Ortho Keyboard Mod: that happened already, right?

I would buy such an Atreus for the mnt reform.
typing this on my new x-bows (https://x-bows.com/) that I’ll take with my mnt reform most of the time until then.

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I would love thumb cluster like ergodox . I’ll probably buy this regardless tho

Going for a thumb cluster on the laptop itself would involve milling a whole new case, and likely having to change the batteries as the normal keyboard PCB goes down slightly below the battery PCBs which are in the palm rest already.

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I guess that would depend on where the thumbcluster would be placed? If you could do 3 rows with letters it should fit?

any news on this? Designing a new case for the reform with keyboard inspired by the atreus, let me know if you can help

PS: i would like to see how many people are interested so i can organise a few cases being made to take account of this. I am based in Berlin so the logistics of doing this in collaboration with the team here might work out
@minute what do you think would it make sense to work together to do this run at the mill where you make the rest of the reform cases?

any news on this?

When I first announced my intention to build this, I thought that it would just involve designing a keyboard, (easy!) but now that I have my own Reform, I see that the keyboard is integrated with the system controller and OLED, so it’s actually a far bigger task than I imagined.

So even though I much prefer an ergonomic vertical stagger vs a completely ortholinear design, I will probably just end up getting the OLKB board since it’s a big improvement over the stock one.

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Just want to put in my extreme support for an ortholinear keyboard with thumb cluster (and a 1u space bar!).

nice to see a few of us willing to do it

i propose we ceate a thread to begin assigning tasks and deadlines

Just came across this. Continuing hardware updates for a computer from 2012:

Mechanical ortholinear keyboard replacement for old thinkpads… most genius of all you can take it apart and put it on either side of your computer to type on a split keyboard, as god intended.

Do you have this in your Reform? Do you have any pictures of that?

I don’t have this in my Reform yet, no. The microcontroler is hard to come by these days…
Maybe I should just order a few now and see when I get them. x)

Would funding help? I would like to contribute 10k USD towards the project of having an open source keyboardio atreus style keyboard for the mnt reform.

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Also, would it make sense to try to separate the system controller + oled so it would have a “reform frame” with the oled screen and the circle button, but the rest could be a separate keyboard that could be connected and replaced more easily.

Creating a replaceable keyboard is great, but integrating an important system controller into it seems counter productive.

Also, I am an Atreus user (unmarked keys with kailh pink linear silent switches <3 ) and I just got my reform today. I love it already, but the keyboard layout I don’t love :smile:

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Heck, let’s take it one step further: separate the system controller + oled and the keyboard controller onto their own board and provide a matrix scan bus connector. With that lot’s of experimental keyboards could be built without any controller, just plug them in and reconfigure the scan codes in the existing firmware.

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Perfect. I can’t get it done, but I can fund it. Any takers for the bounty?

@rega We (Keyboardio) would potentially be interested

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Great, I sent you a dm

Just wanted to add that I too would love an Atreus for the Reform. My main driver is a Keyboardio Atreus with whites and a Colemak layout.

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I too started with colemak but by now it evolved to something unrecognizable :sweat_smile:

But it fits well the Atreus and my needs.

Based on what I now know after GitHub - milestogo/ergo_reform: ergonomic keyboard for MNT Reform laptop. I’d start with 2 CPUs on the keyboard board. One 3v3 powered one for oled & I2C, then a second USB powered one for the keyboard. The added $10 in parts will be saved in every user’s time. Trying to balance updates between complex keyboard firmware & LPC firmware is going to get frustrating. Of course that doubles the problem of getting enough chips.

Riffing on the separate LPC board / keyboard, my first thought was to have the BYO keyboard use the 6 mounting screws, with a carved out section under the OLED & where the serial link is now. The keyboard can connect to the USB JST. Then use .1 header or USB connectors to structurally suspend the LPC /serial board, and connect a few pins for the power, arrow & enter keys to talk to the LPC firmware.

My second thought is to build a new OLED board that can also talk to the LPC. Put the JST connectors on the bottom (vertical entry?), and a USB connector for the keyboard. Keeping it small enough to fit under the bezel would require a source of VQFN atmegas. If we allow the OLED board to bulge out over the center, there would be room for a set of micro tactile switches in front of the current bezel, above the new keyboard. In theory that LPC control board with a USB connector would be certifiable.

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