Keyboard Builders' Digest / Inspiration
Waitier
Waitier is a stacked PCB one-key macropad by @yynmt_.
Published September 23, 2022
Waitier is yynmt's entry for meishi2, an exhibition for business card-sized keyboards, held at Yusha Kobo, the iconic keyboard shop in Akihabara, Tokyo.
As you can see, the design consists of various layers of PCBs, 14 to be exact (11 top, one main, and two bottom PCBs). In addition, it sports an on-board RP2040 controller:
The first thing I wanted to do with waitier was the RP2040. It 's been difficult to get hold of all the affordable MCUs that have been used for keyboards. I'd also like to consider adopting it for keyboards I'm designing – yynmt.
The stacked design is a follow-up to Feuille64, the author's previous project – a 64-key MIDI pad with a similarly stacked artwork at the bottom.
Like with the Feuille64, Dvi (@ksdb2) drew the illustrations. She helped me not only with the composition, but also with the design of the PCB components. Since we have improved the workflow since then, it was very smooth to import the data into KiCAD – yynmt.
For more info and photos see the author's blog entry here.
Waitier will be available on a made-to-order basis, starting tomorrow: https://yynmt.booth.pm/items/4106456
The free section of the meishi2 exhibition, where various other business card-sized keyboards are on display, is open until September 25th.
Published on Fri 23rd Sep 2022. Featured in KBD #96 (source).
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