This past summer was a good time to lower the power bill and overall temperature of the den by transitioning to rpi's for my computing
needs. The main pc was replaced by a pi400. Lovely, silent, low
power. Lovely.

Well, mostly so. I really don't like the keyboard and question why they
went with it. The full sized keyboard is something I miss, you know,
with the full row of function keys, dedicated number pad, full sized
arrows, the pageup.down,insert,delete cluster. The keys themselves suck
- where they often fail to register key presses and I have to fix
spelling quite often. I had hoped that the keys would wear in and solve
the problem, but it really just seems to be bad design. Hopes are it's
simply bad luck and a bad keyboard.

The problem is easy to solve by plugging in a usb keyboard, but it
defeats the appeal and purpose of the all-in-one design.

How hard would it be to rig the mobo into a full size keyboard shell?
Design a new lower shell of a chosen keyboard to accomodate the mobo and
port holes for 3d printing. A search online didn't yield evidence that
it has been done yet. But if this thing with it's massive heat sync can
fit in this small keyboard, it shouldn't have issues fitting in full
sized keybord.

Found a teardown video and saw a custom ribbon cable utilized to connect
the keyboard to the mobo - so that's a complication. After a bit of
searching, they utilized one of the four usb ports in the hub for the
keyboard logic.

Has anyone managed a similar project with the experience to share?

Daniel

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Daniel <me@sc1f1dan.com> wrote:

Found a teardown video and saw a custom ribbon cable utilized to connect
the keyboard to the mobo - so that's a complication. After a bit of searching, they utilized one of the four usb ports in the hub for the keyboard logic.

Has anyone managed a similar project with the experience to share?

The keyboard seems like an awkward place for the mobo. It's easier
imho to use the monitor as the foundation and fasten the Pi to the
back of it. Some Pi cases have keyed mounting holes that hang
the case neatly on wood or sheetmetal screws set in a (carefully
chosen non-interfering) convenient spot. Cables and keyboards are
thus standard, ventilation is decent. The Pi is as safe as the
monitor against mechanical mishap or abuse.

Hope this helps,

bob prohaska

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On 21/11/2024 23:44, Daniel wrote:

This past summer was a good time to lower the power bill and overall temperature of the den by transitioning to rpi's for my computing
needs. The main pc was replaced by a pi400. Lovely, silent, low
power. Lovely.

Well, mostly so. I really don't like the keyboard and question why they
went with it. The full sized keyboard is something I miss, you know,
with the full row of function keys, dedicated number pad, full sized
arrows, the pageup.down,insert,delete cluster. The keys themselves suck
- where they often fail to register key presses and I have to fix
spelling quite often. I had hoped that the keys would wear in and solve
the problem, but it really just seems to be bad design. Hopes are it's
simply bad luck and a bad keyboard.

That's one of the reasons I never saw the point of the Pi400, with all
the wires attached to the keyboard unit, particularly as the keyboard is
small and not the highest quality. That and it reminds me of my first
Acorn Electron, which I loved but hated at the same time for being
slower than the BBC B and no MODE 7.

All of my 'desktop' Pi's and their associated wiring go behind the
monitors and TVs out of the way. In the study, I have a single high
quality wireless keyboard and mouse which allows me to talk to a Linux
Pi 5, a RISC OS Pi 4 and a Linux laptop connected to dual monitors. In
the living room I have full sized wireless keyboard and trackpad, and in
the bedroom a mini wireless backlit keyboard and trackpad talking to the
Pi 5s connected to 4K TVs.

---druck

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

Daniel <me@sc1f1dan.com> wrote:

This past summer was a good time to lower the power bill and overall temperature of the den by transitioning to rpi's for my computing
needs. The main pc was replaced by a pi400. Lovely, silent, low
power. Lovely.

Well, mostly so. I really don't like the keyboard and question why they
went with it. The full sized keyboard is something I miss, you know,
with the full row of function keys, dedicated number pad, full sized
arrows, the pageup.down,insert,delete cluster. The keys themselves suck
- where they often fail to register key presses and I have to fix
spelling quite often. I had hoped that the keys would wear in and solve
the problem, but it really just seems to be bad design. Hopes are it's
simply bad luck and a bad keyboard.

The problem is easy to solve by plugging in a usb keyboard, but it
defeats the appeal and purpose of the all-in-one design.

How hard would it be to rig the mobo into a full size keyboard shell?
Design a new lower shell of a chosen keyboard to accomodate the mobo and
port holes for 3d printing. A search online didn't yield evidence that
it has been done yet. But if this thing with it's massive heat sync can
fit in this small keyboard, it shouldn't have issues fitting in full
sized keybord.

https://forum.diyperks.com/user-projects/raspberry-pi-400-x-mechanical-keyboard/
https://www.printables.com/model/318803-raspberry-pi-400-mechanical-keyboard-upgrade
https://hackaday.io/project/175844-the-mechanical-pi-400 https://www.tomshardware.com/news/orthopi-raspberry-pi-400-ortholinear-mod

are a few examples I found by searching 'rpi 400 mechanical keyboard'.
There are no doubt others.

Found a teardown video and saw a custom ribbon cable utilized to connect
the keyboard to the mobo - so that's a complication. After a bit of searching, they utilized one of the four usb ports in the hub for the keyboard logic.

The keyboard has a Holtek HT45R0072 (one time programmed) microcontroller to convert the matrix to USB. Your options are either to repurpose this microcontroller, at which point you need to match the keyboard matrix of the Pi400 (hard):
https://www.40percent.club/2020/12/orthopi.html

or just ignore it and use a USB port. Another alternative is to cut the
traces to the Holtek (or unsolder it) and use its USB lines: https://www.40percent.club/2020/11/raspberry-pi-400-keyboard-controller.html

Theo

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> writes:

Daniel <me@sc1f1dan.com> wrote:

This past summer was a good time to lower the power bill and overall
temperature of the den by transitioning to rpi's for my computing
needs. The main pc was replaced by a pi400. Lovely, silent, low
power. Lovely.

Well, mostly so. I really don't like the keyboard and question why they
went with it. The full sized keyboard is something I miss, you know,
with the full row of function keys, dedicated number pad, full sized
arrows, the pageup.down,insert,delete cluster. The keys themselves suck
- where they often fail to register key presses and I have to fix
spelling quite often. I had hoped that the keys would wear in and solve
the problem, but it really just seems to be bad design. Hopes are it's
simply bad luck and a bad keyboard.

The problem is easy to solve by plugging in a usb keyboard, but it
defeats the appeal and purpose of the all-in-one design.

How hard would it be to rig the mobo into a full size keyboard shell?
Design a new lower shell of a chosen keyboard to accomodate the mobo and
port holes for 3d printing. A search online didn't yield evidence that
it has been done yet. But if this thing with it's massive heat sync can
fit in this small keyboard, it shouldn't have issues fitting in full
sized keybord.

https://forum.diyperks.com/user-projects/raspberry-pi-400-x-mechanical-keyboard/
https://www.printables.com/model/318803-raspberry-pi-400-mechanical-keyboard-upgrade
https://hackaday.io/project/175844-the-mechanical-pi-400 https://www.tomshardware.com/news/orthopi-raspberry-pi-400-ortholinear-mod

I didn't htink of searching for the keyboards, I actually searched for 'homebrew raspberry pi 400.' They are a good start.

Honestly, I'm not necessarily looking for mechanical keyboards. I've
used only membrane keyboards my adult life and, well, my wife often naps
on my den couch while I'm typing along and I think a clicky clacky keyboard would end that habit. I rather enjoy when she naps in there with me.

I would focus this project mainly on a mass produced full sized keyboard
with a decent sized bottom tray that can be hacked to hold the pi400 mobo.

are a few examples I found by searching 'rpi 400 mechanical keyboard'.
There are no doubt others.

Found a teardown video and saw a custom ribbon cable utilized to connect
the keyboard to the mobo - so that's a complication. After a bit of
searching, they utilized one of the four usb ports in the hub for the
keyboard logic.

The keyboard has a Holtek HT45R0072 (one time programmed) microcontroller to convert the matrix to USB. Your options are either to repurpose this microcontroller, at which point you need to match the keyboard matrix of the Pi400 (hard):
https://www.40percent.club/2020/12/orthopi.html

I read the same thing - and it would be a pain in the butt since that microcontroller is, like you said, one time programmed so it's static.

or just ignore it and use a USB port. Another alternative is to cut the traces to the Holtek (or unsolder it) and use its USB lines: https://www.40percent.club/2020/11/raspberry-pi-400-keyboard-controller.html

This is exactly the information I was looking for. With good documentation, I surmise I could solder in some wires onto the USB lines and hack in a USB female. If I were to use a wired USB keyboard, I could cut the wire
short, rewire the male usb port, and plug it into the female one I hack
in. That way, if I want to replace the keyboard with something new, it
would require no new soldering.

Or I could make it permanent by cutting the wire short and solder them
into the board. I have some reading to do.

I saw the orange pi 800, which I hadn't heard of before. I considered
buying it instead but it's way more expensive and the keyboard looks
just as junky. And 4gb of ram shut me down.

Thanks for the info.

Daniel

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)