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XBOX Controller Mods: Analog WASD Gaming Keyboard

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Cited on HN 3 times, 2020–2026, never outright recommended score 0
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Cited as 2012 prior art for analog keyboards when newer analog-key products and patents come up.

Ben Heck modifies a keyboard with magnets, Hall effect sensors and an Xbox controller so the WASD keys give analog control. He walks through the hardware build.

“That's mostly copycats of Ben Heck approach from 2012” (HN, 2026)

3 citations · Demos · intermediate

3 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@chrismorgan Jul 2020 Cites it
on HN thread I made a macro keypad with 3D-printed switches
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I wouldn’t worry about those ones at least. I read through the claims of the US patents, and they’re essentially describing “turn the arrow keys into a joystick”. US8717202B1 explicitly limits the mechanism to a light-and-mirror sort of arrangement (thus, optical switches). US8922399B2 is a broadening of the former patent, removing that limitation (which weakens it a lot because it’s not describing a concrete implementation but an abstract idea), and thus I think it would be claiming other forms of analogue switches (e.g. magnetic) too. Either way, there are a number of products on the market that, if would be infringing these patents (unless their manufacturers licensed the patents). Besides all this, I don’t believe individuals need to worry about patents if they’re doing things for themselves only. But beyond that, I would be quite happy to ignore the Aimpad patents because the concept was not novel, and prior art exists. [this video] was in 2012 and I haven’t gone searching any further. Taking the broader ’399: the project in that video is, I believe (I haven’t watched much of it, more just read a few comments about it and skimmed it), prior art for claims 1, 3, 5, 6, 10, 11, 12, and maybe others. For the rest, claim 2 is a supremely obvious extension of claim 1. Claim 4 is obvious and shouldn’t be patentable anyway. Claim 7 is… “what? how else could you possibly do it?”, viz. obvious. Claim 8 is obvious (as in, if such noise is a problem, of course you’re going to do this, it
Prior art from 2012 for analog keyboard patents
@thro1 Nov 2025 Cites it
on HN thread Max Number of Simultaneous Key-Press (N-Key Rollover, NKRO, Ghosting) (2010)
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There are diodeless (no matrix) split keyboards ( [link] ) like Cantor: [link] . They use chips similar to that one: XIAO ESP32S3 nRF52840 Sense Plus - wireless, energy efficient, with 20 pins GPIO or more - one pin for one key - [link] (there was an option of 16 pins extra using expander [link] - which is not made anymore, but you can use same chip MCP23017 to get that effect [link] [link] , up to 128 I/O pins : [link] - in that case - 36 simultaneous inputs by hand) - and with Hall sensor keys or similar we are soon talking about _easy_ having ~40+ .. simultaneus muiltiple ANALOG inputs in "keyboards" - like in Mitt [link] - or XBOX Controller Mods: Analog WASD Gaming Keyboard [this video] .
Example of analog WASD keyboard
@t23414321 Feb 2026 Cites it
on HN thread Exploring Different Keyboard Sensing Technologies
That's mostly copycats of Ben Heck approach from 2012 - some technical improvements, but like without understanding, further thinking about function - or imagination why someone needed it first, then what would be next. So all seems stuck for me, and not much than a bit a closer since then to what (and in which way) I want, starting from smoothly increasing the repeat rate with pressure for cursor keys or scrolling - not having to macro simulate it with few levels only. ( XBOX Controller Mods: Analog WASD Gaming Keyboard [this video] 2012)
Early 2012 analog keyboard that later products copy

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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