NK

After reading this post about hacking your HHKB, I set out to do the same thing. Now that I have the finished product, I can truly say that it is freaking awesome to have a keyboard with all your favorite keybindings set in the hardware. Basically I can now ‘plug and go’ into any computer and it just works.

Being able to do this goes beyond the already awesome feel and sound of the HHKB. A modded board is a whole different beast and this is what keyboard nirvana feels like. No more feeling awkward about working on other computers! Just bring your extremely portable modded keyboard ;)

Shamefully, as a programmer I’ve never been much of an electronics guy, although I intend to change that. Originally I was gonna go with a Teensy 2 and try to hack all the hardware together, but after finding this post on Geekhack I decided against risking my precious as a guinea pig for my first ever hardware mod, instead I purchased a complete board from a guy who goes by hasu on GeekHack. If you would like a more detailed guide about how to build this mod yourself, Grumpy Lemming’s guide is a really good start.

Installation was surprisingly easy using Hasu’s board. Everything was in the right place - the board has a hole for the screw in the same spot as the original board. He even made use of the dip switch location to expose the bootloader reset button!

I want to avoid turning this post into a guide, if you get the completed board from Hasu it is extremely straightforward. For complete instructions on how to set this up with a Teensy again check out Grumpy Lemming’s post. Instead I want to focus on describing how I feel this new board has benefited me as a programmer, and why I think every programmer that likes to tweak their workflow should try something like this out.

I’m sure that possibilities are limited only to your imagination, but here are a few of my favorite tweaks that can be easily programmed with the tmk_keyboard repo.

#1 - Dual-purpose modifier keys

What has been the most powerful aspect of this for me are dual purpose modifier keys. For example, the following makes the left control key act as <ESC> when tapped, and <CTRL> when held down.

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static const uint16_t PROGMEM fn_actions[] = {
  // LControl with tap Esc*
  [2] = ACTION_MODS_TAP_KEY(MOD_LCTL, KC_ESC)
};

When working in VIM, you no longer have to reach up to the edge of the keyboard in order to hit escape, just tap control on your home row :) This may take some getting used to but I promise your fingers will thank you for it!

I realize the same thing can be achieved using something like KeyRemap4Macbook. But overall the flexibility, portability and feel-rightness makes this a superior option!

#2 - Numpad on the home row

The HHKB doesn’t have a numpad. But even when I had a board that did, I rarely used it - it was just too far away. With my current setup I have a numpad centered around J on my home row. When I hold tab (using the same dual-purpose modifier strategy as before), the numpad layer is switched on, something like this:

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/* Layer 4: Numpad mode
  * ,-----------------------------------------------------------.
  * |Esc|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
  * |-----------------------------------------------------------|
  * |FN0  |  |   |   |   |   | 7 | 8 | 9 | = |   |   |   |Backs|
  * |-----------------------------------------------------------|
  * |Contro|   |   |   |   |   | 4 | 5 | 6 | + |   |   |Return  |
  * |-----------------------------------------------------------|
  * |Shift   |   |   |   |   |   | 1 | 2 | 3 | - |   |Shift |   |
  * `-----------------------------------------------------------'
  *       |Alt|Gui  |           0           |Gui  |Alt|
  *       `-------------------------------------------'
  */

With this setup, numeric input can finally feel like it’s part of the ‘vi-flow’!

#3 - Vi Mode

Although HHKB has some nice arrow key bindings, it never feels right after prolonged use of VIM. My letter f key is now also dual purpose, and when held down it activates vi-mode:

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/* Layer 2: Vi mode
  * ,-----------------------------------------------------------.
  * |Esc| F1| F2| F3| F4| F5| F6| F7| F8| F9|F10|F11|F12|Ins|Del|
  * |-----------------------------------------------------------|
  * |Tab  |  |   |   |   |   |   |   |PgU|   |   |   |   |Backs|
  * |-----------------------------------------------------------|
  * |Contro|   |   |PgD|FN0|   |Lef|Dow|Up |Rig|   |   |Return  |
  * |-----------------------------------------------------------|
  * |Shift   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |Shift |   |
  * `-----------------------------------------------------------'
  *       |Alt|Gui  |         Space         |Gui  |Alt|
  *       `-------------------------------------------'
  */

#4 - Mouse Bindings

Yep, you can control the cursor with your keyboard! This is really just a cool-show-off kinda thing but there have been some cases where it actually gets useful, e.g changing focus between scrollable panes on a website. Again, this time I made the escape button on the top left dual purpose - press for <esc>, hold for mouse mouse. In mouse mode hjkl control movement, and the space bar is left click. Like so:

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/* Layer 3: Mouse mode
  * ,-----------------------------------------------------------.
  * |FN0| F1| F2| F3| F4| F5| F6| F7| F8| F9|F10|F11|F12|Ins|Del|
  * |-----------------------------------------------------------|
  * |Tab  |   |   |   |   |   |MwL|MwD|MwU|MwR|   |   |   |Backs|
  * |-----------------------------------------------------------|
  * |Contro|   |   |   |   |   |McL|McD|McU|McR|   |   |Return  |
  * |-----------------------------------------------------------|
  * |Shift   |   |   |   |   |Mb3|Mb2|Mb1|Mb4|Mb5|   |Shift |   |
  * `-----------------------------------------------------------'
  *      |Alt |Gui  |          Mb1          |Gui  |Alt|
  *      `--------------------------------------------'
  * Mc: Mouse Cursor / Mb: Mouse Button / Mw: Mouse Wheel 
  */

There must be plenty of other tweaks and hacks that I haven’t thought of. I’m still continuously tweaking the key mappings in search of that holy grail of key-bindings - it’s been such an enjoyable experience.

Updates

Here are some other tweaks that I’ve adopted so far:

• LSFT becomes left parenthesis on tap, RSFT is right parenthesis. This one actually came with the tmk_keyboard repo as an existing macro, since there is no real key code to send for the parenthesis’.

• Remap esc to tilde, I still can’t get used to the replaced tilde for escape next to the 1 key, since I’ve got tap LCTL for escape now, no longer need the original one.