[gtrevorjay]

I can't imagine another cocktail party where my own one handed keyboard would be relevant, so here it is:

https://github.com/trevorjay/Handler

It's chorded, (based on the https://ardux.io/ layout), but I don't think chorded is really that hard to learn if you're actually willing to give it a week or two (which you have in any situation where you need a one hander).

The key (ha) I've found is that you want the keys to be as easy to press as possible while providing feedback. The Twiddler, https://twiddler.tekgear.com/ , is great for this as it uses light tact switches, but it has reliability issues.

This is a great project. Of all my one-handed experience, I never got to try a FrogPad because of the expense. Having a software implementation of the FrogPad is awesome.

[stavros]

Here's mine:

https://www.stavros.io/posts/keyyyyyyyys/

Wildly impractical, but super easy to build.

[heads]

What a fun read! Your “how to get shot in the airport” caption nearly made me spit out my coffee.

[yjftsjthsd-h]

Having seen this but not yet having gotten to building it - is it wildly impractical? It looks a little slow (and obviously there's a learning curve) but it seems like it would work nicely in a number of cases where a normal keyboard wouldn't. (Ex. I bet I could use it on an exercise bike)

[gtrevorjay]

Super cool project. The siren song of binary input is strong: https://youtu.be/hansx2Bzxa0

[jauntywundrkind]

> I am a heavy user of a proprietary one-handed keyboard system. Recent maintenance issues and the lack of user serviceability have turned my attention to creating a more reliable solution.

Oh no! That's so sad to hear.

I was overjoyed when the new BT model came out; I was finally going to get to do the thing & get good at this. A couple years latter I actually made an effort to really learn it & get a little competent. For whatever reason (allegedly more coder friendly) I almost immediately adopted TabSpace layout & printed up a half dozen key map graphics so one would always be at hand.

It was a fun time but I never committed hard enough. I'm also just shocked how effective & capable I am at writing on a touchscreen. I'd tried some more code-oriented keyboards for coding, and this was a while ago but they lacked most of the intelligence/helpfulness of a mainstream touch-keyboard & weren't something I could hard adopt. In the meantime, the mainstream touch-keyboards forever annoy me; I really wish long presses could offer a lot more options but we seem forever consigned to be flipping between screens to get a special character or two.

I'm super excited to hear of Twiddler / one handed users in the wild. That's crazy awesome that you build your own! That it only takes 8 keys is a feat!

[gtrevorjay]

One-handed daily drivers are out there. We're nuts, but at least it's not Dvorak (kidding).

TBH, the the Twiddler layout is probably superior (though not by much). I went with eight traditional keys because it could be hand wired. The Twiddler approach is basically limited to soldering directly to a board, with all the issues therein. After about six months or so I would get debris caught under one switch or another and the Twiddler is basically welded shut. :/

Speaking of design issues (and talking about the BT). I highly recommend using a Nice! or other wireless/BT microcontroller. Not only is it more convenient but cable strain is a real issue on most microcontrollers. If the Handler has a design flaw, that's the biggie.

[alchemist1e9]

Thank you so much for sharing this!

I’m curious if you have ever looked into the Tap Strap 2? I recently got one and it looks promising with preliminary testing but I haven’t invested much time learning and configuring it yet.

[gtrevorjay]

Wow. Unless I'm thinking of a different device, those were much more expensive the last time I took a look. That's super tempting.

Just giving a preliminary skim of the website, it looks like their alphabet doesn't include meta characters like CTRL, ALT, and WINDOWS? Is there a more advanced mode? When you customize things, is that done on device (just sending keystrokes as a Bluetooth keyboard) or do you need special software on the device you're interacting with? Learning aside. How accurate has it seemed so far?

[throwup238]

What’s your max WPM with the one handed setup?

[gtrevorjay]

I won't lie, straight-up prose is much slower. I can just about break 120 wpm with a full QWERTY whereas I can only do roughly 40-45 single-handed. Typing passwords sucks.

The big 'however' here is coding. I also have a one-handed mouse from Elecom. Not switching between mouse and keyboard to navigate, combined with macros being less strain (basically no hand travel and sticky meta keys) means I'm faster editing code to the point I just eat the prose cost (or use my phone keyboard/dictation to compose longer prose).