"My Distraction-Free Typewriter (Micro Journal)"

I finally got my baby, a Distract-Free Typewriter. I chose the Micro Journal Rev.2. Thank you, Un Kyu Lee. As a writer and author, this thing is a beauty and just what I didn’t know I wanted.

Split Screen: Writing my next article while looking up:

Micro Journal Rev.2 is out in the open:

Excursion to the local coffee house:

The spell checker on and off.

Chill session writing about my favorite topics, Business Intelligence:

Or in combination with an actual typewriter, My Typewriter (Hermes 2000), and the Kinesis Advantage 2 (find my Kinesis Advantages 2 Lubing and Dampering mods too 😀):

Which one is your favorite? 😉

View from the back, setting up and plugging in the power bank:

More Links to images and posts

• My Bsky Thread
• My Reddit Post with Neovim: Micro Journal Rev. 2 with Neovim as Word Processor : r/writerDeck
• Still loving the Micro Journal Rev.2 with Neovim—Chill writing session. : r/writerDeck

I spent all day yesterday modding and updating the SW to make it my perfect writer tool. As a data engineer and author, I use Vim Motions all day long. On my laptop, I use Obsidian for writing and Neovim for programming. As the Micro Journal has limited memory and CPU, I decided to set up Neovim as a word processor.

• Vim Motions as navigation and writing!
• extensibility with multiple plugins.
  • E.g., I can switch to different themes (light if I’m outside).
  • I can split screens and open multiple files, jump back and forth, fuzzy find other files, link to my second brain with [[]], Markdown rendering (see headers ## are highlighted with colors, bold and links, lists, code blocks (!!), callouts are highlighted, and many more)

• yazi as a file navigator (a faster, Rust-based file navigator, the same as Ranger). It is opening much faster than Ranger.
• Installed Neovim
• I installed git to sync my writing, e.g., my book is written in Markdown. This way, I can simply continue on my Laptop when I finish with the Micro Journal.

I will definitely continue to tinker with it. Some of the Neovim configs are here - it’s not the latest, I will update soon. But be aware that installing the latest version of Neovim was not straightforward. If you are interested, I can write more about it.

P.S.: I bought the Akko’s clicky Creamy switches and added KAM Playground keycaps. Next up, lubing the switches so that they are not that scratchy :)) Reddit, Bsky

Initially, I wanted an e-ink device that could have apps. I wanted one that could run Obsidian, and there are devices that do all of it. But then I thought that it was just another “phone” like device, with all the distractions. So, with the limitations that come with a terminal-only device, I thought that’s just right.

• Open writing on tty1 and with alt + F2 open another terminal and have Second Brain open there for research. Switch between them with alt F1 and F2.

I went for Micro Journal Rev2, see Micro Journal.

I went with

• KAM Playground – Oblotzky Industries ( Rome keycaps: nice but is cherry, not XDA!)
  • 
  • The search of Keycaps and colors. Moved to Keycaps research for Micro Journal.
• Akko V3 Pro Creme Blaue
• Anker Power Bank, Powerbank 20000mAh 30W for charging

Convert neovim into a type writer or word processor: NeoVim as a WordProcessor. Example with emacs: My Microjournal Rev.2.ReVamp : r/writerDeck.

• Device: Micro Journal - Above version is a Rev.2 by Un Kyu Lee
• Hardware: Raspberry Pi Zero 2W
• Keyboard: 48-key ortholinear mini keyboard with side knobs for scrolling
• Switches: Akko V3 Pro Creamy Blue (clicky)
• Keycaps: KAM Playground by Oblotzky Industries (KAM uniform spherical profile)
• Keymap Firmware: QMK / Vial
• Battery: Molicel INR 18650 Li-ion
• OS: Debian/Raspberry Pi OS based
• Word Processor (Editor): Neovim configured as a word processor (Vim Motions, themes, split screen, fuzzy find, Markdown rendering, [[wikilink]] support)
• File Manager: Yazi (Rust-based, replaces Ranger)
• Version Control: Git — syncs Markdown writing between device and laptop

I also created a bash script for local file sharing via WiFi AP. No external WiFi required. I can share files between my phone and microjournal anywhere without needing to log into work, coffee shop, or home WiFi. My Microjournal Rev.2.ReVamp : r/writerDeck

More:

• micro-journal/scripts
• OftenDeck

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#!/bin/bash

# Function to run when Ctrl + C (SIGINT) is detected
cleanup() {
    echo "Disabling NetworkManager.service..."
    sudo systemctl stop NetworkManager.service
    echo "NetworkManager.service disabled."
    exit 0
}

# Trap Ctrl + C (SIGINT) and call the cleanup function
trap cleanup SIGINT

sudo systemctl start NetworkManager.service
sleep 10
sudo nmcli device wifi hotspot ssid microjournal password microjournal ifname wlan0
echo "########################################"
echo "wifi:microjournal pwd:microjournal"
echo "Open http://$(hostname -I | awk '{print $1}'):8080 in your web browser"
echo "Ctrl + C to exit"
echo "########################################"

# Start the file browser, suppressing output
filebrowser -r ~/microjournal/documents -a 0.0.0.0 --noauth -d ~/file.db > /dev/null 2>&1

# Wait indefinitely until Ctrl + C is pressed
while true; do
    sleep 1
done

• ./startnetwork.sh starts wifi
• ./stopnetwork stops it

These scripts are under the microjournal (HOME) folder.

The custom keymaps I made for my Micro Journal.

Inspired by the layout of My Kinesis Advantages 2 (as also ortholinear and limited space side wards)

Z and Y is Swapped to US Layout

I grew up with  QWERTZ (mainly german speaking countries use), but switched to US layout, but kept the Z/Y out of habit :)

# Change Key Maps with Vial

1. Back up any writing on your Rev 2. This is just a precaution. Very little can go wrong here.
2. Shutdown the Rev 2 and click the power switch to off. Close the lid to ensure you don’t mistakenly use keys on the Rev 2 during this.
3. Connect the USB port on the side of the Rev 2 keyboard to your computer.
   1. You should not disconnect this cord for any reason before two minutes has passed (just to be safe).
   2. ~ Connecting the cable (use a USB-A to USB-C (USB-C to C does not boot!)) will cause the Rev 2 to boot.
   3. ! If the cable is disconnected during the boot cycle it could corrupt the SD card.
   4. Two minutes is probably more than you need to wait, but I’m being super-safe here.
4. Make your changes to either replace or move functions as detailed above. Click on the key you want to replace on your Key Map in the top half of the screen and then click on the function you want to replace it with in the bottom half of the screen. Repeat this for as many changes as you wish.
5. When you have completed all your changes:
   1. simply exit Vial on your computer and
   2. disconnect the USB cable that connects your Rev 2 to the computer.
   3. The Rev 2 will turn off, but you won’t see that because the lid should be closed.
6. That’s it. The next time you boot up, you should have the changes on the Rev 2’s keyboard.

Default mapping of Micro Journal

• Hooks-Keymap-Guide.pdf

If you want to install Neovim - neovim-latest.sh:

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# Make sure snapd is installed and up-to-date
sudo apt update
sudo apt install snapd
sudo reboot  # You'll need to reboot after installing snapd

# After reboot, install the core snap
sudo snap install core

# Now install Neovim
sudo snap install nvim --classic

There’s also scripts for installing other libraries and tools I use such as ripgrep, zoxide and other tools:

• install-wp.sh
• or yazi: yazi.sh

I forgot to turn off the screen over night, now the battery is totally empty. I have charged the last 30 to 60 minutes now, but it is still not turning on. Should I be worried, or does that just take time?

When a lithium-ion battery like the Molicel INR 18650 is completely drained, it may require some time to reach a minimum charge threshold before the device will power on. This is normal behavior and a safety feature with many devices that use lithium-ion batteries.

Answer

In my case, it took around 65 minutes or more until two green lights were on, and then it was working again. Before it was only a red light on. Also, check if it’s charging well (there should be a red light on the MJ that indicates charging. Also, the charging only works from a USB-A to a USB-C (low power))

I had to replace it with another, and then it worked again.

Cassidy Williams had similar issues described on Debugging my Micro Journal:
She also had the issue that the switches that weren’t working were just the furthest right two columns of keys! Googling this proved to be nearly impossible, until I found a Reddit comment buried in an old post:

There’s sometimes a glitch when powering the device with the left-side USB-C that’s farther from the keyboard, where some keys don’t work. The left-side USB-C that’s closer to the keyboard doesn’t have this issue.

I asked the Micro Journal creator Un Kyu Lee whether Obsidian would work initially:

I also use obsidian. But I don’t see a use case in the micro journal that directly invovles obsidian. Unfortunately, micro journal revisions are all low power computers and they don’t have enough computing power to run obsidian.

I would use micro journal to write a text and then do the obsidian management in the PC. But I understand that the power of obsidian is in the tagging and that would be missing in this type of workflow.

Probably, best is to use with a phone. I use obsidian on the phone and sync well with the PC using my NAS in the middle.

I might be releasing something that connects with the mini PC with a ortholinear keyboard. Maybe that revision may fit your needs.

I tried, and even Neovim takes a while to open, so Obsidian is definitely not possible with Electron background.

Only 3.2 GB was used, instead of full 32GB.

Then select Advanced Options -> Expand Filesystem. That extended the partition to 32 GB.

• 1 GB RAM minimum

Distraction-Free Typewriter

Go in and open another virtual terminal tty2 with alt + F2.
Run ps aux and kill neovim and yazi (I had to kill the parent process of yazi ps -ef | grep yazi) with kill -9 PID. Only then it was released.

• try Fbterm: for symbols and more colors compared to tty terminal: GitHub - sfzhi/fbterm: Framebuffer terminal emulator

• Uni-taskers
• More about Linux and Omarchy where setup similar tools: My Journey from macOS to Arch Linux with Omarchy (Also check out Part 2)
• My Mechanical Keyboards

Origin: Distract-Free Typewriter
References: My Typewriter (Hermes 2000)