Keyboard Builders' Digest / Projects
Gleb's handwired one
Gleb Sabirzyanov posted his colorful unnamed unibody keyboard.
Published July 28, 2022
Gleb Sabirzyanov aka zyumbik shared the plate file of his unnamed unibody keyboard so I thought the time has come for featuring another handwired build.
My acrylic handwired keyboard is finished — it's the first full-size keyboard I made! Isn't it gorgeous? – Gleb.
Full-size? I'm not sure why but a nice build anyway:
Specs
- 38 keys
- 4 encoders: two vertical and two horizontal EVQWGD001
- Running KMK on RP2040 Zero
- 3mm acrylic top and bottom designed in Figma
- Low profile Kailh Choc V1 light blue 20g switches
- Switches are held in the plate using thin clear two-sided tape
- Handwired using 1mm copper enameled wire and a bit of brass wire for the controller soldering
In hindsight, Greb suggest not using 1mm copper wire for handwiring but 0.8 or even thinner if you want to wire to the controller directly. He ended up using 0.4mm brass wire to solder the wire ends to the controller because 1mm was too thick.
Layout
The layout is my own design. I wanted to try a slight pinky splay and a bit more columnar stagger compared to my current keyboard — GergoPlex. The thumb cluster is designed to be less tucky (I have big hands) and to fit as many 1.5u / 2u keys as possible since they are convex and are more pleasant to touch on the side with a thumb – Gleb.
As an experiment, the author also wanted to be able to press multiple thumb keys at the same time:
Resources
Source files & build tips: https://gitlab.com/zyumbik/keyboard-1/-/tree/main
Published on Thu 28th Jul 2022. Featured in KBD #89 (source).
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