Behind the Scenes of Issue 102

Anniversary giveaway, Key Comp in the mailbox, new vendors, discounts, meetups.

Hey y'all,

Welcome back for another edition of Keyboard Builders' Digest (this time Issue #102), a weekly roundup of this DIY keyboard focused newsletter and blog from Tamas Dovenyi – that's me. If you are new to this, you can read how this started out and what this is all about nowadays. If you like what you see, you can subscribe to the newsletter (free) and donate some bucks to keep this otherwise free and ad-free project alive.

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???

I have the awful feeling that I've missed something important. Answering an email, or maybe updating one of the databases with the info some of you've sent me.

Sorry, I'm drowning in the correspondence with about 50 sponsors of the giveaway. Feel free to resend your message in a week if you can't see your entry updated.

Giveaway!!!

This is really starting to get out of hand: 47 sponsors and 98 prizes at the moment… (facepalm)

I have no idea how I'll be able to manage this. It will probably take more than a week to contact all the winners, collect their shipping info, connect them with the sponsors, etc. Jeez, even the raffle will be interesting since I'll have to match 100 prizes with the winners based on their region…

I have to put all the blame on davidkincses! ;)

And by the way… feel free to apply. There's a link to a google form somewhere after the list of prizes.

In the mailbox

I picked up my latest acquisition last Friday: a Random Key Comp.

To say the truth, I can't really write much about it (yet?). I found an Italian article from 1992. Will see if it can be turned into a post.

Vintage time! I've found the lost daddy of @MelGeekworld 's Mojo84: Key Comp by Random Tech Inc. from the early '90s. Very similar layouts except the apparent ISO vs ANSI difference. (Sorry for the dirty pre-cleaning photos.) pic.twitter.com/bjcvtrKZTI

— kbd.news (@KbdNews) November 8, 2022

84 keys, white Alps, it's a computer built into a keyboard, and as my followers may have seen it on Twitter, the keyboard part of the computer resembles of the layout of the Mojo84.

Other than that, I wasn't able to dig up much info. No stickers inside the case with anything usable. Based on the dates on the ICs (1990, 1992, 1993), this particular specimen was possibly manufactured in 1993.

Seeed competition

I reached out to Amanda to say thanks for the surprise from last week and asked her about some stats of the keyboard competition.

While they are extremely busy and there are no winners announced yet, you entered 81 designs to the competition from which 40 projects were sponsored by Seeed.

Vendor database

• Luis from Green Door Geeks offered you a 5% discount (coupon code: KBDNEWS).
• Momokai's Jennifer offered you 10% discount for their Sim Pad 2 or Sim Pad Nano macropads. And they occasionally add items that qualify for discount. (This is an affiliate link so you support kbd.news as well.)
• Krome Keycaps added.

Meetup database

• Zürich Meetup (Dec 4) added.
• Chicago meetup updated.
• New York Mini Meet (Nov 13) added.

As always, this meetup database is both a calendar and an archive so feel free to send me upcoming events or even ones from the recent past to make this collection as comprehensive as possible.

Donors

• New recurring donors: Hating TheFruit and Caleb Rand have set up a new recurring donation. And long-time supporter cdc raised his monthly donation. Thanks everyone!

And I appreciate the support of all the donors who have donated some bucks during these (almost) two years.

Btw, maintaining this project takes probably more time than my fulltime job requires… If you'd like and can afford to help, here is the donation form.

Small developments

• Giveaway page, a small update to the photo markup "engine".
• I know, the search function sucks. I'll completely rework it. The trick for now is: just don't press Enter… :D

That's all for today. Thanks for reading.

Feel free to comment in this issue's r/mk thread, and as always: keep learning and building.

Cheers, Tamás

Pica40 v2

Evgenii Vilkov's Pica40 v2 is a wired/wireless split with splay and XIAO MCUs.

After the failure of V1, Evgenii Vilkov aka zzeneg came out with Pica40 v2, a split keyboard with slightly splayed pinky columns, added support for ChocV2 switches, and sporting Seeed's XIAO devboards.

So after my first attempt in designing a split keyboard failed a bit, I wanted to build an updated version. Lucky for me, around that time SeeedStudio announced a mechanical keyboard contest with two free PCBA boards. XIAO nRF52840 MCUs were already supported by ZMK so it was my chance to build a wireless keyboard. QMK almost released RP2040 support as well, so I wanted to keep wired compatibility too – zzeneg.

The name Pica is derived from Pica pica (European (common) magpie) which motif also appears on the PCB's silk screen.

According to the author, XIAO's MCUs have only 11 IO pins (theoretically you can use additional NFC pins on nRF52840) which is enough for the Pica's 5x4 matrix.

The wireless version has 2 free pins that are used for a rotary encoder. The wired version is left only with 1 free pin and it's also used for rotary encoder (only one and only on left side though).

It kinda was a stupid idea to connect two legs of a rotary encoder to different MCUs but in the end I made it work with custom QMK code – zzeneg.

Resources

All files are available on GitHub.

Remnant

Remnant is a 58-key split, concave 3D keyboard announced by ergohaven's atlantesque. Hotswap, per key RGB, and prebuilt.

As teased in the interview in early October (codename: Endgame), ergohaven's Evgeny announced the Remnant, a more streamlined Dactyl-like 3D board with lower overall profile.

The keyboard is available as pre-built, but the source has been shared as well.

Hey, everyone, we are thrilled to introduce our new flagman keyboard Remnant. Uncompromising, unprecedented – atlantesque.

Specs

• 58 keys total
• Curved, 3D design based on the Dactyl Manuform, but "a lot more slim and low profile"
• flexible PCB
• hotswap sockets
• per-key RGB
• Pi Pico
• QMK, Vial support

Other than that, ergohaven offers 3-year warranty and service support for their customers.

Resources

• Cadquery stuff is here
• Pre-built, ready to ship keyboards are available at ergohaven.xyz

Feather 40

Feather 40 by Mangokitty27. A 40% Alice board with KiCad files.

So Mangokitty27 posted his keyboard on r/mk and I reached out for more details. Since he doesn't use GitHub, the files of the Feather 40, a 40% Alice-derivative, are hosted on kbd.news (see below).

Let's pass the mic to the designer himself to learn more about this project as explained in his own words:

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This is the feather 40 (its smaller nee-san is the feather 15). It's called that because it's smaller than a Wing (YMDK's budget Alice). Not a great reason but that's where the names come from (also it's only 39 keys but who's gonna count).

Obviously inspired by other Alice boards, mostly the owlabs Chalice. I liked the look of it but I wanted the full size Shift & Enter keys instead of all those extra 1u keys.

The boards have anime girls on them because I'm a filthy weeb and they're cute. This one has some random pictures of Asuka I had on my desktop.

Also, it has a stepped CapsLock because it's superior in every way, shape, and form to the normal one. The layers are laid out however I saw fit at the time. Sadly I lost the Keyboard Layout Editor text file, but it works cause it's where I naturally want them to be.

I'm thinking about making a split version of the board, however, I want to use VGA cables to connect the halves because they look awesome, but IDK if the board'd be heavy enough for that thick of a cable, so I haven't yet.

If anyone intends to build one, I'm not sure if the stabs for the enter and right shift keys will interfere, I ran out of stabilizers so I can't find out, but it doesn't look like it'll fit. Luckily the box jades have pretty thick 'n' sturdy stems so it's not really an issue yet.

It's also only made for Pro Micros, I happen to have a few of 'em lying around and I'm familiar with them, so that's how it is. Also, no case / plate cause those cost money, ha. Will make one from wood eventually, so that it matches my desk.

Overall, very happy with the board, pretty good imo. :)

Resources

• feather40 KiCad files (.zip, 0.8MB)

Batreeq

Batreeq: A 30-key pseudosplit keyboard by AlSaMoMo – with a trackball and scroll ring.

The monoblock split Batreeq by Alaa Saad Mansour aka AlSaMoMo features a trackball, scroll ring and haptic buzzer feedback.

I have been using 30 key boards for a while and they have been the most comfortable. I wanted to learn how to integrate a trackball into them. So I designed this board – AlSaMoMo.

Based in Berlin, Alaa has been churning out ergo keyboards for the last couple of months, and the Batreeq – meaning "penguin" – is the latest one in the long list of his 30% splits and monoblocks.

All the boards you can find in his GitHub repo are/have:

• 34/32/30 keys
• Wireless
• Diodeless
• Tenting puck support
• JST connector for battery

Resources

• AlSaMoMo's keyboards
• https://github.com/AlaaSaadAbdo/battoota/tree/main/boards/30keys/Batreeq

Borne V1

Synthetic00 has introduced Borne, this cute wireless split which is low profile and open-source.

Gabriel Hansson aka gibbz00/Synthetic00 published the source files of the Borne V1; a wireless, split, 36-key orthogonal keyboard with a fairly large battery capacity and also with relatively low profile at a max height of about 17 mm.

Today I'm excited to announce that I've completed my long overdue dream of creating an entry-level ergonomic keyboard – Synthetic00.

Features

• Wireless split 36-key orthogonal layout with a comparatively large battery capacity estimated to last over two months.
• Low profile and tiny footprint at a max height of about 17 mm (0.67 in).
• Powerful firmware wizardry achieved with ZMK and Adafruit's nrf52 bootloader.
• External power and reset switches included together with two forward-facing LEDs. The lights can indicate charging, Bluetooth, or bootloader-mode status.
• Keyboard comes with a micro-USB port, as it's about 30% thinner than the USB type C port. A necessary trade-off for keeping the case thinner than most modern smartphones.
• Toggling between USB or Bluetooth modes can be done by a single key press combination. The same goes for a multitude of Bluetooth controls.
• A dedicated IC allows the keyboards to charge while in use.
• ESD protection IC on USB data and power lines.
Keyboard only compatible with Kailh Choc v1 (PG1350) switches for now.

Resources

• https://github.com/gibbz00/borne-keyboard-v1
• GB with more details

Gneiss01 keyboard

Gneiss01 is an interesting keyboard project by LeverMind2112 – involving clay, 3D scanning and printing.

A quite original concept by Adam LeBlanc aka LeverMind2112.

I wanted a custom fit board so I stuck some caps in clay, 3d scanned it, and 3d printed it – LeverMind2112.

You can read about the process in the author's blog post:

https://adamleblanc.page/portfolio/gneiss01-custom-ergonomic-keyboard/

UPDATE (2022-12-22)

One-handed typing test:

ScottoLong

The ScottoLong is the newest handwired keyboard by Joe_Scotto, this time an ortho with 7u spacebar.

It’s been a little while since I’ve posted one of my handwired boards, but don’t worry… I’m not done. This is my most recent one, the ScottoLong, named that way because of the longboi 7u spacebar – Joe Scotto.

As usual with all of Joe's keyboards, all the files are available in his GitHub repo:

https://github.com/joe-scotto/keyboards/tree/main/ScottoLong

ScottoLong typing test:

A build video is scheduled to go live on YouTube this Friday.

UPDATE:

Here:

Schrodinger

Despite its appearance, the Schrodinger by SouthPawEngineer is logically a monoblock keyboard: sporting a single XIAO.

This is the Schrodinger by SouthPawEngineer, a board which is both wired and wireless.

Through the magic of shift registers, and some supporting circuitry, the board utilizes the Bluetooth we're all used to but has advantages over the usual split keyboard with two controllers: it is controlled by a single $10 Xiao BLE, and has the battery life advantages inherent with a unibody design – SouthPawEngineer.

The Schrodinger can be powered by a lipo battery placed underneath the top cover, or you can use 2x CR2032 coin cell batteries.

It is compatible with Gateron KS27, Choc v1, Choc v2, and MX switches.

The two halves are connected with a simple CAT5 ethernet cable.

It's also nice!view compatible.

According to the designer, because this is logically a monoblock / unibody keyboard, you'll get better battery life relative to the normal split keyboard designs that have two independent controllers and two independent batteries. On top of that, having only one controller and battery means the board on the whole is less expensive than a regular split might be.

EMA profile

The EMA keycap profile is an in-house development by IDOBAO. A sculpted, spherical profile.

IDOBAO announced the EMA profile along with a handful of first sets (set ideas?) of this sculpted spherical keycap profile.

The EMA keycap is a new profile that IDOBAO spent a year re-adjusting. We reduced the height to make it more in line with the typing habits of most people – IDOBAO.

Being spherical and sculpted, the profile is in the same league as SA, MT3, MDA, KAT, etc.

It seems the height is reduced compared to MT3 (and ofc SA), but it's higher than MDA caps (+1.5mm). The top surface is more spacious than that of the average cap, thus similar to MDA.

Specs

• Profile: EMA
• Height: 10.84-13.85mm
Width: 18.2 18.2 mm
• Thickness: 1.5mm
• Tech: Doubleshot
• Material: PBT
• Theme: Pure white / Pure Black / Elf of Winter
• Keys: 141 keys

As I can see, some ABS versions are already available on idobao.net, but this time it's about a PBT set.

If you want to help the vendor, here is an IC form.

Scylla/Charybdis tenting

Scylla/Charybdis adjustable tenting stand shared by gdeLopata.

A modular adjustable tenting stand for Charybdis/Scylla designed and shared by gdeLopata/choovick/Alexey Popovich.

With optional wrist pads:

Model and source: https://www.printables.com/model/309390-wip-scyllacharybdis-adjustable-tenting-stand

Full version with wrist pads: https://github.com/Bastardkb/Charybdis/blob/main/files/mods/tenting-stand-with-wrist-pads/readme.md

New Piantor case

New 3D-printed low-profile Piantor case shared by leo_beekeeb.

In addition to the Cantor case designed by chewiedies, Leo from beekeeb.com created a new keyboard case for the 42-key variant of his Piantor – introduced last week.

The new low profile case includes a pair of 3D printed switch plate and bottom case. It’s less wobbly using switch plates in the build with hotswap sockets – Leo.

The case is available in the Piantor repo:

https://github.com/beekeeb/piantor

NEC M-System

The NEC M-System was a Japanese input method and a series of word processor keyboards introduced in 1983. Posted by wj-zhe.

According to an article by the IPJS Computer Museum, NEC announced M system, a new input system for Japanese language word processors, in March 1983. The "M" comes from the name of the developer of this method: NEC special consultant Morita Masasuke.

At the time, input speed was an issue for Japanese language word processors, due to the mixture of kanji (Chinese characters) and kana (phonetic letters) in sentences. Various methods were developed to improve input speed, including: the kana-kanji conversion system, the romaji (alphabetic letter) kanji conversion system, the pen-touch system, the so-called "kanji-teletype" system, and the association system where kanji were input with 2 kana characters. Each of these methods had advantages and disadvantages. (source)

The author of this new method noticed that the "on-yomi" pronunciations of kanji could be divided into 5 patterns, and came up with his system where text input was done using 3-row, 5 column romaji keyboards.

This system made it possible to input text at a speed more than two times faster than the kana-kanji conversion system.

The first keyboard based on this input system made its debut in August of 1983, accompanying the PC-8800 Series word processor, marketed as PCWORD-M.

In 1984 NEC entered the personal word processor market with the PWP-100 personal Japanese language word processor, followed by a number of M System word processors.

I have another version of an M-type keyboard in the split database:

Further reading

• https://museum.ipsj.or.jp/en/computer/word/0027.html
• https://museum.ipsj.or.jp/en/computer/word/0029.html

Sakhr AX-170

The Sakhr AX-170 is a Z80-based MSX compatible computer from the '80s – posted by gymleader_brock.

This nice MSX compatible computer was posted by gymleader_brock.

The Sakhr AX-170 is based on the z80 chip, and the Arabic legends are telling: it was a popular model in the Arab world and was made in Kuwait.

Sakhr Computers was a Kuwaiti company (Al Alamiah co.) that was selling MSX computers imported from Japan in all of the Arab world. These MSX were localized by Al Alamiah and rebranded for the Arabic market – msx.org.

Manufactured from 1986.

Resources

• Sakhr AX-170 on msx.org
• Sakhr AX-170 User Manual