Keyboard Builders' Digest / Editorial
Behind the Scenes of Issue 89
New donor, vendor database update, XIAO pillow, new side-project, etc.
Published August 1, 2022
Hey y'all,
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Welcome back for another edition of Keyboard Builders' Digest (this time Issue #89), a weekly roundup of this DIY keyboard focused newsletter and blog from Tamas Dovenyi – that's me. If you are new to this, you can read how this started out and what this is all about nowadays. If you like what you see, you can subscribe to the newsletter (free) and donate some bucks to keep this otherwise free and ad-free project alive.
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Vendor database
Eloquent Clicks is back on board and offering you 5% discount again (the old code didn't work and I took it down temporarily). Now you can use the coupon code KBDNEWS again (except for GB items and certain categories).
Donors
One donor left but here's a new one:
Yay, MKUltra joined the ranks of kbd.news donors. Thanks a lot Erik!
(Don't forget: MKUltra has been offering a discount for some time so you can spare some money by using the semi-standardized KBDNEWS coupon code when purchasing from them.)
In the mailbox
I already shared this on Keebtalk and Twitter but wanted to put it here too:
Seeed Studio sent me a small sample of their XIAO controllers… plus a XIAO controller shaped pillow. :D
My wife's reaction: "At last something useful." XD
Btw, I was going to demonstrate the possibilities with only 11 GPIO pins, building something bigger than 30 keys by utilizing the voltage drop across diodes. However, Peng Zhihui's HanWen board with the shift registers made this demo probably obsolete: it turns out you can pretty much handle any number of keys with just 3 pins…
Regardless, don't forget the XIAO keyboard contest organized by Seeed.
New side-project
I'm a complete idiot. Instead of getting a life and drastically cutting back on the time I spend on kbd.news, I started to organize another keyboard related side-project – probably the biggest mission I've ever embarked on.
It's still top secret but I wanted to let you know this: if I post less frequently that's not because I neglect kbd.news – quite the contrary…
I'm not going to manufacture and offer a keyboard, nor open a shop. Details later.
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That's all for today. Thanks for reading.
Feel free to comment in this issue's r/mk thread, and as always: keep learning and building.
Cheers, Tamás
Published on Mon 1st Aug 2022. Featured in KBD #89.
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