[swalberg]

How are the ergonomics of that key? Between the switch with the spring and having to hold that in your hand to use, I'm wondering how accurate the keying is? One suggestion might be a flat pad with a capacitive switch so you could just tap things out without even moving, but maybe the key works for you.

Either way, a fun idea!

73 de Sean N3RTW

[dmd]

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

[jodrellblank]

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

[swalberg]

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...

[_Microft]

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

[tdeck]

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

[uxx]

Their is no way this thing has any real use cases apart from emailing gibberish to yourself.

[dmd]

It's been working reliably for me for a few weeks now, 1 or 2 messages a night.

To be clear - I am not sending myself long emails! I am sending one or two words, like "TEMP PROB" or "MULCH" to jog my memory in the morning. And for that, it has worked flawlessly.

[martyvis]

I would imagine that if you just had a switch connected to nowhere, in the morning you would remember what you Morse coded in any case just because it has raised your alertness

[wkjagt]

This is Hacker News. Part of what makes it fun is that we show cool projects we did.

Also, from the guidelines: "Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something."

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

[simplecto]

pipe that through an LLM and you will have a page full of word salad :-)

but seriously, this is a neat idea. and kudos to OP for building a full prototype -- this is the level of geekery I show up for.

I remember the days of T9 on the old Nokia phones. I was so good that I didn't have to look down at the screen.

My favorites were fixed in my phone. I knew how many down clicks on the button would land on the right friend/family member. I could literally send messages from my pocket.

And yes, I admit -- I did engage in texting while driving. And this is the part where I justify it -- "but I had eyes on the road the whole time!"

Oh! and there was old skits on late nite where people woudl compete with the old morse code guys.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRuRE-Bwk1U

[pavel_lishin]

That sounds like a very real use-case to me.

[beala]

Platforms like the Pico have significantly reduced the cost of one-off niche electronics, and that’s great actually.