Keyboard Builders' Digest / Editorial
Behind the scenes #146
Giveaway and advent calendar update, quick news, in the mailbox, meetups, new vendors and discount codes!
Published December 8, 2023
Hey y'all,
A lot of stuff is going on at kbd.news these days, I hope I don't miss or mess up anything, at least not too badly.
- PSA: Beside Keygem's aluminum keycap set, Paramountkeeb offered some PK Sora linears so I'm leaving the November switch purchase poll online for another 24 hours. Join the raffle if you haven't done so yet.
Slightly belated, only 100 issues behind, but I didn't have to think twice about KBD#146's listening: Forty Six (& 2) by Tool, performed by some cool kids. Or rather Meytal Cohen since 90% of mk enthusiasts are adult males.
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Welcome back for another weekly recap and behind-the-scenes write-up.
If you are new to kbd.news, you can read how this started out and what this is all about nowadays. If you like what you see, subscribe to the newsletter (free) and donate some bucks to keep this otherwise free and ad-free project alive.
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Posts I thought are worth sharing:
- The advent calendar rolls on with incredibly versatile topics: Hexagonal keys in ergonomic layouts, report from a a brick-and-mortar mechanical keyboard store, bringing out the best of your Pro Micro, building keyboards with lasers, tips on organizing meetups, the MK Vendor Trust and Safety System, ProtieusKeeb's summary of the year, and the brief history of keyboard encoding. Many thanks to all the contributors!
- When lost in the sea of switches, Milktooth's Kevin comes to the rescue and helps us to capture the zeitgeist and identify November's most popular switches for mechanical keyboards. (Again, last day to fill out the November switch poll and win.)
- Richard Goulter shared two orthos: CH552-48 & CH552-44 – both using the cheap CH552 MCU.
- Zireael is a low-pro wireless split, shared by Mposible – based on the Dao.
- Sporkus' Le Capybara is a capacitive sensing keyboard in Le Chiffre layout.
- A keyboard design framework with adjustable columns on a rail system: Seismos by Danny Vo.
- Cyberdeck with a monoblock split keyboard by Alex Karantza.
- A handwired macropad by Bastian Reuther.
- A tutorial by Gleb: DIY homing keycaps made with a paper clip and soldering iron.
- Closed, N/A, etc.: Nydas36, Planck roleplaying as a unibody split, handwired A-TE-B1 ortho.
Giveaway update
The anniversary giveaway is over. I mean, my part. Kind of. I have to sort out a couple of remaining items, but this should be a piece of cake. Maybe finding new winners instead of a few unresponsive guys (check out your freakin' spam folder NOW!).
However, I may simply keep these prizes for later use. There are some new offers which may end up in small monthly giveaways anyway.
Paramountkeeb offered 70x PK Sora linear switches, Strumace and MechKeys also contacted me, etc.
I'll have to put together a dedicated page for these giveaways and prizes for you and me to be able to keep track of everything.
Donations
- Yay, thanks for your donation Karine!
- And Ashkeebs (one of your favorite shops based on my numbers) is on board now as well!
- As always, many thanks to everyone who helped this project thus far, especially to regular supporters. Without you, this project wouldn't have survived for 3 years.
For all the donation options check out the donation page!
In the mailbox
Nothing in the mailbox this week, but MechKeys kindly offered me a free keyboard of my choice. (Thanks!) I can't decide so I thought I'd ask you: which keyboard would you like me to review and then give it away to a lucky reader? Meaning: which one would you like to win?
Help me to choose!, and comment your choice here:
MechKeys kindly offered me a keyboard from their store. Since I'm more into custom ergo splits, I thought I'd ask you which keyboard should I review and than give away to one lucky reader. Choose your preference(s) and leave a comment for a chance to win:https://t.co/MApVugy0NZ pic.twitter.com/ATuEnK9v9x
— kbd.news (@KbdNews) December 8, 2023
On another note, I'm playing the postman these days. Trying to reunite my collection for a year-end photoshoot, I'm transporting the 15-20 keyboards stored in my office to my attic… I don't really use a car most of the days, my daily commute is a 10 minute walk, and driving would take actually longer. So I'm taking the boards home in small batches. This is how the Wednesday shipment looked like:
Meetup database
Upcoming:
- 8th Swiss MK Meetup, Dec 10, Zürich.
New addition:
- Keyboards Hawaii Year-End Meetup, Dec 17, Honolulu.
- キー部 7% announced (registration not yet open) – Jan 20, Tokyo.
As always, this meetup database is both a calendar and an archive so feel free to send me upcoming events or even ones from the recent past to make this collection as comprehensive as possible.
Vendors & Discounts
New shops, discount codes and updates to the database of keyboard vendors this week:
- BeaverKeys (Canada) added, and Peter offered you a 5% discount (KBDNEWS).
- cocotkeebs is Aki27's new US-based Cocot shop!
- New KPrepublic discount. $5 off of selected items, $15 min order, one use per customer. (I just discovered I had this for some time but never announced it…)
More than 120 shops offer you various discounts with the semi-standardized KBDNEWS coupon code. At this point you can simply develop the habit to enter it at any online shop at the checkout phase. It should work in one out of four stores. ;)
Developments
Yeah, I assign advent calendar articles to a special issue, so they don't show up in issue 146 here. I'm aware of this and will try to come up with a fix.
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Still with me?
A man once told me time heals all wounds. So I stabbed him. Now we wait.
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That's all for today. Thanks for checking by. As always: Keep learning and building!
Until next time,
Tamás
Published on Fri 8th Dec 2023. Featured in KBD #146.
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