Issue 130 / Week 32 / 2023
This is a hand-picked selection of last week's content from a keyboard enthusiast's perspective. Posts that may teach you something, make you think and contribute to the common knowledge of the DIY builder community.
There are 11+5 entries in this issue:
Editorial
Quick weekly BTS #2023/31-32
Quick news, meetups, shops & discounts, whatever. Back from holiday.
Projects
Chouchou keyboard
Dane Lipscombe published his Chouchou, a minimalist monoblock split designed to be used with the Taipo chording system.
Vesuveus
RaffOwO shared his Vesuveus, a handwired monoblock split with orthoish halves and full arrow cluster.
Taro Hayashi's Killer Whale
The Killer Whale, a split keyboard with versatile thumb cluster options by Taro Hayashi, is making its rounds in the Japanese community.
Batarang Armored
The Batarang Armored version by Protieusz is a column staggered monoblock split with RP2040, Cirque trackpad, encoder, and glowing eyes.
Corax56
Daniel Bauer's Corax56 is a low-profile wireless split with horizontal encoders.
QAZooie
Krisenplan shared QAZooie, a clever case for the QAZ, turning it into a modular cyberdeck.
LambBT
The LambBT is a minimal, wireless, 34-key split travel companion by John Lamb.
ScottoLoooooooooong
Joe Scotto released ScottoLoooooooooong, a new 10u version of his original handwired ScottoLong with a 7u spacebar.
Tips & Tricks
VIK standard
Sadek Baroudi released his VIK standard, which is a set of specifications and guidelines for interfacing between printed circuit boards, e.g. a main keyboard PCB and a module that supports specific features.
Mobop keycaps
Mobop is a retro-inspired uniform keycap profile shared by Penk Chen – for low-pro switches!
Quick news
Hanachi is working on a new angle adjustment mechanism for his Ergotonic F24.
r/ergomk is reopened – as announced by u/OBOSOB. A bunch of well-known and respected members of the community have been added as moderators: quirk, iamnotyourbroom, louckousse, Kyek, klumpp, thomasbaart.
The Jaye 44 by edd.boards is only marketed in Russia, but it's worth checking out for inspiration: all those small details, e.g. the top plate pattern, the translucent part, the bottom plate design.
You never fail to surprise me. I had no idea the quite distant worlds of vintage IBMs and RGB intersected: Transforming an IBM Model M into an RGB backlit abomination – committed by Sarbaaz.
Finally: a drum keyboard by Eric Carr of EMCProductions. Not a real keyboard as of my understanding, so you can still be the first one to build a proper one. Or can you? Googling for "drum typewriter/keyboard" already reveals a bunch of weird projects! Seeing this I instantly started to analyze my e-drum set from a new angle: about 22 different triggers.. Hmm.
splitkb.com, MoErgo Glove80, u/chad3814, MKUltra, Aiksplace, @keebio, Upgrade Keyboards,Cyboard, @kaleid1990, Sean Grady, Jacob Mikesell, Jason Hazel, KEEBD, cdc, kiyejoco, ghsear.ch, u/motfalcon, littlemer-the-second, Bob Cotton, Christian Lo, DROP, FFKeebs, @therick0996, Richard Sutherland, Joel Simpson, Lev Popov, Christian Mladenov, Daniel Nikolov, Spencer Blackwood, Skyler Thuss, u/eighty58five, Yuan Liu, Caleb Rand, Schnoor Typography, Mats Faugli,James McCleese, Davidjohn Gerena, Ergohaven, Benjamin Bell, Matthias Goffette, Hating TheFruit, Fabian Suceveanu, anonymous, khor.store, 池上 昌明, Spencer Dabell, Anatilii Smolianinov, Penk Chen
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