CharaChorder Operating System (CCOS)

CCOS (CharaChorder Operating System) is the world’s first operating system built for intelligent keyboards. The lines between what is a computer and what is an input device have been blurred, and will continue to be blurred to the point that terminology like ‘firmware’ is no longer accurate or adequate.

CCOS offers an unprecedented level of control, efficiency, and optimization, and will be compatible with all past, present, and future CharaChorder devices, as well as every device powered by CharaChorder Engine. CCOS guarantees consistent performance across all devices and enhances the ability of our team to introduce new features, fix bugs, as well as respond to feedback more efficiently with a convergent and spearheaded approach. In addition to the introduction of importable and exportable settings, inside your Generative Text Menu (GTM) you’ll find new configurable settings including programmable debounce, arpeggiate tolerances, and even a customizable scan rate. Specialized ‘hard coded’ chords which were previously immutable can now be edited, including chords only available in spurring. Even modifier keys can now be repurposed as constituent inputs for any possible chord output by permanently overriding their derivative output on-the-fly via impulse. CCOS also brings with it the introduction of advanced arpeggiates, which are high staccato individual keystrokes which can enhance chords with modifiers, prefixes, suffixes, or punctuation.

If that’s not exciting enough… this is only the tip of the iceberg. Here are some things you can expect to experience moving forward as we peel back the layers and start to unlock the full potential of CCOS with future updates:

  • Compound Chording, the ability for any chord combination in any layout to be compounded with up to twelve other chords, with each compounding layer being tied to its own unique output.

  • An interface for programming advanced keyboard/mouse macros which can be assigned to either individual switches or chord outputs

  • Soon, the only limitation for chord length will be the memory on your device due to the new CCOS architecture’s capability to link together an infinite number of memory locations to a single chord output.

  • Increased independence of CharaChorder devices, including the ability of future generation devices to operate in the complete absence of an external computer.

  • More sophisticated mouse and cursor control, and future generation devices which function as a total mouse replacement, even for (and especially for) activities which require high precision/high speed cursor control such as gaming, modeling, & design.

CCOS was not designed for any one product, or even for a portfolio of products. In alignment with our mission to get the whole world typing at the speed of thought, CCOS was built as a platform which anyone can adopt or build upon, with possibilities that are only limited by the human imagination. Do you want to publish your own DataHand inspired CharaChorder One layout? Do you want to utilize fluid chorded/character entry in tandem with layouts/theories developed for velotype or stenography on your CharaChorder Lite? Do you want to introduce the world’s first 1-Dimensional keyboard layout designed for both character entry and chorded entry? What about a creative combination of all of the above which utilizes 100% custom hardware? No problem. This is all possible with CCOS.

Thank you for your interest in CharaChorder OS. We look forward to unleashing a keyboard revolution and redefining the limits of human-computer interaction!

Upgrade to CCOS

Danger

These instructions are only for those that had a device shipped before 2023 and that wish to update to CCOS. For all other CCOS updates, see the device manager page.

Part I - Back up chord library and update device

  1. Go to https://launchpad.charachorder.com/#/manager in a Google Chrome or other Chromium browser

  2. Click the ‘Connect’ button, then select your device

  3. You can confirm your device is properly connected if you see something like “Device: CHARACHORDER, firmware: 0.9.5”

  4. Click the ‘Download Chords’ button and wait for the table to populate. This could take a few minutes.

  5. Click ‘Export Library’ to export a .csv file to your machine (The file should be called: “CharaChorder_ChordLibrary.csv”)

  6. Once you are absolutely sure your library is exported properly, and ALL of your chords are present in the file, click the ‘Delete All Chords’’ button.

  7. Refresh the page, reconnect your device via steps 2-3, and click the ‘Bootloader’ button. A file explorer window should open on Windows. On Mac you may need to find your device as an external drive

  8. Download your update file from this site: https://www.charachorder.com/pages/update-your-firmware

    Warning

    You’ll notice that there are two different versions of the CharaChorder Lite. Please be sure to download the version that corresponds to your device, whether it’s M0 or S2. If you have a CharaChorder Lite that was delivered before October 1st, 2022 you will need to use the file which corresponds to the MO chipset. Otherwise CharaChorder Lite users should use the S2 chipset.

    Danger

    Make sure that the file you download is named exactly like this: CURRENT.UF2. If there are any other characters in the file name, the file will not work. CURRENT(1).UF2 will NOT work. Additionally, the file name is case-sensitive; all letters must be capitalized.

  9. Drag the UF2 file into the file explorer window and confirm that you would like to replace the existing file.

  10. The file explorer window should automatically close

Part II - Migrate your chord library

  1. Follow the steps to restore your library on the new device manager by following the steps on the Device Manager page for restoring from backup. Note, that although it says the file type should be .json, the .csv file downloaded will work.