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I'm gonna have to include some kind of modular extension mechanism, because I don't want that in the base build. I'm not trying to make a 500$ keyboard here, because mechanical keyboard nerds are not my target audience

I would make this keyboard rubberdome on membrane if I could, just to keep their grubby fingers away from it

I basically want the most boring keyboard ever made, but with a screen and open microcontroller for reprogramming to different protocols. The layout is going to be so boring I'm probably going to steal it from an old Packard Bell keyboard from 1991

I will make it out of the most beige plastic I can find

it'll be available in regular and pre-yellowed variants, of course.

The funniest part of designing this is I keep thinking I'll put some buttons around the screen to control it.
Because obviously you need some input for the screen!
on a ... keyboard.

IT ALREADY HAS 105 KEYS

I think it's gonna have just one key that's "shift into screen mode" (it'll light up, or I'll just reuse the screen backlight to indicate screen-mode) and from there you can use the arrow keys and enter/tab/etc to select options

maybe I'll make it modular and use that for the connectors. I was planning to just have a couple ports like USB-B, PS/2, AT and you hook them up with the proper adapters, but if I made it have several modular ports, you could pick which ones you wanted.

this'd also open it up to using keyboards that use Weird Voltages, because each little adapter could have the needed voltage regulators/level shifters on it.

although one of my goals is to make a keyboard that will Just Work for just about any computer you need a keyboard for. Digging it out and then going "shit, where's my RS232 serial module?" kinda goes against that.

This is what I'm planning it to look like: Standard PC layout, but an extra key and a screen.