The Modified Lily58 Keyboard Makes Tablet Typing as Efficient as Possible

Other tablets certainly existed before Apple released the iPad in April of 2010, but they were mostly niche devices that weren’t very popular. With the success of the iPad, Apple proved that there was a large segment of the market that was full of people eager to use tablets if they were user friendly and performed well enough. Many people even ditched their personal desktops and laptops entirely in favor of iPads and other competing tablets that came later. While useful for most tasks, tablets are difficult to use for serious productivity — particularly when it comes to typing. That’s why Redditor _GEIST_ modified this Lily58 Pro keyboard to make tablet typing as efficient as possible.

The Lily58 Pro keyboard was modified by _GEIST_ to be used with their Wacom Cintiq Companion 2, which is a tablet marketed towards professional users for creative applications. It has a large 13.3” display, an Intel Core i5 processor (as opposed to mobile Arm processor), and is capable of running “real” desktop operating systems like Microsoft Windows. It can be used with conventional Bluetooth keyboards, but those didn’t suit _GEIST_’s tastes. Thus, the Lily58 Pro keyboard was chosen for this project. This design isn’t even remotely conventional, but it does offer functionality that you won’t see elsewhere. It can be operated in two modes: a “tented” mode that is a more ergonomic tilted version of a standard split keyboard layout, or attached to the back of the tablet so _GEIST_ can type while holding it.

The standard Lily58 Pro is a split keyboard that is controlled by two Arduino Pro Micro boards and has unique features like OLED screens, LEDs, and a rotary encoder. It’s designed specifically to be customizable and can be used with a variety of key switches. Most of _GEIST_’s work went into designing mechanical means to support the two use modes. In tenting mode, the two halves of the keyboard are supported by legs. In the tablet mode, they are attached to the keyboard with Velcro. On the electronics side, _GEIST_ integrated a Sony PSP thumbstick for cursor control and a Pimoroni Haptic BUZZ board to add custom vibration feedback. Some of the keys were also attached to a special board that can be flipped depending on what mode the keyboard is in. This keyboard wouldn’t appeal to most tablet users, but it is a great example of a maker modifying their hardware to improve their own productivity.