Keyboard Builders' Digest / Projects
Corax54
Daniel Bauer's wireless split Corax54 ditches one key of his previous model.
Published March 30, 2024
Out of 150,000 readers, only 54 make this blog possible. Will you be one of them?
The Corax54 is the next iteration of Daniel Bauer's (aka dnlbauer/The_Red_Gobbo) Choc-spaced, wireless, reversible split PCB – after the original Corax56, published last year.
A few month ago, I posted about the Corax56, a wireless choc keyboard with pinky stagger and a pinky cluster. I found that I wasn't using the pinky cluster as much as expected, so here is a revised version with one button less (because less is always better, right?) – Daniel.
Specs
- 54 keys, Choc
- Choc-spaced, hot-swappable
- scroll wheel (EVQWGD001) on both sides
- pinky stagger and a 5 deg pinky splay
- Fully wireless built for Nice!Nano + ZMK (no TRRS Jack)
- Nice!View support (5 pin connector)
- Reversible PCB
- 3D printable magnetic case, switchplate and MCU cover
I initially designed the Corax56 (=56 keys) with 4 pinky keys. The upper key (usually mapped to ESC) was placed in a new column because I found it easier to reach horizontally than vertically. Over the time, I realized that I am not using this button very often. The Corax54 was born as a more compact version where the pinky cluster misses this additional column and has only 54 keys (2 less). This is the only difference between the two versions – Daniel.
Resources
Published on Sat 30th Mar 2024. Featured in KBD #160.
Related
Ambra
The 34-key wireless Ambra, designed by stozi, is a nice split keyboard with vertical thumb clusters.
Lalboard: a modern Datahand
The lalboard, this 3D printable recreation of the DataHand was featured at hackaday recently (journal, repo).
LHM keyboard
Max published a video on designing and building his 26-key minimalistic split, the LHM keyboard.
Apodiformbird
Easonstons shared Apodiformbird, a 18-key minimalist monoblock split inspired by the Hummingbird.