Keyboard Builders' Digest / Projects
Feather 40
Feather 40 by Mangokitty27. A 40% Alice board with KiCad files.
Published November 11, 2022
So Mangokitty27 posted his keyboard on r/mk and I reached out for more details. Since he doesn't use GitHub, the files of the Feather 40, a 40% Alice-derivative, are hosted on kbd.news (see below).
Let's pass the mic to the designer himself to learn more about this project as explained in his own words:
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This is the feather 40 (its smaller nee-san is the feather 15). It's called that because it's smaller than a Wing (YMDK's budget Alice). Not a great reason but that's where the names come from (also it's only 39 keys but who's gonna count).
Obviously inspired by other Alice boards, mostly the owlabs Chalice. I liked the look of it but I wanted the full size Shift & Enter keys instead of all those extra 1u keys.
The boards have anime girls on them because I'm a filthy weeb and they're cute. This one has some random pictures of Asuka I had on my desktop.
Also, it has a stepped CapsLock because it's superior in every way, shape, and form to the normal one. The layers are laid out however I saw fit at the time. Sadly I lost the Keyboard Layout Editor text file, but it works cause it's where I naturally want them to be.
I'm thinking about making a split version of the board, however, I want to use VGA cables to connect the halves because they look awesome, but IDK if the board'd be heavy enough for that thick of a cable, so I haven't yet.
If anyone intends to build one, I'm not sure if the stabs for the enter and right shift keys will interfere, I ran out of stabilizers so I can't find out, but it doesn't look like it'll fit. Luckily the box jades have pretty thick 'n' sturdy stems so it's not really an issue yet.
It's also only made for Pro Micros, I happen to have a few of 'em lying around and I'm familiar with them, so that's how it is. Also, no case / plate cause those cost money, ha. Will make one from wood eventually, so that it matches my desk.
Overall, very happy with the board, pretty good imo. :)
Resources
- feather40 KiCad files (.zip, 0.8MB)
Published on Fri 11th Nov 2022. Featured in KBD #102 (source).
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