I’ve now assembled the BeanBoard prototype. I’m generally happy - managed to load and run some test programs showing things are working as expected. However there are some significant issues… on reflection the buttons need to either be small tactile or Cherry-MX-syle keyboard switches, the large tactile buttons seem just wrong, the board is way too large. 

I do need to shrink the whole thing, and maybe move the logic underneath the BeanZee piggyback board, and also decide whether to have a proper MX keyboard, or a tiny "single finger typing" board. The LCD may need to be angled to read easily, but this too may be solved just by making the board smaller. But the biggest problem was that I bungled the switches on the layout. On the schematic I used a generic switch and then later added a specific button footprint. Problem was I should have replaced the switches on the schematic, which would have made the pinouts explicit. As it was, all the switches were shorted because the pin designations were wrong. Removing the diodes and patching with links to correct the wiring works, but is a real pain. Lesson learned.

(8th April 2025)