Keyboard Builders' Digest / Projects
Form Zero
Tien Pham's Form Zero is a gasket mounted hotswap ortholinear keyboard.
Published June 28, 2024
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.
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.
The plate, resin 3D printed case, and PCBs came from JLCPCB.
Resources
- Github repo: https://github.com/phamfoo/form-zero
- Sound test
- More photos
Published on Fri 28th Jun 2024. Featured in KBD #168 (source).
Related
Skywatch
Skywatch is a nice orthoish monoblock split by Özkan Çelik.
The Nils Olav
The Nils Olav, named after a famous Scotch penguin, is an easy to build ortho keyboard by twigulus with lefty numpad (source).
1984 keyboard
A 36-key ortholinear split keyboard called 1984, created by Dilshod Temirkhodjaev.
DigDug
DigDug is weteor's latest model in the Orthocade family: with some exploded key groups.