Alright @Troll I’ve got a good one for you:
I have always wanted to learn stenography (why is a topic for another time). Actual steno machines are 500+ USD to well over a couple thousand. There is a program called Plover that allows you to use a simple keyboard to emulate a steno machine. However you need a keyboard that supports n-key rollover (NKRO- the keyboard will output multiple key presses, up to all the keys when pressed at one time), which can be a bit of a pain/expensive to find. Even then you are having to mod the keyboard to get anything close to the feel of real steno machine. There are quite a few enduser made steno keyboards (for example this), but it is again not real close to the feel of a real steno machine.
So as there was no way in heck I was going to spend $1,000+ on a electronic steno machine, $60 on ebay got me a real live steno machine shipped directly to my door. Something similar to:
There are 24 keys, and it functions just like a typewriter in terms of the typebars pressing an inked ribbon onto the paper. The paper feeds after each chord (multiple keys pressed at the same time like playing piano) automatically.
I would like to, using a series of contact switches (either under the keypad area, or deeper near the typebars, wire it up to a keyboard NKOR emulator so I can run Plover with that as the input device.
If you have any suggestions on a keyboard emulator, or button board that can be setup to output keystrokes and any ancillary hardware needed I would appreciate it.
Thanks!