Keyboard Builders' Digest / Editorial
Behind the scenes #164
Keyboard projects, quick news, in the mailbox, meetups, new vendors and discount codes!
Published May 6, 2024
Hey, what's up everyone!
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.
Motivation
- Ouch, THREE recurring donations canceled in the recent days. Not the best motivation. Help me out if you can afford it.
Some posts worth sharing
- I've been building and testing two Glitter65s by MoeeTech. A pretty unique keyboard kit with a distinctive appearance: thanks to the seamless aluminum case and drawer structure. Also, USB hub, card reader, cool bag anyone? Now with 30% off (code: KBDNEWS).
- Mike Hölscher writes about his WIP unibody split called mikefive. A super-thin (5mm) keyboard built around Kailh's PG1316S notebook switches.
- Sinisha Stojchevski's PHNX is a unibody split keyboard with on-board MCU.
- A split ortholinear keyboard with on-board MCU: PICCTRL - 0xLM by Lluis Merlos Pieri.
- Mikey Sklar shared a wireless one-handed keyboard with Morse code as input method.
- Kea Workshop's Claude published his Seagull macropad - with MX/Choc support and exposed diodes.
- As announced by Lowpro.ca, Ambients Silents, truly quiet Choc switches redesigned from the ground up, are in stock now.
- Hemal Chevli made a macropad with screen and encoder to switch between layers (video demo).
- Stacked plywood keyboard by toffeeecoffeee:
Since stacked acrylic is a thing, why not birch plywood?
- And a walnut one by KeyboardGeek69420's dad. :)
- Handwired: An ortho board by peaz_, and a row-staggered split by sashalex007.
- Derek McDaniel shared a chorded keyboard timing visualizer. Live version this way.
New products
- Cerakey V2 homing F & J are available and being sold as a separate set so old and new Cerakey customers can get them without buying a full set. (The KBDNEWS coupon code works only above a $40 minimum purchase amount.)
Cerakey V2 Homing F & J bumps are officially available NOW! After experimenting and testing, your fingertips can finally find their way home xD – Cerakey.
- Lowpro.ca's Darryl announced the "worst-kept secret out there": Ambients Silents are truly quiet Choc switches, in stock now.
The Ambients line of switches are re-designed from the ground up to provide total compatibility with choc v1 keycaps and keyboards, but allow for the superior performance and smooth operation you expect from premium switches… with the added benefit of being one of the quietest switches around.
All parts of the switch are changed from standard choc v1 switches, so they cannot be swapped with older v1 parts:
- The Norbauer-type stabilizer
Despite the first reactions (expensive, overly complicated, more points of failure, overengineered, missing the point entirely, etc.), the rather long write-up about Norbauer's new stabilizer designs was an excellent read even if the ultimate solution couldn't be more obvious: all-1U splits. ;)
Joke aside, I really hate stabs and would aviod them at all cost if there weren't some barebone kits arriving in my post box. Anyway, the time and effort put into this project by Ryan is impressive:
[You can buy a premium board…] yet among its most critical components can be found a fundamentally flawed mechanism that has seen little refinement since its inception.
Keyboard art
- Macropad built into a breathmint tin – committed by Daealis.
SpaceFN on Drop
Hey, I hope you're not sick of SpaceFN yet, but Drop's HoffmanMyster asked me for some articles and this was an obvious choice since it was very popular on kbd.news, at least based on pageviews.
So here is the condensed version for Drop, feel free to upvote it so I receive similar requests in the future. ;)
Btw, thinking about what to write about next time led me to dusting off my keymap tools, which are starting to take shape.
Donations
- As already told, THREE recurring donations canceled recently. Help me out if you can afford it.
- And many thanks to my awesome regular supporters and everyone who helped this project thus far.
For all the donation options check out the donation page!
In the mailbox
Akko is spoiling me (just like Aihey Studio).
After all the caps and switches, a MOD 007 V3 Year of Dragon has arrived.
It's a real beast: three-tone anodized aluminum case, magnetic switches, 8KHz polling rate, and I'll have to weigh it somewhere else because it probably exceeds the max capacity of our precision scales at the university. :D
Follow-up: It feels very heavy but weighs "only" 1.93kg.
And the Slytherin caps by Aihey came in handy for the illustration of the upcoming Harry Potter typeout article. ;)
Meetup database
Upcoming meetups
- Drop Mech Keys Meetup, May 11, Milpitas, CA, US
Recently added
- Keebs Club at UCI Spring Fling, May 5, Irvine, CA, US
- Winnipeg Spring Meetup, June 1, Winnipeg, Canada
- Keeblife 2024, August 31, Pasadena, CA, US
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
Feel free to use the KBDNEWS discount code at 151 keyboard shops! And do not hesitate to report any issues.
New shops and updates to the database of keyboard vendors this week:
- UKKeycaps/MechSupply shutting down?
Developments
- A handy tool to compare layouts, processing text stats, etc. For the keymap wizardry series.
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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 Mon 6th May 2024. Featured in KBD #164.
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