Github link: https://github.com/Dakkaron/Fairberry

Here’s a video of it in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDb8_ld9gOQ

I’ve been using it for almost two years now, and I’m not going back.

It’s based on a spare Blackberry Q10 keyboard and a custom Arduino-compatible board that reads the keyboard matrix and outputs it as USB HID to the phone. From the viewpoint of the phone, it’s just a regular USB keyboard, so no special software is needed.

But I do use a custom virtual keyboard to have just two rows of symbols that are not natively on the keyboard, as I didn’t want to add another layer of rarely used symbols that I’d have to memorize.

(On the image you can see Ubuntu with XFCE4 running on it. I chose Ubuntu because it’s what was easiest to get running in a chroot jail on the phone. I’m using VNC to display the GUI. I even managed to get FEX (x86/x64 emulator) and Wine running, so it runs x86/x64 Linux and Windows apps.)

    •  Square Singer   ( @squaresinger@feddit.de ) OP
      3•10 months ago

      The shaped keys of the Blackberry Q10 keyboard help a lot. But picking up a physical keyboard after years of touch-only typing does take a few days to get used to it. But once you are used to it, there is no going back.

      I have the direct comparison, since I have to take off the keyboard for charging, and if I want to use it while charging I need to use the virtual keyboard. It’s a pain, compared to the physical one.

  •  Ben Hur Horse Race   ( @JudahBenHur@lemm.ee ) 
    9•10 months ago

    this is spectacular. I’m typing this on a blackberry key2. I’d buy this in a heartbeat if it were possible. I was reading two days ago about the Titan Slim phone, but reviews are poor. I find it deeply frustrating that no one will buy the rights to, and release a key3. there is 100％ a niche market.

    •  Square Singer   ( @squaresinger@feddit.de ) OP
      6•10 months ago

      Yeah, all of the keyboard phones on the market are ancient and/or total crap in every regard but their keyboard and/or super expensive. Some of them are all three at the same time (looking at you Planet Computers and F(x)tec!).

      I believe I might have the most up-to-date and highest specced keyboard phone currently on the planet ;)

      there is 100％ a niche market.

      There totally is, as is proven by Unihertz still existing. But I fear, the keyboard market is a little fragmented, and just a handful of devices won’t really capture it. People like side sliders, top sliders or portrait candy bar,. They might want a large or a small phone. They might like privacy/secure phones or hacker phones, or just cheap phones with a keyboard and nothing else. Or maybe a flagship phone with all bells and whistles and a keyboard…

      The Fairberry is adaptable to pretty much any phone on the market (as long as it supports external keyboards). Foldables might be challenging though ;)

      But that allows you to use any phone you like with a keyboard that anyone can make for ~€50, or maybe €100 if you get someone to do the soldering/printing for you.

      •  Ben Hur Horse Race   ( @JudahBenHur@lemm.ee ) 
        2•10 months ago

        I see you made a reddit post on r/blackberry. so just to say: you’re my fucking hero. please don’t stop developing this… I dont have a 3D printer, but I could use one for the other things I make (animatronics)… so I mean…this is making me think maybe I should pull the trigger

        •  Square Singer   ( @squaresinger@feddit.de ) OP
          2•10 months ago

          Thanks! Posts like this one make my day^^

          You are the first one who mentioned another post I made. Hopefully I am not spamming too much about this project.

          From my point of view, there is hardly a reason not to get a 3D printer. A decent Ender 3 can be had for ~€300, and having one around has so many use cases. It’s one of the best purchases I’ve made so far.

          •  Ben Hur Horse Race   ( @JudahBenHur@lemm.ee ) 
            1•10 months ago

            I dont feel you’re spamming. If you go have a look at r/blackberry, I made a post about your project without realizing you had already done so.

            You’d recommend the ender 3? The two things that keep me from having a serious look into it are that I dont know anything about what model would be good/right, and I’d be concerned that I’d buy it second hand and it’d be disfunctional.

    •  Square Singer   ( @squaresinger@feddit.de ) OP
      2•10 months ago

      The hybrid physical/virtual is a great touch

      The original reason for this was that I didn’t want to spend all that time getting pass-through charging to work, so for charging the keyboard needs to come off.

      But this “quick release” design has the advantage that you can use the phone without keyboard when that’s advantageous, e.g. when I want to type really quietly while in bed.

      This also gives me a direct comparison between physical and virtual keyboard, that you usually don’t get on a pure keyboard phone. And I have to say, typing on the screen is a PAIN compared to the physical keyboard.

      and the ability to customize what’s in those top two rows would be amazing.

      For the two virtual rows? Yeah, I’m using the Gr8ly customizable keyboard for that (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=symbolsshortcuts2.gr8ly.co.za.symbolshortcuts2) which allows me to put whatever symbols I want on there.

      So cool what you can do with modular open design!

      Thanks!

    •  Square Singer   ( @squaresinger@feddit.de ) OP
      1•10 months ago

      Surprisingly it’s not too top heavy. It takes a few moments in the beginning to find the right hand posture and then it’s pretty comfortable.

      It covers the bottom lip and that allows it to be less top heavy, since part of the phone is stuck into the keyboard.

  •  I_Miss_Daniel   ( @I_Miss_Daniel@kbin.social ) 
    2•10 months ago

    Interesting. But I wonder with the advent of Swype / Swiftkey etc whether a physical keyboard of these dimensions can compete in a speed? I feel like it’s not physically possible to match the speed of swyping, but could be wrong.

    •  Square Singer   ( @squaresinger@feddit.de ) OP
      6•10 months ago

      I get 55 WPM without errors on the physical keyboard, compared to 45 WPM on the touch keyboard where I also have a significant amount of typos.

      But tbh, typing speed is not the main reason. With the physical keyboard, I am much more accurate. I can use key combinations like CTRL+A/X/C/V (the microphone button is mapped to CTRL). There is an alternate mode (activated by pressing both shift keys at the same time) that remaps WASD as cursor keys, which makes e.g. selecting text (SHIFT + Cursor key) much easier. Also I can type while walking and not looking at the phone. And don’t get me started about how much of a difference it is when I use a command line, e.g. with SSH.

    •  Square Singer   ( @squaresinger@feddit.de ) OP
      2•10 months ago

      I used LinuxDeploy, which is seriously outdated by now, but it works and it’s easy to use.

      You just need to update the chrooted Linux from e.g. Ubuntu 18.04 to something modern. But that’s not too hard.

      It could be possible to load phosh. I didn’t manage to get Gnome running (which phosh is based on afaik). But I guess if your Linux-fu is a bit better than mine, you might be able to get it to work.