Magpie - The Start

Hello once again! This is the fifth project I’ve started working on in Stardance, and what I consider my second “grand” project. My idea for Magpie is pretty big; it’s a keyboard with no physical keys; everything is on a single display. The display itself is touchscreen, and underneath are motors that vibrate to simulate the feel of a click. There will also be speakers so that each click can sound like a real one too, further making the experience feel better.

In addition to also being a keyboard, I have the plan to also allow for different layouts, like different keyboard inputs, a drawing tablet, or maybe even audio plugins!

Right now, there really isn’t much to say about what’s in the project right now. I started working on the software part of it. Right now, its a Qt-based application that only shows a few keys that show a simple animation when clicked.

My plan is to have the keyboard itself act as some sort of mini-computer, with everything being run on a Raspberry Pi. What do you guys think?

Version 2.0

I’m back. Seems that my project still hasn’t been shipped yet, but that’s alright. Solarium has gotten a lot of bug fixes, and the fonts now look more polished. I also changed the video display so the output looks much better now!

In addition to minor changes, Solarium now works on real hardware! You can help contribute to the OS Support list by going to the repo, and opening a PR with your changes. You can also just ping me in Slack or leave a comment here with the same details, and I can add it. I also added a screenshot showing the OS working on my Chromebook!

Devlog 1.2

Much longer than the devlogs I’ve sent here. I added a lot more stuff compared to the previous devlog, which was more bugfixes than actual content. There’s now a boot logo that appears for a few seconds before going back to the terminal! In addition, there’s now fonts! You can use the help command for more info.

Alongside the actual OS, I’m going to start trying to implement support for actual hardware. It only works on VMs, so real hardware is going to be interesting.

Devlog 1.1

Not gonna lie, this sucked. I spent a long time getting arrow keys to work. Luckily, I was finally able to figure it out. I also changed some stuff backend, but a few things on the front end. Also added this cool thing; the first instance of color! Isn’t that cool? Anyway, I’ll work on new stuff later, maybe some more commands.

Devlog 1.0

Well, this is going to be something. Solarium is an operating system. From scratch. It is not Linux, it is not based off anything else. Right now, it’s just a terminal that has a few commands, and well, that’s pretty much it. What do you expect from a first version? What do you think of this?

Minepad - Devlog #3

I realized that you needed three or more devlogs to ship a project, and I only had two devlogs because I combined my firmware and CAD logs into one. So, I decided to spend some time looking at my firmware to make sure everything’s alright! It seems good to me, so I’ll make this devlog and ship.

…or not. I guess you can’t ship hardware projects?? Whatever, I’ll still log this time!

Minepad - Devlog #2

The second devlog of this project. Yeah, it’s a hackpad, however I have already made a hackpad so this will technically be a hardware project since I can make multiple of those. Anyway, I finished with the CAD project and also made the firmware for the macropad. Time to ship this! (Well, I have to make a BOM first lol)

Minepad - Devlog #1

First devlog of this hardware project. I wanted to create this for my hackpad but I was already done with my original hackpad when I got the idea for this. Minepad is going to have a couple buttons that’ll let the user interact with the game. Here’s what I have in mind.

• WASD keys for movement
• Esc and F3 menus
• E, Q, T for inventory, drop an item, and text respectively
• Space and tab keys

So far, I’ve finished designing my PCB. What do you guys think?

NobleOS - Devlop 4

It’s been quite a while, but now that WebOS 2 is out, I’ve decided to come back and add new features. There is now a terminal, a simple file system, and a wallpaper picker in the theming app! Those are the three new features I’ve added that weren’t in WebOS 1. Check it out here!

Devlog #3 - Firmware complete!

With that done, my Hackpad is finally complete! I thought that I wouldn’t even be able to complete this, but with lots of perseverance (nasa reference lol) I was able to create full projects in applications I’ve NEVER used before. Seriously, I’ve never used Fusion 360 or KiCad before, but with help from a lot of resources (and a little bit of AI), I’ve created working projects. Hopefully this is everything I need to do, because this took a very long time.

Devlog #2 - CAD and PCB FINISHED!

This took way too long to complete. I had to remake the CAD project maybe 4 times because of random issues, and had to rewire my PCB many, many times thanks to the fact that the wires wouldn’t move with the objects. Anyway, I also added the components to my PCB and made a final, full CAD project.

IF ANYONE IS SEEING THIS, PLEASE GIVE ME FEEDBACK!!!!!!

Devlog #1 - CAD and PCB

Took a bit of time (unfortunately I didn’t log some of the time I spent on the CAD,) but I finished the base of the CAD, along with the PCB. What do you guys think?

NobleOS - Devlog 3
This is a big jump from before.

I have now added a start menu that lets you launch apps from there as well. It also shows the time.

Also, there is now a browser (which unfortunately doesn’t work for most websites…)! It’s pretty simple. You can press enter/return to go to the site, and use the back and forward arrow keys to well, go back and forward.

Finally, theming! You probably already saw this from glancing at the screenshot provided, but now there are 5 different themes to choose from while using the OS - Classic, Blue, Pink, Dark, and Light. Enjoy!

NobleOS - Devlog 2
Added the calculator app. In addition, there are a few window tweaks that got fixed/added.

I never linked the website here, so here’s the site if you want to check it out! https://noble-os-omega.vercel.app/

NobleOS - Devlog 1
First devlog. Nothing much on the actual project, besides a simple about button. I’ll probably add a calculator next.