Behind the scenes #2023/37

Keyboard Builders' Digest / Editorial

Behind the scenes #2023/37

Quick news, in the mailbox, new shop, upcoming meetups, updates, etc.

dovenyi
Published September 15, 2023

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Hey everyone,

It seems this week was dominated by 36-key splits and unibodies. That said, I didn't really have time for anything else other than collecting these newsworthy projects because I had a lot of prompt tasks at work. I mean, my daily job. (What a shame.)

Thanks for all your emails and DMs, and sorry if I missed something. Feel free to ping me after a few days if I fail to get back to you.

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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.

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Reading for the weekend

FranDes made a handwired custom split: the wireless Frandestein.
Alex Miller's MacroMacro is a large open-source gaming macropad that runs on Vial.
Daniel Haarhoff shared his neuro36, a small 36-key split travel keyboard.
Dane Lipscombe made Mushi, another cute 36-key split.
Johannes Neyer came up with yet another 36-key ergo split, this time with 4P4C connectors between the halves.
Skywatch is a nice orthoish monoblock by Özkan Çelik.
The articulation80 is a versatile open-source split keyboard PCB by Myles Lee.
MickiusMousius made the design of the Rolio available – a 46-key split with horizontal encoder.
A lot of updates at bastardkb: Charybdis Mini officially released, github revamp, TBK Mini update, etc. Coming next: Dilemma Max with number row.
Protieusz is back with Maximus, another monoblock split with a trackpad – but this one is closed source for now.
Keyjoy is a 65% one by Skribbles, with exploded arrow cluster, integrated joystick and hefty encoder knob.
Tip: A 20-minute PCB design crash course with Kicad – new video tutorial by Joe Scotto.
Handwired: A noname unibody by Kattnos, and another one by Capital-Direction.
Commercial options: the prebuilt city42 by Controller Works is an angled unibody with Cirque trackpad.
Inspiration: Churri with skull tenting by leifflat. And realistic_pseudonym is looking to create something distinctive: WIP#1.

Donations

Oh, look, a new donor after almost three weeks. ;) Thanks Lusia!
And as always, big thanks to everyone who helped this project thus far, especially to supporters with recurring donations set up.

In the mailbox

Didn't have time for anything this week, e.g. to build the Killer Whale, and I don't have Picos and a 34 mm trackball anyway. (Nevertheless, thanks for the tips Quentin!)

But I paid VAT and customs for something on the way. It hasn't shown up in the mailbox yet but most likely it's the aptly named M4CR0Pad by Ergohaven. Thanks for the offer Evgeny!

Pic:

Meetup database

Upcoming:

Madison Mechanical Keyboard Meetup, WI, US (Sept 16).
NoVA Mini Meet, Leesburg Pike, VA, US (Sept 16).
Tiny Little Tech Shop Meetup, Jacksonville, FL, US (Sept 16).

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.

Vendor database

New shops and updates to the database of keyboard vendors this week:

A brand new shop in Adelaide (AU): SublimeKBD added.

Developments

A handful of shop logos added, some optimization here and there.
Fixing some tags (opens-source, open-sourse, low-protile, inverview). To be continued…

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Still with me?

I wondered why the frisbee kept getting bigger and bigger. Then it hit me.

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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 15th Sep 2023. Featured in KBD #135.

Keyboard Builders' Digest / Editorial