Keyboard Builders' Digest
Save 5% at Divinikey! Code: KBDNEWS
Keyboard Builders' Digest /

Tenshi

Dane Lipscombe released his Tenshi, a split keyboard with slide-adjustable trackpads.

KBD.news
Published July 30, 2024
Would you like to contribute to this year's MK Advent Calendar? Here are the guidelines for authors, along with last year's edition for reference.

The Tenshi is a split board with a pretty unique mounting system for its two trackpads, allowing their positions to be adjusted. Designed by Dane Limpscombe aka dlip/fata1err0r81.

Name from Japanese means angel (the trackpads are the halos) – dlip.

The trackpad holder slides up and down on the simple 3d printed track which is shaped like a half dovetail joint. The author filed the sides down until it could just fit snugly, so it wouldn't move while in use:

Pic:

Specs

  • 24-32 keys (3x4 + 0-4 thumb keys)
  • low-pro Choc, hotswap
  • RP2040-Zero controllers
  • USB-C to connect the halves
  • Dual Cirque 40mm trackpads, slide-adjustable
  • QMK Firmware

The main advantage of the adjustable trackpad is that this gives you a few options for the layout:

I normally like the setup like this, but a left handed user might like the opposite. Other options might be 2 or 4 thumb keys on both sides. Maybe even no thumb keys, and use the the trackpad on the thumb with the keys like a macro pad. A 5cm FFC cable can slide the full length without too much twisting. Making it vertical is a good idea though, maybe for V2 – Dane.

Pic:

Resources

Do you like this post? Share, donate, subscribe, tip me off!

Published on Tue 30th Jul 2024. Featured in KBD #171 (source).


Related

Stront40

Evgenii Vilkov shared a new 40-key variant of his Stront: Stront40 with more keys and more modules.

Willow64 - a uniquely staggered split

The Willow64 is a uniquely staggered split by Hanachi.

Corneish split by danns87

A Corne-like choc-spaced unnamed split with custom case – designed by u/danns87.

Emblem aka BTA

Tenstaana came up with Emblem aka BTA, another feature-rich monoblock design.

Ch55p34

The unibody Ch55p34 by Alex Miller uses the CH552T MCU, and it runs on FAK firmware.

Unibody crkbd case

An unibody crkbd case with low-poly aspect by Coumbaya (STLs).

×
top