Behind the Scenes of Issue 73

A special anniversary, new vendors, new discount code, some developments, etc.

Hello friends,

Welcome back for another edition of my weekly roundup, this time Issue #73 of Keyboard Builders' Digest, a DIY keyboard focused newsletter and blog from Tamas Dovenyi. 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.

Let's jump right in.

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A special anniversary

I have a small spreadsheet with my supporters' metadata (to generate the supporter list both on the site and for the newsletter) and as I was cleaning it up the other day I realized my very first supporter threw her first few bucks at me exactly one year ago. So this is another anniversary! :)

I just wanted to say thanks to Diana because at the time I was on the brink of abandoning this project and her donation gave me a real boost.

For history's sake: I started with embarrassing her because right after this first donation on Patreon I figured out that as a non-US resident I'd need some paperwork to actually access my precious $5 so I asked her to withdraw the sum the same day and I quickly set up a Buymeacoffee account.

Fast forward to late 2021 when BMC parted ways with PayPal and spammed supporters with emails asking them to resubscribe – resulting in a loss of half of my regular supporters…

Again, Diana was the first one who resubscribed before I could have any chance to reach out to her to ask for another favour. :D Namely, to donate directly through PayPal. Thus, while everybody else supports me directly through PayPal these days, Diana – as a curiosity – remained my last and single supporter on BMC. :D Thanks again!

New vendors

• TurtleKeebs
• beekeeb
• fingerpunch
• frostgear
• Yong Qiu

Well, most of them are not really new but newly added to the keyboard vendor database:

E.g. TurtleKeebs from Canada has been around since last August. Now, co-runner Leon was kind enough to offer you a 10% discount (code: KBDNEWS – 10% off all orders $20 CAD or above. One use per customer.) More details here. Thanks Leon!

CFTKB suspended. Bryan was reported as unresponsive to say the least so until further notice there is a warning at the top of that page.

Developments

• Vendor contact icons. Fingerpunch's Sadek asked if, beside the usual vendor data, I could share his Discord link too, so I thought I start to collect all the social media contacts of the vendors and display them with nice icons. Only 363 vendor to go… :D
• Handling reported entries. Yeah, unfortunately, I had to implement some sort of warning to indicate reported shops – with regards to CFTKB.
• And there were several tiny developments in the background which will hopefully help the maintenance part of the site – but are not visible for you.

New newsletter provider?

In the background, I'm testing an alternative newsletter provider. Not a free solution either but considerably cheaper compared to MailChimp.

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That's all folks. Feel free to comment in this issue's r/mk thread, and as always: keep learning and building.

Cheers, Tamás

Sweeeeep

The Sweeeeep is Sadek Baroudi's take on the Sweep – with per-key LEDs, OLED and Elite-C as controller.

Teased by elisiano as "Sweep36" a few days ago, sadekbaroudi announced the Sweeeeep and published the files for the PCB.

This is a reversible Sweep PCB with support for 36 keys, per key LEDs, OLED, and Choc switches. No-diode but not hotswap.

It's getting hard to list all the similar designs. To quickly recap, it all started with Pierre Chevalier's Ferris (34 keys with on-board controller) inspiring an avalanche of derivatives: David Philip Barr's Sweep uses daughterboards, the wireless Roost features three thumb keys already, and there's also the lobster-themed Swoop with encoders and the Unibodysweep – a monoblock/unsplit/pseudosplit version.

In order to continue to support a no-diode setup, two Elite-Cs are required to build the Sweeeeep, which explains whence this appellation was derived:

Why the name Sweeeeep? Because an Elite-C is required to support the extra features, and an Elite-C has 5 additional pins… so 5 Es for the 5 extra pins. Yes, it's dumb, I know – Sadek Baroudi.

Now you know it's not Sweeeep nor Sweeeeeep but Sweeeeep. One of the few keyboards where I have to stay focused (and probably the first one when I meticulously count letters) while typing out the name. An unexpected runner-up to tapioki's Architeuthis dux… :D

For the sake of history, the idea of the Sweeeeep was born while elisiano was talking to Sadek:

"Man the Ferris is awesome, I love the vertical stagger but sometimes I wish it had 3 thumbs per half".

The first revision was ready the same day, and now you can find the KiCAD and Gerber files in this Github repo:

https://github.com/sadekbaroudi/sweeeeep

And also check out Sadek's shop with more keyboard models at: fingerpunch.xyz.

MiniNova

Tony Jeffree's MiniNova is a cute 30% staggered keyboard with exposed diodes.

The MiniNova II, this nice 30% staggered keyboard designed by Tony Jeffree aka tj_shex, is wireless, runs ZMK, and is open-source.

Some more pics: https://imgur.com/a/SRk8z1u

I was looking for a compact, staggered keyboard to take notes with in meetings to avoid using my terrible laptop keyboard. So I made this – tj_shex.

• Custom PCB
• nice!nano v2 for its Bluetooth capabilities
• Programmed with ZMK
• Gateron mute yellow switches
• AliExpress bee keycaps
• Stacked 3D printed case

According to Tony, the 3D print has a little too much flex: "I should have put 2 more screw holes down the long sides".

Github repo: https://github.com/tjeffree/mininovaii-keyboard

If you, like me, are wondering if there was a MiniNova I before the MiniNova II, the answer is: yep. But Tony never finished the first version, "as is often the case in many of my projects".

Version 1 was a more traditional tiny keyboard - with more of the keys you'd expect, components hidden and no corner cut-off. I wanted to make it smaller and make it fit on my size limited 3D printer bed (an Anycubic Mega S).

Walnut board

This handwired walnut keyboard by gregschlom was CNCed from a single piece of wood which acts as the case, plate and cable guide as well.

Greg Schlomoff's wooden keyboard is fairly unique in the sense it's carved out from a single piece of wood – no plate, no PCB. The keyswitches sit directly in the holes cut into the 1/2" thick walnut and the backside features channels routed for guiding the wires.

Took about 2 years to complete, and I actually had to buy a CNC machine for this project – gregschlom.

Since QMK doesn't run on the Teensy 4, Greg had to write his own firmware.

The board also features an integrated USB hub with 2 ports and a 16 character LED dot matrix (HCMS-3911) – "They're really gorgeous, but super expensive".

Greg was kind enough to share a photolog of the process: here.

Kiboard68

Zealousideal's Kiboard68 is a 60% handwired ortho with numpad.

Zealousideal-Ad4561 Kiboard68 is a custom handwired 60% ortholinear layout with numpad. A wireless keyboard (ZMK firmware on a nice!nano microcontroller) in a standard 60% bamboo case.

And a nice photolog: https://imgur.com/gallery/AnRhtWn

As you can see, the backspace is strangely put in the middle which actually could make sense, however, the perpetrator disagrees:

[…] ended up regretting this but needed the mathematical operators near the Numpad since I deal with engineering softwares.

In addition, Enter became a palm-key:

Surprisingly intuitive to hit enter with the side of my right hand.

To achieve the rainbow patina effect, Zealousideal torched the custom laser cut steel plate (see the gallery).

Procyon

Astra's Procyon is a cute 40% keyboard – Morningstar layout in a split form.

Obsessed with astronomy and astrology, Astra aka im_tanuki from Star★Boards posted her Procyon, this supercute 44-key split keyboard named after – surprise! – a star. Or two.

I've planned featuring her Morningstar, another cool design, for a long time, and now here is a split twin sister of that monoblock board with the distinctive PCB art in the middle.

I was really itching to have a split again after using a monoblock for a while, so I took my normal column stagger layout and split it, and used a lot of standoffs for a nice tent. I named it Procyon after the binary star system – Astra.

So she wanted a split to type on but "wasn't feeling the thumb splay of something like a Corne". For compactness' sake, the resulting Procyon also loses the Ergodox-like 1.5u side keys which are present on the Morningstar.

The rounded corners and the frosted (Optix 3mm acrylic) prototype top plate give a nice touch to the board sporting DSA Berry Yogurt keycaps.

By the way, no wonder the number of astronomical references is so high if someone's real first name is Astra.

It's a bit of a theme that I love – Astra.

Unfortunately, both PCBs are closed source at the moment, but Astra wants to open-source the Procyon at least once she is settled on the proper licensing.

Atreyu

Jesus Climent published his monoblock Atreyu's PCB files.

Jesus Climent aka jcliment published the files of his monoblock Atreyu.

As a quick summary: the original Atreis by deconnection was a handwired unsplit Iris. Later Jesus made a PCB for it, and, as of my understanding, the Atreyu is a modification of that PCB with an additional thumb key à la Lily58.

Thus, the Atreyu is "a Lily58fied version" of the Atreis keyboard.

Because the Atreis is the most convenient keyboard to take when on the go, but I need a couple of extra keys, like the Lily58 – jcliment.

Why Atreyu? Starting with the Atreus, technomancy's classic monoblock ergo, the name is further derived from the Atreis by adding the "y" as a reference to the Lily and "u" for "unsplit" I guess.

Enjoy: https://github.com/climent/atreyu

la_nc

Subrezon's la_nc is a Pro Micro based 42-key ortholinear keyboard.

The la_nc by Subrezon shown in the photo is a 42-key ortholinear keyboard with a Pro Micro and optional OLED screen.

I've developed this keyboard over the last couple weeks. I loosely based it on the Planck keyboard: removed a column from each side, then split it down the middle, hence the name – Subrezon.

Name break-down: Planck -> lanc -> la_nc.

Features

• 42-key ortholinear layout
• Supports MX switches through Kailh hotswap sockets, with reinforced ai03's antishear socket pads
• Powered by a Pro Micro or a compatible MCU board
• Optional support for an SSD1306 OLED screen

Even though there are no exposed components on the la_nc, its layout and overall appearance resemble of what you can see on some other keyboards featured earlier: e.g. лесовоз/Lesovoz, or the Lumberjack, Lumberelite, and X-2 – with an extra number row.

Regarding the PCB files, once Subrezon is happy with the quality, la_nc will be released as open source under the MIT license.

GitHub repo: https://github.com/subrezon/la_nc

Keebio community map

Folks at Keebio put all of their customers on a community map – over 90 countries represented.

In the latest Keebio wavelet, folks at Keebio announced they came up with a community map, plotting all the home cities of their customers.

Questions like this regularly emerge on r/mk so I thought some of you would be curious about how the community members are distributed around the globe:

Keebio Customers

I'm so excited to share with you all--we officially have a map of everyone in the Keebio community! – Kayla, Keebio.

No panic, all the data shown is anonymous, but it's a good indication of the most active regions anyway.

[…] an absolute delight to see what a global community we are, with over 90 countries represented.

On a similar note, just for comparison, here is another map with the data of KBD.news visitors. Shown is the number of users in the past year, larger circles obviously mean more visitors from that city:

I don't usually browse this data so Singapore as the top city with the most visitors was a surprise for me.

A close runner-up is New York, followed by London, Los Angeles, Melbourne and Sydney.

Yushakobo shop tour

Daihuku shot a cool video tour of Yushakobo, the iconic keyboard store in Tokyo.

It seems Daihuku does these shop tours regularly, and after the last episode from August last year, a new video came out yesterday:

Yushakobo (or Yusha Kobo?) is a store specializing in self-made keyboards in Akihabara, Tokyo. "Self-made" means not just custom but also all the DIY kits designed by members of the Japanese keyboard community.

And that's exactly why I had to bookmark this video: Daihaku introduces each of the community-designed models on offer in the shop, which may come in handy for later when I have some time to update the split keyboard database.

This is a tour video that introduces the inside of Yushakobo! When I introduced all the (63) self-made keyboard kits on display in the store, the amount of editing was tremendous! – Daihuku.

MT2 keycap profile

Drop announced a cylindrical Cherry/OEM clone called MT2.

On 6th April, Drop.com announced MT2, their doubleshot Cherry alternative I guess.

Sorry for the image above which is probably a render and compares cylindrical apples with spherical oranges. In addition, I browsed through numerous posts in this thread but couldn't find many enthusiastic reactions.

Regardless, I thought I put this here for the sake of history.

So learning the crucial lesson from their 2-year long MT3 project, Drop concluded "making high quality doubleshot keycap tools (molds) is extremely difficult and time-consuming".

This time, to spare community members from the emotional roller coaster, they decided to do the new project behind closed doors.

We kicked the project off in early 2020 with some ambitious goals – Drop.

Namely:

• cylindrical profile keycap
• meeting the "industry-leading legend" tolerances of MT3 keycaps
• premium weighted keycaps to ensure durability, longevity, and desirable acoustics
• the finished product should be free from exterior blemishes and imperfections
• meticulous design applied to every single keycap
• accommodate proprietary blends of high-quality resins
• be able to produce the keycaps efficiently at scale
• offer Mac system compatibility

We’re now weeks away from shipping our first production keycaps and we’re so excited to tell you all about them. Say hello to Drop MT2.

Well, browsing through the first reactions, potential buyers seem to be much less excited, pointing out the lack of images and info on similarity to Cherry, the confusing and controversial name (MT2 vs MT3), etc.

Calling the profile MT2 caused real drama. Let me not go into details. Instead, here is a whole thread on keebtalk.

Morningstar PCB art

Astra's Morningstar is a cute Pro Micro based, hotswap, 40% ergonomic unibody keyboard with a little glowing LED star in it.

I've planned to feature the Morningstar – especially its distinctive PCB art – for a long time, and now, after the introduction of Astra's Procyon, the time has finally come.

The Morningstar is a cute monoblock keyboard with a nice touch: a star-shaped PCB art in the middle with animated LED backlighting:

last prototype. everything works, everything fits. the easy part is over! pic.twitter.com/YnyQ1pNCdO

— Astra | star★boards (@sbkeebs) January 18, 2022

PCB art is a whole different world on its own. If you are not familiar with the term, feel free to do a google search on your own risk – because you may find yourself spending hours with endless scrolling.

So we are not talking about a custom silk screen here but actually playing with different PCB layers (and their combinations) to achieve various effects.

As you can see on the Morningstar PCB, you can start with getting rid of the solder mask and copper layer which results in the exposed glass-reinforced epoxy resin, a pale yellow opaque layer:

With no copper layer, some light can pass thru the painted substrate, and i think that's neat as heck. […] Alas, I don't dig the PCB yellow, and the gradients don't come thru – Astra.

While there are many iterations of the design, as of my understanding, the final version has a star-shaped hole in the PCB and uses a frosted acrylic diffuser:

I'm really happy that this glowy star, which depends on LEDs being reflected off the surface below and into the frosted acrylic diffuser, actually works this well with such a small clearance – Astra.

And here is the back of the PCB with the LEDs arranged neatly around the star:

Thanks to Astra for the inspiration.

HP 9845

The HP 9845, Hewlett Packard's flagship from 1977, and the first "workstation".

First and foremost, the glorious HP 9845, depicted above, has a dedicated fan site (hp9845.net) – much of the info in this post comes from there.

So a blurry photo turned up on my Twitter timeline the other day, a screenshot from a '80s TV show, and I had to look up the model.

The Hewlett Packard 9845A (1977) was the effort of HP to design a system with whatever seemed to be technically possible at the time.

And with the HP 9845A they actually created the category "workstation".

The product sheet as sketched by Jack Walden in fact had been some kind of an engineer's wish list, and initially wasn't really directed to a special target group or usage.

The flagship of a new generation of HP models, the 9845, was introduced in 1977 as the "HP 9800 Series System 45" or later called just 9845A.

The development code name of the 9845A was "Qwert" (the name appears in the US4180854 patent in Fig. 141A) which was a reference to the QWERTY keyboard – this is only slightly strange since while earlier models like the 9830A personal computer or 9825A instrument controller seem to have alphanumeric keyboards, most other models (desktop calculators and instrument controllers) had only A-F or ABC + XYZ alphas (see the product line).

Comparing the HP 9845 to its contemporaries, the Apple II, PET and TRS-80:

The Apple II was made for the technically interested consumer, the PET for the technically skilled hobbyist, the TRS-80 for those somewhere in between who wanted to get the best compromise of features and price, and the HP 9845A was constructed from engineering professionals for engineering professionals.

Apple, PET and TRS-80 represented perfect examples for personal computers, but the HP 9845A really was a workstation.

The HP 9845A was followed by the improved 9845B (1980), the 9845C high end color system, and the high performance model 200 systems.

There was an expended HP9845B, the HP9845T, with two cartridge drives, and a thermal printer, 192KBytes of LPU R/W memory and also graphics support – the final version of the 9845 series.

The 9845C had a color screen and light pen facilities for design work:

Finally, about the source of the screenshot on the top: it is The Adventure Game broadcast on BBC (1980-86). There is a thread here with many more pictures from the show for retroheads.

Yamada Willow

Daraku-Neko's Yamada Willow is a monoblock split with the Willow layout and an ambidextrous numpad.

@daraku_neko brought together Hanachi's Willow layout and the ambidextrous numpad of Cerbekos' Tenalice Ambidextrous.

Hanachi's Willow layout, recently featured on his Ergotonic F-24, tries to project the finger positions of a "tented hand" onto a flat surface – resulting in characteristically curved columns. Here is Hanachi's original write-up on the concept.

And the ambidextrous numpad by Cerbekos could be seen on the Tenalice Ambidextrous. This numpad is positioned symmetrically in the center, in 45°, so you can reach it with the same effort regardless of your dominant hand.

Now, thanks to Daraku-Neko, you can have the best of both worlds.

Like many Japanese designs, the Yamada Willow is closed-source and is available as a kit at booth.pm.