Keyboard Builders' Digest / Projects
Procyon
Astra's Procyon is a cute 40% keyboard – Morningstar layout in a split form.
Published April 11, 2022
Obsessed with astronomy and astrology, Astra aka im_tanuki from Star★Boards posted her Procyon, this supercute 44-key split keyboard named after – surprise! – a star. Or two.
I've planned featuring her Morningstar, another cool design, for a long time, and now here is a split twin sister of that monoblock board with the distinctive PCB art in the middle.
I was really itching to have a split again after using a monoblock for a while, so I took my normal column stagger layout and split it, and used a lot of standoffs for a nice tent. I named it Procyon after the binary star system – Astra.
So she wanted a split to type on but "wasn't feeling the thumb splay of something like a Corne". For compactness' sake, the resulting Procyon also loses the Ergodox-like 1.5u side keys which are present on the Morningstar.
The rounded corners and the frosted (Optix 3mm acrylic) prototype top plate give a nice touch to the board sporting DSA Berry Yogurt keycaps.
By the way, no wonder the number of astronomical references is so high if someone's real first name is Astra.
It's a bit of a theme that I love – Astra.
Unfortunately, both PCBs are closed source at the moment, but Astra wants to open-source the Procyon at least once she is settled on the proper licensing.
Published on Mon 11th Apr 2022. Featured in KBD #73 (source).
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