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authorjaseg <git@jaseg.net>2018-05-13 18:02:25 +0200
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+<h1><span class="title">Zeus Hammer</span></h1>
+
+<h2 class="date">2018/05/03</h2>
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+<p>In case you were having an inferiority complex because your friends' IBM Model M keyboards are so much louder than the
+shitty rubber dome freebie you got with your pc... Here's the solution: Zeus Hammer, a simple typing cadence enhancer
+for <a class="reference external" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PS/2_port">PS/2</a> keyboards.</p>
+<!-- FIXME: add demo video -->
+<p>The connects to the keyboard's PS/2 clock line and briefly actuates a large solenoid on each key press. An interesting
+fact about PS/2 is that the clock line is only active as long as either the host computer or the input device actually
+want to send data. In case of a keyboard that's the case when a key is pressed or when the host changes the keyboard's
+LED state, otherwise the clock line is silent. We ignore the LED activity for now as it's generally coupled to key
+presses. By just triggering an NE555 configured as astable flipflop we can stretch each train of clock pulses to a
+pulse a few tens of milliseconds long that is enough to actuate the solenoid.</p>
+<img alt="/images/zeus_hammer_schematic.jpg" src="/images/zeus_hammer_schematic.jpg" />
+<p>Since PS/2 sends each key press and key release separately this circuit will pulse twice per keystroke. It would be
+possible to ignore one of them but I figure the added noise just adds to the experience.</p>
+<p>Built on a breadboard, the circuit looks like this.</p>
+<img alt="/images/zeus_hammer_breadboard.jpg" src="/images/zeus_hammer_breadboard.jpg" />
+<p>The completed system looks like this.</p>
+<!-- FIXME: add image of completed system -->
+<p>Since my solenoid did not have a tensioning spring I used a rubber band and some vinyl tape to make an adjustable
+tensioner. The small orange USB hub serves as an end-stop because I had nothing else of the right shape. The sound and
+resonance of the thing can be adjusted to taste by moving the end stop, adjusting the tensioning rubber and tuning the
+excitation duration using the potentiometer. My particular solenoid was a bit slow so I added some pieces of circuit
+board as shims between the plunger and the case to limit the plunger's travel inside the solenoid core. Here is another
+video of the thing in action in which I tune and de-tune the mechanical resonance using the potentiometer.</p>
+<!-- FIXME: add video w/ tune/detune -->
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+ &#169;2018 by Sebastian Götte. This work is licensed under
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