed some light on this to design a new way to connect the keys in a better way? The gpio-expander had 16 i/o ports.

The software: the keyboard has to be continuously scanned for key-presses. How will a background python (or other) script affect cpu and battery usage? Better/possible to start/stop the script when the keyboard is slided out? Continuously scan for I2C devices? For the near future, testing software will be on the RPi. I have some experience with that, but help is welcome.

The slider mechanism: Maybe the old slider mechanism from the n900? Design a new one? Other options? Personally, if parts are machined nice, I love to show mechanical parts. If not, the game is to not show anything.
http://phandroid.s3.amazonaws.com/wp...en-550x412.jpg

Please keep the topic clean and respond if you would like to (and can) help!

Re: Designing and building QWERTY OtherHalf
 

Actually I think i prefer n810 hwkb slider than N950/E7 mecanism...

Last step would to design SFOS to support hwkb (hide swkb) and switch orientation to landscape ...

Isn't the N900 keyboard a bit too small? Or is this supposed to be just a proof of concept?

Re: Designing and building QWERTY OtherHalf
 

@rzr Exactly, but that is a subject I will need some serious help. For now however, the first step is to design a keyboard that works over i2c.

The N900 keyboard is 93mm wide, the Jolla phone will be 131, which would leave 19mm on both sides. I could chop the keys up and space them out, but for now, this will do. Suggestions for other keyboards are welcome!

Re: Designing and building QWERTY OtherHalf
 

There are specifically made i2c keyboard controllers like this, but I don't know if there is any benefits to using one of those instead of the controller you were planning to use.

Re: Designing and building QWERTY OtherHalf
 

Why have you chosen to go the N900 keyboard route instead of one of these made for iPhone5 sliding keyboards.
http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/...psefb9b779.jpg

The quality of those iPhone bluetooth are not satisfying. Plus it's bluetooth :p

Re: Designing and building QWERTY OtherHalf
 

is nico projector possible in other half

Re: Designing and building QWERTY OtherHalf
 

I meant the keyboard keys, not the bluetooth part obviously. I asked because his mockup looks like an already existing iPhone keyboard.

http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/...ps39084dc5.jpg

Re: Designing and building QWERTY OtherHalf
 

How do you plan to deal with the camera that in latest Jolla design is centered in the middle of the body?

Re: Designing and building QWERTY OtherHalf
 

If you're going to have four rows of keys (as in your mockup), you should definitely have dedicated number keys.

Re: Designing and building QWERTY OtherHalf
 

@maluka Starting with a bluetooth keyboard would be exactly the same. Strip everything, use the keys only, don't use BT and build from the ground up. The only difference is I don't have a BT keyboard case on hand.

@minimos The keyboard keys are only 19mm high, so it will be no problem to incorporate holes in the OH for the camera. However, solving hardware issues like this is not priority at the moment. Lets get a proof-of-concept first!

@DeeGee I had already found that chip. Problem is it runs on max 3.6 volt, where the jolla phone runs on 3.8 volts. And I don't have a special oven for cooking this kind of chip on the pcb

@youmeego Off-topic!

Anyone experience with NKRO, ghosting, pcb design?

Re: Designing and building QWERTY OtherHalf
 

Which mockup? The first picture? That's just an artist impression made by someone else.

Re: Designing and building QWERTY OtherHalf
 

As the design has just started, I suggest, why don't you at the same time design to have an extra battery with the qwerty OtherHalf. The extra battery could be the same as the original Jolla battery, doubling the mAh value.

I have noticed, I have never been satisfied with the original battery capacity of any recent mobile devices I've been using. I have purchased a bigger battery to all of these: Nokia 8110, Nokia 6260, N95, N95 8GB, N900, Samsung Galaxy S3. I guess I have been and always be a heavy user, whether it was Symbian, Maemo, Android, ...(Sailfish, Tizen, ...).

Although Jolla has designed the OtherHalf system to be stackable, so able to stack several OtherHalfs together, I find it unlikely and perhaps unpractical to do for real, for example having extra battery OtherHalf and qwerty-OtherHalf from separate suppliers and then use them with Jolla phone.

Re: Designing and building QWERTY OtherHalf
 

Good idea, but off topic! 1 thing at a time. No projectors, no extra batteries, no lasers or exlosions, just qwerty keyboard.

Okay, maybe explosions, but no extra batteries.

Re: Designing and building QWERTY OtherHalf
 

Source for this assertion?
I've seen others speculate about this, but I've never seen Jolla confirm that this is precisely how their OH system will work.
Apologies for the off-topic, carry-on.

Re: Designing and building QWERTY OtherHalf
 

get rid of that MCP23017 and go for an tiny ARM cortex M0 from NXP like:

http://www.nxp.com/documents/data_sheet/LPC81XM.pdf

that way it could be used for other cool stuff too :cool: And price is < 2EU on fernell for the 8Kbflash + 2kb ram variant.

http://de.farnell.com/nxp/lpc811m001...sop/dp/2320693

Re: Designing and building QWERTY OtherHalf
 

1. Did I mention this was a diy project? I cannot solder this small chip. If you can, feel free to jump in!
2. Try ordering something at farnell..

Re: Designing and building QWERTY OtherHalf
 

see my post again I updated it with a smaller variant :) that can be soldered by hand and costs less.. and can be used with upto 3.6v.

Re: Designing and building QWERTY OtherHalf
 

Ive asked jolla for dimensions and also other side connections to main body. Wanted to create a 3d printer map. Do you got some intel on this? Without it I fail to see how to go forward with another side.

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.

Re: Designing and building QWERTY OtherHalf
 

No, it uses 16 inputs (8 row, 8columns) that go through an ESD-protector and then to GAIA. Check out page 7.
The ARM chip would be cooler indeed. If you can figure out how to make a pcb for it and power it with some nice software, we can use it in version 2!

The level of problemsolving is not very high here. How about.... TWO HOLES! BAM BAM BAMMMMMMM!!!!
http://cdn.meme.li/i/oyaz9.jpg

Also:

Re: 2 holes, one with a detachable cap
 

Tadaaaa
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?p=1379125

My double-sided pcb's and i2c-chip will arrive tomorrow, so is anyone has any suggestions/useful tips about pcb design and prototype functionality: speak up! At this moment the prototype will feature the N900 keyboard (3x13 keys), a i2c i/o expander, some resistors for pull-up logic, external connection for i2c connection to RPi and an on/off switch on the board (testing for recognition whether keyboard is connected).

Re: Designing and building QWERTY OtherHalf
 

Can a mod please remove this stupid tag?

Re: Designing and building QWERTY OtherHalf
 

PCB-design sketch;

Top-side:
http://oi39.tinypic.com/a9qviu.jpg
Bottom:
http://oi44.tinypic.com/29manvb.jpg
Both sides:
http://oi40.tinypic.com/2uzw0ep.jpg

Re: Designing and building QWERTY OtherHalf
 

Would be nice! And perhaps for clarity change title to 'Building OtherHalf keyboard prototype'

Re: Designing and building QWERTY OtherHalf
 

I think you can edit title. :) Just edit first post.

Re: Building OtherHalf keyboard prototype
 

I could help with the PCB design, since I design them for a living :)

Is there information about the keyboard of N900 available somewhere?

Re: Building OtherHalf keyboard prototype
 

I guess the best source is the service manual that dirkvl linked to already?
http://www.s-manuals.com/manuals/pho...ematics_v2.pdf

Re: Building OtherHalf keyboard prototype
 

I missed that one. Thanks.

Re: Building OtherHalf keyboard prototype
 

Awesome! What is a good program to draw the pcb? It is important to print it at 1:1 scale