Issue 65 / Week 7 / 2022

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.
Contents
Editorial
Behind the Scenes of Issue 65
40s Day, quick news, on cleaning up the subscriber database, lot of new vendors added.
Hello friends,
I'm Tamas Dovenyi with Issue #65 of my DIY keyboard focused blog and newsletter dubbed the Keyboard Builders' Digest.
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40s Day
It turns out 40s Day is my Groundhog Day.
If you don't know what 40s day is, it's the day when small keyboards with 40%-ish layouts are celebrated – on the 40th day of the year which is Feb. 9.
(And if you don't know what Groundhog Day is, it's a cultic movie about an asshole weatherman (Bill Murray), a time loop, a fat groundhog and the meaning of life.)
I can clearly remember my surprise last year when small keyboard owners started to flood r/mk and kept doing it for a whole day. Yet, this year I was caught totally off guard again. :D I mean, I use a 46% layout too and while I'm not an advocate of any layout, I know full well that raising awareness for anything non-standard is important.
However, I can't see the point in posting hundreds of 40%s on Reddit on a single day – firstly, because they quickly disappear in the thread for most readers. And there are at least two things that bug me about the 40s dump in its current form: the majority of posts come without any specs – not even the name of the keyboard model. And instead of answering questions, Redditors who dare to ask questions are often ignored and/or downvoted. Most "contributors" don't even seem to take the minimal effort to check back after posting a low-effort single photo.
This hit-n-run flooding is controversial to say the least. What's this supposed to mean? What's the real purpose? Honestly, I don't know.
This was the general moaning part, but 40s day made my particular task of finding interesting keyboard projects especially harder too. This week, I'm not sure at all if I have managed to find every valuable post I'd usually bookmark and feature. Suspiciously, much of my posts this week were about vintage stuff and older projects rediscovered.
My takeaway: Next year I'll simply skip this day with regards to kbd.news. It's not really fun to browse through all the posts of r/mk on a "normal" day either, not to mention these "special days". :D I'm already scared of Valentine's Day…
Quick news
- 3DHubs is now Hubs, a Protolabs company.
- OpenSCAD 3D rendering just got "an order of magnitude" faster (source).
Subscriber database clean-up
The time has come. I had to remove a few dozen inactive subscribers to make room for new ones and keep the number of "contacts" below 2000 – MailChimp's threshold of its free plan.
To make sure you remain on the list and continue receiving the weekly mails, all you have to do is to click a link in the email every now and then. No panic, you have to be inactive for months to be removed.
Opening rate is about 50% and click-through rate about 25% – which are way above industry averages btw.
"Normal" newsletters, living off advertisements or being run on similar business model, would probably aim for the larger number of subscribers without looking into their activity. However, I don't feel like paying for a service to be able to send out free stuff when half of the subscribers don't even open these mails.
Back in the days when this newsletter had only a few hundred subscribers, there were weeks with 40-50%+ clickthrough rates. On one hand, losing interest in kbd.news, keyboards in general or any hobby is natural and expected. But I try to postpone the day of reckoning anyway.
Vendor database update
Quite a lot of new vendors added: ergomech.store, Cyboard, wirekeebs.com, chosfox, Matias Store, Barbell Boards.
New acquisition
I bought another Datacoop only to get the contacts of the seller on an ebay-like local site. I already owned four of these vintage Hungarian optical keyboards made from the early '80s (I owe you a detailed write-up on them) but the seller has a lot more interesting stuff and now I'll able to negotiate directly. :D
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Well, that's it for today.
Thanks for reading and thanks for your support.
Feel free to ask and comment in this issue's r/mk thread, and as always: keep learning and building.
Cheers, Tamás
Projects
An SLA 3D printed 36-key board
This nice 3D-printed 36-key keyboard was BeniBice's weekend project – resin printed and welded.
This cute handwired monoblock project, driven by an Elite-C, has the layout of a merged Helidox (CRKBD) with the outer most columns removed.
Printing
The case and keycaps were designed in Fusion 360 and were printed on an Elegoo Mars 2 resin printer. Because of its dimensions, the case was printed in two parts which were resin welded together.
The overall printing time was around 20 hours.
Resin welding
According to BeniBice, the most important thing is that the two edges you want to weld fit each other well. This can be difficult due to the warping of the print. The author's solution was to print the edges at an angle of 15° degrees on two axes with medium sized supports (results):
Some of these guidelines may also help you reduce warping.
The next steps:
- Put some resin on the edges you want to weld. Don't apply too much at first, as it is hard to clean the excess resin off. (u/BeniBice also doesn't cure the parts until after welding.)
- Firmly press the two parts together and harden the resin with a UV flashlight for a couple of seconds until it holds temporarily.
- (Carefully fill the holes, if you have any.)
- Cure the model as usual.
Applying what you've learned might get you a model you can barely tell apart from one that was printed in once piece.
Xenon keyboard
Published back in 2019, narinari's Xenon is an open-source 54-key split. Built by chewiedies.
This year's 40s day brought some earlier designs to my attention, like this Xenon built and posted by chewiedies. According to designer narinari:
Xenon is a 60% columnar staggered keyboard.
Well, about 60% but definitely not in its classic sense.
Xenon comes without the number row but has a generous thumb cluster sporting keys on two levels – both in MX and Choc format.
GitHub repo: https://github.com/narinari/xenon-keyboard
D-Warp
Based on Pseudoku's Hypo Warp, D-Warp is a 3D-printed split by Darrenph1 with a quite rare thumb key arrangement.
This handwired split is a modified version of Pseudoku's Hypo Warp with MX on the alphas and Chocs on the thumb cluster. The code for this version and the original version can be found here:
https://github.com/pseudoku/Dactyl-It-Yourself-Editor
I built this a couple years ago and it's still my daily driver. I wish more keyboards would attempt the thumb cluster that I use. It's so much more natural to press your thumb straight down than on its side – Darrenph1.
The designer's remark: "I have noticed the USB cut out is narrow. My custom built USB-C fits fine" but for anything store bought you may have to shave off some of the plastic. You may want to make it a tad taller in your slicer.
There are files for the inset bottom plate as well as 2 versions of a plate with a wrist rest. The plates were made for Elite-C.
Couple of FYIs: There is a small extra piece generated in the inset plates. Darrenph1 removed those in his slicer before printing.
The wrist rest plate and the tent only have left STLs. Mirror them for right but just know that the right USB reset hole won't line up since it's mirrored. So you can mount the right USB-C facing up.
Tips & Tricks
Death to all Triumph Adlers?
Another build with caps scavenged from a Triumph Adler Gabriele 9009, this time by orpheo_1452.
Typewriter freaks, brace yourselves. This seems to be a trend now.
After Strange-Lab5541's split dubbed fisk was published last week, here is another build utilizing these gorgeous MX compatible caps scavenged from the Triumph Adler Gabriele 9009 electric typewriter.
Triumph Adler doubleshots in a 60% rosewood case – plus numpad.
While the original typewriter sports a pretty exotic layout, thus not truly ISO, it was possible to cover an ISO board – with two sets…
Somewhere outside a vintage typewriter enthusiast sinks down on his knees and begins to cry silently.
MX compatible maglev switch
3D printable magnetic levitation switch with the Hall effect sensor in a Cherry MX compatible housing.
We've covered riskable's work on his void switches, but this one is a totally different approach.
Famichu published these MagLev MX switches, a 3D printable magnetic levitation switch with the linear output Hall effect sensor inside of a Cherry MX compatible housing.
GitHub repo: https://github.com/famichu/MagLev_Switch_MX
Features
- Magnetic levitation axis (no classic stem)
- Non-contact switch
- Linear output (adjustable trigger point)
- only 2 magnets (5mm diameter x 2mm height) and a Hall sensor (IC A1304).
- Dimensions/footprint compatible with Cherry MX switches
Most MagLev switches are not using Hall effect sensors. I think this is because the magnetism is too strong or the distance from the magnet is too close to detect. Therefore I implemented a new method sandwiching the Hall effect sensor between two magnets […] When the axis is pushed, the magnetisms [of the two magnets] will cancel each other out – [thus] the magnetism detected by the Hall effect sensor approaches zero. […] This method made the switch smaller, allowing it to have the same shape as existing switches – famichu.
Keyswitch break-in machines
The number of break-in related posts in a single day reached my threshold of sensation.
Although I probably couldn't be less interested in lubing and breaking-in switches, I have to admit that this is an often recurring question. And on Sunday alone there were at least 5-6 posts about break-in machines on r/mk so I consider this a trend worth featuring now… – at least once.
DingKey Designs' keyswitch break-in machine
DingKey Designs' keyswitch break-in machine (pictured above and available for purchase here) is 3D-printed and comes fully "pre-assembled" which means there is an easy one-step assembly without the need of screws.
The device, sporting ball bearings and POM wheels, is able to run continuously without any overheating and "has been proven to achieve over 17,000 actuations per hour without any issues". Total capacity: 36 switches with a planned expansion to 72 keys – probably by adding two extra "wings" on a perpendicular axis.
Watch the break-in machine in action – with sound.
Open-source break-in machine alternative
Another alternative is keekeen's similar machine "designed to actuate/break-in MX style switches consistently and repetitively for a smoother push feel".
Its capacity is 36 switches as well and this one has some videos on youtube. Watch the machine in action, the assembly process and its operation guide.
GitHub repo: https://github.com/keekeen/MX-Switch-Break-In-Machine
Keyboard layout STL generator
This piece of code by anduril_tfotw generates 3D-printable STL files from a keyboard-layout-editor layout.
This piece of Python code is meant to generate a SCAD and/or STL file from a keyboard-layout-editor layout file. Additionally, the model can be automatically segmented so that the parts will fit within the build area of your 3D printer.
The program takes a keyboard-layout-editor json file as one of the inputs along with an optional parameter json file to customize other parts of the resulting model.
The program can then generate a number of different items. The entire case can be generated as a single model or the case can be broken up so that parts will fit within the build size of your 3D printer. The build size is one of the values that can be places in the optional parameters file.
The program generates code for OpenSCAD – the script-based CAD program. You can choose to just generate the scad script file or have OpenSCAD render the file into an STL to be used on a 3D printer.
Python, SolidPython and OpenSCAD are required to run this script.
GitHub repo: https://github.com/jeffminton/keyboard_stl_generator
I may look into hosting something online if there is enough interest to justify it similar to the way the swillkb case builder works – Jeff Minton.
As a note about printing, the author suggests printing the top or plate upside down so the top of the case/plate is resting on the build plate. This will give the best results and the best accuracy for the switch holes.
Keyboard Spotting
Ballpoint typewriters
Typewriters from the '80s that used small ball point pens to draw text and graphics.
Stuff you haven't even knew existed but desperately need now? After last week's discovery of the MSX subculture, another one is already here: vintage plotters and ballpoint typewriters.
In her latest article, Hackaday's Kristina Panos mentions Paul Rickards' Twitter thread about ballpoint typewriters. Paul, who is an artist "exploring vintage plotters with modern code", also sells his amazing art (shop.paulrickards.com) made with plotters and maybe ballpoint typewriters(?).
But what the heck are ballpoint typewriters?
Did you know there were typewriters that used ball point pens to draw not just text but also graphics? I’ve collected several of these over the years – Paul Rickards.
Marketed in the mid '80s, ballpoint typewriters used small ballpoint pens to plot not just characters but also graphics.
They could type, came with some build-in graphic packages (pie, bar, line, radar charts), but when connected to a host computer via e.g. RS-232 serial port, they could be used as printers too: thus ballpoint typewriters were able to plot a wide range of graphics from simple graphs to intricate drawings generated by a computer.
According to Paul, Panasonic made three such models. The top shelf was the RK-P400C Penwriter which included the RS-232 port built in for computer control. It uses an Alps mechanism and tiny ball point pens in black, red, green and blue – the usual colors for these devices. In addition, this particular model also came with a white pen for error correcting.
The operating manual, referring to the RK-P400C as a "4-color graphic penwriter", lists among other specs the 24-character LCD display, 4KB/9-phrase text memory (total 3190 characters!), 10 different character sizes, italic mode, word wrap, search and edit functions.
In 1985, according to the July issue of PC World magazine, you could buy a Panasonic RK-P400C stuffed with all those features for $350.
The Panasonic RK-P400C Penwriter typewritter plotter drawing a design under computer control via RS-232 #plottertwitter pic.twitter.com/5ZTv5UDr7c
— Paul Rickards (@paulrickards) August 2, 2020
A lower end model was the Panasonic RK-P440 Penwriter. It had a computer input but required the K100 external interface. Otherwise functionally the same.
Finally, Panasonic also had the basic RK-P200C Penwriter which removed any computer control but kept the ability to do standalone business graphics.
There’s something so absurd and inefficient about a pen plotter, but it’s quite mesmerizing to behold a robot wield a pen to paper.
There were other manufacturers offering ballpoint pen based typewriters, such as Silver Reed and their EB50 model (Colour PenGraph EB50). It draws text and business graphics too but this one has a parallel port to act as a plotter.
Smith Corona sold the Graphtext 90 – with build-in graphs but without computer control.
And typewriter maker Brother offered the Type-a-Graph BP-30 which was marketed rebranded as Sears LXI Type-O-Graph as well. While the others must be relatively rare, you can find this one on ebay – at least in the US.
But there were also calculators with ballpoint pens: e.g. the Sharp El-7050. "It’s wild to use a calculator and watch the numbers being drawn to paper."
All of the typewriter models used the same ball point pens in four colors. The pens are rather scarce now, mostly new old stock with some exceptions for a couple of German companies that make replacements for medical equipment that fit.
Also, ballpoint typewriters were portable with a built-in handle and could run on batteries.
Keltron keyboard
KingD421 found this vintage Keltron, part of a fire alarm system.
This piece of history, sporting the physical layout of the late '70s, early '80s, was apparently part of a fire alarm system.
Found this in a drawer at work. Not sure how old it is. I guess it's used for an old fire alarm box we have here – KingD421.
The labelling on the case reads:
"Keltron Corporation Security Systems Division Waltham, Mass."
Removing the keycaps reveals the Hi-Tek High Profile switches, which – according to Angrymalayman – are the predecessors to Space Invader switches. "A bitch to disassemble and reassemble since it's so fragile."
Based in Waltham, MA, Keltron Corporation is still in business, they are "a leading manufacturer of fire and security alarm monitoring solutions that enable organizations and companies to provide dependable, scalable, life safety event response services" – since 1967.
I reached out to them and will update this post if I get any feedback.
2001 vs 2010 - A Story in Keyboards
Wyvyrn reflects on keyboards in movies 2001: A Space Odyssey and its sequel, 2010: The Year We Make Contact.
The special effects and production design of 2001 are legendary, of course. It's still difficult to fathom that the film came out in 1968.
Normally, science fiction films use present day computers to depict computers of the future, so that audiences understand they're seeing a computer, and won't become "confused." But Stanley Kubrick (director of 2001) did something different: he just thought about what computers would be like in 30 years, and put that on screen (whether it would be confusing or not).
Correctly predicting 30 years of computer graphics progress, he had animators hand-draw photographic quality computer displays. Knowing that keyboards wouldn't make any sense on a computer that could think and talk, HAL 9000 had none. This movie even depicted tablet computing, famously providing prior art to disprove claims that Apple had invented the idea decades later.
The result is a film that looks less dated than science fiction movies made decades later – including, its own sequel, 2010 (released in 1984). 2010 was designed by the legendary futurist Syd Mead, no slouch at all, but it didn't take the same crazy creative risks. His design language is much more influenced by the 1970's and 1980's, and therefore it has lots of interesting keyboards!
These weren't small changes. 2010 went to enormous lengths to rebuild lookalikes for Kubrick's famous sets from 2001. But the sequel stuck a mechanical keyboard on the most famous computer in cinema, HAL 9000! Let's take a look.
HAL 9000/SAL 9000
In 2010, the SAL 9000 (HAL's twin) has a mechanical keyboard front and center (click to enlarge):
But this was a new addition in the sequel. Look down at this image, from the original 2001 (released in 1968) when Bowman and Poole lean over HAL's console in the pod bay, analyzing the AE-35 unit.
Kubrick gives us lush matte black surfaces. There are a few translucent buttons (very similar to these, used on another scene, at orbital immigration), but they have the look of status indicators or shortcuts. Center, there's a big screen, facing upwards; those graphics are actually projected from those hand-etched photographic plates. There's no keyboard in the original 2001! Instead, there's a big flat screen:
Now look back again at the 9000 series of 2010 (released in 1984). When they recreated HAL (and his twin SAL) for the sequel, the filmmakers didn't copy it perfectly. They used different buttons and switches (which didn't match those beautiful translucent square buttons). They added some mysterious white donut shapes here and there. And where there used to be a big beautiful upward-facing display, we now have… a mechanical keyboard.
Probably this is custom-made, or does anyone recognize this beast? I see six rows of keys on center, another two rows of function keys above, and another two blocks of function keys, one on either side. The keycaps look spherical, and there's a pleasing concavity to the whole construction. 2010 at least predicted the standing desk and ergonomics craze. :)
It may not be the most useful appendage to a talking computer, but it's fun, if enigmatic, for a keyboard spotter.
Here it is from another angle.
Here's SAL's console from yet another angle. (By the way, SAL 9000 was voiced by an uncredited Candice Bergen, in 2010.)
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HAL 9000's holographic memory banks
This wasn't the only time filmmakers added a mechanical keyboard when they made the sequel to the iconic 2001. 2010 went full keyboard. It's full of fascinating and oddball 1970's and 1980's mechanicals. Look at this chonker of a mechanical keyboard:
Here we see one of the most iconic shots in cinema: Bowman just survived HAL's attempt to murder him, and now he's floating into the eerily red and white room full of HAL's translucent holographic memory units.
And, we see the same set on the sequel, 2010, where they lovingly recreated the room in every detail…
…and then they added a giant mechanical keyboard right there on the wall, inside of HAL's brain (top center).
This is a big chonker, super 1970's, with spherical keycaps, and full of oddball function keys that scream out "mainframe terminal."
In that decade, computers were so large and expensive, you kept them in their own room, not on your desk or in your pocket. You had consoles that connected to it via old-school 12V serial cables, like the VT100. I loved these things. They felt more like aftermarket auto parts than computer peripherals; heavy, far more steel than plastic. The operation force of the switches was massive.
Here it is from another angle.
In 2010, this keyboard they slapped onto the wall has all the same aesthetic hallmarks of one of those classic 1970's serial consoles, but, the layout is weird. This is not a common DEC terminal.
In the 1970's, a whole industry sprang up to sell you serial terminals, each one slightly different from the next, each offering different features aimed at various mainframes and software of the day. In most cases, mainframe computers were built and programmed to custom specifications by large institutions, which might make various uses (or no use at all) of whatever special keys were on the terminals they bought.
By googling just those four buttons in the upper right (SEND PAGE, SEND LINE, SEND MESSAGE, PRINT) I was able to identify this one.
It's a Lear Siegler ADM-2. We can even see in page 3 of the brochure what those special keys might be intended to do. Also, "ADM" stood for "American Dream Machine"? LOL.
Here we can see the keyboard from another angle. It's got a nice, dark 3-tone color scheme. I can see why the film's creative team picked it. It would be right at home on a retro mechanical keyboard of the 2020's. The profile looks uniform across the rows. I have a strong hunch it's Hi-Tek High Profile, though the wiki doesn't list it.
To confirm there was no keyboard on this set in the original movie, let's look at a few more shots of this same room, from 2001.
All this leaves us with a question: why did filmmakers in 1984 stick a 1970's terminal keyboard on a futuristic AI computer meant to be from 2001?
Stanley Kubrick was out of the picture. This creative team was trying to make his vision more understandable and relatable to the audiences of the 1980's – by using 1980's technology.
HAL is a mainframe. He's big – you can walk (or float) around inside of him. He may be able to talk, but he is, stylistically, exactly the type of massive computer you'd attach a serial terminal to. So it might have felt more natural to the technical consultants or production designers, and possibly, even the audience.
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Soviet Double Mechanical
You saw how two funky mechanical keyboards were retconned into Stanley Kubrick's clean, keyboard-less future (probably much to his dismay). There are even more interesting keyboards associated with 2010 (the film).
Syd Mead also had to design a Soviet interplanetary spaceship for this movie. It couldn't be more different than Kubrick's elegant 1960's Modern look. He gives the Soviet spacecraft a utilitarian rainbow of colorful controls, and there are lots of mechanical keyboards all over it. But in particular, let's look at one on the bridge:
We've got a big chunky white mechanical keyboard here, in a totally strange, double-stacked layout. White spherical caps. It's probably a custom, hand built and hand-lettered in Cyrillic by the production designers. Unless, someone familiar with Russian or Soviet keyboards recognizes it from a production model?
It's very hard to imagine a real reason why anyone would ever double up a keyboard like this, but glimpsed in the background of a scene, it does look cool.
This monster also sports a very large block of function keys, to the right there.
Other angles:
Making of
One thing that's fun about 2010 is that we have a "making of" feature that includes very specific detail about what they were thinking as they made this film. That gives us our last couple of interesting mechanical keyboards – though neither seem to have appeared in the film itself:
Top, we can see what looks like a salvaged mechanical keyboard of unknown origin (anyone recognize it?) assembled as part of a mood board, or design sample, for the film's effects team.
Beneath it, a Syd Mead sketch for the Leonov's control consoles, which eventually morphed into that crazy Cyrillic monster.
Lastly, just for fun, there's one more mechanical keyboard here: the one on the ancient Kaypro luggable, used (according to the Making Of feature) by the director, as he swapped scripts with Arthur C Clark – author of the novels upon which the movies are based.
Closeup on the keyboard.
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This write-up was originally posted by Wyvyrn on r/mk in three parts. Those posts are republished here with the author's permission. Just a quick addition to the last two photos from the other side of the world:
Inspiration
Dygma "OLKB"
Dygma announced a new columnarly staggered split keyboard model.
Hm. Dygma's Luis Sevilla announced a new "ortholinear" successor/alternative to their Dygma Raise.
Beside being overly confusing to call a columnarly staggered split "ortho", the new model – for which they have a working prototype – is maybe targeted to somewhere between the gamer audience and the ergo community.
Introducing our new ortholinear keyboard, a wireless split ergonomic keyboard like you've never seen before: wireless, with a built-in tenting solution, 8-key thumb clusters, and crazy RGB – Dygma Lab.
That was Issue #65. Thanks for stopping by.
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