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Comment by dmd | Hacker News Reader

Absolutely awful! I'm very glad I didn't wire it straight into the pi but put a connector in the middle so I can replace it. It works and is silent to actuate but as you say the ergonomics are bad. I have to reach for it and it rattles around on the bedside table a bit (I've thought of maybe wrapping it in a piece of felt).

Your idea sounds great - can you give me a suggestion (e.g. a M-C/Mouser/Digikey part#)?

- N2SXX

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It's not Morse, but the CyKey[1] was a chording keyboard using the MicroWriter chords[2]; advantage that you can feel the keys without looking, and don't have to move your hands. The CyKey had no feedback, no click, silent operation rubbery buttons, IIRC. The CyKey use Infra Red so it would be difficult to use at night, but a similar device - five or six keys wired into an rPi could be very good for this sort of use case.

[1] The smaller one of these three https://alchetron.com/cdn/cykey-1e503a20-c830-4bb5-9dcf-7b44... all with the same chord keys for faster typing on a small device.

[2] https://siwriter.co.uk/the-chord-codes this app looks to use the same chords and links to an old intro video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBM_FwkMMKE

I don't know any part numbers but have a look at what the Morserino does (https://www.morserino.info/) or this reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio/comments/ag7xpi/projec...

You do not even need anything special to build a capacitive pad with a Raspberry Pi Pico. Basically only an insulated pad and maybe a resistor (even though I think it is even possible to do without).

Here is an example of someone building a touch midi controller [0] with nothing more than a custom PCB and some resistors or a touch input device with varied inputs like sliders and buttons [1].

[0] https://github.com/todbot/picotouch

[1] https://github.com/todbot/picoslidertoy

Using a capacitive touch controller in the dark seems like it might be pretty frustrating though.

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