Issue 159 / Week 12 / 2024
This is a hand-picked selection of last week's content from a keyboard enthusiast's perspective. Posts that may teach you something, make you think and contribute to the common knowledge of the DIY builder community.
There are 7+11 entries in this issue:
Editorial
Behind the scenes #159
Keyboard projects, quick news, in the mailbox, meetups, new vendors and discount codes!
Projects
Powerspill
Sandalmoth published the Powerspill, a Dactyl-like split with keywell.
JK206
Jhonatan Ferrer's JK206 is an open-source 12x5 ortho keyboard – actually 3 numpads stuck together.
Silli41 & Silli18
Squalius-cephalus shared the Reviung-derivative monoblock Silli41, along with its numpad companion.
Review
Irok ND75 review
The IROK ND75, sold by MechKeys, is a genuine little gaming board with compact layout, nice magnetic switches, and plenty of RGB.
Tips & Tricks
Kada Spectrum
A 65% keyboard case inspired by the ZX Spectrum: Kada Spectrum by Emil.
Partycrasher Micro & Xiao
Semickolon shared some updates to the FAK firmware, along with Partycrasher Micro, a Pro Micro drop-in replacement.
Quick news
I learned about text expanders like Espanso via LividElevator's r/mk post. Unfortunately, steno is not for heavily agglutinating languages I type in, and the usage of these text expanders is limited too, but I set up unicode fractions, some emojis, arrows, etc.
Svalboard Lightly with trackball holder (onshape repo, source).
Some photos comparing Keyreative's "dye sub plus" technology (reduced post-dye-sub diffusion resulting in sharper edges).
Katana Kombat by Protieusz (closed source) – with symmetric layout and trackball.
Kyria tenting clip by dasmikko.
Inferno by Qlavier (source)
RE:CAP – artisans from recycled plastic by jankycaps (source).
Evolurk Aperture 75 – A keyboard (IC) inspired by Leica M Series cameras. "Viewfinder" (display), "ISO knob" (encoder), magnetic contact interfaces and screwless quick-release mechanism for easy assembly.
Chinese dragon spacebar, made by the ladies at Aihey Studio.
"Switch" keycaps (IG)
splitkb.com, Ashkeebs, MoErgo Glove80, ZSA Technology Labs, Aiksplace, @keebio, Upgrade Keyboards, Cyboard, Sean Grady, Jacob Mikesell, Jason Hazel, @kaleid1990, kiyejoco, KEEBD, Mechboards, littlemer-the-second, ghsear.ch, u/motfalcon, Bob Cotton, FFKeebs, TurtleKeebs, Joel Simpson, Richard Sutherland, @therick0996, Christian Mladenov, Lev Popov, Daniel Nikolov, Schnoor Typography, u/eighty58five, Caleb Rand, Skyler Thuss, Yuan Liu, James McCleese, Benjamin Bell, Ben M, zzeneg, Spencer Dabell, Anatolii Smolianinov, Matthias Goffette, TALPKEYBOARD, Penk Chen, Hating TheFruit, Davidjohn Gerena, Vitali Haravy, Clacky, Felicitas R., anonymous, Alex Miller, Gavin Folgert, Shnobble, Stefan S., Trey Causey
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