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Form Zero

Tien Pham's Form Zero is a gasket mounted hotswap ortholinear keyboard.

KBD.news
Published June 28, 2024
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Tien Pham aka phamfoo shared a hotswap ortho board: the Form Zero. The project aimed to provide a keyboard that looks nice while also including some features that you'd find in custom mechanical keyboards: gasket-mounted, hotswap PCB, clean and minimal design.

I wanted to try an ortholinear board but couldn't find one I liked, so I made one – phamfoo.

The PCB supports 2 layouts. For the bottom row, you can either go with one or two 2u keys in the middle.

Pic:

The top case covers most of the board, you can swap it out for a different color.

Specs

  • 5x12 ortho (58-59 keys): 2x2u or 1u-2u-1u bottom
  • hotswap (only)
  • gasket mounted
  • RP2040-Zero
  • USB daughterboard
  • Resin/FDM 3D printed case

To make this work with an off-the-shelf microcontroller (the RP2040 Zero), there's a carrier board connected to the main PCB with flat cables.

Pic:

The plate, resin 3D printed case, and PCBs came from JLCPCB.

Resources

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Published on Fri 28th Jun 2024. Featured in KBD #168 (source).


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