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Tenting, Case and Optional Parts
Tenting can make things much more ergonomic by stressing the wrists less. You can do that with a book, some wood, or with a tenting puck and more sophisticated camera mounting components. SplitKB created the keyboard tenting puck that Hillside is designed for. Yet choc switch bodies are closer than the MX keys the puck was likely meant for. So some screws with narrower heads may help. I'm testing narrow head screws from McMasterCarr. UPDATE
| Part | Type | Count | US Shops | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tenting Puck | SplitKB | 2 | SplitKB | $35 |
| Tenting screws | M2 | 8 | McMasterCarr |
For throwing in a bag, a small tripod option is:
| Part | Type | Count | US Shops | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Camera micro-tripod | Manfrotto Pocket Tripod 1/4" | 2 | various photo shops, SplitKB | $60 |
To tent higher or for a desk, an option is a photography magic arm and cheese plate as base:
| Part | Type | Count | US Shops | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Magic arm | such as SmallRig 2163 | 2 | Amazon | $13 |
| Cheese plate | such as SmallRig 1681 | 2 | Amazon | $50 |
For the Hillside 48, there is a tray case created by chewiedies with flat, legged and tented battery compartment options.
Alps EC11 or EC12 encoders fit the footprints and are available with matching knobs at various keyboard stores. Some have an extra plastic stub on the bottom that would go through the board. If you get one with the extra stub, just cut it off with snips as I did not add a hole for it.
If you'd like tactile feedback of keypresses or modes, you can mount a haptic board above the MCU.
| Part | Type | Count | US Shops | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pimoroni Haptic Buzzz | PIM452 | 1 | Digi-Key | $15 |
| I2C Resistors | 0805 roughly 4.7 kOhm 5% 1/8W to 1/4W | 2 | Digi-Key, LCSC | $1 |
| Hex Standoff | M2.5 .45 x 6mm Metal Female Female Threaded | 1 | Digi-Key | $1 |
| Machine Screw | M2.5 .45 x 4mm | 2 | Digi-Key | $1 |
I used a spacer that is 5.0mm in diameter, 732-12827-ND. But wider clearance from the MCU pins is good, so the spacer listed above is 4.5mm in diameter. The 6mm vertical clearance between boards worked well with a socketed MCU, but it is possible that a 5mm clearance could also. UPDATE
The Hillside 48 has mount holes around the upper thumb key for an optional Pimoroni trackball, though I have not tried it. It is a very coarse resolution trackball. You would need to hand wire it to the I2C header that was laid out for the haptic feedback.