Woodstock

[BobVA]

(01-18-2017 08:57 AM)Paul Dale Wrote:  The WPM team is looking into possible Woodstock firmware. Bernhard (of PANAMATIK fame) has offered us some very flexible hardware possibilities which is fantastic and very much appreciated. However, is anyone willing & able to produce replacement keys for the keyboard?

I found this thread from 2011 with a discussion of producing hardware, including double-shot molded keys:

Garth Wilson Wrote:...Along with #1 above, we looked into a set of double-shot keys similar to the HP-71's. NRE was a few thousand-- I don't remember exactly, but it was under $5,000....

Which would seem to be pretty expensive spread over what's probably a market of a few dozen. There may be newer approaches that are cheaper, but that still leaves the installation challenge.

Another option: is there a way to reuse the current keys and try to push the extra functionality to an overlay? The HP-25 is relatively easy to source; I'd bet most people interested in this project probably already have one. It's got a good assortment of functions already printed on the keys and perhaps if we added one extra shift key the rest would fit on a high-quality overlay? (I've been very happy with the overlays for the WP series, it's the key stickers I'd like to avoid.)

The new shift key could be a custom 3D printed replacement, or a repainted original key, for the mechanically adventurous. Otherwise a sticker could be used if the owner didn't want to risk disassembly of the keyboard.

The downside of this approach would be getting a consensus for the (keyboard limited) set of new functions, of course. A more complicated but flexible approach would be to allow the owner to customize the setup based on their Woodstock of choice and their desired functions. For example: "I've got an HP-25 and want to add financial and statistics functions, along with a solver" would result in a custom firmware load and overlay that took into account the current button set.

In my head that would be done using radio buttons on web form, and the firmware and overlay artwork are then generated by a magical program I don't know how to write :-)

Thanks for bringing this up - it's fun to think about!