Keyboard Builders' Digest / Editorial
Behind the scenes #174
Keyboard projects, quick news, in the mailbox, meetups, new vendors and discount codes!
Published September 13, 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
Let me start with some of my own content: I reviewed the Glitter65 R2 and the Synth Labs 060, and the compilation of your favorite switches of August is here as well.
- MoeeTech's Glitter65 R2 is a significant upgrade to a cool keyboard kit with a distinctive aluminum case and unique drawer structure. The new assembly process is very easy, and the PCB supports split spacebars!
- The Synth Labs 060 is probably the most beautiful keyboard I've ever tested. The polished back grill is a stunning design choice. GB items have been shipped, some extras are still available.
- Best-selling switches of August. The next part of this monthly overview of community favorite mechanical switches, based on real sales data provided by vendors and manufacturers. Updated with some belated lists since its first publication.
- Sachiel is a 34-key unibody split keyboard with 25mm trackball – designed by protieusz.
- A 3D-printed, handwired split prototype by Fraawlen: NEXUS.
- Gareth Gummow shared the files of his Iyada, a split with dual trackpad layout.
- A 30-key version of the Sweep 2.2, featuring the author's cat: Sweep Cat by Matt Petiteau.
- Forager is a Voyager-inspired 34-key low-profile wireless split keyboard by carrefinho.
- BUBBY, a chording device, is Mikey Sklar's project for the pocket keyboard contest.
- A small DIY trackball device, based around an Elite-Pi controller and a PMW3360 sensor: TB3S by Wimads.
- Silakka54 is a RP2040 Zero based 54-key split keyboard, designed and shared by Juho T.
- Goobertrax-E by Alex Miller. Another Hummingbird-like hotswap monoblock with trackball.
PSA: By the way, this stupid reddit is messing with me. My bookmarks were gone but now they seem to be back. I may add some more projects from this recovered batch.
TIPS
- Maccel, mentioned in the TB3S post, is a mouse acceleration feature for QMK, developed by Wimads and @burkfers. It enables you to create a custom configurable acceleration curve for any QMK pointing device and can also be configured through VIA.
Its been living in the shadows of the bastardkb discord server since a while, but deserves some wider exposure, so anyone with a qmk pointing device like charybdis or a ploopy can benefit from it – Wimads.
- Anniversary: Admiral Shark's Keyboards is now five years old. Congrats!
- TypeCircuit is a daily typing speed challenge featuring quotes from popular video games, movies, and anime.
I made a daily Typing Game to test your average WPM speed and challenge your friends with a circuit of 3 quotes that changes every day! – Stixv.
- A handwired Keyberon F4 mod built by senecor. The original was created by TeXitoi.
Closed-source, WIP, etc.
- Corne Max, a ready-to-go Corne PCB in a high-pro aluminum case with acrylic bottoms. An IC by mechboards.co.uk.
- K:03 pro, K:03 open sourced (?) – I couldn't open the project.
- A blog post about Konstantin Pankratov's closed split project.
- KB54 (pre-sale) announced by Mariano Uvalle aka Additional-Stock/AYM1607. An evolution of the author's Swept Corne.
- A small offset ortho prototype: Shortho by Sebastian Stumpf aka ADreamOfStorms. WIP repo here.
I made myself a small orthoish board to experiment with different case designs and plate mounting styles. The PCB has an integrated MCU and no mounting holes (in order to force myself to utilize the plate as much as possible). The case right now is just a "starting point" so that I have something usable. The total height from bottom to keycap is 17mm. So it is a bit on the light side – Sebastian.
- Covert Falcon by yrb. A split prototype for on the go.
The two halves magnetically attach to each other with the help of the orange separator turning into a robust package that can go strait into a bag no additional case needed! – yrb.
- A 44-key handwired keyboard by holy_macanoli.
Keyboard art
- A Mushi in the wild – dlip's design built by CaptLynx.
- Space Cherry by Werk Technica.
- Toyota AE86-themed W70 by nikkobautista.
Best-selling switches
Compiling these articles takes a lot of time, but I got some positive feedback.
I know, it would be cool if we could have an aggregated top list, that's my goal too. This time more than 60% of the contributors sent me exact sales volumes already, so I could come up with an aggregated list.
However, one of the vendors sell much more switches than the other dozen who contributed, so the ultimate top list would be end up as the same as the particular shop's list. That's why I didn't bother with publishing an aggregated list this time, despite all the incoming sales data (thanks everyone!).
Spread the word so this series becomes some kind of reference, and vendors see the benefit of their contribution. E.g. Gateron and Kailh failed to get back to me. Presenting some impressive visitors stats may convince them next time. ;)
Kitchen computer on sale
I receive inquiries and exchange lots of emails all the time regarding keyboards and stuff, and some of the most interesting topics are confidential or end up not being featured on the blog for some reason or another.
E.g. I don't have thousands of dollars for something like this, but enjoy being asked anyway. :) Do you remember the Honeywell H316 kitchen computer? Well, the pedestal design with the cutting board is unlikely to appear on a classified ads site, but there's a rack-mounted version on sale right now, in Germany.
The seller's mom worked as a salesperson for Honeywell and saved this one from being scrapped, and stored it for decades wasting a lot of space in her house.
We talk about plenty of modules, manuals, libraries, punch paper rolls, the H316 itself, the punch paper reader and the stand alone typewriter.
In the mailbox
I received a package with a Lilith & Lilin (the one mentioned in my last editorial) from KBDcraft. Given the LEGO frames, this latter can be used as a split macropad or as an add-on to the Lilith – with adjustable angle. Review hopefully next week.
Also a last-minute arrival: a Luminkey Magger68.
Donations
- Yay, the first donation on Ko-Fi! And the second one too: Thanks Astrummmm and Jesse Leite! What happened? No one has used this platform so far. Thank you guys!
- In addition, 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!
Meetup database
Upcoming meetups
- CannonKeys 2024 Meetup, September 14, Pawtucket, RI, US
- Montreal Mechanical Keyboard Meetup, September 14, Montreal, Canada
Recently added
- Spookeys - Mechanical Keyboard Meetup, October 27, Ottawa, Canada
- Keycon 2025 (details pending), June 14, 2025, Washington DC, DC., US
- MECHANICON 2025 (details pending), October 11, 2025, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
As always, this meetup database serves as 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 160 keyboard shops! And do not hesitate to report any issues.
New shops and updates to the database of keyboard vendors this past two weeks:
- A new coupon for the MoeeTech Glitter65 R2: use the R2KBDNEWS code for free shipping. (The KBDNEWS one is still in effect, 20% off, but only for R1.)
- 1337keyboards added, and Jesse offered you a 5% discount with the KBDNEWS coupon code. (Thanks!) Based out of Canada, he sells nice splits like the Lily58 or Nijuni – pre-builts and kits.
- Toronto Keyboardman added.
Developments
- Lot of switch content (but mostly admin stuff) as a back-end for the monthly switch overviews (new database entries, functions, improving the scripts checking for price updates and in-stock status, etc.). In fact, the articles are generated based on the database, otherwise I would go crazy with all the products, metadata and order of list items. Or simply trying to keep track of which vendor's data I've already processed and what still needs to be done.
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That's all for today. I'm sure I forgot to mention a lot of things. Feel free to ping me if you suspect your mail landed in my spam folder.
Thanks for checking by. As always: Keep learning and building!
Until next time,
Tamás
Published on Fri 13th Sep 2024. Featured in KBD #174.
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