Nathan Kot's Blog

Modding the Happy Hacking Keyboard

Posted on

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!

Hasu's controller board Taking it apart 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.

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:

/* 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:

/* 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:

/* 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: