Behind the Scenes of Issue 70

Orion terminal eviscerated, new supporter, new shops added to the vendor database.

Hello friends,

I'm still Tamas Dovenyi, this time with Issue #70 of my DIY keyboard focused newsletter and blog dubbed the Keyboard Builders' Digest. If you are new to this, you can read how this started out and what this is all about nowadays. If you like what you see, you can subscribe to the newsletter (free) and donate some bucks to keep this otherwise free and ad-free project alive.

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New acquisitions

As I teased it on Twitter, I bought some vintage keyboards along with an obscure terminal recently. Actually, all of these were bought on local online marketplaces during the past few weeks but for various reasons I wasn't able to pick them up earlier.

Here they are:

I was already familiar with the Tatung terminal keyboards (in front and left of the screen), one of those was my first vintage keyboard ever. I bought these only to access the contact details of the seller who regularly lists interesting vintage stuff.

I was also quite familiar with the Datacoop board (leaning against the wall) – this is the fifth one in my collection but each one is slightly different so… :D Nice vintage opticals with huge bevel.

However, I didn't really know anything about the main protagonist in the picture, the Orion terminal and its keyboard (on top).

It popped up on a local auction website and, although barely visible on the photos of the original listing, I fell in love with its connector. :O

(This Kontakta / Socapex connector alone would deserve a separate blog entry.)

Anyways, this Orion terminal must be pretty rare since I could find only a single photo of it on the net (other than the the photos of the listing of the one above).

I tried to do my research and here is a quick write-up with some more photos: Orion ADP-2052 terminal.

Just an interesting add-on to that post: this terminal was made for the TPA ("stored program analyzer") by KFKI.

What's TPA you might ask? It was a family of Hungarian computers, the first one being a DEC PDP-8 compatible computer – which was forbidden to be called a computer. Confused?

In the '60s, the Central Committee of the Hungarian communist party ruled that individual developments of computers have to be stopped and computers should be purchased from the Soviet Union.

So instead of computers, KFKI, which was a research institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, continued its project as "stored program analyzer". Which was the same as computers…

The story is somewhat similar to the naming of DEC PDP and why it was called "Programmed Data Processor" instead of computer.

Donations

Thanks Yuan Liu for supporting this project and signing up as a regular donor! Much appreciated!

Keyboard vendor database

• New store in New Zealand: Keebord.nz
• Hydrakey added.
• And IPopularShop too.

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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

Bolt Industries Pico 87

An open-source tenkeyless mechanical keyboard powered by a Raspberry Pi Pico and BMK, a custom Arduino IDE firmware.

Kristina Panos' great Keebin' With Kristina column at Hackaday led me to Ian Dunn's Kickstarter project: the Pico 87.

While I rarely feature group buys and kickstarters, this one is an exception because Ian was kind enough to open-source the design files and firmware the day the campaign went live. A very sympathetic gesture.

I am a firm believer when it comes to open source hardware (and software) because I want to give back to the community that's given so much to me – Ian Dunn.

The .json files here can be imported into Easy EDA.

The PCB features an on-board USB hub and either a USB micro or USB-C connector.

Being a Pi Pico/RP2040 based keyboard, the Pico 87 is compatible with KMK but comes with an alternative firmware: BMK.

BMK stands for Bolt (Industries) Mechanical Keyboard and is written in C++ using the Arduino IDE.

Changing the function of a key is as easy as changing a line of code in the sketch – Ian Dunn.

Red Herring solenoid edition

Ming-Gih Lam updated the Red Herring PCB with an on-board solenoid.

After using the Red Herring with silent Alpaca switches, Ming-Gih Lam aka dcpedit realized that things were a bit too "quiet", and

I was craving something with a bit more punch.

The author originally toyed around with the idea of a bolt-on solution but eventually ended up with integrating the solenoid into the PCB.

What you see here is the resulting monstrosity that will absolutely annoy anyone within a 100ft of your desk – dj_edit.

Sound test with the solenoid off and on:

Github repo: https://github.com/dcpedit/redherring

Some more pictures: https://imgur.com/a/DLTToja

The actual component is just a random 4.5v solenoid available on Amazon.

Unfortunately, the cheaper and more popular SparkFun solenoid didn't work for some reason, dcpedit thinks it requires slightly more power than what the USB port was able to provide.

SlabV

SlabV by brickbots is a 36% keyboard with stacked acrylic construction and silicone gaskets.

SlabV is the MX version of the chocV with some new twists by brickbots.

A 36-key MX keyboard based on the Horizon by skarrmann with an acrylic stacked case featuring multiple full coverage silicone gaskets.

Rather than use an inert PCB for the bottom plate like the Horizon or chocV, I used the same idea to cut acrylic and silicone to fit directly against the active PCB – brickbots.

Layers of acrylic and silicone gasket sit above the PCB making the whole thing essentially single piece which is fully damped with gaskets between all layers.

According to the author, "it has a very solid and deep sound without any echo as there are no hollow spaces".

Image album: https://imgur.com/gallery/UpgpSrK

GitHub repo with all the files, parts list and build guide: https://github.com/brickbots/slabv

FCS42S keyboard

Ho's FCS42S is a split keyboard with adjustable per-column offsets and pinky splay.

Ho, who is a Japanese graduate student in the field of power systems, has been researching the optimal layout tailored to his hands for some time. (His earlier attempts are published on his blog at https://tsuiha.com.)

However, a few weeks ago he decided to raise the stakes and launched a dedicated Twitter profile to document the FCS42S, his latest attempt of a split keyboard with an adjustable physical layout. (The codename is an abbreviation which resolves to: Free Column Staggered 42-key Split.)

This one is more of a prototyping system rather than a keyboard – similar to the Pangaea project, even Squeezebox, or @Hanachi's upcoming Ergotonic.

As you can see, the rail-based system makes it possible to adjust the column offsets relatively freely, just like the pinky splay and thumb cluster angle.

The acrylic sheets are 2mm thick and the screws used to hold the parts together are M2x10mm ones.

The board is a sandwich construction and between the bottom and top plate you use the small parts as spacers.

Here is a close-up of a column:

And here is a quick demonstration of the range of adjustments:

pic.twitter.com/WxCqfDqjLS

— ホ (@hoxyzitol) March 15, 2022

We had a nice chat with Ho and he was kind enough to share not just some unpublished photos but also the original DXF file in case you want to laser-cut the parts to try this concept:

Click here for the DXF file.

Thanks Ho, and good luck with this project!

Metal Boston

Pylon open-sourced the metal version of his Boston, a "compact 120% battleship".

I mentioned Boston, a relatively compact 120% keyboard, last summer with regards of a sound test.

For those who are not familiar with the design, Boston is a "compact battleship" with an extra F-row – 18 additional programmable keys to be exact. What's even better, all this comes in a footprint 2u narrower than a full-size, and only about 1.5u wider than a 96%.

The PCB was open-sourced last May but Pylon continued working on his design and reached out to me to announce he recently published the CAD files for the metal version.

In this GitHub repo you can find not just the CAD source files and STEP files necessary to manufacture the metal case but also a very detailed ordering guide. If you haven't yet ordered anything from a CNC manufacturer (but you intend to) you definitely should bookmark this awesome guide.

I did the CAD in Alibre Atom3D, which costs around $150 for a perpetual license, but which does offer a 1-month long free trial – bluepylons.

Boston has a two piece case, consisting of the top and the bottom.

There are two versions of the bottom case - the alternate version being the first prototype with some sharp edges.

A STEP file assembly (which can be opened by almost any 3D CAD program) is in the main Metal Version directory.

STEP files for just the case top and bottom (for sending to a machine shop for ordering) are in the Case > STEP directory.

Quefrency Flipper case

Phobokin_Chicken designed and printed a Flipper case for the Quefrency Rev 3.

Inspired by Zap Cables Bumper case, Phobos aka Phobokin_Chicken designed and 3D printed a retro-looking case for the Quefrency Rev 3 using these files by Keebio as a starting point.

ZapCables are cool with the design as long as it’s not being sold, so please only use this for personal use! – Phobos.

If you want to print this out yourself, the author published the STL files here.

TinyS3 controller

UnexpectedMaker's TinyS3 is a development board featuring the ESP32-S3 controller, and offering both wired and wireless connection.

Seon aka UnexpectedMaker from Melbourne, Australia, came up with this nice open-hardware development board sporting the ESP32-S3 controller.

The project was brought to my attention by deshipu's WIP Vegemite Sandwich keyboard, featured by Kristina Panos in her Hackaday column.

The ESP32-S3 is (partially) supported by CircuitPython so deshipu decided to try it:

The ESP32-S3 is the first Espressif board that has both true USB and Bluetooth, so naturally you have to wonder if it's any good for keyboards. I decided to try and see – deshipu.

The board has only 17 GPIO pins so it's rather for splits or smaller form factors.

Features

• Dual 32bit Xtensa LX7 cores @ up to 240Mhz
• RISC-V Ultra Low Power Co-processor
• 2.4GHz Wifi - 802.11b/g/n
• Bluetooth 5, BLE + Mesh
• 8MB QSPI Flash
• 8MB of extra QSPI PSRAM
• 700mA 3.3V LDO Regulator
• Low power RGB LED
• ULTRA LOW Deep Sleep Current
• USB-C Connector with back-feed protection
• Native USB + USB Serial JTAG
• LiPo Battery Charging
• JST pads on the back supports PH connector
• VBAT and 5V Sense Pins
• 3D High Gain Antenna
• 17 GPIO
• 35 x 18mm in size
• Similar to the Pro Micro dimensions but incompatible pinout. Compatible with TinyPICO & TinyS2.

According to deshipu's project log, the wired connection seems to works fine but there is only some basic BLE support in CircuitPython for the ESP32-S3 chip right now.

More details on the TinyS3: https://esp32s3.com/tinys3.html

GitHub repo: https://github.com/unexpectedmaker/esp32s3

While being open-hardware, the TinyS3 is also available in UnexpectedMaker's shop at: https://unexpectedmaker.com/shop/ttinys3-esp32s3 (sold out atm).

Orion ADP 2052

This is an Orion ADP 2052 terminal with a TKI keyboard from 1983. Rafi switches, physically locking Alfa Lock, some backlit keys and an intimidating cable and connector.

As I teased it on my Twitter channel, I bought some vintage keyboards along with an obscure terminal recently which turned out to be an Orion-KFKI ADP-2052. It must be quite rare because there was only a single photo on the net I could find: this one.

And here is mine:

Orion & KFKI

Back to the basics: founded in 1913 and based in Budapest, Orion was a well-known brand of electronic consumer goods in Hungary. (They still exist, today they are part of the Singaporean Thakral Group.)

Back in the 20th century they produced TVs, radios, and various other electronic devices. If we can believe this source, there was a time when Orion was responsible for 25-30% of the radio export of the whole world.

Anyways, it seems they made terminals too. Teamed up with KFKI (Central Physics Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, est. 1950), this Orion ADP-2052 terminal was designed to access a TPA (stored program analyzer) of KFKI – which started out as a DEC PDP-8 clone and was a computer which couldn't be called a computer. But this is another story…

Here is an archive photo from the '80s with the TPA (light brown box in the middle), an ADP-2000 (an earlier model in front of the guy) and the exact same keyboard I seized (between the two).

Disassembly

Both the keyboard and video terminal contain PCBs but also remnants of older techniques like point to point or wire wrap construction.

Usually, I start with looking for stickers in the housing or on PCBs. I like to stumble upon handwritten notes, signatures of people who built and/or tested these devices, or any other indication of when the particular item was made.

While there wasn't really any usable sticker this time, I found something even better: a yellowed label hanging from the metal frame inside of the video terminal – attached with a string.

The label reads: "ADP 2052 Simonné(?)" on one side and "csengetve, 83.03.21. Nagy" on the other.

Yey! As a total coincidence, it seems this thing has its birthday today. The 39th one.

"Simonné" is apparently the family name of a lady (literally Mrs. Simon) and "csengetve" means "belled" in Hungarian. Probably the contemporary name for the continuity and quality check? Maybe. And "Nagy" is one of the most common family names in Hungary.

But you are more interested in the keyboard I guess.

The keyboard case is quite big, and it's made of a thick but lightweight plastic material which gives the keyboard the characteristic sound profile of a giant lunch box.

Keyboard

No usable sticker or label on or inside of the keyboard except this one:

TKI stands for Telecommunication Research Institute (est. 1950) and if the hard-to-read part is "Unitaszt" – which would make sense – than this is another sign of the rarity of this artifact – because I can't find anything with that search phrase.

Keycaps

The vivid color scheme is just like Lego bricks of the 80s. Double-shot uniform caps in yellow, red, blue, and two shades of grey. Plus some blank green ones.

The profile is like a tall and edgy XDA or uniform SA R3 with harsh edges.

Relatively thin, not nearly as nice as the caps on my Reuters trading keyboard from about the same era.

Switches

According to the nameplate, the switch was manufactured by Rafi (German brand) but not even similar to any of the Rafi variants listed on Deskthority. Not even close.

Very tall switches with black cylindrical housing (below the plate) and long white stems. Further disassembly wasn't possible without desoldering – maybe later. As you can see in the picture above, there's a dummy stem below the 2u "0" key.

Edit:

As jsheradin points out in his reply, these are probably Rafi RC 72 Hall effect switches. There are many close-ups posted by Jacob Alexander with regards of a similar Express 2, also using parts made by TKI.

Most of the switches are quite scratchy linears except the "Alfa Lock" key which is a nice locking one with a satisfying click both on lock and unlock.

… this one, just like other keys with transparent top are backlit – with tiny light-bulbs. (The Reuters from 1985 had LEDs already.)

Cable and connector

As already told, I had no idea what I was buying but fell in love with the connector barely visible in a photo of the original listing. Here it is:

According to the labels it's a Kontakta / Socapex (Captions on the connector itself: "Kontakta Budapest" and "Licence Socapex").

Kontakta was a factory based in Budapest and Szentes, today (as Kontavill) it's part of Legrand (source).

And Socapex seems to be a big name in the entertainment industry, particularly in film, television and stage lighting.

The connector is HUGE and it also sports a large fixing screw.

And the cable is very THICK, see the comparison below. That said, I don't really get what's going on here:

The connector has 36 pins from which "only" 24 are used. Most of the wires go to the main PCB and some to a smaller panel with a fuse and a transistor(?) covered by a makeshift heat sink.

The cable is STIFF. I mean, almost like a broom handle – and that's only a slight exaggeration.

It's 15.5mm thick and, honestly, on adjusting the cable the whole keyboard moves.

Due to the stiffness of the cable it's impossible to use the keyboard in front of the video terminal, at least on the same level. I have no idea how this photo was shot. Maybe that one in the picture doesn't have the cable.

Finally, here is a comparison of this Kontakta / Socapex with some more common vintage connectors like DIN, PS/2, and also an USB-A and micro for reference.

As you can see, the cable is as thick as the whole coil of another terminal (Tatung).

That's it for now. Thanks for reading.

Assembling 100.000 switches per day

Muilkinginuk posted a video of the assembly line at TTC(?) manufacturing 100 thousand switches per day.

The video itself looks like recorded with a potato but it's interesting anyway:

u/Muilkinginuk claims he's working directly with TTC and will post more interesting switch content in the future.

This post gained a lot of attention on Reddit and one frequent question was: why does the machine press the switch a few times?

According to Muilkinginuk, the machine is measuring continuity and resistance.

Ceramic keycaps

HydrakeyCeramic introduces new ceramic keycaps.

@hydrakey presents a new little side project: ceramic keycaps.

While we've seen such keycaps before, e.g. from Cerakey, these ones are slightly different:

The HydraKey caps are "slip casted earthenware ceramics". In addition, the caps are glazed with transparent glazing (a thin glass layer) so they show the original color of the clay that is used.

I’m going to make Ceramic Keycaps! I’ve been thinking about this concept alot and because me and my partner are both very passionated about ceramics and work/worked with this material we would love to try a make this idea work.

There are some post about the process on Instagram, e.g. showing the molds:

These are two different sizes, since after baking the caps can shrink up to 8%. So the maker has to try to get the perfect cap size first.

First prototypes of the ceramic keycaps coming straight from the mold. They still need to go into the oven to get their strength and of course the glaze.

Finally, a quick "sound test":

Dyed... everything!

Custom dyed cable parts voxels-box – all to match an artisan.

Custom dyed mint green MDPC-X, Techflex, heatshrink, and even USB inserts - all to match an artisan.

I've gone madness with minty! – voxels-box

Interesting to see how the level of customization can be raised.