Keyboard Builders' Digest / Projects
Duet
The wireless unibody Duet is Evgenii Vilkov's latest keyboard project and travel companion.
Published January 18, 2024
Evgenii Vilkov aka zzeneg shared his Duet, a wireless, portable unibody split that can be taken apart into two halves for portability.
I'm proud to finally release my latest keyboard - duet (I really hope the name is better than the previous one) – zzeneg.
Features
- 40 keys, 6x3-ish (-1) with three thumb keys per half
- low-pro, Choc V1 switches
- unibody that can be disassembled into two parts for traveling
- reversible PCB
- wireless (nice!nano controller)
- 1 rotary encoder and 1 five-way switch
- 3D printed case
- nice!view support
Despite its unibody nature, the Duet can be taken apart for traveling. What's more, splitting the unsplit is a way to turn it off (!). :) Halves are connected with magnets and a 12-pin connector.
It uses one MCU (nice!nano) and the PCB is reversible so it's pretty cheap, but if you want to spend more you can always add nice!view to it.
I really love split keyboards but the concept (implementation?) of wireless split just doesn't work for me. I know for many of you it's totally fine but personally I can't stand the fact that master/slave discharge at a different rate so it actually two more chargeable devices that I need to take care of (also without accurate way to know battery levels).
So while avoiding wireless splits, Evgenii wanted something portable for office visits at the same time. That's when he remembered magnetic connectors he bought for another project.
Well long story short, I decided to combine split design into a unibody, throw in some magnets, a display - and here we are.
Resources
Published on Thu 18th Jan 2024. Featured in KBD #151 (source).