So yeah, I get that ZMK probably makes it possible to map a key to left click, and that’s good to have.
My worry is more about the out of the box experience. For this type of keyboard, the physical mouse button is part of what makes it usable from the sofa. On the K400, being able to move the pointer with one hand and click with the other is really useful, especially when it’s on your lap or you’re not looking down at it.
That’s also why a lot of K400 users don’t really consider things like the Perixx Periboard 716, Rapoo E2800P, Microsoft All-in-One Media Keyboard, Rii i4, or Arteck 2.4G to be proper replacements. They may technically have touchpads or tap-to-click, but they don’t have that obvious physical left-click trigger button that makes the K400 so usable.
A remapped Caps Lock would work as a workaround, but it wouldn’t feel like the intended design. If this is meant to be a proper K400 replacement, I really hope Framework considers a dedicated physical left click, or at least a very obvious tactile click area in a natural position.
The keyboard already looks much better than the K400 in a lot of ways. I just think this one detail could make or break it as a living room keyboard.
Speaking of batteries, I’ve really been enjoying the HP 725 keyboard and ordered one of the Lenovo 800 keyboards to test. They both use supercapacitors instead of traditional batteries. The HP one gets a full charge after 3 minutes, but it’s been tripping some of the current limits on the USB ports I’ve been plugging it into (gmktec evo x2 front USB3 port, the Framework Desktop’s port doesn’t seem to have an issue). Supercapacitors might be an option to look at for a future revision.
I should have kept reading being this far behind in the conversation. This is a really good middle ground. I’ll never need 15 devices that base16 gives you but I’d want it anyway for fun.
If the normal switcher action can ignore unconnected slots all these expanded options would be easier to use.
The best battery option I’ve ever experienced were in devices like Logitech MX1100 and Performance MX mice - they would take a standard AA battery, but it can be of rechargeable variety, and if it is - plugging those mice into a USB cable would be charging that battery up. If you’re at your desk and find that your battery discharged - plug it in and keep using it while it’s charging. If you’re on the go and don’t have a compatible USB cable/charger, but can find an AA battery - just replace your rechargeable AA with disposable one temporarily and keep going. More modern MX Master series now have built-in Li-Ion battery, and while it does last a very long time, I have been caught with those couple times running out of charge at the most inopportune time with no alternative.
AA batteries have to use 1.5V chemistry because devices expect that voltage or have to be lithium ion with conversion on the battery. It’s an L for efficiency per weight.
No they don’t aa batteries have that voltage because the chemistry turns out that way. Most devices that can raw-dog 2 or 3 alkaline battery could also raw-dog a lithium cell and a low current dc-dc converter doesn’t weigh enough to matter. Even very cost optimized stuff like remotes usually still have some crude regulation even if that may be just a zenner clamp integrated on soc.
What @Adrian_Joachim said. Plus, for any battery chemistry actual voltage they produce heavily depends on load and charge - fresh non-rechargeable AAs (e.g., alkaline) can produce voltage as high as ~1.6 V with no load, Ni-Cad or Ni-MH only ~1.2+ V, all of them drop to barely above 1V as they discharge. Li-Ion or Li-Poly can produce almost ~4V but then can drop to low 3+V as they discharge. As Adrian already mentioned, most circuits more complex than a battery, a motor, and a switch require at least some form of voltage regulation anyway.
Very few things actually use 1.5v directly, in a mouse that uses a single alkaline battery there is pretty much guaranteed to be a boost converter as 1.5v isn’t even enough to run the led for the sensor.
Usually more like zenner clamps and linear regulators, buck/boost converters come in in higher power or more efficient stuff. You don’t very often see inductors on cheap battery powered stuff like cheap mice/keyboards and remotes.
yeah, so it’s dumb to use a AAA rechargeable battery, which internally goes from 3.7V to 1.5V just to boost it back on the device since you’re losing a few percent with every conversion
Might still be better than an alkaline and almost certainly better than rechargeable nimh (especially on weight) cause that chemistry is pure garbage so even losing half the volume to circuitry lithium might still beat it.
But it is much cleaner to use the lithium cell natively.
Ni-mh has lower voltage, so presents problems for some devices, but it has higher energy density. I find they can do well in devices which are ok with the voltage. I am using Eneloops though.
How do you get the idea nimh has better energy density than lithium, or even alkaline for that matter?
Eneloops are probably the least bad implementation of nimh and they seem to top out way below 300Wh/L (and even worse 120Wh/kg) so lithium-ion having a massive energy density advantage (at usually effectively in the 7-800Wh/l and >200Wh/kg) isn’t much of an exaggeration. Still at least in the aaa size it ends up being a bit of a wash as with electronics and casing a lithium version with built in electronics ends up with about the same or only slightly better effective energy density than the best that nimh can do.
But either way in a newly designed product you are much better off using built in (replaceable hopefully) lithium batteries, the circuitry is way less of a problem if you can design it into the product and don’t have to stuff it into a aaa form factor. and The energy density and performance is just way better.
I think the battery problem is currentlydiscussing, since the reached consensus is that the main problem is unable to press shift, W and space at the same time
Oh, certainly not li-ion. I meant higher than alkaline.
Anything high or med-high draw seems much better on ni-mh.
Back when I was into good hobby flashlights, a quality ni-mh made an alkaline look like a joke. But of course that is nothing like what a 14500 or even 10440 li-ion could do.
NICd was goated in high current (sure horrible capacity, self discharge and memory effect but man that internal resistance) but since people can’t dispose of their stuff right the fun police stepped in and we got the much inferior but more edible nimh instead.
To be fair they also make high drain optimized alkaline but most of the regular stuff puts all points in capacity at the determent of anything else. On the other hand using disposable batteries for higher power stuff is probably not the best play anyway.
