Me yesterday:

Me on the train back to my university:

m1 (me 1):

m1: Rememeber how the light ring of the SmartKnob View had an animation based on how hard you pressed the knob?

m2: Yeah.

m1: And why didn't we go with the first pre-Tetent idea?

m2: Haptics and grip. [Speaking of which,] I was going to try and fit vibration motors somehow bu--

m1: And remember [when scottbez1 showed how he implemented the button press in the SmartKnob View]? We've got a motor. We can do that!

m2:

m2: That means the magnetic solution can be eliminated, and you can have as many levels as you want and not limited to physical limitations! And that means the entire key doesn't have to move down 1mm, meaning I can trim tolerances down! If the motor wasn't so large (relatively speaking, since this is a 17.3mm diameter motor I'm talking about), I might have also been able to cut down the height significantly.

m1: The actuation force is also adjustable with software, not requiring an allen key to fine tune the setting, akin to setting the current of a non-UART/SPI stepper driver.

m2: WAIT!! At that point, isn't this a key that "does it all"?!?? You can simulate any tactile / linear key (minus key travel), change from Choc Pale Blues to Choc Pinks at the press of the button, switch to 1 actuation point when gaming but have arbritrary 4th or 5th level points when chording specific things (like "ing" under "in"), even change the key weight across the length of the key!

m1:

Me in the Student Union Cafe:

Wait... doesn't that mean if you had some BLDC haptic gloves with force sensing tips and a flat surface, you could simulate #Tetent [gd0090] anywhere? It's still probably outside my scope of time, but that feature in addition to being able to feel 3D models [in Fusion 360] as well as pinch items to get a length measurement would be pretty cool. I'll watch this space with great interest.

I also wonder if this idea could help out the #Tetent Tiny [gd0040] and it's questionable thickness. Hmm... but the motor is pretty important.

Me writing this log:

Wait... could someone do the unthinkable and try a 3 zone, 9 actuation (or 4:7 or 5:6) setting to chord any <=6 letter english word (with no accents). That'll be wild to see. Could I even read that fast?

Edit 1:

So I slept on it and did the numbers. My leisurely speed could be as much as 330wpm, and 6 chords/second is a Charachorder-beating 540wpm. It could also be easier to mentally compute. I'm thinking of 6 zones, 5 actuation points and I can add it as another mode, like mouse mode.

I'm also going to file down one of the motor mounting holes to allow for a slightly lower profile switch and make it easier to mount the strain sensor resistors.

There hasn't been much change in Tetent, but the #Tetent Timespy [gd0136] has been reduced from 24mm to 20mm at the thickest section.