KEY-01

Type on it.

The board below is KEY-01. Your own keyboard drives it, or click its keys. Whatever you type is the headline. Enter clears the line, Esc puts the first one back.

Last key
none
Keystrokes
0
Words a minute
0

What one press passes through.

A keystroke on KEY-01 is four parts stacked on top of each other. Pick one to see it in the figure.

  1. Keycap

    The part you touch. The legend sits on the top face, under the lamp, and a cross stem on the underside grips the switch.

  2. Switch

    Press the cap and the stem pushes a leaf onto a contact, against a spring that pushes back. The click on this page is synthesised to stand in for it.

  3. Plate

    Every switch clips into one plate. The plate decides how firm the bottom of a press feels and keeps the rows straight.

  4. Case

    The case holds the plate and the circuit board, and gives the sound its room. It is what sits on the desk.

The cap lifts straight off the stem. On the page it is bone, with slate modifiers and one cobalt Enter.

Top housing, stem, leaf, spring, bottom housing. The stem is the part the cap holds.

One plate, one cutout per switch. The dashed edges are where this key clips in.

The board inside the case. Nothing on this page states its material or price: that is still to come.

Hear it before you hold it.

Sound is off until you switch it on. Once it is on, every key you press plays a click and draws its waveform here. The click is synthesised in your browser. The real switch has its own voice.

Last click none yet