Keyboard Builders' Digest / Editorial

Behind the scenes #204

Behind the scenes with the December best-seller switches, the Elytra, Epomaker RT82 reviews, plus open-source projects, keyboard art, meetups, vendors, discounts.

dovenyi
Published January 10, 2026

Hey, what's up everyone!

I's been a while. Welcome back for another recap and behind-the-scenes write-up – with a bit less projects from the DIY keyboard scene, more reviews of closed-source commercial projects this time, but mostly because creators spent the last weeks with Christmas and New Year stuff I guess. (And then I went to holiday as well, off-grid for some days.) I hope you'll get back to designing soon, because churning out original content was pretty fatiguing. :D

(Yep, I have a bit of a backlog too. Kept bookmarking projects, but let me process the output from the past week or so later. Like the Keyther.)

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.

Chef's choice

• The Elytra campaign is still open (until Jan 15). My review.
• Your favorite keyboard switches in December – market overview.
• My favorite keyboards of 2025, at least from those I tested.

Some posts worth sharing

• For your interest, here are December’s top mechanical switches, the community's current favorites based on a sample of 1 million switches sold by kind vendors and manufacturers providing their data. It seems I'm getting better at this, it took just 7-8 hours to put this together. :D

• This gorgeous board is the Elytra by ElimKeys. Split, wireless, low-pro, nice alu chassis, cute hard-shell carry case – walking in the footsteps of my favorite, the Cornix. Well, a Kickstarter project, but without much risks: ready for mass-production. There are beta samples out there, as you can guess from my review. ;)

• Distressed by the lack of content around Christmas, I wrote a year-end piece: about my favorite keyboards from those I tested in 2025 – my top choices in a couple of made-up categories. :)

• I wrote a bunch of tests in December, e.g. about this affordable 75% board from Kemove: Dierya DK81E with gaskets, rotary knob, and nice lights.

• Another review: The Cybrix 29 by KiiBOOM is a wired 29-key hotswappable Hall-effect gaming (half-)keyboard with lots of RGB effects.

• Yet another test? If you find displays on keyboards too meh, then maybe the retro-looking Epomaker RT82 will raise your heart rate. It comes with a detachable TV – via pogo pins.

• A diodeless unibody split by Peter J. A. Cock: Slump52 with number pad.

• Rafael Furlanetto Casamaximo released his wireless 65% voidPointer with exposed diodes.

• An open-source Hall-effect unibody split keyboard: TrueStrike42 by Choi Byungyoon.

• The wireless Cheap03xD is an affordable open-source split by Lander03xD.

• The 2025 version of lya Leonov's Lapa, an ergo split keyboard-mouse.

Closed-source, commercial, WIP, etc.

• New Silakka in the works. A project by Squalius-cephalus.

• Crowkb_wing_mx by CrackerRobot. Splay with MX switches.

• Handwired: a handwired Ergodox-like split by whateverworks325, a Cosmos build by bn326160, and a monoblock Skeletyl by alexisdelg.

History/Discovery

• Comark Industrial 486 grabbed by sammothxc.

• Ancient switch in a museum. Photos by CherryMXBrown69.

• Panasonic W1500 – posted by solidpro99. I love these portables.

• Chase Manhattan Bank Trading Facility (1997) with some trading keyboards. Posted by No_Seaweed6245.

Typing, Keymap, Tips

• Some tips from ilikeacorns about removing and reusing Mill Max sockets.

• Inspitation of box-boards: Nike box by Particular_Hawk_2356, and a handwired keyboard-in-a-box by bruhmomentumly.

• "Hello my favorite switch is" badge. (Re)created by Toji, inspired by Yushakobo. (File download here.)

• custom-keycaps.com – a new German service. XDA profile, per-key customization, lots of options.

• Urob's ZMK Timeless Home Row Mods ported to native QMK. A configuration guide by pgetreuer.

• Aroum's Project UFA – ZMK firmware porting for commercial wireless gaming mice. The result is a factory-quality mouse with an open, fully configurable firmware, Bluetooth support, and high polling rates.

• Switch sound preview. Keep in mind that there are many factors contributing to the final sound, but such a tool still can help some people I guess.

• A toplist of boards based on sentiment analysis of reddit comments. By NoodleSpringke3.

Keyboard art

• Cool embroidered artisans by Gavin Austin aka Octonite.

• Stoney pink Vault35. Photos by anonyzero2.

• Hyper Apex – a case for the Elora Halcyon).

• Weathered keyboard by xfactorxsuh.

• Circuit 58 and Serpens by Rain2.

• Lego keyboard case by OkDebate6649.

• Already mentioned in August, but anyway: Yolochka Winter Edition by aroum. Perheps it's more timely now. A handwired 40% with github repo.

Diderot effect (aka accessories)

• A trackball from Keychron spotted at CES. Shot by Yanko Design.

• Awekeys lowpro metal caps Kickstarter placeholder.

In the mailbox

• Epomaker RT82, Elytra – already reviewed.
• Just arrived: another KiiBOOM Phantom 81 Lite, this time the blue one with the cake theme, plus cute kitty caps. Photos later.

Donations

• A new donor, yay! Thank you lizi!
• 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

The 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.

Upcoming meetups

• Keyboard Meetup in Hamburg, January 10, Hamburg, Germany
• Steel City Mechanical Keyboard Meetup, January 10, Pittsburgh, PA, US

Recently added

• Colorado MechMeets January 2026 meetup, January 17, Erie, CO, US
• DC Mini-Meetup, January 24, Washington, DC, US
• KeyCon 2026 [placeholder], June 13, Chicago, IL, US

Vendor news & Discounts

Feel free to use the KBDNEWS discount code at 190 keyboard shops worldwide! And do not hesitate to report any issues! :)

New shops and recent updates to the database of keyboard vendors:

• Switch Couture set to closed. (Thanks Gullible_Bridge and FansForFlorida.)

• KeyCrox is shutting down after 4 years.

• Bookmarked, but I've yet to add these: haikey.design and lvl3.diy (IN). Also ElimKeys I guess.

Developments

• Admin stuff update to make compiling the switch posts more streamlined.
• I've coded and set up some spiders/parsers to collect some interesting data for later use. They've been running for more than a month now, but I still need a longer time span.

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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 Sat 10th Jan 2026. Featured in KBD #204.

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