Issue 87 / Week 29 / 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.
Contents
Editorial
Behind the Scenes of Issue 87
Quick news, Issue 86 follow-up, vendor database update, new supporters, etc.
Hey y'all,
I was away for most of last week, got back from my trip on Friday, and tried to catch up with tasks on the weekend.
If you contacted me in the meantime and I haven't replied yet, feel free to send me your inquiry again.
On a similar note, there were some promising projects that haven't made it to this issue. Normally, I reach out to the poster/designer/etc. for more info. Since I was away from Internet most of last week, these projects may appear here a bit later.
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Welcome back for another edition of Keyboard Builders' Digest (this time Issue #87), a weekly roundup of this DIY keyboard focused newsletter and blog from Tamas Dovenyi – that's me. 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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Quick news
- On July 8, QwertyKey.ro opened a physical store/cafe in Baia Mare, Romania: "The first physical mechanical keyboard store in Eastern Europe." Some pics here.
- Ads on Monkeytype (opt-out). Read Jack's announcement here. And consider supporting the developer if you use the app. I can very much relate to his problems – putting a lot of time and effort into a project and expecting some income from it. And sometimes dreaming of making a living out of it. ;)
- CarlFabian updated and published the gurt-portable. I've updated the post with the link to the repo.
Issue 86 follow-up
Sorry, I successfully messed up the newsletter last Monday. :D
I sent it out before the actual issue was published on the site so the quickest readers/visitors couldn't see anything. I hope it wasn't too confusing.
Apparently, all this happened because of the odd timing. In my time zone (Central Europe) I publish new issues and send out these newsletters at about 14-15PM (morning hours in the US) but I knew I'll be driving the whole day so in a hassle and desperate effort, I published issue #86 the previous midnight.
The surprising result: All-time record in stats like pageviews, sessions, but also daily unique visitors…
Regardless, I'm not going to do this again. :D
Vendor database: New shops added
Cluster Cables, Gone Hacking Studio (thanks for the tip Sajith!) and Momokai added.
Meetup database
BREN Esports Keeb Meetup gallery added – thanks Mark.
New regular donor & supporter
Last week I got a new one-time supporter – thanks Per Weirauch. I really appreciate any help.
And Upgrade Keyboards became a regular donor. Woo-hoo – thanks Jeff!! This is my favorite form of support because it gives some predictability to the whole project.
So many thanks to all my regular donors!
Giveaway
I had no time for the raffle but the good news is that the prize pool is continuously growing. Some new offers have landed in the meantime and I contemplate on launching a dedicated page for the prizes. One more regular task, but it could encourage shops to offer more stuff by providing some extra exposure.
Anyways, feel free to comment anything you like to my Reddit and/or Twitter post. If you put your country at the end of the comment I'll know it was meant to be an entry to the giveaway.
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That's all for today. Thanks for reading.
Feel free to comment in this issue's r/mk thread, and as always: keep learning and building.
Cheers, Tamás
Projects
Janus
Janus is a PCB-resourceful 34-key split keyboard by skarrmann.
Janus is a small 34-key split ortholinear keyboard by Steven Karrmann aka skarrmann, who also brought us the Horizon.
The board is powered by two Seeed XIAO RP2040s with the keyboard halves connected by an Ethernet cable.
The PCB is not just reversible but also works as both the logical PCB and the bottom plate. That means, you utilize four PCBs of the usual 5-piece minimum order for one build and only have one PCB left.
As the author pointed out the benefits of this approach speaking of his Horizon project:
The bottom plate is a cutout of all the components exposed through the bottom of the main PCB […]. This nicely guards you and your desk surface from all the pointy through-hole bits.
Understandably, this versatile PCB sports only a grid of 1U keys and no special features like hotswap, RGB (except those on the XIAO RP2040), OLED screen or knobs – which would interfere with the reversibility. For the same reason, this particular board supports only Cherry MX style switches.
The main goal of this project was to make a cheap PCB which acts as both the logical PCB and a directly-attached bottom plate. After designing Horizon, I wanted to take its bottom plate concept and merge it into a single PCB design – skarrmann.
Indeed, the PCB size is below 100mm x 100mm, which makes it very cheap to print e.g. at JLCPCB. "5 boards cost under $7 USD shipped to USA."
Files
Janus is open source, you can find all files and details in this repository: https://github.com/skarrmann/janus
No Faff macropad
No Faff is an open-hardware 24-key macropad with cool backplate art – designed by Kfir.
The No Faff is an open-hardware macropad designed by Kfir aka kbex.
It's a custom made kit with 24 keys, supporting Kalih Choc low profile switches. Running QMK it's fully customizable, with a distinctive gold plated art on the back.
[q]The process for making the art on the plate was drawing it in Inkscape and using a script to export the SVG into a footprint in KiCad. That way it can be a copper layer and you can scale it to any size and get really nice lines – Kfir.[/q]
Details
- Kailh Choc low profile compatible
- Type-C USB connector
- Running QMK
- Vial-gui supported
- FR4 front mounting plate and FR4 back plate with gold plated art
- Macro recording and keycode chaining supported
- supports up to 8 accessible layers of keymaps.
- 24 LEDs, per-key LED color mapping supported for all 8 layers.
- Physical dimensions: 120mm x 80mm x 11mm
Files
Repo: https://git.sr.ht/~kbex/No-Faff-macropad
If you would rather buy it, the product page (pre-order/group buy) is available at kbex.me.
Keybon
Keybon is a customizable OLED macropad that adapts to the apps you use – designed by Max.K.
Keybon by Max Kern aka Max.K is a macro keyboard with configurable layouts and functions. Integrated into each of its nine tactile buttons is a 0.66” OLED screen – similar to thpoll's Poly Keyboard.
This is not a new project, it was first published and even featured by Hackaday in late 2020.
As Dan Maloney wrote back then:
When we first laid eyes on Keybon, the adaptive macro keyboard, we sort of wondered what the big deal was. It honestly looked like any other USB macro keyboard, with big icons for various common tasks on the chunky keys.
However, Max entered the Odd inputs competition with this project and won the first prize. So I felt it would be interesting to take a closer look at this macropad.
Its main feature: Depending on which app is active on the connected computer, Keybon switches to the suitable key layout thanks to its companion software.
Key features
- Standalone mode as a USB HID device
- Companion software for customization and app-switching
- Tactile switches
- 0.66” 64x48px OLED displays
- Fully 3D-printed case and key mechanism
In standalone mode, without the appropriate desktop software, Keybon acts as a simple programmable HID keyboard and shows its preconfigured button functions.
The companion software (for Windows) allows you to create your own keyboard layouts and assign them to any application on your PC. The companion software monitors the applications in focus and changes the layouts accordingly. In this mode Keybon communicates over a virtual COM port. Layouts are sent to the device on demand which in turn sends key events back to the computer.
The goal was to add the ability to configure the device from windows and change keyboard layouts on the go. I decided to create a windows forms application in C# – Max.
The project is thoroughly documented on hackaday.
Layout files, code and STLs on Github: https://github.com/CoretechR/Keybon
Dichotomy
Joshua Broekhuijsen's Dichotomy is a mouse-keyboard hybrid.
Another older project popping up in Hackaday's Odd inputs competition: Dichotomy by Joshua Broekhuijsen.
It was published in 2017-2018(!) – I worked on my very first handwired split during the same time and used the exact same blank DSAs as the cheapest option: $2-3/20pcs. :D
According to Elliot Williams's laudation:
Dichotomy takes the two standards of the desktop, mouse and keyboard, and fuses them together so that you don’t have to move your hand off to the side all the darn time. Nice.
Joshua was inspired by the Mitosis, but opted to try to shove an optical sensor into the split keyboard.
Video demonstration:
He originally did a detailed photolog on Imgur, but decided to move stuff over to Hackaday to enter an earlier Human Interface challenge.
There was an unsuccessful Kickstarter campaign too:
Well, the kickstarter - rather obviously - did not meet the goal. Oh, well. I'm still moving forward in a much smaller way with this - I use my prototype at work daily, and I'm going to run a small group buy for anybody still interested in owning one – Joshua.
Anyways, no files but browse through the photos for inspiration and some good ideas.
Community
Odd Inputs winners
Hackaday' Odd Inputs and Peculiar Peripherals Contest is over. Check out the winners.
The Odd Inputs and Peculiar Peripherals Contest on Hackaday is over, the winners had to be chosen from 75 entries.
While this wasn't a competition exclusively for keyboards, two categories covered something like keyboards and macropads so there are some projects worth checking out.
Accordingly, you can find non-keyboard related projects among the winners, and – blasphemy – sometimes they are more interesting than recreating or simply reposting the same idea which has been around for years.
Some interesting choices in Hackaday's top list, but anyway, here are the winners chosen by the judges (followed by some notable runner-ups):
Winners
Keybon is a macropad with an OLED screen per key – similar to thpoll's Poly Keyboard. It talks to an application running on your computer that reports the program in focus, and adapts the keymap and the OLED labels accordingly.
An odd choice imo: Cree-board with beefy COB LEDs as keycaps. Matt allegedly got the idea from the bad pun in the name.
Finally, Josh EJ turned an exercise bike into an input device. The ESP32-based Bluetooth "gamepad" registers the speed, and the heart-rate pads are also repurposed as buttons.
Notable runner-ups
[https://hackaday.io/project/160704-dichotomy-keyboard-and-mouse|Dichotomy]] is a pretty old project from [[https://imgur.com/a/GWvwg|2017]. It combines the functions of a mouse and keyboard into one device to minimize changes between the two devices. Yep, there's an optical sensor and LED reflector/lens in the right half so you move it like a mouse.
And we have some familiar projects like Peter Lyons' Squeezebox (I still dig the idea of double home rows), or the PicoSplit and Badger 2040 by Andreas Känner.
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Did you miss this competition? If you have a great idea or keyboard in the making, there's another competition by Seeed – with free prototyping and a prize pool worth of $1000.
DIY XIAO Mechanical Keyboard Contest
Seeed Fusion launched a new keyboard contest with free prototyping and nice prizes. Check out the details.
Hackaday's odd inputs contest has just ended and here is a new competition already: Seeed Studio launched the DIY XIAO Mechanical Keyboard Contest.
As far as I can see, you can't lose by participating: they offer free prototyping for the contestants, and there's a prize pool of $1000.
Visiting the site, only slightly embarrassingly, my words welcome you. :D That's because I was asked for my thoughts on DIY keyboards and I also gave the nice people at Seeed some tips with regards of the time frame of the contest and also to make the Seeed Bazaar listing optional.
The rules are quite self-explanatory and clearly explained on the event page.
You have to use one of the five Seeed XIAO controllers: Seeeduino XIAO, Seeed XIAO RP2040, Seeed XIAO BLE, Seeed XIAO BLE Sense or Seeed XIAO ESP32C3.
Only 11 GPIO pins, but since publishing the Japanese duplex, square/round-robin and improved square matrix write-ups, you hopefully know that that's more than enough even for relatively large form factors.
I've featured several projects using these controllers, so you can learn their secrets by checking out the docs or repos of the Slice36, Hummingbird, Mammoth or Zaphod Lite.
You can apply by filling in this form, and feel free to put "KBD.NEWS" into the last input box! ;)
In exchange, Seeed asks you to review their service and to allow them to share your project on their social media platforms. The design does not need to be open-sourced and production files will not be shared with the public – unless you want to.
In addition, I'll try to keep an eye on this competition and feature some promising projects.
Tips & Tricks
Smiling Orca keycap
The Smiling Orca, shared by leo_beekeeb, is a low-profile keycap optimized for Choc spacing.
Leo from Beekeeb shared the STL file of this Smiling Orca keycap. The profile is for Kailh Choc PG1350 v1 switches and is remixed from FredMF's Choc keycap.
During the facelift, the top part has been scaled to 16.5mm * 16.5mm (with Choc-spaced PCBs in mind), and chamfers has been added to the stems.
Ignore the caption, I chose this photo to showcase the texture of the surface (click to enlarge):
The STL file is available here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5425764
Or you can buy the caps 3D printed with resin or nylon at beekeeb.
Lily58 case
A 3D-printable Lily58 case with STLs – designed by DCharlo.
There are almost no choc compatible cases for 3d printing that I consider good, so I took it upon myself to design it! – DCharlo.
Design goals
- Account for the author's "inaccurate carpal tunnel syndrome fingers".
- Cover the controller and battery.
- Leave a channel to press the reset switches without having to remove the case (N!Nv2 + ZMK)
- Hide the batteries
- Compression fit so the "screw holes don't need to get right" for the plate.
- Making it thinner than the stock plate case.
According to DCharlo, the way the case is made has increased the rigidity of the keyboard, provided some enclosure to the sides as well as the base which has "dramatically improved the sound and feel".
WDA profile
WDA is a sculpted, spherical, middle-height keycap profile. The first set is available on zFrontier.
Designed by PointWorks, WDA Cyousyoku is available at zFrontier.
It is the first set of the WDA profile, and as usual, this post is not about the specific set but the profile itself.
Photos of the product have been posted since late 2021 in the Chinese community, but I wasn't aware of the profile until Deadeye's post on Keebtalk.
I reached out for more info. Until then:
In 2020, after we released the IC of this "Cyousyoku" keycap, it has not been shipped due to various reasons. After several twists and turns, we finally made this set of samples that satisfied us – PointWorks (2021.11.08).
The profile
According to the product page, WDA is a fully sculpted profile featuring 6 different rows from R5 (F row) to R0 (spacebar row).
In this photo, WDA is compared to SA and Cherry:
The comfort ergonomics and vintage R0/R5 profiles from Cherry and the rounded and curvy spherical aesthetic and smooth row transition from SA, it is slightly taller than Cherry profile but significantly shorter than the SA profile[…]
With all these attributes, at least shape-wise, it resembles MDA imo.
But it has homing dots instead of dashes.
In addition, this is a pretty thick keycap, wall thickness is reported to be around 3mm.
Material & Legends
The keycaps are injected with PBT and the legends are done via "heat treated pad printing". According to the zFrontier page, "legends are printed onto the keycaps and reinforced by heat treatment to ensure they have similar durability as dye-subbed legends". Now you know.
According to a user quoting the material coming with the set, this new sublimation process is – beware, google translate in action – "similar to car paint, and it is easier to control when it comes to toning".
The most important thing is that the strength is very high, the big keys will not be deformed at all, and the spaces are straight! (source)
Keyboard Spotting
Vintage aviation keyboard
Loitering_Potato posted his find and commenters tried to figure out what this is.
I found this at work today. Anyone know exactly what it is? – Loitering_Potato.
As Keagan458 points out, the switches look ITW magnetic valve ones (sound test).
According to paladinado, who works as an avionics tech on old French fighters, the board seems like an aerospace/aviation test equipment keyboard or other military/defense application. It has a mil-spec connector/cannon plug at the end.
As it turns out, the OP is in the Air Force so it absolutely makes sense if the keyboard is part of the "Test Cell or something". (It was in a storage area and could have had other uses as well.)
Btw, the marking on the connector reads: Bendix 9417 PTO6M-12-88.
Another fellow Redditor from the same industry, preludeoflight, seems to agree:
Yeah we put those sort of amphenol connectors on just about any of our projects that is designed to go in an aircraft. For when you need that guarantee of “it’s not gonna disconnect mid-flight!”
Sony BKE-9400A
Cipulot posted some photos of his latest find: an electro-capacitive Sony BKE-9400A.
Yet another great find…. And in the EU too ? The GIGACHAD Sony BKE-9400A in really really nice conditions – Cipulot.
As you can guess from Cipulot's activity (e.g. the EC87 post here on kbd.news), this keyboard is an electro-capacitive one.
According to this Deskthority page, the Sony BKE-9400A Editing Keyboard sports Topre switches but was probably not assembled by Topre.
Yet another great find…. And in the EU too ?
— Cipulot (@cipulot) July 16, 2022
The GIGACHAD Sony BKE-9400A in really really nice conditions.
And the best part is that IT WORKS TOO!!!!
I’ll have fun creating a controller to actually making it usable with modern systems.#Topre #Keyboard pic.twitter.com/oRw9c83aOX
That was Issue #87. Thanks for stopping by.
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