Behind the Scenes of Issue 71

2,000 newsletter subscribers, purging inactive users, consider contributing to the new costs, etc.

Hello friends,

I'm still Tamas Dovenyi, this time with Issue #71 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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This editorial is entirely about the newsletter to announce a few important things.

PSA

To sum things up:

• Click a link in the newsletter if you are a subscriber and would like to keep receiving it in the future because I'll continue cleaning up the database to remove inactive subscribers.
• Contribute to the costs if you can. From now on, I'll have to pay a monthly fee to send out the newsletter because…
• 2,000 subscribers reached!

Help me

So as a start, sending out the next newsletter will cost me $34 (monthly fee) – and this amount will grow in proportion to the number of subscribers in the future.

I'd be grateful if some of you could joint the ranks of regular supporters to cover this additional cost.

Here's the link: https://kbd.news/donate

But it also means the KBD.news project arrived at an important milestone: 2,000 newsletter subscribers. Yay!

On one hand, that's übercool. Thank you!

But at the same time that means Mailchimp's free plan is maxed out and from now on I'll have to pay an ever increasing fee to be able to send you these free weekly newsletters.

Readers vs supporters

Of course I can pay that fee myself, no problem, but the situation is somewhat weird. The blog and newsletter became kind of a public service which I do for free, putting a lot of my time into the project.

In return, some of the generous readers pay me tips occasionally and there are 20 regular donors (thank you!).

Let me highlight these fantastic people and businesses, their contribution keeps this project alive and makes KBD.news available for 50,000 readers:

splitkb.com, MoErgo Glove80, u/chad3814, Aiksplace, @keebio, @kaleid1990, ghsear.ch, cdc, Bob Cotton, kiyejoco, Timo, Sean Grady, FFKeebs, @therick0996, Joel Simpson, Nuno Leitano, Spencer Blackwood, KEEBD, Davidjohn Gerena, Yuan Liu

Yeah, 50-60,000 unique users check these pages monthly (Cloudflare data) and 2,000 of them are subscribed to the newsletter which signals another level of commitment.

• So are there 8 people who would donate $5 regularly to cover the Mailchimp fee?
• Or 4 generous readers supporting the project with $10 each month?

I'm sure there are. If you are one of them, here is the link again: https://kbd.news/donate

FYI, there are supporters with just $1 of monthly contribution and the median sum is $5.

Unfeasibility of alternatives

Theoretically, there are three parties who could cover the costs of running this site: me, all or some of the readers, or sponsors/advertisers.

Right now it's me and a handful of readers.

What about sponsors? Most of them will want results, ROI and that would ruin the experience.

Well, I hate ads. They slow the site down, are irrelevant, repetitive and annoying. I know you hate them too so I don't want to pollute the interface with ads, especially obtrusive ones.

70-80% of you use adblockers anyway so that wouldn't work even if I'd try.

In any case, if I'll ever want to experiment with ads, I'll tell you in advance.

Cognitive dissonance

I'm happy to write and post things sacrificing my free time because, well, this is my hobby.

I don't have a problem with paying for hosting either because I have some other sites so that cost is shared among different projects.

(Btw, the domain was paid by Chad. Thanks mate!)

But this Mailchimp fee caused me some cognitive dissonance.

Paying a monthly fee to be able to keep up my free service?! Paying rather than get paid for a work? That defies my logic.

Newsletter cleanup

On a similar note, I'm removing inactive users from the list to minimize the monthly fee.

The point is: click a link in the newsletter to make sure you stay subscribed – at least if you want.

What's the situation now? The opening rate of the newsletters is about 50%.

On one hand that's a solid number: the "industry average" according to MC is only 35% – at least for lists in the category of "hobbies" and of a similar size.

On the other hand, that means I'll pay for sending out the newsletter while half of the recipients doesn't even bother to open it.

So that's why you should click a link in the newsletter if you'd like to received it in the future: I'm cleaning up the database to remove inactive users.

In the run-up to reaching 2,000 subscribers – the upper limit of Mailchimp's free plan – I've already removed dozens if not hundreds of users from the list. I'd guess about 150-200.

If you are familiar with MC, it makes an automatic cleanup sometimes (based on hard and soft bounces) but also keeps unsubscribed uses on the list (although there's a difference between "audience", "subscribers" and "recipients").

Anyway, after deleting all the "cleaned" and "unsubscribed" users, I'm now removing inactive users too.

Again, if it was about marketing, I'd strive for the bigger, more impressive number and wouldn't bother with removing anybody.

But this is not about marketing or money, without advertisers or sponsors it makes no sense to pump up subscriber and visitor stats.

Thanks

Thanks again guys and gals, despite the rant above, I think this is a pretty big deal and I'm proud we've made it together and reached this milestone in 14 months.

(The newsletter was announced in Issue #9 and the first one was sent out to 21 subscribers :) one week later, on 2021-01-25.)

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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

Ergotonic F-24

Hanachi's Ergotonic F-24 comes with a unique adjustable centerpiece making this keyboard split or monoblock on demand.

As a fork of his monoblock Ergotonic49 design, Hanachi is in the midst of developing a new model with adjustable angle and/or split halves. The most impressive part? All this in a single project! :D

The Ergotonic F-24 prototype extends 30 mm horizontally and allows an adjustment of ±8 degrees with regards of the slant angle. In addition, it can also be completely separated and used as a true split.

#男の子ってこういうのが好きなんでしょ
Ergotonic F-24#自作キーボード #ergotonic49 (改) pic.twitter.com/oCgLdmRBQJ

— Hanachi (@haswellep) March 13, 2022

The movable mechanism in the center of the Ergotonic is made by combining plates like these:

After adjusting the halves, the position of the plates can be fixed by screws.

It seems these adjustable-angle splits took off in the Japanese keyboard builder scene recently. The F-24 was inspired by the Pangaea keyboard, but other similar projects are being developed simultaneously, like Ho's FCS42S.

In @otahinosame's photo you can see the Ergotonic49 along with the Pangaea and the F-24 (from top to bottom):

Both Ergotonics feature the Willow layout which tries to project the finger positions of a "tented hand" onto a flat surface – resulting in characteristically curved columns. Here is Hanachi's write-up on the concept if you'd like to take a deeper dive into the topic.

The layout's namesake, the original Willow64 featured in KBD#4 could be used as monoblock/pseudosplit or separate split as well, depending on an extra top plate connecting the halves.

However, with the unique adjustable centerpiece, the F-24 raises the stakes as you can see in this short video demonstrating the movable parts as they are being adjusted:

始動！ pic.twitter.com/eacRtrAQKC

— Hanachi (@haswellep) March 10, 2022

Oh, and did I mention that the project is open-source?

The PCB files (initial release, WIP!) have been around for some time but the build log was released only recently.

LCK75 SL

Lyso1's LCK75 PCB updated, tweaked and republished by short_lurker.

LCK75 SL by short_lurker is a modification of LCK75 Rev1, a 75% through-hole keyboard originally designed by Lyso1 aka TheLysol_27.

The original LCK75 design, which was inspired by the Sat75 from CannonKeys, the Discipline/Mysterium from CFTKB, and Dissatisfaction 65 from Nicell, was featured almost a year ago in KBD#25.

Recently, short_lurker announced his project based on that PCB, a heavily modified version of it.

As you can see comparing the two PCBs, there are some important changes:

• switch footprints allow hotswap sockets now,
• diode footprints updated and diodes rearranged,
• swapped OLED display positions with buttons and ISP header,
• USB-C connector mirrored,
• updated plate for more strength,
and many more updates and rearrangements.

Due to these changes, especially because of the new position of the USB-C connector, existing cases made for the original LCK75 will not work with this PCB.

Github repo: https://github.com/shortlurker/LCK75_SL

Preonic + Plank

MomonaBoy's Preonic + Plank combo became his ultimate gaming keyboard.

This gigantic ortho board is actually two boards merged together. It's as wide as a 40% and has 107 keys, a full numpad, full arrow keys, "every single key and macros".

Leaves lots of room for my mouse but can still handle all tasks outside of gaming.

Coming from consoles, where you use your thumbs for almost everything, MomonaBoy felt like they were underutilized when he switched to PC. This keyboard and mouse combo seems to solve that issue.

u/MomonaBoy cut the top of the aluminum Preonic case and bottom of the aluminum Plank case that came with the kits and 3D printed a housing to hold both of them together.

He masked off and painted certain parts of the housing so the underglow LED lights could shine through the clear plastic.

This keyboard uses 2 custom coiled cables that intertwine into one. To achieve this effect, the Preonic cable is 3 inches longer before the coil to compensate for running underneath the Plank PCB.

My first thought was that you can't use your (bottom row) modifiers with numbers or F-keys on the top part but the author reports it works perfectly. It behaves like one single keyboard in the operating system. Hm.

I cut the top off the Preonic and the bottom off a Plank and stuffed it into the 3D printed cases.

The stock screws from those kits are actually what are holding everything together.

Screws go up through the plastic then into the aluminum case, then into the PCB and plate then little nuts hold it tight.

The plastic case is split in half, left and right.

The author doesn't intend to share the case files since "it's kinda tailored to fit the aluminum Preonic and Plank cases I cut with a Dremel, even if someone else decides to cut their cases it won’t match up exactly".

Regardless, this project may serve as inspiration for others.

Gherkin++

The Gherkin++ is bgkendall's approach to augment the classic 3x10 layout.

Back in September/October of last year the only fully working keyboard bgkendall had available was his wireless Gherkin.

However, thirty keys was a bit limiting for daily use so he added another row using Amoeba Single-Switch PCBs and a chopped up Gherkin plate connected to an expansion port added to the build earlier.

Under the hood:

• PCB: Gherkin + Amoeba
• Layout: Averak Mod-FY

Banime40

Christian Lo's banime40 is a versatile ortho PCB with 24 possible layouts.

The banime40 is a 4x10 gasket mounted hotswap ortho keyboard that supports multiple configurations.

Hey all! I got a comment on my last post asking for a 4x10 ortho with a spacebar in the middle, so I went ahead and made a board that supports 24 4x10 layouts! – sporewoh.

Features:

• Hotswap
• Gasket mounted
• Multiple configurations supported (24 layouts)
• Modular top system (several blockers available to choose from)

Here are some of the possible layouts:

In addition, all files are open and available for download.

In the github repo below you can find not just the PCB files (KiCAD and Gerbers) but also the STL/STEP files of the case:

https://github.com/ChrisChrisLoLo/banime40

Mariupol computer museum destroyed

Dmitry Cherepanov's private museum of retro computers in Mariupol, Ukraine, has been destroyed.

On March 21, Russian aggressors destroyed a private museum of retro computers in Mariupol, Eastern Ukraine.

According to Dmitry Cherepanov, collector and owner of the Club 8-bit, the exposition of the museum consisted of more than half a thousand computers, consoles and other devices – even arcade games lately.

I jokingly call this museum a nursing home for elderly computers – Dmitry, 2019.

Unfortunately, this nursing home, the collection which included Soviet electronics, computer technology from around the world, peripherals for these devices, such as joysticks, and where visitors could also play on some of the exhibits, is now gone.

Well, that's all, the computer museum of Mariupol is no more. :( All that remains of my collection that I have been collecting for 15 years is just fragments of memories on the FB page, the website and the radio station of the museum. I will try to continue to support the RetroBit website and radio, but life will now have completely different priorities. There is neither my museum nor my home :((( and it hurts, but I will definitely survive it and find a new home! – it8bit.club.

The collection's website with datasheets and photos of the items is still available here: https://it8bit.club/.

Gizmodo's Alex Cranz described the museum as "one of the largest and coolest collections of Soviet computers in the world". Fortunately enough, they also shot a short film in 2019 so, in addition to the photos on the website, here is a video tour of the former museum:

Dmitry's post reporting on his situation went viral and he received a lot of positive feedback.

Thank you all for your sympathy and support. The loss of the house and the museum is a tragedy for me. But that's not all I lost. I also lost my business, which I built for many years and which, fortunately, I can restore to start a new life. So if I can be useful to someone with my service, I will be glad. I am engaged in the launch and support of sites on my own platform, which I have been writing for 5 years.

The business in question is this one I guess: https://www.facebook.com/webit.site/

While Dmitry did not explain what exactly happened, the museum was apparently destroyed during Putin's and Russia's "special operation" on the territory of Ukraine – a shameless, unprovoked aggression against a neighboring democratic country.

You can find some options for supporting Ukraine in the top bar or here.

LPX keycap

LPX is an FDM-printer optimized Choc keycap design by levpopov.

Shortly after teasing it, levpopov published the STL and STEP files of the LPX keycap profile.

While tweaking my keyboard project I’ve ended up designing a brand new keycap profile - levpopov.

These caps were designed in Fusion and, along with the files, the author published a detailed printing/slicing instruction as well.

Some highlights:

• Choc stem for low profile switches
• Compact. 18% smaller footprint (compared to MBK) allows tighter key spacing.
• Contoured saddle top surface similar to Chicago Steno.
• FDM-optimized to make it easy to produce in small batches in a variety of colors/finishes.

The compactness of the LPX – without sacrificing touch surface area – results in 18% smaller footprint compared to MBK while maintaining the same finger contact surface. This allegedly allows for "more ergonomic keywell designs" with tighter key spacing.

In addition, this results in reduced finger movement while keeping enough spacing to prevent accidentally hitting adjacent keys.

According to Lev's measurements and calculations, LPX is 15.8x15.1 vs MBK's 17.3x16.3 (so ~18% footprint area reduction), but the top surface that the finger touches is identical in size. The standard Choc cap (17.6x16.5) and Chicago Steno are even larger than MBK.

How may this affect your key spacing? You could tile LPX in a flat grid with minimal tolerances (i.e. ~16mm x ~15.5mm), but that's not the goal – in Lev's words: "while reducing vertical travel within each column is desirable, reducing horizontal spacing between all columns would probably make the board feel cramped".

Instead, LPX is meant to shine in Dactyl-like keywells.

LPX has tiny bezels so that you can rotate the caps in a keywell more aggressively, both minimizing travel within the columns and the side to side movement of the index finger for the inner columns (i.e. the innermost column #1 gets rotated on the side to bring it closer to column #2).

With smaller caps you can also rotate the corner keys in XY plane to reduce reach, as well as add a pinky splay to the pinky column without having it clash with the ring finger column.

On another note, the "contoured saddle top surface" feels similar to Chicago Steno, with a slight valley in the middle "gently hugging your finger pad".

According to Lev, this results in an improved feel compared to the spherical MBK and cylindrical scooped chocs (like this one and probably MCC too).

Enjoy: https://github.com/levpopov/LPX

Reviung41 case

Reviung41 with a twist – Delta 3D printed case and rotary mod by Stove24.

This is my take on a case for the Reviung41! – Stove24.

The Delta case designed by Stove24 is a 3D printed "gasket-ish mount" case for gtips' Reviung41.

The Delta case is based on the original case files on github and uses the normal Reviung41 top plate.

Files are available here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5332065

QAZer Beam

The QAZer Beam is a QAZ in a beamspring-like case designed by Pocketfullofbugs.

My masterpiece and something nearing endgame for real. […] As stated, I believe this to be the best thing I've designed and saw through. […] this 32 key creation is loud, sexy, and my favorite – Pocketfullofbugs.

u/Pocketfullofbugs was inspired by the look of the IBM 5251 Beamspring keyboard and decided to create a similar case with all the classic features using the switchplate and PCB of a QAZ.

If you are not familiar with the form factor, QAZ is a 35% or sub-40% staggered keyboard designed by tominabox1 and whydobearsxplod.

According to the description at cbkbd.com, "to attain the traditional rectangular shape while minimizing the footprint, A,Z and P are placed on larger key sizes". QAZ is allegedly the first modern production board with a layout using this space-saving trick.

Well, sacrificing the outer keys of the bottom row renders the QAZer a 32%, but you get the point…

This specific project pictured above involves:

• keycaps from a Teletype Dataspeed 40 with resin printed adapters for MX stems,
• Kailh Navy switches "to let people know you mean business",
• a solenoid "to underline that business",.
• and a piezo buzzer.

The case provides a 15 degree forward slope and a generous bezel.

GitHub repo: Here.

And here is a short sound sample with the solenoid for you to enjoy:

Dick Smith Cat

A Dick Smith Cat a.k.a. VTech Laser 3000 repaired and posted by lizardb0y.

It seems the Dick Smith Cat is a rebranded VTech Laser 3000.

In 1983, Hong Kong based Video Technology Company (VTech) introduced the Laser 3000 personal microcomputer, an Apple II clone.

The Laser 3000 computer was said to be 96% compatible with the Apple IIe for half the price (don't ask me how to calculate that compatibility percentage).

And what about Dick Smith? I wasn't familiar with the name but it's apparently my fault. Dick Smith is a well-known Australian businessman and national hero who, among other things, managed to circumnavigate the Earth a few times and still holds a lot of aviation world records.

With respect to computers and keyboards he is the founder of Dick Smith Electronics (DSE), originally a car radio repair shop.

Being a staunch supporter of Australian enterprise, Mr. Smith started his own supermarket chain selling only Australian made and produced goods.

And it seems he couldn't find an appropriate local Apple II alternative either – thus the Dick Smith Cat? Maybe. Click the image below to enlarge it:

By the way he must be a funny chap because dubbing his power supply the "big dick".

In addition, unable to find a local Australian manufacturer of matches he imported and packaged his own brand, which he called Dickheads.

Finally, here is a video with Dick Smith talking about his adventures and life in 2014, referencing even more dicky stuff:

Costar CSK-7101N

lBlanc99 revived and restored a dead Costar CSK-7101N keyboard.

So lBlanc99 revived and restored this nice but originally dead Costar CSK-7101N keyboard (with Alps.tw OD1 Orange switches and 1800 layout).

He practically converted the keyboard by handwiring it and using a Teensy 2.0 controller.

Yes! That is a duplex matrix, it uses 9 pins for the column and 12 pins for the rows.

He also converted the 5 pin DIN cable into USB with a GX16 connector "so that it looks retro".

According to the sticker, this keyboard will be 30 years old in just a few days.

More photos: https://imgur.com/a/ydHuxSO#8Quv3l1

Interchangeable tops

Keycaps with interchangeable tops posted by hunghingdailo.

I still don't like group buys so this post is not about HungHingDaiLo's GMK Zìmō set (inspired by Mahjong tiles) but the interesting keycap/artisan concept shown in the picture above.

The Monokei Collab Metal Artisan features interchangeable white tops – 白板 (White Dragon), 紅中 (Red Dragon) and 發財 (Green Dragon) in this case.

Apparently with a magnet in the middle of the keycap base, this is something I've never seen before.

There were the Filco Majestouch "patch keycaps" sporting a similar "convertible" top, announced in early 2021, but they use a different mechanism.

Let's see how these magnetic ones turn out! Until then, use this concept as a source of inspiration.

Wooden cyberdeck

Combining woodworking with electronics, mw33212 made a walnut cyberdeck with a cheap foldable keyboard.

After spotting the LCD panel on a big discount, mw33212 wanted to see what he could do with it.

Yes, it’s hugely impractical vs a real laptop although it should work for most day to day stuff and was pretty inexpensive to build.

The case is made from 5mm and 10mm walnut with Indian rosewood and maple for the borders. Hand tools and a cordless drill were used for the woodworking part.

Inside there's the LCD panel with the driver board, a tiny amp and tiny speakers, a camera and microphone, a 30k mAh laptop power bank, the foldable keyboard with track pad.

Everything is run by Raspberry Pi 4B. The USB port charges the power bank and there are controls for the overall power, the monitor control board and the amp volume on the sides. Small slot to change the SD card at one end and a tiny acrylic window underneath to read the power bank LCD charge percentage.

The device is relatively small: 33x11x6cm when closed and it weights about 1.75kg.

Regarding the time and money put into the project mw33212 notes:

I’d guess there’s 20 hours in this one; evenings after work for a couple of weeks and in total materials and parts came to about $250 USD.

More photos in this post.