Keyboard Builders' Digest / Editorial
Behind the scenes #170
Keyboard projects, quick news, in the mailbox, meetups, new vendors and discount codes!
Published July 26, 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.
Some posts worth sharing
- I tested Wind Studio's WIND X80, a visually clean yet very refined F13 TKL keyboard kit with endless customization options.
- Rafael Romão shared his Diamond, a 24-key handwired Dactyl-like board.
- Gleb is back with a classy one-handed chording keyboard: the 10-key Sexy Artsey.
- LeBallz is a Le Chiffre variant by Protieusz – with a 25mm trackball and an optional EC11 encoder.
- The Kingslayer 28 is a custom gaming keypad designed by Ognjen Bjeletic.
- A stunning unibody split with optional encoder: Ashwing66 by James Gzowski.
- A hybrid wired no-stabs 1800 keyboard: N3v4 by wjrii.
- CrackerBot's Crowkb_46 is a split 3x6 with low placed thumb clusters.
- A handwired split ortho by Joe Scotto: ScottoHazard.
- A 18-key unibody split: Smiler18 designed by weykn.
- The footprint and 3D CAD file of the PG1316S (and PG1316M) keycap and switch, as used in the mikefive, was shared by dynam1keNL (source). These are the original files he received from Kailh.
- Joe released V2 of ScottoModules (STM32F072CBT6).
- The Alpinist, published by Ben Hastings, is a tool generating parametric keyboards with arbitrary numbers of keys on each row – using Python's cadquery.
- Shay (saysub) added a trackpad to his HillSideView.
Some closed-source and WIP projects:
- A pivoting unibody split with adjustable angle. Designed by szakacsz.
- Keyboard Marine V1 by win_detto. A stacked acrylic one, the PCB is one of the layers.
- A nice one-handed keyboard/macropad by pabloescobyte.
- A 75% row-staggered split by Scale0.
- I don't have 20 mins to watch this video by Christian Selig, but it was recommended so here it is. I see it's a split project mentioning Ergogen. May make a post later. Anyway:
Keyboard art
- Wow. Some classy use of wood: Mode X Mod Musings Encore. Flex by Sterlingandcophoto. ;)
- Wooden art deco wrist rest with brass inlay. Posted by UsernameEtymologist.
- Meanwhile at Renaissance Hotel and Conference Center in Denver, CO (posted by mathinpenn). Yep, that's a wall map made of keycaps. Here is a video.
- exen904 remixed the Cornehole Case.
- Almost everything is 3D printed here, designed by Cup_0_Tea.
- Pikatea Long Boi (short version, there's a 7 foot one too).
- This packaging of the HMX film switches deserves a feature too (photo by eddiez87):
Kbd.news to the rescue
This blog has about 2,400 entries at the moment, and I'm always glad when people discover old write-ups every now and then. LHF, a Chinese collector of vintage test equipment & computer related stuff contacted me this week. He sourced a Philips P817 terminal recently, with its original keyboard – cable cut off. The Philips PMDS article helped to breath life into his keyboard!
[…] I almost started reverse engineering the circuit. But after I searched on google using the picture of my keyboard, I found your article, even coming with the picture inside the connector housing, which clearly shows how the colored cables should be connected. That was exactly what I needed! After some dirty temporary soldering, I managed to connect the keyboard to the terminal and what a surprise, it worked! Your single picture just saved me tons of time and probing! – LHF.
Cleanup
Speaking of vintage terminals, my wife asked me to clean up the terrace which has become another storage area for my vintage stuff recently. So I was cleaning some keyboards this week.
E.g. this Videoton terminal keyboard manufactured in 1977.
Top switch compilation – hopefully back
Inspired by a recent conversation and request, I'm in the midst of resurrecting the monthly switch top list, originally done in collab with Milktooth's Kevin.
This month I reached out to a lot of vendors and manufacturers, still waiting for some feedback, but have already a handful of individual top10 lists. I'm really interested in the best-selling switches of various regions and niches.
Had high hopes initially to be able to automate this process, but most stores use Shopify, and the public best-seller pages of Shopify stores show lifetime stats, unfortunately. And not many folks would like to give me access to their live sales stats, obviously :) – which means I won't be able to fetch this data automatically and will have to rely on shop runners' reports.
Anyway, it will be a lot of work but I hope this will work on the long run and you will find it useful.
Donations
- No new donor this time. Instead, PayPal started acting weirdly again.
- As always, 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
OK, I'm officially overwhelmed. 6 boards waiting for review, no idea how I'll manage this.
- Joe Scotto's ScottoWing kit
Wind Studio X80– the launching date yesterday gave me a little motivation to build it.- Moeetech's Glitter65 R2 (not R1v2 but R2!) arrived in a gorgeous color. I left it in my office so photos later. Sales only start in a month, so I still have time for this.
- a Hexgears gamer board with display – finally a pre-built one! :)
- Wind/DaringRun Flip 6P
- and I'd like to cover (and use!) the Mantis too!
Because of the many barebone kits arriving, I ordered a heap of stabs. Got tired of eviscerating previous builds.
Meetup database
Upcoming meetups:
- Natinal Keyboard Meetup Day 2024, with events like:
- SFxMK NorCal Meetup, July 27, San Jose, CA, US
- NYC Mechanical Keyboard Meetup, July 27, New York, NY, US
- Northern Virginia Meetup, July 27, Arlington, VA, 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 157 keyboard shops! And do not hesitate to report any issues. I know, I know. Some reports are still pending. I'll get there eventually, thanks.
- ButterBoard offered you a 5% discount. The code is "BB5" at the moment, but I asked Gergő to update it to KBDNEWS.
- Last days of Modern Coup Design Studio's July offer: 10% discount off all their nice keyboard sleeves. Use the KBDNEWS coupon code.
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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 26th Jul 2024. Featured in KBD #170.
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