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Keyboard Builders' Digest / Editorial

Behind the scenes #185

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

dovenyi
Published January 31, 2025
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

  • A Voyager-inspired budget unibody split: Mantaray by Colton Hawkins.

Pic: Mantaray

Mantaray

  • I have a heap of keyboards to review, but I only had time to test a mouse this week: the wireless GravaStar Mercury X Pro mouse, a cutting-edge precision tool for competitive gamers, overkill for anybody else. ;) Cool sci-fi aesthetic, ultra-light magnesium frame, fancy RGB light.

Pic: GravaStar Mercury X Pro mouse review

GravaStar Mercury X Pro mouse review

  • Designed by Penk Chen, the Haori36-MX is a unibody ortho split keyboard.

Pic: Haori36-MX

Haori36-MX

  • A clever 3D-printed case for Keebio's BDN9: Banchan from Capsule Deluxe.

Pic: Banchan

Banchan

  • Crosses is a modular ergonomic keyboard with trackball – shared by Vinnie Franco.

Pic: Crosses

Crosses

  • Designed by Ming Gih-Lam, TKLish is a series of PCBs that mimic the style of a TKL keyboard.

Pic: TKLish

TKLish

  • N36tsu by n1tsu. A low-profile split with PG1316S switches.

Pic: n36tsu

n36tsu

  • The Red Cedar is a well-documented Dactyl-like split by Tim Wenger – with PS2 buttons.

Pic: Red Cedar split

Red Cedar split

  • Lio46 is a wireless, 46-key split keyboard – designed by Liolaeus.

Pic: Lio46 V2

Lio46 V2

TIPS

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  • Ewen Cluney (weirdlittlekeebs) made metal plate keycaps – an MX keycap model to accommodate 1/2", 17 gauge metal discs glued to the top.

Pic:

I had an idea to make keycaps with metal plates to allow for easily interchangeable legends, but it turns out that 304 stainless steel doesn't really work with magnets. I nonetheless really like the look and feel of the resulting keycaps, so I printed and assembled enough to cover a Reviung34 Split – nekoewen.

Pic:

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  • Keyboard Unchatter? Well, a 8 years old software solution to a hardware issue, but some people may find it useful as grigby did.

Closed-source, WIP, etc.

  • Blashphemy by dohn-joh. An angled monoblock split with custom keycaps: BLP aka Blasphemy Low Profile. A sculpted low-profile set with caps of many sizes, designed with row stagger and FDM printing in mind. Repo later.

Pic:

Pic:

  • Oni is just a sweep36 with custom images on the PCB (more photos). Posted by danihek.

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  • The Titus65 is a 65% concrete keyboard case.

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  • Link Split Ergo (GB) – an upcoming keyboard project from CannonKeys. PCB featuring an RP2040 with USB-C interconnectivity and high profile CNC aluminum case supporting an in-house tenting solution (source).

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  • Baaawbag's Magpie was inspired by the Voyager.

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I've named it the Magpie due to it being based on bits and pieces from various designs [Sofle Pico, ZSA Voyager] – baaawbag.

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  • A 10-key low-profile macropad: Palette by Escobyte/Modern Coup's pabloescobyte.

  • Kai-Pad v2 by Kai_. Angled thumbpad acting as tent.

  • If I understand correctly, TLTB made a Game Boy style outer shell for a Logitech keyboard: Key Box.

  • macro 64 – a cure retro-looking wireless macropad.

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I really like the Commodore 64 computer design and I wanted to capture it's charm in a macro pad. It uses mechanical keys and has bluetooth wireless connection – Fistful_industries.

  • PetitSpatula teased a MNML (pronounced Minimal) prototype by Clickety Split. A thin version of Leeloo-Micro, with ultra-thin notebook switches.

History

In this section I feature retro stuff usually, but let's repurpose it for history being written: photos of the California fire carnage – posted by Matte_Box.

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Well, in my second ever post here, I thought you might want to see what remains. 20 keyboards at least, plus an insane amount of keycaps, switches, etc (and incidentally my entire neighborhood) in Altadena, CA. Aluminum cases melted into a shiny puddle, but brass and copper didn’t (like this QK65 v2 Classic weight), which means it reached between 1,200 and 1,600 degrees Fahrenheit. Plastic just… Evaporated. I’m absolutely amazed PCBs didn’t melt. I managed to get out with a couple of my best boards! And we are safe. This is just a microcosm of a historic, massive tragedy, but I thought y’all might find it interesting – Matte_Box.

In the mailbox

GravaStar sent me the Mercury X Pro 8K mouse (review above), 3dkeycap sent a bunch of cool keycaps. And a Lexicon from WeirdLittleKeebs just arrived a few minutes ago.

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Along with two complete split sets, Loïc of 3dkeycap.com was kind enough to send me lots of single samples. Even a kbd.news cap!

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I featured Ewen's Lexicon last summer, and now I'm going to review this cool prebuilt board for writers – with a word layer right out of the box.

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Keyboard art

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  • MIDI88 is a 88-key MIDI piano controller, shared by BFB. 3D printed, powered by QMK.

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The silly thing is: I've never learned piano (which remains one of my dreams), or musical instruments in general. Although, I seem to have an almost perfect pitch and sing to myself quite often. So the checklist is as follows: V - Learn programming V - Learn soldering V - Learn CAD V - Learn 3D printing _ - Learn piano – I'm on my way =D – BFB_Workshop.

Weekly Diderot effect

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Pic:

Was a bit of a challenge to adapt the current stands to the ergo geometry, but I got it to work – mar_mech.

Donations

  • New donations came from Joshua Congdon, SadWitch, and Stefan Schwarzer. Thanks everyone!
  • 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!

Meetup database

It seems this isn't the most active season for meetups.

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

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

  • Vince is behind Ergokeyboards.com and the Crosses, and he offered you a 15% discount (code: KBDNEWS).
  • Marmech (US) added. 5% off keyboard stands and trays with the KBDNEWS coupon code.
  • Alohakb (CN) added.
  • Escobyte Keyboards (CA) added. This is a new shop of Modern Coup's (sleeves) Christian for keyboards.
  • Shelter (Poland) added. Shipping to EU countries.

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Pic: Lots of different keycap samples from 3DKeycaps – Thanks!

Lots of different keycap samples from 3DKeycaps – Thanks!

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 31st Jan 2025. Featured in KBD #185.


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