Keyboard Builders' Digest
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Keyboard Builders' Digest / Editorial

Behind the scenes #181

Keyboard projects, reviews, MK Advent Calendar, quick news, in the mailbox, meetups, vendors, discounts.

dovenyi
Published December 13, 2024
Creators! Feel free to tip me off about your keyboard related projects to bring them to 140K readers.

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

These past few days have been pretty busy: the monthly switch overview, two reviews, and the first advent calendar articles starting to trickle in.

  • The November switch list, featuring last month's community-favorite mechanical switches, was the most visited post. The write-up is based on real sales data provided by 14 vendors, representing 1.2 million switches sold.

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  • I reviewed the Velvet v3 by Ergohaven, a beautiful split with classy contours, keywell, hotswappable switches, and Vial support. Beside prebuilt and barebone kit options, the project is also open source!

Pic: Ergohaven Velvet v3

Ergohaven Velvet v3

  • My first mouse review: the tri-mode Dareu A980 Pro Max is a highly customizable companion for gaming and office use. It has a TFT display btw.

Pic: Dareu A980 Pro Max mouse review

Dareu A980 Pro Max mouse review

  • In the advent calendar, Jack and Bethany write about the history of Pikatea, as they're closing their keyboard and macropad store.

Pic: Closing down Pikatea - A Farewell

Closing down Pikatea - A Farewell

  • David discusses why he started Kool Keys, and what making high end cables entails: the costs, equipment, trials and tribulations of being obsessed with making the perfect cable.

Pic: Connected: A tale of obsession over cables

Connected: A tale of obsession over cables

  • Projects: An ultra-low profile unibody split keyboard by Travis Mick, inspired by Le Chiffre: Le Oeuf.

Pic: Le Oeuf

Le Oeuf

  • Arnau Bago shared his Pi Pico based 34-key split: the Selenum S.

Pic: Selenium S

Selenium S

  • The VOID by Allen Choi is a 3x5 ergo split with some splay and displays.

Pic: VOID

VOID

  • The Anywhy Flake by Max is a 46-key ergo split with a minimalist, no-frills design.

Pic: Anywhy Flake

Anywhy Flake

  • An ultra-low-profile split with Kailh PG1316 switches: LowKey36 by Matt Gilbert.

Pic: LowKey36

LowKey36

  • The CapriCorne is a low-pro split with reversible PCB – designed by Skreddvik.

Pic: CapriCorne

CapriCorne

Wall of Shame aka Watchcat – Vendors to avoid

It's so frustrating to waste my time for this side-project, but I have to implement some measures to protect you from shady vendors.

Every month, readers click on over 200,000 outbound links from the thousands of pages on this blog to explore various shops and manufacturers. These are just the clicks from the vendor database, the top bar, and now the switch database is starting to climb up the rankings. Driving you to other sites is a significant responsibility for me.

While most of these vendors are trustworthy, established brands, some shady businesses emerge from time to time. Catching a potential exit scammer is tricky, but shops are frequently reported on reddit, keebtalk, etc. That said, many community members don't follow these resources on a daily basis. Since I generally do, and I also fell victim of one of these possible scams, I started to log the complains and channel all outbound links through a script that can check if the particular shop was reported recently. To prevent people unaware of the behavior of these shops to fall into the same trap.

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This mechanism is going to be the Wall of Shame aka KBD.NEWS Watchcat. There is a threshold for intervention, and also a cooldown period – so there is a way back for rogue shops.

Based on the recent reports, clicking links of Vala Supply, Loobed Switches, and Dustsilver should trigger a warning soon.

Back to the news…

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TIPS

Mmm. These 2U Brisk Lemon Tai-Hao THT keycaps look tasty.

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  • A new keycap profile by Ok-March. Sculpted, looks cylindrical, with low-pro MDAish vibes – without a name yet.

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Closed-source, WIP, etc.

  • The UHK 80 is some serious stuff. The good old Ultimate Hacking Keyboard in a new 80% TKL form factor.

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  • Joe is raising the stakes with the ScottoCyberdeck, his first cyberdeck project.

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  • And sometimes you need just a few pics to get some inspiration: a Macbook Air cut in half to house split. A project by MasGui.

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Keyboard art

  • The new Luminkey75 V2 has such a nice side profile! End nice everything. ;)

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I don't know anything about sewing, but my wife got a new sewing machine so I HAD to give it a try.

  • I've probably posted a photo about the Encore already, but I loved these shots by Affectionate_Side.

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  • Another nice side profile: Vida. Photo by Sterlingandcophoto.

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Weekly Diderot effect

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In the mailbox

Since the last editorial, I received the Ergohaven Velvet V3. Arguably the prettiest member of the Ergohaven split family.

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And some retro stuff as well: a Sharp MZ-700, a Honeywell terminal keyboard, and a Videoton TV computer – I've been eyeing with this Sharp for almost a year, and been looking for a sensibly priced VTC for more than 5 years! Now what? :)

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In addition, a cool Minecraft keycap set arrived from Aihey Studio. I left the set in my office, so this is a photo from the product page. Will surely get back to these keycaps in a future keyboard review.

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Donations

  • Oh, no! A long-time supporter canceled his recurring donation. If you think kbd.news is worth a few bucks, this is the perfect time to join the line-up of awesome folks supporting this project.

For all the donation options check out the donation page!

Meetup database

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 168 keyboard shops! And do not hesitate to report any issues.

New shops and updates to the database of keyboard vendors this past two weeks:

  • YourKBD added, and Ryan offered you a discount of 7% (KBDNEWS). This shop has been around, focusing on domestic (China) market, and they are expanding and offering worldwide shipping now.
  • Another new shop: Turkeyboards (US) kicks in the door with a 10% discount for you. Use the KBDNEWS coupon code.
  • The Thocc Exchange (UK) with lots of switches. Use the KBDNEWS coupon code for 10% off (first orders).
  • Keycapmart (CN) – custom keycaps for ya. 10% off with the KBDNEWS coupon code.
  • Elec Fox added. A China-based store offering keyboards and switches.
  • I added Dustsilver too, just to be able to mark it as suspicious – based on reports. Reached out to them and will create a proper entry if they ever reply.
  • Pikatea is closing. Last day you can purchase anything is Dec 20.
  • New GMK shop.

Developments

  • Fully overhauling last year's advent calendar script to adapt it for a non-calendar presentation. ;)
  • Developing the shady shop warning mechanism – aka KBD.NEWS Watchcat.
  • Tweaking the inner switch pages: some fixes when displaying tactile models.
  • Automating some more tasks related to the switch database and top list.

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That's all for today. Thanks for checking by. As always: Keep learning and building!

Until next time,
Tamás

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Published on Fri 13th Dec 2024. Featured in KBD #181.


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