Issue 175 / Week 38 / 2024
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 10+16 entries in this issue:
Editorial
Behind the scenes #175
Luminkey Magger review, DIY keyboard projects, quick news, Moergo Cherry Blossom switches in the mailbox, meetups, new vendors and discount codes!
Review
Luminkey Magger 68 HE review
The Magger 68 HE is a solid 65% Hall-effect keyboard, staying true to Luminkey's philosophy of crafting finely tuned, quality products. More for gamer folks, but with the aura of higher-end enthusiast boards.
Projects
Bird
This Bird, a monoblock split trackball keyboard by Protieusz, is a modification of the Crowboard, originally designed by Alex Miller.
Nomad keyboard
Andreas Tacke shared his Nomad, a 7x5 keys low-profile split with per-key RGB.
Pipar Sool
Rasmus Koit's Pipar Sool is a split wireless keyboard that uses a dongle while running ZMK.
MonoSeb40
A wireless monoblock split by seblov: the 40-key MonoSeb40.
Solanum keyboard
Solanum is a 34-key diodeless split keyboard designed by Travis Mick.
Hammerhead42
The Hammerhead42 by Armin Anderson is a unibody split keyboard with a 40mm trackpad and a joystick.
OverLord
OverLord is a monoblock split keyboard by Protieusz – with 2 trackballs and 2 MCUs on a single PCB.
Treble
Ken Choi's Treble is a 42-key low-profile wireless monoblock keyboard.
Quick news
Signature Plastics is to be acquired by a Portland-based investment group led by fellow keyboard enthusiast Will Clark. AMA with Will on r/mk.
The Big Black Compensator is a Compensator (design by vk.works) built by LightningXI.
MBK Hypersonic & alu Corne case by typeractive.
30wide by Mangokitty27.
Moeetech has launched a free umbrella program. :) This may seem a pretty uncommon swag or slightly unrelated, but you can practically get a nice and free Glitter umbrella. This means that its cost will be refunded if you join their discord and post a photo on social media. That's it. But check out my review too, I loved the anodized purple Glitter65 R2.
1.5u THT low-pro caps by Tai-Hao?
A custom Sculpt-inspired split by thykeebs.
An offset ortho by mnapoli. And another one by OI_Andy aka Aged Anderson.
Seigaiha metal artisan keycap set by TerraKeycaps. Yay! You know I have a penchant for Japanese culture, but it turns out for stunning nickel plated & polished zinc alloy too. ;) (Now 20% off with the KBDNEWS coupon code! Just like all the other gorgeous stuff from Terra.)
kiboorou's Bunny in baby blue (Matrixlab Magic3 WKL).
I can't get enough of the Qazimodo. New prototype posted by CloffWrangler.
Ancestors in the Wooden Age. Mixed media by John Frank Sabado (2008), BenCab Museum. Posted by VioletAxle.
Alpenglow Cygnus by CaptLynx.
Custom aluminum GH60 case by FlashyBalance.
This rather strange layout will probably shock some keymap wizards out there – image posted by dstarr3.
Ashkeebs, splitkb.com, MoErgo Glove80, ZSA Technology Labs, Aiksplace, @keebio, Upgrade Keyboards, Cyboard, Jason Hazel, Jacob Mikesell, Sean Grady, kiyejoco, KEEBD, @kaleid1990, littlemer-the-second, Ergohaven, ghsear.ch, u/motfalcon, Bob Cotton, FFKeebs, Timo, @therick0996, Joel Simpson, Christian Mladenov, Schnoor Typography, TALPKEYBOARD, Daniel Nikolov, u/eighty58five, Skyler Thuss, Caleb Rand, Brendan P., James McCleese, Benjamin Bell, Yuan Liu, Ben M, zzeneg, Spencer Dabell, Anatolii Smolianinov, Penk Chen, Matthias Goffette, Clacky, Stefan S., Hating TheFruit, Alex Miller, Trey Causey, Davidjohn Gerena, Mario S., Dylan Ingham, Gordon Diggs, Cloyce, Shnobble, Raphael Stanzani, Keebhut, Duncan B., HubertTheMad, s_p_l_o_d_e, Jesse L., Cromulus, Kevin B.
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