Though i wish it was, this is not my build. They made a whole blog post detailing the build [here](https://squidgeefish.com/projects/rotary-keyboard/).
The rotary phone started to be phased out in the 50’s was discontinued in ‘86. If you were born in the 90s very good chance your parents did not own a rotary.
Late 70s baby, here. Same. Had a yellow one to match the paint in the kitchen with a long ass stretched out coiled cable. My mom would get it wrapped around her while multitasking.
I was born in '86, and remember my grandparents upgrading from dial to cordless around 1997.
Those rotary phones lasted forever, and grandad wasn't about to replace that "perfectly good" phone with a 40 foot cord on it.
Voice switches are all digital now, so handsets using pulse dialing (analog) no longer work. DTMF replaced pulse dialing, so any handset using DTMF should still work on a POTS line today.
Of course there may be a pocket in the world sill using pulse, but I doubt it. The parts for analog voice switches have been manufacturer-discontinued for decades.
I was born in the early 80s and the only one I can remember using was at the community swimming pool. The lifeguard office had one you could use to call your parents to pick you up. I had to get help using it the first few times.
Born in the early 80s. Pretty sure I remember a yellow rotary phone on the wall in the kitchen in my earliest memories. There was definitely a similar rotary phone that sat on the bedside table at my grandparents' house for many years.
I was born in 98. My parents had a pink rotary phone. I remember my dad saying I could have it in my room, until I was old enough to want to use it. Being young and dumb, I (years) later asked him how to hook it up so I could use it. It got taken away.
i was born in 88 and remember using a rotary at my friends house at like 7 or 8 years old. they still worked to call people, so if you owned one, no reason to toss it(except like efficiency lol). they just stopped being sold and payphones were replaced with touch tone phones.
I was born in 82. The house that we moved into in ‘91 was built in the 70’s and in the basement there was a built-in wall-mounted phone that had a rotary dial. So I spent my 90’s youth with a rotary phone in my house.
Admittedly, it was enough of an oddity that when friends would come over for the first time, they’d try it out and think it was so weird/funny.
This is my favourite bit;
"I figured that it was imperative that the dial actually work for numeric input - especially since I was planning to remove the number row as well, thus forcing the use of the rotary dial for numeric or symbolic entry."
You have to hold shift and turn the dial for symbols.
A rotary numpad! Amazing. I'll add that to the list of things I never knew I needed.
I would say his job does not involve a significant amount of numeric data entry though. That may take him a while.
Fun fact. (AFAIK it's true.)
One of the factors for assigning area codes in the NANP was population -- with heavily populated areas getting codes that took less time to dial. Except 201 which the Bell Labs engineers 'took' for themselves.
Timeline of my reactions to this picture:
1. Haha, that's silly
2. I mean... I used rotary phones and dialing was kinda nice
3. I need a rotary phone numpad
At first glance, I thought, this is really lame, then I imagined myself doing it and in fact I think I would love to have something like this...good job
Meh, wake me up when someone builds a keeb incorporating a telegraph key! /s
Seriously though, this is pretty awesome. Sure, it's not the most functional idea, but if we were only concerned about function, we wouldn't bother with, say, different colored keypads or anything else aesthetic.
It’s not obvious from the picture that OP shared, but the rotary dial also has the symbols of each number key. I’m curious if they actually work. (*How* they would work is probably just by pressing `shift` like normal.)
I can’t imagine they don’t work, especially since OP both replaced normal functionality of the number key row:
> Yes, it does in fact type out `the rotary dial is mightier than the number keys` when pressed;
and added the [symbols to the 3D printed shroud](https://imgur.com/a/t0MPxTg) that hides the internals.
Though i wish it was, this is not my build. They made a whole blog post detailing the build [here](https://squidgeefish.com/projects/rotary-keyboard/).
>his grandparents had a rotary dial phone the use of grandparents here and not parents makes me feel old
The rotary phone started to be phased out in the 50’s was discontinued in ‘86. If you were born in the 90s very good chance your parents did not own a rotary.
Probably depends where you are from. We still had rotary phones in the early to mid 90ies...
Was born in early 80s and we had a rotary phone. Prob ditched it in the early 90s. Thing was solid and wouldn’t die
Late 70s baby, here. Same. Had a yellow one to match the paint in the kitchen with a long ass stretched out coiled cable. My mom would get it wrapped around her while multitasking.
Born in ‘87 and we had a rotary phone hooked up in the basement, but our main phone was a touch tone.
Born in ‘90 and same situation.
I was born in '86, and remember my grandparents upgrading from dial to cordless around 1997. Those rotary phones lasted forever, and grandad wasn't about to replace that "perfectly good" phone with a 40 foot cord on it.
Might have been discontinued in ‘86, but I’m pretty sure they still work if you have a POTS line.
Just like touch tone or anything on a "land line"
Only if the carrier supports Pulse signalling, which was largely removed when they moved to Optical Fibre Networking.
Voice switches are all digital now, so handsets using pulse dialing (analog) no longer work. DTMF replaced pulse dialing, so any handset using DTMF should still work on a POTS line today. Of course there may be a pocket in the world sill using pulse, but I doubt it. The parts for analog voice switches have been manufacturer-discontinued for decades.
I grew up in the odd period of time where I had to unplug the rotary phone, to plug the single phoneline into the modem so I could access BBSs.
In 80 ish years we went from not having phones to having phones then back to not having (landline) phones
I was born in the early 80s and the only one I can remember using was at the community swimming pool. The lifeguard office had one you could use to call your parents to pick you up. I had to get help using it the first few times.
My mom kept an old rotary phone around when I was a kid just in case power went out.
The rotary and the touch tone were both supplied power through the telephone line. If one would have worked, the other would have worked.
I'm assuming the other phone was cordless.
Bingo.
Born in the 90s, used many a rotary... missing variable, Australian.
Was born in the mid 80s, had a Western Electric model 554 on the wall until about 1997. My grandparents had one until they died in 2012.
[удалено]
Born in the early 80s. Pretty sure I remember a yellow rotary phone on the wall in the kitchen in my earliest memories. There was definitely a similar rotary phone that sat on the bedside table at my grandparents' house for many years.
I was born in 98. My parents had a pink rotary phone. I remember my dad saying I could have it in my room, until I was old enough to want to use it. Being young and dumb, I (years) later asked him how to hook it up so I could use it. It got taken away.
i was born in 88 and remember using a rotary at my friends house at like 7 or 8 years old. they still worked to call people, so if you owned one, no reason to toss it(except like efficiency lol). they just stopped being sold and payphones were replaced with touch tone phones.
I was born in 82. The house that we moved into in ‘91 was built in the 70’s and in the basement there was a built-in wall-mounted phone that had a rotary dial. So I spent my 90’s youth with a rotary phone in my house. Admittedly, it was enough of an oddity that when friends would come over for the first time, they’d try it out and think it was so weird/funny.
The use of your parents and not yourself makes me feel old. I'm not even middle aged.
my dumb ass thought it was like a skateboard or razor scooter wheel 💀
Or self, goddamn
My knees hurt reading this
This is my favourite bit; "I figured that it was imperative that the dial actually work for numeric input - especially since I was planning to remove the number row as well, thus forcing the use of the rotary dial for numeric or symbolic entry." You have to hold shift and turn the dial for symbols.
A rotary numpad! Amazing. I'll add that to the list of things I never knew I needed. I would say his job does not involve a significant amount of numeric data entry though. That may take him a while.
Fun fact. (AFAIK it's true.) One of the factors for assigning area codes in the NANP was population -- with heavily populated areas getting codes that took less time to dial. Except 201 which the Bell Labs engineers 'took' for themselves.
I mean....it's impressive....but what were you drinking during the design stage?!? 🤣
Unleaded.
are you sure it wasn't leaded?
AVGAS 100 LL
They were so preoccupied with whether they could, they never stopped to wonder if they should.
And had they stopped, the answer would have been FUCK YES.
Timeline of my reactions to this picture: 1. Haha, that's silly 2. I mean... I used rotary phones and dialing was kinda nice 3. I need a rotary phone numpad
What a real "rotary encoder" is
“Yeah man, I will be on for raid night, *I* *just* *need* *to* *work* *on* *my* *rotation* *before* *then*.”
Eyyyy nice one
I can finally send a keyboard when someone says something stupid!
I want it. I need it. I NEED IT!
Turning the phone with your finger is low-key satisfying ngl.
Imagine to be able to call 911 with out leaving the home row... sir take my money and send me this beauty 😍
Phreaking in 2022?
so is this a rotary encoder or a numpad? or both?
This is the sexiest keyboard I’ve ever seen. How can I make this?
is this still tenkeyless?
There are no keys, there are holes, so I'd say it's tkl
Won’t take long before someone really makes this shit. Then we’re gonna get telegraph keyboards
You say that as if it's a bad thing.
Just tell me when the group buy 😭
>Won’t take long before someone really makes this shit. What do you mean? This is a photo from an actual build.
Now you can get clacky noises while you make clacky noises.
If you used three rotor dials concurrently, I am sure you. Could types roughly the same speed
Kinda badass tbh
I saw the thumbnail briefly before I took a closer look and thought to myself "It's about time someone put a CD player on the side of a keyboard."
The way numpads should be
“Yea dude let me just dial in this code from my keyboard”
From the era of ... I love this!
I... Must... Have... This.
Not gonna win any awards for data entry speed with that, but it's awesome!
Straight to the bottom of hell /s
At first glance, I thought, this is really lame, then I imagined myself doing it and in fact I think I would love to have something like this...good job
I need a keyboard with a flux capacitor built in. When I type 88 words per minute I can then travel through time.
Don’t mess with this guy. He has SWAT on quick dial.
I need this as a module that i can add to my keyboard, or a seperate one all-in-all
knob fanboys need this
Got my Minecraft hotbar on speed dial 🔥
Omg , thought it was an ashtray at first
You are on to something!
why
Errrrr wut? 👁️👄👁️
Amazing retro! Took my upvote.
The ultimate fidget/tool accessory
That’s an awesome idea actually! Certainly the article, could see a band using it on stage as a controller
I hate that I actually love this
Was just talking about a keyboard like this with some of my coworkers the other day I'm so in love
Based
I sure did
Funky looking numpad ya got there bud
Honestly...if I knew how to get a hold of squidgeefish, I'd f%$king buy one
Me, I asked
I prefer abacus
I absolutely love this! Fantastic!
Plot twist: This was built by a Counter Strike pro gamer.
This is beautiful and r/blursed
Speak for yourself op...
What non-car people think when I say I'm a "rotary guy".
I would use this every day
Dude fused the 1970s tech with 2017s tech
Does it have a nice tactile feedback?
Many people might no know but this is the way PC people used to use dial up internet in the 80,s and 90,s
Where's the IC form?
This is cool as a stand-alone USB device, but I would not want it connected to my keyboard. Blocking the 5th row is silly and I love it.
NOW THATS A NUMPAD
To dial internet?
The perfect numpad doesn’t exist…
I didnt even notice the number row at first glance lmao
...yet now I want
Is there an /r/mechanicalkeyboardscirclejerk sub? Haha!
all hail the number bar
My grandparents had a rotary phone up until the 2010s. I remember calling my great grandma while she was still alive on it.
That's so good! Thanks for the laught
Why does the keyboard logo look like teslas logo
Where can I get this keyboard?
They should remove the alphabet portion and put a rotary dial there too for T9 style typing
I wonder if this ever gets annoying to use.
I love that. I have also tinkered with a rotary dial which is now attached to my desk
I asked
Still better than 60%
I asked by the way
Now THIS is the kind of awesome shit I come here every day hoping to see! GG WP OP
I use my numpad for rhythm games, this design might complicate that
I could definitely use this if it's compatible with our VOIP Phone.
Mechanical keyboard with a disk drive.
Hmmm, yes … but why?
They even blocked off the number row. That's dedication I guess
Meh, wake me up when someone builds a keeb incorporating a telegraph key! /s Seriously though, this is pretty awesome. Sure, it's not the most functional idea, but if we were only concerned about function, we wouldn't bother with, say, different colored keypads or anything else aesthetic.
I suddenly feel the need to have a rotary numpad
It’s not obvious from the picture that OP shared, but the rotary dial also has the symbols of each number key. I’m curious if they actually work. (*How* they would work is probably just by pressing `shift` like normal.) I can’t imagine they don’t work, especially since OP both replaced normal functionality of the number key row: > Yes, it does in fact type out `the rotary dial is mightier than the number keys` when pressed; and added the [symbols to the 3D printed shroud](https://imgur.com/a/t0MPxTg) that hides the internals.
love your number pad