Keyboard Builders' Digest
Cool cables from CableMod! Code: KBDNEWS

Issue 68 / Week 10 / 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 68

Refugee crisis, visit at the border, donation options, February stats, new acquisitions, one more extreme keyboard connector.

Hey y'all,

I'm still Tamás Dövényi from Hungary, trying to keep an eye on and write about keyboards while crazy Russian war criminals keep killing civilians in the neighboring Ukraine. So sorry for not being able to answer all the inquiries and emails this week but things got pretty busy lately.

Donations & Refugee situation

Thanks everyone, together we've helped a lot of Ukrainian refugees! I'll continue transferring the money landing on my PayPal account to charities so consider donating.

I can't monitor your donations to all the alternative options I listed in last week's editorial but almost $400 arrived to my PayPal account. Special thanks to Benjamin Calderon and @kaleid1990 for donating a big chunk of that money. And ofc thanks to everyone with smaller amounts because every little donation counts.

After adding my share, I transferred the whole sum (worth half of my monthly wage) to three charities:

These are the three most active charities helping the refugees crossing the border from Ukraine to Hungary – 180,000 people thus far. They are well-known charities here in Hungary with a decent track record so 100% no scam. (Sorry, I'm not familiar with charities in Poland – the main route of refugees.)

You can support the charities above directly or I'll keep transferring money landing on my PayPal account if that's easier for you e.g. because you are confused by the local fintech providers or unfamiliar payment options.

Eventually, I chose these three charities because they are not just well established in the region but they are also very active, some of them have been present on both sides of the border for decades, with Hungarian and Ukrainian coworkers and activists alike.

Other than providing food, cloths, sanitary products, information, legal aid, etc. 0-24, they've set up permanent physical bases at each of the three main border crossing points and in nearby schools and community halls to welcome and temporarily accommodate refugees.

Even though I went to the border to visit relatives there, we were discouraged to take food and cloths because of the logistical difficulties on-site, and donated money instead. Charities know better what they need and can buy stuff cheaper in bulk anyway.

Despite the pathetic maneuvering of our despicable government, everyday people, local municipalities and charities do a pretty great job.

As a neighboring country to Ukraine, understandably, the war and the refugee crisis get a lot of coverage in the local media. Sorry, these reports are mostly in Hungarian (many Ukrainians speak Hungarian too) but are maybe interesting to see how charities operate and spend your money: here and here.

February stats

If anyone is interested, I've updated the About page with new visitor stats.

Considering February was a 28-day month, the numbers are acceptable.

New acquisition

I bought a lot of vintage staff recently but none of them arrived yet. Better said, I wasn't able to pick them up because I bought everything locally. One of the seller has Covid-like symptoms and the other one has to collect the item first, because he has a dedicated house for his stuff outside of the city. :D

This time I fell in love with the connector:

Keyboard connector of an Orion terminal
Keyboard connector of an Orion terminal

It's an Orion terminal, I'll post more photos once I've put my hands on it.

Thanks, Tamás


Projects

Sporne

Krikun's fork of Joric's Jorne features space invader switches.

Kinda uncomfortable with the word 'Invader' at the moment… – krikun98.

Krikun has built three splits with the Hi-Tek 725s he obtained, also known as Space Invader or Angry Bear switches.

Features

  • Wireless with custom Space Invader nRF52833 nrfmicros
  • Hi-Tek 725 switches
  • ZMK support
  • Red ABS cases
  • USB-C
  • 110 mAh batteries.

Resources

KiCAD files: https://github.com/krikun98/jorne/tree/jorne_wl_si/corne-classic/pcb_wl

More photos: https://imgur.com/a/sLfqlK4


Chonky Palmtop

The Chonky Palmtop by Daniel Norris is a cyberdeck with an integrated Corne.

Daniel has been working on this project for a couple months: a Pi 4, 7" touchscreen, and an integrated split keyboard (Corne) with Miryoku layout that folds away to the footprint of the display.

It's about the same footprint as an old eee 701 laptop, but much thicker, hence the "chonky"… :D – a8ksh4.

The buttons and switch to the right of the display are used to control the LCD menu, check battery voltage, and switch power on and off.

More photos, stl files, and build info are posted in gitlab here: https://gitlab.com/norris.daniel/chonky-palmtop


Monolith

The Monolith, designed by sincerelyredcape, is built around an industrial grade encoder – and weights 15kg…

Under the hood, the Monolith is a bunch of Amoeba PCB's and a Teensy++ 2.0. A handwired keyboard with full backlight and "approximately 1600 solder joints".

In case you're wondering about the origin story of such a legendary piece of steel:

Where do I start? A friend of mine asked if I could build him a keyboard with the best volume knob he's ever felt – sincerelyredcape.

Knowing the EC11's wasn't up for the task, David found an Omron industrial grade encoder that turned out to be quite sturdy.

It's the size of a lime and wouldn't fit in a regular rectangle so I had to make room for it with the raised and angled back. The design should be familiar to some.

So that's the reason behind the Saturn-60-ish retro-styled case.

But there's still more to the encoder part: it came without detents, but sincerelyredcape knew his friend wanted those, so he had to make some more customization.

He came up with the idea of two separate discs with neodymium magnets. One on top of the encoder and the one on the knob. This makes the knob lock onto 20 different positions in one revolution. Completely frictionless and won't wear out in a very long time.

Wireless detents is the best thing I made in 2021.

The case is a sheet metal design of six parts, all welded together, and without bottom plate – it's about 15kg. All parts are 8mm thick except the top, which is 6mm. This allowed the author to tap M3 blind holes in the walls and top to accommodate fittings of a burger-mounted switch plate, encoder mount and the bottom plate.

In the process I broke four taps, one tap extractor and my spirit multiple times. Don't tap blind M3 taps in 316 stainless, I recommend it to no one.

Finished off with an etched brass plaque with a portrait of Erik (the friend) who will receive this on his 30th birthday. Text on the plaque reads "För Erik i tiden", which roughly translates to "For Erik, for all time".

It's funny because this thing will probably outlast us both.

OK35

OK35 is a split ortholinear keyboard designed by Y2ff – with exposed through-hole diodes arranged nicely at the top.

A 35-key "half-keyboard PCB, designed to be used in pairs". Split is the word designer Y2ff aka mothdotmonster aka Chesapeake (why so many names?) was probably looking for.

Source files: https://github.com/mothdotmonster/OK35

The OK35 is an ortho with an array of THT diodes arranged nicely at the top. To connect he halves, there is a TRRS jack, and the PCB can accommodate a Pro Micro compatible controller.

The repo also includes a 3D-printable case (STLs), and you can buy this as a kit as well: shop of the author.


Review

Drop Holy Panda X

ThereminGoat reviews Drop's Holy Panda X switch, manufactured by Gateron.

For those interested, Drop's Holy Panda X switches (HPX) are available for preorder.

I'm not into switches at all, and marketing slogans like "the holy grail of tactile typing" turn me right away anyway.

Nevertheless, Drop has started the design with a discussion with the original Holy Panda team. According to Quakemz, who "discovered" the legendary tactile frankenswitch by putting a Halo True or Halo Clear stem into an Invyr housing, shared his opinion about the HPX too:

Personally, I prefer them to Glorious Pandas and previous Holy Pandas. They all feature a similar tactility, but these are much smoother, more stable, and more consistent than the others. At the end of the day, it's preference, but these do feel much more refined than previous versions.

In contrast to the traditional off-white housings with peachy tan colored stems, the Holy Panda X switches feature opaque, dark grey nylon bottom housings, translucent black polycarbonate top housings, and golden-yellowish colored stems.

Read ThereminGoat's review if you are interested.

At the highest level, the Drop Holy Panda X switches do not appear anything like that of what their name implies, as so many people have astutely pointed out in their initial announcement thread – ThereminGoat.

Featuring a raised "DROP" nameplate, these Gateron-made switches are interesting as they are only the third time in the history of Gateron's public switch releases in which they’ve had switches not featuring exclusively "GATERON" nameplates. (The other two are that of Zeal's Clickiez switches and Rantopad Oranges.)

A quick remark at this point on the controversial naming: these switches don't look like Holy Pandas, and Gateron has never made any Panda switches before either.

Regardless, "the high set and forceful but rounded tactile bump these switches possess is perfectly in line with canonical expectations of Holy Panda switches."

Goat concludes that Drop did a good job at hitting the performance points they had openly targeted for, and scored some points by involving and compensating the original designers, however, the naming of the switch has done "more damage than one could have possibly imagined".

Full article: here.


Tips & Tricks

Folding tenting feet

A 3D printable folding tenting feet design posted by MohnJaddenPowers.

It seems the folding tenting feet printed by MohnJaddenPowers have been around for some time and were originally designed by Aaron Rappaport who made these for his Kinesis Edge Freestyle.

I wanted fold-able feet because sometime I like to lay my keyboard flat, take off the wrist rest and act like I have a small keyboard. I don't understand why they didn't build Lil feet into the keyboard in the first place. Seems like they made the lifting kit as an after thought – RappaportDesign.

When closed, the feet are only 5mm tall so they are "barely noticeable". They raise the Kinesis up 11 degrees but they can used for other ergo keyboards as well, e.g. MohnJaddenPowers printed them for his Mistel Barocco/MD770.

I used 3M double sided foam mounting tape that I got from Michael's. It's held the feet in place super firmly through some basic jostle testing – MohnJaddenPowers.

The feet fold flat. If you want to tent at a higher or lower angle, MohnJaddenPowers suggests to open the file in Windows 3D Builder, split it at the pivot part, stretch/shrink the foot on the axis, then rejoin the parts and save as a new STL.

My local library has a printer and it only cost me $2 for a pair of feet. Now I can finally fold this up and put it into a cheap zipper carry case for the commute once we return to the office.

STL files available on Thingiverse.


3D printable standoff

Will Winder shared his 3D printable standoff / spacer design.

The spacer has recessed areas that leave space for blobs and other inaccuracies in the 3D printed part, allowing it to snap into place on the PCB without any post processing.

This was designed after being unable to find a properly sized standoff locally – winder.

The mounting screws cut right into the plastic, "which can be tedious" compared to a brass standoff.

GitHub repo: https://gist.github.com/winder/bacf94d3c11acf84624c4ad19767deb2

In the GitHub repo there's a SCAD file. For those who are not familiar with those or OpenSCAD in general, it's a parametric CAD engine aka "programmer's 3D CAD modeller".

That means, you can finetune each parameter (dimensions) of the standoff by simply editing the source file in any text editor and you can also save the result as STL in OpenSCAD.


Tiny2040 controller

Tiny 2040 is another RP2040-based development board, this time by Pimoroni.

After the initial success of Raspberry's RP2040 microcontroller and their Pi Pico board, it was pretty clear that new versions will follow.

The Tiny2040 by Pimoroni has been around for some time but was brought to my attention only recently by Muraoka Taro's post.

It is really small, even smaller than the RP2040-Zero, and is marketed as "a postage stamp sized RP2040 development board".

Not to be confused with the RP2040 Stamp – which is probably named after a much larger stamp ;) –, the Tiny2040 with its 18x21.5mm footprint almost fits into a 1U space in your keyboard matrix.

Otherwise, it's pretty similar to the other competitors: USB-C connector, 2 or 8MB flash, even castellated, and the usual parameters of the RP2040.

Despite sporting only 12 IO pins, it seems to be perfect for splits, macropads or even smaller boards between 30-40% layouts.

Pricewise, it really depends on your location due to differences in shipping fees, customs, VAT, etc.

https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/tiny-2040

All in all, one more promising devboard for keyboard projects using CircuitPython and KMK.


Keyboard Spotting

Rockwell AIM-65

Rockwell AIM-65 with a built-in keyboard and a 20-character display, released in 1978.

Released in 1978, the Rockwell AIM-65 was a relatively cheap development computer available for $375.

"easy, inexpensive [computer] … for learning, designing, work or just fun"

It featured a 20 character LED display, an integrated thermal printer, and a built-in QWERTY keyboard.

In Spain, they were distributed by Comelta, and a photo of a model identical to the one above has a caption: "Comelta Drac-1".

I'm not sure about this because the Comelta Drac-1, at least at first sight, is something totally different, and also why would they keep the Rockwell branding?

The Wikimedia Commons page only adds to the confusion: the filename is "Rockwell AIM-65" but the description states in Spanish: "Comelta Drac-1 prototype, based on the Rockwell AIM-65".

Possibly, the AIM-65 was the name of the barebone machine, the intestine parts, and it came in different cases or – as it was common in those days – hobbyists built their own computers based on the provided parts/kit.

Regardless, this is an interesting piece of history.


Noritsu Z025892-01

Dedicated macropad of various Noritsu Digital Minilabs.

Despite sporting only a handful of keys, this dedicated input device of a Noritsu "all-digital mini-photo lab" is actually huge.

See the photo below for comparison:

Not much narrower than a fullsize keyboard. Nevertheless, probably much easier to work with, especially while standing.

The one in the picture was manufactured in 2005.


Velotype Pro

Not the usual monoblock split: the Velotype Pro is actually a chorded keyboard.

TOHSNBN posted this nightmare of a keyboard on r/mk.

No, I'm definitely not going to reiterate marketing bullshit found on the product page like "the future of keyboards" or "the art of typing". Instead, here is TOHSNBN's apt remark:

When people can't get comfortable, they do not day dream or get distracted. That makes them more productive! (source)

Seriously, how are you supposed to type on this for a longer period without accidentally pressing the palm buttons and keeping your hands relaxed at the same time? I mean I can already feel my extensor muscles aching just by looking at this photo.

Anyway, what's Velotype? It seems to be related to stenography as the Velotype keyboard is a chorded keyboard too. This means that multiple keys are pressed simultaneously, creating whole syllables or words at once.

More info.


Inspiration

Cisne

Suika's Cisne is a cool 40% monoblock with 5% tenting.

What a good idea! Why aren't more monoblock splits out there with tented "halves"?

I mean, there was the Je Sus featured recently, and the Hakkei prototype is something similar too, but Suika's Cisne seems to get the job done with a simple bent plate.

Features:

  • 5° tented top case (with magnets)
  • sculpted bottom case (with magnets)
  • gasket mount
  • HHKB Alice-like layout
  • 8° typing angle

While the Cisne is in IC phase, Ken apparently has a nice prototype already:

And here is the bent plate for inspiration:

More info: https://sonatina.jp/cisne


Inflated keycaps

You can air-type on these inflated keycaps by Running Guy Studio.

People at London-based Running Guy design studio seem to be obsessed with everything inflated or cushioned.

They made PlayStation AirShock, an inflated PS controller, cushioned suitcase and phone case, etc., and now they published some renders introducing Air Type, a keyboard with air bubbles to type on.

I wonder if this is a mere meme or they have intention to actually produce something similar.

While probably the worse keycap profile ever made, somebody should really consider building this whether to create a bubble wrap experience or the perfect "cloud of boobs" feeling associated with linear switches.


That was Issue #68. Thanks for stopping by.

This issue was made possible by the donations of:
splitkb.com, Benjamin Calderon, MoErgo Glove80, u/chad3814, Aiksplace, @kaleid1990, @keebio, ghsear.ch, cdc, Timo, Bart Vergeer, kiyejoco, Bob Cotton, FFKeebs, Tim Parsons, Kristina Panos, Matthias Ko, Sean Grady, @therick0996, Wong Jing Ping, Nuno Leitano, Joel Simpson, Mika van Schaik, Spencer Blackwood, Davidjohn Gerena

Your support is crucial to help this project to survive.

Discussion over at r/mk!
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