August 4, 2019 | ProgressTH  If you've ever tried to edit any amount of text on your smartphone or tablet you may have wanted a better way to copy/paste, select text, and move the cursor around with something other than your finger.

Maybe some physical buttons even... 

At least we did. And that's why we made this first prototype of a mini-editing keyboard now up on Thingiverse here. 

It's built around an Arduino Pro Micro and 4-pin mini-push buttons integrated with a 3D printed case and keys. The code relies on Arduino's keyboard modifiers found here. 

The electronics use some pretty crude solder tracing (electronics are not our expertise). The idea is to get some user experience using this HID and seeing if its worth redesigning it, miniaturizing it further, or improving it in any way. 

We're designers mainly, not electrical engineers or coders, but if the project looks viable, we'd like to try out KiCad and doing a custom board to reduce the device's size constraints and allow us to focus entirely on ergonomics while possibly sneaking in a few more buttons. 

It would be a great way of experiencing the whole process and all of its steps even if in the future we outsource these steps for prototypes/short-run manufacturing. 

Another interesting possibility is creating HIDs for people unable to use a standard keyboard or mouse because of physical limitations.

Follow ProgressTH.org on Twitter here. We're also on Instagram now.