Issue 138 / Week 40 / 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 9+6 entries in this issue:
Editorial
Behind the scenes #138
Quick news, donation issues, Hammond + Videoton in the mailbox, meetups, updates, etc.
Switch trends
Top switches of September, 2023
Milktooth's Kevin helps us to capture the zeitgeist and identify the most popular switches for mechanical keyboards.
Projects
Alien Invader
Protieusz made Alien Invader, a PCB with on-board RP2040 for Joe Scotto's originally handwired Scotto Invader.
Dilemma Max
The Dilemma Max is an ergo split keyboard by Bastardkb – with number row and trackpad.
Chrumm 1.0
Severin Meyer published Chrumm, a gorgeous unibody split with flexible PCB and fixed tenting.
Mün 2
It turned out that RGBKB's Mün 2, mentioned last week, is now open hardware. Check out the repo.
Flynn
A handwired low-pro unibody keyboard by Joshua Chung: Flynn.
Tips & Tricks
Gboard CAPS: A head-turning innovation
The Gboard team is back with another weird input device: the portable and fashionable Gboard CAPS – which is a hat keyboard!
History
Hammond 2 typewriter
My latest acquisition is a specimen of the pretty unique Hammond typewriters which comes with non-QWERTY layout and is packed with ingenious features.
Quick news
Shark's 4 years – an article on the occasion of this extensive IBM knowledge base turning four. Well, a month ago, but I missed the DM.
Software/Tools: cyanophage.github.io – an online tool for comparing logical layouts. rumcake is a rust-based mechanical keyboard firmware by Univa. Some background in this r/mk post. And admwscki made a Via layout browser – demo here.
Tip: Stephen shared some of his experiences with the Glove80 travel case.
Closed source/WIP: A beginner-friendly Preonic/Lumberjack style to-be-kit from Jerrin. Some files will be shared later. Hotswap 60% ortho with trackpad by le1ca. And Gennnki made a layered case / tenting dock for his Swoop.
IC/GB/commercial: Split65 is a wireless split walnut Alice keyboard.
Spotting: ICBM launch keyboard posted by b214n.
splitkb.com, MoErgo Glove80, u/chad3814, Aiksplace, @keebio, Upgrade Keyboards, Cyboard, Sean Grady, @kaleid1990, Jacob Mikesell, Jason Hazel, KEEBD, cdc, kiyejoco, littlemer-the-second, ghsear.ch, u/motfalcon, Christian Lo, Bob Cotton, FFKeebs, @therick0996, Richard Sutherland, Joel Simpson, Lev Popov, Christian Mladenov, Daniel Nikolov, u/eighty58five, Schnoor Typography, Caleb Rand, Spencer Blackwood, Skyler Thuss, Yuan Liu, Mats Faugli, Benjamin Bell, James McCleese, TurtleKeebs, Ben M, Matthias Goffette, Ergohaven, Davidjohn Gerena, Hating TheFruit, Spencer Dabell, zzeneg, anonymous, Anatolii Smolianinov, Penk Chen, Clacky
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