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skiselev / omega

Omega Home Computer
GNU General Public License v3.0
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Stop button location and size #7

Open Wierzbowsky opened 4 years ago

Wierzbowsky commented 4 years ago

On most of MSX computers the Stop button is large and is located in the upper right corner of the keyboard. In your design the Stop button is indistinguishable from surrounding buttons, which is not good.

I would recommend to put the Stop button in the top right corner if you don't want to change the design of the PCB. The Home button could be placed to the left of the Stop, in the upper row. The Ins goes to the left in the lower row and Del goes to the right in the lower row. This layout will work better IMO.

Also where are the LEDs for Caps and Kana/Rus states?

skiselev commented 4 years ago

For the ease of construction I use inexpensive and readily available PC 104-key keyboard keycaps. And so I won't be able to change the button size (PC keyboards simply don't have a similar large key). I can consider moving keys around, but I am worried that a shape of the keycaps will be an issue. At least the keycaps that I use have slightly different curvature depending on the row.

LEDs are located under Caps and Kana/Run keys respectively. Multiple options to make these LEDs visible:

  1. Use "backlight" type of keycaps
  2. Drill a small hole in the keycap so that the LED will be visible
  3. Use brighter while, blue, or "true green" LEDs that will be visible in between the keycaps.
sdsnatcher commented 4 years ago

The Panasonic MSX2/2+/TR machines have STOP keys at a normal size, at the top center of the keyboard. Sanyo machines have STOP keys with the same size as the other keys. Same deal for Sony.

Personally, I don't find it important to have an oversized STOP key, but it's nice to find it always on top just like the PC "pause/break" key. Same deal for the SELECT key. It's easier to find it on the top.

IMHO, the best MSX keyboard layout (by far) is the one used on the Panasonic MSX2+/TR machines. :)

Another very important aspect of the MSX is that the arrow keys were always bigger and more ergonomic than the horrible "inverted T" of the PC keyboard.

This guy designed a PC keyboard using Cherry keys, to match the Gradiente Expert layout (it was a copy of the Panasonic layout). It's worth checking for inspiration on this project.

He also designed a keyboard that ressembles the Sharp Hotbit layout, which is more compact since it has no numeric keyboard.

I also attached pictures of both keyboard layouts here, just in case facebook decides to make the links disappear.

MSX_cherry_keyboard Hotbit_Chery_keyboard