Keyboard Builders' Digest
5% off! Keyboards and accessories from Apos.
Keyboard Builders' Digest / Projects

Vanguard Keyboard Outsider

DreaM117er's Vanguard Keyboard Outsider is a modular ortholinear board, supporting various trackpads and encoders.

KBD.news
Published May 14, 2026
Enjoying the content? 54 supporters keep this blog running — Donate like Micah Alpern, Jacob Mikesell, and Shnobble.

The Vanguard Keyboard Outsider, released by DreaM117er, is a modular ortholinear board supporting both QMK/Vial and ZMK, plus various trackpads and encoders.

The "Vanguard Series" is a branch point I personally developed based on the Explorer Keyboard Blank architecture. This is because, in the design of Blank, I "modularized" the keyboard's MCU area, allowing its trackpad and ProMicro MCU module to be completely reused in subsequent works – DreaM117er.

Features

  • 40-49 keys (10-12x4 ortho with many layout variations)
  • MX or Choc switches (also GLP with some PCB variants), soldered
  • break-off two-column part (4x10 vs 4x12)
  • Pro Micro footprint (ATMega32U4, RP2040, nRF52840)
  • trackpad support (TPS43, TM040040) – QMK only
  • encoder support (EC-11, EC-12)

Pic:

Resources

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

Published on Thu 14th May 2026. Featured in KBD #211 (source).

Related

Proteus67

A displaced ortho by James Gzowski: Proteus67 – with encoder.

mekko5X

The mekko5X is an ortholinear cyberdeck by sporewoh.

Pi5

Pi5 is a monoblock angled ortho keyboard open sourced by ihihbs.

Ghoul keyboard

The Ghoul by u/tzarc is a Planck-like ortho but also a development board for QMK.

Rolitron Rolco-60

The Rolco-60 by Rolitron was a dedicated microcomputer for currency exchange facilities in the early '90s.
×
top