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Drop TAB - CTRL/ALT/SHIFT series Numpad?

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Anyone else interested in continuing the series into a stand alone numpad? Here are some thoughts for whoever might be listening: First, call it the TAB. I work in accounting and anyone who uses quickbooks probably uses that key more than anything else for navigating around. Note of course, that it needs to have a tab key for that reason to be a viable numpad for accountants and bookkeepers. Second, differentiate it by having a tab key to the left of the numpad cluster for thumb operation, and a second key underneath that can either stock firmware is (shift+tab) or can otherwise be configurator-ed into that (this is the first thing I did with my ALT, programming it to get rid of caps lock and give that key some purpose to exist). The ducky pocket has a shift tab key and it never seems to be in stock. To keep the design language consistent, maybe you make those two keys down half a row like the arrow keys on the SHIFT, but otherwise keep row consistency. The thing about the extra tab key is that it allows one handed operation in excel/numbers a little easier. Also, note how it has 00 as a key. Some numbercrunchers really want that, while this is all hypothetical might as well include. Terrible, lazy photoshop aside:
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Maybe there should be a backspace matching the tab size keys on the left allowing the 1x backspace above the numbers to be a delete key. Does anyone else out there use the numlock key? I'd just assume get rid of it altogether because it's basically a "make me think the usb connection dropped" key on boards without backlight. I never use numpads for navigation though.
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Some other thoughts: Include at the least, the option of some add on keycaps with media controls, an escape key, calculator key for windows? Not everyone is going to upgrade their keycaps right away and it’s a shame the ALT didn’t have mac/linux modifiers in the box at that price point. Make sure it has two usb c ports on it like the other boards, to allow daisy chaining like the others in the series. Would also allow hub use for a flash drive. Also, those who bring their usb in from the right might want to go into the numpad and have the main board on the left. Otherwise it should have a battery and be wireless. Kprepublic has a numpad kit up with BT5 that looks promising, but wouldn’t match the way you guys could by continuing the series.
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https://kprepublic.com/collections/new-arrival/products/hot-swappable-blue-tooth-bt-dual-mode-gk21s-gk21-keyboard-kit-type-c-numpad Anyone else think this would make a good addition to the growing family? What else could they do next? Modular bottoms that attach at the magnetic feet points with batteries and a bluetooth connection to make the existing boards wireless capable?
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A calculator would be cool, but how would you fit it into the design aesthetic of the other entries in the series?
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(Edited)
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griponreality
190
Sep 7, 2022
Apparently I am not that far off base… as Glorious PC is offering one.
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GilmourD
2
Dec 17, 2022
griponrealityI'm kinda amazed that after so many years of discussing this that Drop still hasn't come out with a matching numpad.
WilliamCCT
5
May 21, 2020
Why does the thing have two tab keys right on top of each other tho
griponreality
190
May 21, 2020
WilliamCCTAccountants and excel users need a tab key to advance to the next cell, and can make good use of a shift+tab key to go back one cell or entry field. Because advancing with tab multiple times often results in the user advancing one step too far it is really nice to have this feature. I have qmk'ed my ALT to turn the caps lock key into a shift+tab, but it would be super useful to have it on a numpad this way as well.
Heinyboi
2
Mar 14, 2020
I'm looking for the EXACT SAME THING!! I'm a graphic designer and do media work, just ordered my ALT and am looking for a good standalone customizable numpad, I also do 3d modelling without any of the fancy scmancy 3d mice/keypads. What I use is a wacom intuos or pen display for the profile stuff, numpad for measurements (lengths and angles, chamfer and filet margins, etc), I made a mockup numpad design (2d for now) with a rotatable thumb tab/stock-tab on it, or detachable for convenience. Please, DO NOT make this magnetic, the magnetic feet on the CTRL, ALT and SHFT are enough as is, and there's no need to add edge glow to the thumb buttons. I might look into PCB and case production, and see if I can make it at least a possible crowdfunding campaign. Bluetooth with a USB-C adapter would work great if the conceptual TAB can be customized through a wired USB-C connection and QMK. This way it won't interfere with your mouse at all if the numpad was on the right side of the mouse mat To add, it would be great to have a dial for any sort of use, with tactile rotary steps and a button press on top. The reason I went with an all-1u numpad with the thumb tabs being 2u, for symmetry's sake in if you want the 3-6-9's and 1-4-7's flipped for left-hand use and have the * - + ent and fn keys on the other side.
Heinyboi
2
Mar 14, 2020
Heinyboi
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Here's a top profile view, instead of all 1u I decided to use 2u on + and ENT, it could be a possible interesting thing to add a slider switch on top for two different profiles, though FN can also be used as a lock button, adding to the fact we have a NL button too, that'd easily make 4 profiles accessible through two lock buttons; No lock, NumLo, NumLo+FN, and FN only
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LeDouche
41
Feb 15, 2020
Yo, are you me? I'm also an accountant and always on a quest for the perfect numpad. I am also looking for a numpad to go with my Alt keeb. Right now I'm putting together a Cospad with an LFKeypad PCB (hotswappable, per key SMD RGBs, underglow SMD RGB, USBC). The only thing holding me back is that LFKeyboards is the slowest vendor that I have ever ordered anything from. I also use that exact bluetooth macbook-looking numpad. It's fine in a pinch, but I want mechanical keys, obviously. My current solution is setting a layer where U-I-O, J-K-L, and (M , .) are 1-2-3, 4-5-6, 7-8-9; N is Zero; (8-9) are (/ *); P ; / are (- + .). Not bad, but not perfect. I have just ordered that GK21 bluetooth from KPRepublic and will see how that one is. I'm sure that it's just a bluetooth Cospad. My only concern is if it isn't supported by QMK because I need to be able to remap keys. I use my numpad on the left and I think my ideal keypad would be that one with the Tab thumb key. I don't like Tab all the way at the top of the numpad and would much prefer a thumb key, but on the right side of the board so that I could use it with my left hand. If you game at all or have ever had a cramped workspace at a client's office, you know how annoying it is to bump your mouse into the side of your numpad. Left-hand numpad solves this. It took a little while to get my left hand muscle memory on par with a career-worth of right hand numpad use, but it's not so bad. I haven't experimented with reversing the chirality of the 1-4-7, 3-6-9, bottom row, and enter-column keys, but it's on my list. I haven't found a numpad PCB that supports flipping. As a fellow accountant, you know how necessary the 2u Enter and Plus keys are.
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griponreality
190
Feb 15, 2020
LeDoucheYeah, Looking at the GK21s software link, it's just a(n) .exe on a google drive link. The mech group on reddit had the first post I've seen of a GK21s in the wild a day or two ago, and the user who got theirs said it is in fact a metal case rather than plastic made to look it which is good. Perhaps they can speak to the programming element, assuming that isn't also you as I see they run southpaw too. Nobody's done a YouTube review or anything yet. Also, no one seems to have run the ALT or CTRL through its paces on Mac yet on there either. There are't any good macOS programming tutorials yet, had to dig into forums and make some guesses to make it work. What I first thought was my endgame was an ikbc mf108m with Cherry browns. They botched it on a few fronts, some just not knowing how things would progress. One, micro usb was bad enough as a flimsy connector, made worse by the fact that every mf108 has the usb connector screwed down too tight such that the plastic retaining clip is broken and you need to use some hot glue or spacers to fix it back. Two, they put the weirdest feature on it, choosing to override the top navigation keys for a weird pomodoro style stopwatch countdown (kind of like caps lock and the windows key... nice idea for some people, more annoying than useful for most). Third, macOS (at least latest releases on a trashcan Mac), glitched with it such that if the computer went to sleep, the keyboard had to be unplugged and replugged to function. Had to build in a usb extension cable break in the middle for this purpose as it would further deteriorate the micros connection on the board to do it there. Fourth, not being programmable meant most of the f keys and specialties like calculator were useless even with software key-re-mappers. Moved it to a windows machine in a client's office where it feels properly utilized. Currently I'm running an Alt with a Mac Magic Keyboard ripoff version of a ducky pocket. The electronics work well. Before I felt my first mech board I thought it was great other than needing either a backlight on the screen or a 45 degree tilt to be visible at a working distance. I've considered southpaw boards, but finding the PCB and an aluminum case is rare, figured two separate items were the way to go for flexibility or in case I can't hack southpaw. If the GK21-s doesn't do the trick, and this Hail Mary play @ Drop doesn't pan out, then I may try building something custom. I'm okay with woodworking and have access to a glow forge for wood and acrylic, just wish I had a CNC and bead blaster to do aluminum. I was thinking of getting a hot swap numpad PCB, and one of those 2-4 switch macro boards Drop does from time to time or kbdfas/kprepublic has, and then building a case that accommodates both as well as a small usb hub to link the boards into one unit. That would let me put a tab and shift-tab key on the left like the crappy plastic but well thought out one on amazon pictured above. Should probably pick black and green since whatever ends up coming into being would look monstrous and if it were at least Borg themed I could pretend like it was on purpose (...who makes Borg keycaps....?...). ----(DEAR DROP FOLKS, IF YOU ARE SKIMMING, and also looking for product ideas, this section between all the hyphens might be worth looking at, even if just to laugh at from a cost-benefit analysis if I'm crazy)---- One thing that would just be frickin amazing and maybe worth going the custom enclosure route just to try - Imagine if you took the guts of a laser mouse, and put them on the bottom of a numpad and somehow managed to make it ergonomically acceptable. I don't know about you, but quickbooks (I'll avoid going down the rabbit hole of being completionist about bashing on Intuit's lazy UX team) makes you use the mouse a little too often for efficiency, choosing inefficient and counterintuitive places to reset the cursor after entering/changing transactions. Switching between mouse and numpad is something even getting a proper numpad won't completely fix, but if moving the numpad gave you a way to avoid that back and forth as well as left less on the desk, it would be worth it, even if I had to QMK two of the row 6 keys into right and left click. Maybe a third 2 key macro on the right could handle it, IDK... will have to brainstorm more. Another really cool route might be taking the lessons of Palettegear and ROG Claymore and making something modular which is customizable. Imagine if you had a brain unit to avoid the necessity of OS-dependent apps for everyday full function use, and then smaller sub macro/navigation/mouse/numpad/I-O hub units to allow users to build something that did everything gamers and accountants alike could get behind. Imagine if you had a case with hot swappable mini cases with hot swappable key sockets. It would be comically meta. Kind of like those cases for smaller cases of key switch testers. Unless that would bring about the Ragnarok of peak mech keyboard. Or with the more-refined-than-gaudy-gaming-only mech keyboard community getting down into the marginal diminishing returns of evaluating lube viscosity and items like holy pandas being factory produced for newbs like me, it feels like that mad scientist min-maxing eye of Sauron should be turned to that other peripheral on the desk and give the mouse a needed makeover. Few mouse makers seem to have caught on to the growing market in between people who use whatever mouse came with the dell computer from the days of windows vista, and those who want every part of their PC setup to make enough of a light show to bring on ecstasy flashbacks and epilepsy warnings. I have two MX Masters in different setups, but just because it's the best known option currently on offer doesn't mean it's endgame, right? Imagine a mouse that took SD cards, thumb drives, and had a usable numpad on it somehow would really help function layer holdouts who want minimalist setups. ----------------------- I have three main clients I work with each week. My home office is set up ergonomically, but I'm there the least. One is stable and has the IKBC board in it's own little endgame. The other two have to be worked from a laptop, one at a dining room table which is hell on getting ergonomics right. I hopped on the bm43a drop recently thinking I could save space with it and a numpad for less mouse clash. We'll see. Also in on the DROP Shift, thinking that may be a good final setup for one office. Speaking of slow fulfillment:
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This is KPrepublic's shipping journey. You'd think it was going to Oregon from looking at it, but somehow it's going to have to find its way to Florida eventually.
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