Keyboard Builders' Digest / Editorial
Behind the scenes #194
Keyboard projects, tips, quick news, keyboard art, in the mailbox, meetups, vendors, discounts.
Published July 15, 2025
Hey, what's up everyone!
Welcome back for another recap and behind-the-scenes write-up – with June's best-selling switches, some cool projects from the DIY keyboard scene, but also promising closed-source projects or even prototypes. Read about goodies in my mailbox from Apos and 3dkeycap, upcoming meetups, and much more.
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.
Just got back from my holiday btw, so I have a huge backlog. That said, the cutoff date for this issue was about 10 days ago. I've been busily bookmarking interesting projects in the meantime though, so I'll feature more recent stuff in the coming days.
Some posts worth sharing
- In this latest market overview of the best-selling mechanical switches, here are June's top picks, based on sales data provided by vendors and manufacturers. Some late data added – worth another scroll even if you've read it after publication.
- Review: The magnetic Mercury V75 Pro HE – hand-painted aluminum alloy case, carbon plate, the hallmark alien legs, and all the Hall-effect features for competitive gamers. Another masterpiece by GravaStar.
- Heatwave is a 36-key wireless, curved unibody split keyboard by dohn-joh – with integrated lever keycaps.
- Sergei Silnov's Aronia is now open source: a ultra-low profile foldable unibody split.
- Alex Grau made the Smashboard, an ortholinear Bluetooth split keyboard.
- A compact, no-frills, and cheap ergo split: Slimkeeb36 by Keji Li.
- An open-source 75/80% keyboard with encoder and display: Easy75 by Eddy Zhao.
- A wireless low-pro split by Andrew: the open-source Scyboard.
- A low-pro split keyboard by meepodeep: the ErgoDecks with two independent Bluetooth halves.
- An open-source 6x5 ortho board by derEchteJan.
Tip
- Thockfactory 2.0 is here. Major update, e.g. lots of split layout presets. Design your own custom keycaps.
- 3D-printed deskmat holder idea.
- Typing tests: Typecelerate by sock_pup is a practice app that targets your weaknesses. And typingspeed.app by No_a mApricot is a simpler one.
- RazgrizHsu's karabiner-ts-config is a TypeScript-based tool for building Karabiner Elements configuration files with type-safe Fluent API design.
Transform hours of repetitive JSON editing into minutes of elegant TypeScript programming. Our real-world example (raz.ts) demonstrates an incredible 78x efficiency improvement – Raz.
- Cable coiler jig by ropergames2.
Closed-source, commercial, WIP, etc.
- Wooden keycaps by Apoc_Pony for hitbox users.
- Bug54 V0.2 update: power switch and reset button added.
- Ali is a handwired Bluetooth monoblock ergo split project by ohemaag – with case files.
- A ultra low profile split by sshenron.
- Cork board, razor, sandpaper. A DIY project by TheGoatzart.
- Swifty50 by Feisty_Place. Another PG1316S ultra low-pro split.
- A handmade Moonlander by Duy__Do. With STLs.
- Kaizen is dbsds87's low-pro ergo unibody. Repo WIP.
- Nuty60 by Nutylabs. A nice split with low-pro KS-33 hotswap or MX soldered switch support.
- Plancké – a case for a Planck by bankair. To fix a broken USB-C port.
- Hmm. Sunder C60 HE by sunderkeyboards' squishy_liquid. A 4x6 Hall effect split.
Discovery
- According to binpax (and USB-IF), most of you folks are using keypads, not keyboards.
According to the USB-IF (people who define what USB devices are), a true "keyboard" must have a minimum of 103 keys – binpax.
Keyboard art
- doro!pad by Rain2.
- Glass keyboard by transgingeredjess. And sound test.
- The Misinput by Blytical. "World's stupidest keyboard."
- Tech Bear TB-65F. Photos by LightningXI.
- Sikakeyb HM80. Photos by theillmeister.
- This steampunkish abomination is basically a modded Sofle – halves connected by aluminum mouse housing and laptop hinges. By Cacklefruit.
- Keyboard buiding in Shanghai. Posted by jaapgrolleman.
Weekly Diderot effect
- Artisan box by TNdesignstudio. Aluminum body, acrylic lid, stackable.
In the mailbox
- A gorgeous NPKC Studio RO75 was sent to me by Apos. Thanks! Looks and feels great, cool color options with matching keycaps. Review soon.
- In addition, a set of keycap tilters from 3dkeycap's Loïc, along other samples. The tilters are a prototype set to convert any MX-compatible keyboard into a contoured, DIY keywell board. (Not yet available, but check out all the nice keycaps and accessories offered by 3dkeycap.)
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Donations
- New recurring donations set up by BeaverKeys and 0xcircuitbreaker. Thank you!
- And donations from Hal Frigaard and rollolinsky. Thanks!
- 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!
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.
Recently added
- Philadelphia Keyboard Meetup Summer 2025, August 9, Philadelphia, PA, US
- Minnesota Meetup 2025, August 23, Saint Paul, MN, US
- MYMK Meetup 2025, August 30, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia
- Italian MK Meetup 2025, September 6, Bologna, Italy
- QWERTYFEST 2025, October 3, Milwaukee, WI, US
Vendors & Discounts
Feel free to use the KBDNEWS discount code at 178 keyboard shops! And do not hesitate to report any issues!
New shops and updates to the database of keyboard vendors this past two weeks:
- Bowl Keyboards (US) added.
- Sunder (Singapore) added. Pre-built Hall effect splits, like the new C60 HE mentioned above.
Developments
I’m building out the switch comparison feature: side-by-side specs, plus a way to find alternatives based on how closely a switch's attributes match others. Actually, I'm almost finished, some testing is still needed though. To be rolled out later this month.
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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 Tue 15th Jul 2025. Featured in KBD #194.
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