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Magnetic layout prototyping

Going low profile: adjustable keyboard with magnets by key-yack.

KBD.news
Published September 4, 2021
Creators! Feel free to tip me off about your keyboard related projects to bring them to 140K readers.

This small experiment by key-yack was put together to try out low profile switches with different layouts:

  • Split keyboard using ProMicros
  • Head PCB with ProMicro is reusable for other projects
  • Up to 7x4 choc switches (hot swap) on each side, 18x17mm spacing
  • All the columns can be moved around freely, attached to a steel base using magnets
  • Using ribbon cables to connect everything

First results and takeaway:

  • Choc brown switches are surprisingly heavy
  • gChoc switches can be triggered by looking at them too hard
  • 18 mm horizontal spacing is too narrow for comfort, but low vertical spacing is nice!

The PCBs used were probably the low profile versions of these Zebras by nezumee:

https://github.com/nezumee/zebra

Another similar modular adjustable PCB project is the P4 by saoto28:

https://github.com/saoto28/pineapple60/tree/main/p4

And the SU120 by e3w2q:

https://github.com/e3w2q/su120-keyboard

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Published on Sat 4th Sep 2021. Featured in KBD #42 (source).

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