Keyboard Builders' Digest
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Issue 67 / Week 9 / 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.

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Contents

Editorial

Behind the Scenes of Issue 67

Keyboards in shelled homes, refugee crisis and some of your options to help.

Hey y'all,

You know something is wrong when you find yourself spotting keyboards in war reports – like the ones in the cover image. Sorry if this issue seems to be sloppier than usual but priorities shift when history is being written real-time and right next door.

I live just an hour's drive away from the Ukrainian border so, as much as I like this hobby, these days I'm more concerned about what's happening over there.

Despite being a blackbelt couch potato and armchair warrior, this week I'm heading to the border where we have close family members, friends and coworkers on both sides.

While the westermost part of Ukraine is safe for now, we take food and various supplies for refugees and to charities operating in the area.

The main route of refugees is Poland, but already 77,000 people have crossed the border to Hungary in just four days. They are mostly women and children – men are not allowed through due to conscription.

If you are willing to help, donate to well-known charities (and try to avoid scams):

Thanks, Tamás


Projects

Ergozero

SouthPawEngineer's Ergozero runs KMK firmware on a tiny RP2040 Zero controller.

Continuing his series of CircuitPython/KMK/RP2040 based builds, SouthPawEngineer presents a new board with the RP2040-Zero controller (introduced late last year in KBD #56).

Happy to report the RP2040 Zero as a great little controller, and cheaper than a Pro Micro while being way more capable – SouthPawEngineer.

The Ergozero is a 40% monoblock angled pseudo-split that's similar to the Ergopi but uses a different controller. The Waveshare RP2040-Zero is a Pico-like MCU board based on Raspberry Pi MCU RP2040 but much more compact. It has 20 GPIO pins, and can be found for about $4-5 USD.

This particular board is using Choc brown switches. There's a little joystick in the middle for arrow keys, a low profile rotary encoder, a speaker, underglow RGB LEDs, and the switches are hot-swappable.


Cool836pico

An angled monoblock Pico-based keyboard from m.ki. Optionally low-profile and open-source.

A sandwich-mount 30% monoblock keyboard with Alice layout from m.ki aka telzo2000. Based on the cool836A and sporting a Raspberry Pi Pico.

The PCB supports both Cherry MX and Kailh Choc hotswap sockets.

Unlike the Pro Micro, the Pico has a reset switch on the board body. Therefore, there are restrictions on the direction of its installation. I thought it would be better if the chips were not exposed, so I made a notch in the PCB – m.ki.

Resources: Github repo with build log.


Charybdis Nano

Quentin's Charybdis family is extending with the Nano – with open-source case files.

The Charybdis Nano is an ultra compact input device by Quentin Lebastard. Featuring 35 keys and an integrated trackball, it's the smaller brother of the 4x6 version or the trackball alternative of the Skeletyl.

Engineered to be a full mouse replacement solution with high-quality, custom-developed components – Bastardkb.

Resources: Github repo.


Krangle

The handwired Krangle by mjongerh has an intimidating amount of keys.

Originally, mjongerh wanted a keyboard with some additional keys for shortcuts in games. Then he got inspired by the SpaceCadet, the hyper7 and also jurassic73's Split89, and decided on even more dedicated buttons for shortcuts, macros and code snippets.

Understandably, such a monstrosity wasn't readily available for purchase so the author had to design and build his own keyboard – without prior experience in building keyboards, 3D-modeling or 3D-printing.

Couldn't get the keyboard I wanted. So the only reasonable thing to do was make my own, the Krangle! – mjongerh.

Most parts of the keyboard were printed with a Creality CR-20 and all those buttons are meticulously handwired.

You can find additional info and necessary files in this GitHub repo.

Sound test:


Lumberelite

The LumberElite is a custom Lumberjack PCB by tj_shex modified to accommodate an Elite-C and OLED screen.

This open-source PCB is a modification of Paul James' Lumberjack.

I wanted to make a somewhat custom keyboard so I modified the PCB to accept the Elite-C and OLED – as well as a general retrace in places to experiment with KiCad – tj_shex.

The author also designed a stacked acrylic case in Fusion 360.

Check this Github repo with KiCad source files and case DXFs.


Rock On keyboard

Fingerpunch Keyboards' monoblock Rock On in a mesmerizing case by chewiedies.

It seems chewiedies laid hold of one of Sadek Baroudi's spare Rock On prototype PCBs (not released yet) and put it in a cool 3D-printed case.

The Rock On, which was introduced early February, is Sadek's 9th keyboard design, and will probably be sold in his new shop at fingerpunch.xyz.

However, the fingerpunch site is still under development and purchases are not yet supported.

Note that this board requires an elite-c. The pro micro does not have enough pins to support this many keys, per key leds, and an OLED – sadekbaroudi.

While neither the PCB nor the case is open-source at the moment, at least you can find the STLs of the wrist rest bumper here.

This is a bumper I made for my Brila wrist rests. Over time the bottoms of my Brila pads became not so sticky. So I made this to punch it up a bit and to add some low pro silicone to the bottom. I used the leftover bits from a sheet of silicone rubber bumpons. That stuff is not just trash! – chewiedies.

The wrist res bumpers come in three versions: flat, tented at 14 degrees, and tilted at 9 degrees.


Cantor keyboard

Diego Palacios' Cantor is a 42-key diodeless split keyboard.

The Cantor keyboard is a 42 key diodeless split keyboard, designed with simplicity in mind.

Inspired by the popular Corne, Ferris and Sweep keyboards, Diego aimed for a Corne-ish layout with more aggressive staggering and design which is simple, cheap and easy to assemble.

As a couriosity, this is my first split keyboard I have ever owned, and I am pretty happy with the result – diepala.

The stagger has been carefully designed from the ground up, the author even made and app to study the natural position and movements of his fingers.

The keyboard uses Choc switches with Choc spacing, thus, only MBK keycaps (or equivalent) can be used.

Because of the diodeless approach a Pro Micro was out of the questions due to the lack of the requisite number of GPIO pins. Thus, the Cantor uses STM32F401CC blackpill microcontrollers.

GitHub repo: https://github.com/diepala/cantor


Track Beast

Third iteration of David Kincade's Track Beast – resin edition.

One and a half year after the first published version, David announced the third iteration of his 4x6 Dactyl with an integrated trackball, the Track Beast – this time printed in resin.

I was blown away by the quality of the resin print (which was my first attempt with resin) – crufia.

According to the author, he mostly followed the same steps from this build log of the Track Beast.

GitHub repo with the original files: https://github.com/davekincade/track_beast


Caduceus

Two new CircuitPython boards by SouthPawEngineer, called the Caduceus.

After his stenoish designs, SouthPawEngineer made two minimalist splits with the Adafruit KB2040.

There is a 36-key variant that, to connect the two halves, uses the Keeboar's on-board 4-pin JST Qwiic connector with a Qwiic cable.

It is almost as minimal as a keyboard can be - no diodes, and no TRRS connector. With that version, you can solder the switches/sockets and be done with it – SouthPawEngineer.

There's also a second, 34-key variant with a little pinky splay sporting the traditional TRRS connector.

Both run CircuitPython and KMK, which makes changing your keymaps and customizing your keyboard as easy as editing a text file on a USB drive.


gTetris

Geri00's gTetris is a handwired project with great photolog.

This pretty spacious ortholinear split by Geri00 called gTetris comes with a large photolog covering the process from the cardboard prototyping phase to the finishing touches.

1.2mm stainless steel plate designed in Fusion360, low-profile Choc switches with handwired hotswaps sockets, and tenting.

Check the photos here.


Community

Damn Fine Keyboards

Damn Fine Keyboards is a new PDFzine by CCH Podcast's Philipp. Check it out and subscribe!

Launched on the first anniversary of his CCH podcast, Damn Fine Keyboards is a little PDF booklet brought to you by Philipp – full of glamour shots of keyboards with layouts more on the conventional side. Something you don't often see here on kbd.news.

So what's the point of the Damn Fine Keyboards? I love mechanical keyboards and I love working on projects. Besides my podcast, I wanted to do something with more visuality instead of audio – and here is the result. A magazine full of beauties in the form of mechanical keyboards – Philipp.

The first 13-page issue is already available for download at:

https://damnfinekeyboards.com

If you want to contribute, send your photos or other content to Philipp. If you don't want to miss the next issue, follow @damfinekeebs on Twitter or sign up for the newsletter.

Good luck to Philipp and thanks for the references!


Keyboard Spotting

Teletype Model 33

The Teletype Model 33, an electromechanical teleprinter from the '60s with actual cylinders as its keys.

You think you know what a cylindrical keycap profile looks like, don't you? I'm talking about OEM, Cherry or MoErgo MCC.

Then you haven't seen this one, the real CYLINDER profile you may have been unaware of. The whole key of a Teletype Model 33 is a regular cylinder. What's more, modifiers are even bigger cylinders with larger diameter. :D

This is the type of chonker vintage stuff that I'll probably never own due to geographical reasons, despite the relatively huge number of pieces manufactured: in 1976, Teletype celebrated the specimen with the serial number 600.000.

Pic: Top view of the Teletype Model 33 ASR (click to enlarge)

Top view of the Teletype Model 33 ASR (click to enlarge)

According to this wiki page, Teletype Corporation's Model 33 terminal, introduced in 1963, was one of the most popular terminals in the data-communications industry until the late 1970s. It's a legendary electromechanical teleprinter designed for "light-duty office use", but it was usable as a computer terminal as well.

These machines not just predated video terminals like the Tektronix, appearing in 1969, but were also much cheaper ($600-1000 vs. $3,950).

Model 33s came in three versions with the Model 33 ASR aka ASR33 (depicted above) being the most premium – fitted with a punched tape reader, tape punch, and keyboard. The KSR version featured only the keyboard, while the RO model was the cheapest read-only alternative.

Pic:

Since the Model 33 is such a lovely piece of history, it's no wonder that, similarly to e.g. ballpoint typewriters and plotters, it still has an active fan base.

Hugh Pyle runs @33asr, a Twitter channel dedicated to the ASR33, and he also maintains a GitHub repo with his Model 33 related hacks, projects and resources.

Pic: Teletype Model 33 art

Teletype Model 33 art

Thanks to his efforts, beside ASCII art and punch tape art, it seems you can play even Wordle on these relics. (For posterity after the span of millennia, Wordle was a word-guessing game and Internet phenomenon in early 2022.)

Finally, here is a close-up of a key, which happens to be Hugh's profile picture on GitHub:

Pic: Teletype Model 33 key

Teletype Model 33 key

Fluke 1720A keyboard

R009k saved a vintage Fluke 1720A Programmer Keyboard from getting thrown out.

Introduced by John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc. in the early 1980's, the Fluke 1720A Programmer Keyboard accompanied the Fluke 1720A Instrument Controller which was designed for controlling industrial instrument systems.

Work was throwing out a few of these beauties, snaged one on the way out – R009k.

The keyboard sports Datanetics DC-60 series switches and includes an on-board solenoid.

More info and photos on Deskthority.


That was Issue #67. Thanks for stopping by.

This issue was made possible by the donations of:
splitkb.com, MoErgo Glove80, u/chad3814, Aiksplace, @keebio, @kaleid1990, ghsear.ch, cdc, Timo, kiyejoco, Bob Cotton, FFKeebs, Sean Grady, Rick Kremer, Joel Simpson, Nuno Leitano, Davidjohn Gerena, Spencer Blackwood

Your support is crucial to help this project to survive.

Discussion over at r/mk!
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