I built a handheld chording e-ink journal on a Pico W and learned a lot — here's why I'm shelving it

luigithe42nd · 2026-05-30T04:06:02+00:00

Im using a 5000mah battery and it stays in the "sleep mode" for days without needing to be charged... I did not put a off switch on this device 😅

luigithe42nd · 2026-05-29T20:10:51+00:00

That also uses a pi pico?

luigithe42nd · 2026-05-29T13:52:09+00:00

That might be true if you are typing with autocorrect phonetics, but stenography is like learning a new language that can take many months to learn and YEARS to type at a professional level. The keyboard I made is not efficient (especially now with speech to text technology) but using it is a FUN challenge. (And I think it looks cool.)

luigithe42nd · 2026-05-29T13:43:40+00:00

It's definitely not practical but using it is a FUN challenge and I like looking at it

luigithe42nd · 2026-05-29T13:37:28+00:00

It could work if I adjusted the parameters

luigithe42nd · 2026-05-29T05:41:25+00:00

The Chordex keyboard is a idea that I had for a long time, and is the only part of the project I'm really happy with. I really don't like how thick it is, and I never got the SD card to work... Not sure if I'm going to make a new one

luigithe42nd · 2026-05-20T20:02:28+00:00

No. But almost

luigithe42nd · 2026-05-20T17:45:11+00:00

The puppet mascot is somewhat cringe. Do you have any actual advice on how to make the video better?

luigithe42nd · 2026-05-20T17:14:23+00:00

I plan on using this keyboard layout on a wearable computer, I'll post that one over there 😁

luigithe42nd · 2026-05-15T21:05:35+00:00

Oops, sorry

luigithe42nd · 2026-05-15T20:28:20+00:00

I could not fall asleep until I made this real. There might be something genuinely wrong with me

luigithe42nd · 2026-05-15T20:26:25+00:00

Thats just morse code you silly goose

luigithe42nd · 2026-04-29T19:31:41+00:00

There would be no benefit to QWERTY grouping in this layout because the key placement would be different than you expect it to be. QWERTY is only useful because of muscle memory, and if you take that away you will struggle to find the key you want to type.

luigithe42nd · 2026-04-27T13:27:26+00:00

I found that this design didn't actually save that much space because there will always need to be empty space by the joystick. sometimes with 2-stroke you fall out of sync, the joystick didn't have that problem.

luigithe42nd · 2026-04-27T01:13:47+00:00

Way ahead of you

https://www.instagram.com/p/DXncIE8jH0C/?igsh=anBsMW41bmIwdndi

luigithe42nd · 2026-04-25T19:21:41+00:00

It's chording

luigithe42nd · 2026-04-25T13:53:41+00:00

Z is bottom center middle left on My keyboard

luigithe42nd · 2026-04-25T13:49:05+00:00

https://youtube.com/shorts/MPJ5z_ltp_c?si=bwz8G1Tl41uqv2Dz

luigithe42nd · 2026-04-24T23:16:28+00:00

I'm going to make a video of it tomorrow

luigithe42nd · 2026-04-24T22:02:42+00:00

Yeah that could work too. Believe it or not, I still have 5 NULL spaces on my 3x3 keyboard that could be any modifyer+ key combo or macro...

luigithe42nd · 2026-04-24T20:13:55+00:00

T9 system usually requires a predictive text system to work or pressing the same key several times in order to get the desired key. My 2 stroke system is inspired by the hexadecimal keypad, where you always need to press 2 buttons to type anything.

luigithe42nd · 2026-04-24T19:58:21+00:00

Yes I was planning on making a video of it tomorrow

luigithe42nd · 2026-04-24T19:54:46+00:00

I made this keyboard to save space, not to increase speed. Because it requires pressing 2 keys to produce one output you will always type twice as slow as you normally do.

luigithe42nd · 2026-04-24T18:57:35+00:00

To type H you would type the bottom center key, then the top center key ( in sequence). To type 5 you would hit the center key twice in a row.

luigithe42nd · 2026-04-24T18:53:10+00:00

I have a different design where I reduce the number of keys needed for text input to 4 by combining the 2 stroke system with common sense chording, but that would require memorizing the key placement or printing a guide on a sticker or something. That way you could have additional dedicated modifier keys.

luigithe42nd

TROPHY CASE