Behind the Scenes of Issue 94

Fusion of hobbies, reunion, quick news, new vendors & coupons, meetups, donors.

Hey y'all,

It seems this week was about the fusion of different hobbies. A keyboard case made of old skateboard decks, a modular keyboard case system inspired by R/C cars of the 90s, the Commodore bass guitar, symbology? I like that.

In addition, I had a high school reunion which kicked me out for a few days so excuse me if I missed some of your emails and haven't got back to you yet… :D

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Welcome back for another edition of Keyboard Builders' Digest (this time Issue #94), 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 & links:

• Cyboard moved from New York to Philadelphia.
• The first real-life photos of the Moonlander Platform are already emerging (related post).

Spreading the news

Thanks to all who reached out with tips and suggestions. I try to answer to all the inquiries but I may have missed some of them this time.

Namely, I had high school reunion last weekend and spent the next few days with regeneration… :D Five of us idiots came up with the great idea of staying up all night, chatting about the big questions of life until daybreak, lying on the ground of a vineyard hill and watching shooting starts. Because next day I had to drive home, and I had stuff to do until next evening, I managed to stay up for two consecutive days without a single minute of sleep.

Anyway, it was a great experience but even after 4-5 days, I still can feel the lack of sleep. So don't do this very often, kids.

The good news: All my former classmates are now enlightened and know full well what a custom mechanical keyboard is. And I was praiseworthly controlled, no long monologues, oversharing, and only one girl rolled her eyes. :D

Unfuck KBD.NEWS

The subheading is a reference to an upcoming artisan project but for now it indicates the "small developments" chapter going on behind the scenes:

• Delta Key was so diligent that Guillaume sent me his shop's details on the very day of founding (I like this!) – breaking my script highlighting shops founded on the actual day (shop cake days). The issue is fixed now, and zero-day shops are not congratulated for their 0 year anniversary anymore.
• I try to extend keyboard meetup entries with follow-up links to videos and galleries. Multiple galleries to the same meetup was something new this week so I had to update the script to handle this.

Vendor database

Some updates of the vendor database:

• New discounts: Delta Key Co. added, and Guillaume offered you a 5% discount on your first order (code: KBDNEWS).
• Cyboard's Erik offered you a $10 discount (code: KBDNEWS).
• TaikoHub's David offered you free shipping to US+CA when using the KBDNEWS coupon code.

For many more discounts check out my list of coupons.

Meetup database

I have anecdotal evidence of a Malaysian meetup on Oct. 1st(?) maybe in Penang? Can't access the discord channel though, so feel free to get back to me with more details if you know more about this event.

As already told, I think of this meetup database both as a calendar and an archive so send me upcoming events or even ones from the recent past to make this collection comprehensive.

Donors

One recurring donor left, another one joined: thanks eighty58five!

The balance would be still negative if it wasn't Erik from Cyboard who returned with a generous donation.

And Chad, who decided to bump up his monthly donation.

Thank you guys! I really appreciate your support! This allows me to do more and new stuff, like the interview with Pekaso which I try to turn into a series of similar interviews.

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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

Pragmatic

A split keyboard family by james_sa with a central controller piece: Pragmatic.

James Sa (aka jamessa or james_sa) published his Pragmatic open-source keyboard family, with three models at the moment.

Pragmatic 72 is a 6x6 ortho (per half) with F-row, Pragmatic 60 is similarly ortholinear but without the function keys, finally, there's a 34-key split ergo version with columnar staggering and two-key thumb clusters.

These models share both the logical layout (sort of) and a controller board outsourced to a separate third PCB, connected by ribbon cables and IDC connectors.

The basic idea for “Pragmatic” is using a single micro controller for keyboard matrix scanning. It’s my keep it simple solution during this MCU shortage period – james_sa.

GitHub repo: https://github.com/jamessa/Pragmatic

Alphalpha+

Ottimo's Alphalpha built by wayduh.

This post by wayduh made me aware of Ottimo's Alphalpha+, a 30% PCB with a quite uncommon "semi-ortholinear" layout: orthoish top and home row, but the bottom row is offset by 0.5u.

The original design (Alphalpha+ v1) is not new, it was inspired by Luciano Malavasi's (aka PyrooL) Alpha, and was published earlier this year.

Compared to the Alpha, Alphalpha+ features an extra alpha key and spacebar.

However, this week there was v2 added to the repo which adds a new bottom row option (1, 2, 2, 1) to the original spacebar or split spacebar arrangements.

Other than this change, there is now a large flex cut above the exploded space bar section in v2.

GitHub repo Gerbers and case files: https://github.com/subottimale/alphalpha_plus

Paperplane

Paperplane is a highly customizable modular case system by Fuankee.

Fuankee posted a teaser on Reddit with some photos of his Paperplane project – a highly customizable modular case system.

This was supposed to be a personal project but it has gained some interest in his local Malaysian keyboard community over the months, so he decided to make some units and put it out there for people to try.

As far as I can tell based on the project's Discord channel, the system consists of various plates, weights, easily swappable feet, etc.

There are several new mounting methods, plates and attachments the author is working on, which will be released progressively throughout 2023, depending on the feedback from the "test pilots".

When I asked Fuankee about his inspiration, he told me that being in Asia, most of the kids spent a great deal of time playing with Tamiya Mini 4WD in the 90s. And 20+ years later he still loves everything about it because they're inexpensive, experimental, and most importantly highly customizable.

When I got my first mechanical keyboard a year ago, I felt it deserves that level of customization. So I wanted to build myself a kit with similar building experience to building a Tamiya. I guess that's the whole inspiration behind the project.

The first prototype came out some months ago and it has since gone through 2 rounds of revisions. It's now undergoing beta testing where 3 units are being circulated and tested by enthusiasts. If all goes well it will go into the pilot phase mid next month where 65 units will be made available to a wider audience.

Updates, more photos and videos here: https://discord.gg/xhtbwRah

Emblem aka BTA

Tenstaana came up with Emblem aka BTA, another feature-rich monoblock design.

The great and notoriously prolific tenstaana came up with Emblem aka BTA ("Better Than Alice") – another feature-rich monoblock angled split keyboard.

After the SkyllaBallz, all the split Chunkies, Rocksolid and UniChunky, tenstaana aka freznel keeps raising the bar by his latest project featuring a gorgeous alu case, circular display, scroll ring, combined encoder/5-way switch – and more.

Honestly, this is the level where impostor syndrome starts to kick in when I realize I'm reporting on a project I can't fully fathom. Nevertheless, here are the specs as told by the designer himself:

Specs

• QMK RP2040 powered
• No diodes - uses shift registers (aka tzarc's "SPI" matrix)
• Switch support - MX, Choc V1 and V2
• Pointing devices - PMW3360 or 3389, Cirque trackpad
• Encoders/multi function switches - Bourns encoders for the scroll ring, two ALPS RKJXT1s ("I love this as it combines a 5 way switch and an encoder")
• Piezo buzzer
• Breakouts for all pins, including a JST SH port following the STEMMA QT pinout for i2c expansion.
• Haptic feedback - onboard DRV2065 connected to a Vybronics 1206 actuator
• RGB screen - GC9A01 (onboard or you could use breakouts from AliExpress)
• Gasket mount alu case (e-white) and sandblasted alu plate.

Scroll ring demo

Display

Freznel has been receiving several questions about the display which is directly soldered to the PCB. He was kind enough to provide some close-ups:

Resources

Photolog: https://imgur.com/a/aBwIMRC

More info in the Absolem Club server: https://discord.com/channels/714176584269168732/958580625932161045

Infernum

Infernum is a sub-40% keyboard with Katana layout – designed by Hai_Zeus.

The Infernum, this sub-40% monoblock split(?) by Hai_Zeus (top photo by wayduh) features the long-time not seen Katana layout.

Here goes a little sneak peek on a project I've been working on. It's a katana stagger sub 40% keyboard running on Vial-QMK – Hai_Zeus.

Katana was a family of keyboards designed by RominRonin back in 2016/17 in the picturesque Vienna – so it's not authentic Japanese despite the name choice. Most notable of the various versions is probably Katana60 which went into production and is still available e.g. here.

For those who are not familiar with this arrangement, it's a horizontally staggered layout but symmetric at the same time. Somewhat confusing to write about because the halves are not angled (horizontal rows) but you hold your forearm at an angle, wrist extension is alleviated.

Many years ago, as a noob in custom mechanical keyboards, Katana was one of the first layouts that actually made sense to me.

Anyway, Hai_Zeus came up with something similar on a 30-40% scale: ditching some keys, especially the number row and the hard-to-reach middle ones, and putting the ambiguous inverted cross symbol there – probably that's why wayduh chose the leviathan cross to make things clear. :D

The current design is Pro Micro based with a 3D printed case, but the author's plans are an integrated PCB running on an RP2040 microcontroller and milled acrylic or aluminum case.

Interview with Pekaso-san

I asked Pekaso-san, one of the most influential members of the Japanese mechanical keyboard scene, about his weekly show on Youtube and related side gigs.

Every Sunday, at 10PM in the late evening, Pekaso and Biacco, two revered members of the Japanese mechanical keyboard community, start streaming on… well.. keyboards.

(Just to clarify things: This post is about キーボードニュース (Keyboard News), a weekly streaming show in Japanese available on Youtube or at kbdnews.jp, which, despite the similarity of the names, is obviously not related to this blog (kbd.news) in any way.)

When I started my @KbdNews Twitter channel, thanks to a lot of active Japanese followers, I was quickly exposed to Pekaso-san's work – and wanted to make an interview with one of the main characters behind the series.

The time has come, and Pekaso-san, an electric engineer at a big computer company and one half of the duo running the channel, was kind enough to answer my ignorant questions:

キーボードニュース is a weekly show with 166 episodes (holy cow!). It doesn't need an introduction for the Japanese community but how would you introduce it in your own words to non-Japanese keyboard enthusiasts?

We are the group behind the weekly stream about Japanese and international keyboards.

Japan is a country with popular keyboards such as HHKB and REALFORCE, but also a lot of handmade custom keyboards (自作キーボード “Jisaku keyboard”). So we don’t run out of topics for even a single week. If you want the latest keyboard info in Japan, this is the place!

So you do this together with Biacco-san. Any other members of the team (now or in the past) worth mentioning?

Me and Biacco-san are making Keyboard News together. In the past, there was Biacco-“chan” but she is on hiatus now.

Can you remember how all this started out? Checking out some early episodes suggests the format was well-established and has been largely unchanged since more than three years.

When we started Keyboard News, most of the information on how to make keyboards in Japan was in English (most people in Japan are not good at foreign languages), and the hurdles to get the parts were very high. I thought that if the number of keyboard fans in Japan increased, someone would open a keyboard parts shop in Japan and the information would be written in Japanese, and the community would become more active!

And we wanted to be VTubers!

Speaking of the VTuber phenomenon, can you tell us about Pekaso-chan, the virtual character?

Pekaso has been my handle name on the internet for over 20 years. The “real” person is male, but gender is not revealed on the internet.

Pekaso-chan is just another online identity of mine, just like an avatar. Pekaso-chan (ぺかそちゃん) is the character (the "-chan" suffix means a friendly person), and Pekaso-san or simply Pekaso (ぺかそさん/ぺかそ) is the real me.

The reason why Pekaso-chan was born is: Japanese people have a deep-rooted trend of not showing their real face/name on the internet, and on the other hand VTubers using characters are popular.

Using this double-identity is mostly accepted by the Japanese community.

For example, when streaming on YouTube or uploading illustrations on Twitter, Pekaso-chan will do it. When reporting keyboard meetup events and reviewing actual products, Pekaso-san will do it.

What were some important milestones during these years?

We appeared on famous TV shows in Japan in 2020. Thanks to this, the popularity of Japanese keyboards has increased dramatically.

How are you able to record/edit/publish a one-hour show each week – technically and with regards to organizing/schedule?

We usually start preparation through the week. Looking for newly released keyboards and parts, such as keycaps, on social media or shops. Interviews with makers. Then we are starting and we do the final preparations 5 hours before the streaming.

All program design (script, UI design) is made by just the two of us. Also, most of the video (except product reviews) is streaming. But we don't have a studio for this. We use a system to synchronize over the network and send to YouTube Live.

Beside the show you do various projects ranging from a printed book to branded props like the acrylic Pekaso-chan. Can you tell us about your side-projects?

Making self-published books (called "Doujin-shi(同人誌)") is part of the Japanese culture. Originally, I liked leaving information in physical books rather than digital. Character goods are also similar to this.

アーーーーーーー！！！お顔がよろしくってよ！！！！！！！！ pic.twitter.com/WmXjrXMnbj

— ふかめる/かみ (@FKML_key) August 30, 2022

There are no significant returns on these. We make it because we like it, we want to make it.

Btw, what setup(s) do you type on? Favorite keyboard/switch/profile/set?

I usually use my Cornelius, VEGA, and TABULA-TKL keyboards. (TABURA-TKL is one of my "canceled" projects.)

Keyboard: TABULA-TKL(wip)
Switch: Hako True
Keycaps: GMK Laser

This is my first designe'd keeb whitch has alminum case. I like Laser very much! I streaming keebs news as Pekaso-chan (the girl in pic)! I'm glad more Vtubers like keyboards!#ReineBoardReview #キーボードニュース pic.twitter.com/M8BpA5xDxa

— ぺかそ⌨️ (@Pekaso) June 27, 2021

I prefer the relatively standard row-staggered or columnar-staggered layouts. My favorite profile is Cherry, and I like PBT keycaps because they are strong and durable. I recently started using Kinetic Labs Whale keycaps on my VEGA.

My keyswitch choices are constantly changing. I like smoothly linear switches such as MOMOKA Flamingos.

Most of your initial goals you mentioned earlier seem to be reached: There are Japanese shops, the community is active and growing, and you established yourself as a VTuber. What's next? Do you have further plans and projects in mind?

Certainly. The Japanese keyboard community has grown a lot compared to the beginning but still not enough. We need to think about content that makes newer people interested in keyboards. My hope is to grow a healthy keyboard community.

First of all, I want to resume my split keyboard project. Because I want to be a good keyboard designer just like with keyboard news. I have a lot of new ideas to try I got from keyboard news.

And I want to reboot mechanical keyboard meetups in Japan. It is still risky to hold an event where a large number of people can touch the keyboard but it is needed for our community.

TKC Blackberry review

TKC Blackberry switches reviewed by ThereminGoat.

ThereminGoat reviews the newest clicky switch inspired by the classic Aristotle Whites: TKC Blackberries.

I hope this midweek review helps break up the monotony of your work week just a bit. (Trust me, it's definitely worth reading at your desk instead of doing any "actual work.") – ThereminGoat.

As usual, the author "shortly" covers the history, introducing other members of TKC's fruit family, then carefully investigates the performance of the TKC Blackberries from their appearance, structure, stem shape, etc. to their force curve, sound, wobble.

Full article: https://www.theremingoat.com/blog/tkc-blackberry-switch-review

Tilted thumb key

A 3D-printed tilted keycap for a more comfortable thumb cluster.

If you use split ergo keyboards with thumb clusters, one issue you may experience is the lack of proper keycaps for the thumb keys. I mean cheap and accessible ones.

The shape of most high-pro (but also low-profile) keycaps wasn't designed with this user case in mind so the harsh edges of the common profiles may result in awkward user experience.

Until the convex thumb keys of MoErgo and Chosfox arrive, people have to come up with home-brew solutions. E.g. I simply put the original flat Kailh low-pro caps on my Azimuth, but it's a handwired build and with most PCBs you don't have the luxury of changing between low-pro and high-pro switches/caps.

A 3D printed tilted keycap design published earlier this year by improprietary, and brought to my attention by bethesda2010yy, may be another option.

Attaching a small tilted keycap to the front row made it much easier to type. It's pretty easy to move your thumb around – @bethesda2010yy.

STLs of the keycaps with various angles are available on Printables: https://www.printables.com/model/166665-typewriter-ish-keycaps-for-mx-switches

#Lunakey
最前列に小さめのチルトキーキャップ付けると格段に打ちやすくなった。親指の運びがかなり楽に。https://t.co/GFAMc2wAEh pic.twitter.com/aKWbaRGbT2

— bethesda2010yy (@bethesda2010yy) September 8, 2022

A similar tilted stem for Choc switches was featured earlier.

BBC Micro

Keybordle spotted a BBC Micro in London's science museum, giving an opportunity to mention its historic role.

There were two posts about the Acorn / BBC Micro this week. Although I've always thought it is simply too common to be featured on this blog, I had to realize you may read this from any point of the world and it may be still of some interest.

So the BBC Microcomputer System from Acorn Computers Ltd, commonly known as the BBC Micro or Beeb, was a series of microcomputers introduced in the United Kingdom in the early 80s. During its lifespan there were over 1.5 million units manufactured from 1981 to 1994.

Acorn Computers Ltd., a British computer company, dominated the UK computer market, and at some point in the 80s, almost every school in the UK had at least one of these BBC Micros. In fact, it had its own TV show on BBC2 (The Computer Programme).

As you probably know, I'm a big fan of computers of this era with their gorgeous keycaps and weird layouts preceding any keyboard standards.

What's more interesting though is that, as RationalTim points out, every smartphone, current MacBook Pro, Android phone can effectively trace its roots back to this computer: "Its processor is the genesis for ARM…"

ARM in the beginning was known as Acorn RISC machine. ARM1, the first ARM silicon (introduced in 1985) was used as a second processor to the BBC Micro to develop the simulation software to finish work on the support chips and to increase the operating speed of the CAD software used in development of ARM2 (source).

Apple, whilst developing a new computing platform for its Newton, found that only Acorn RISC machine was close to the requirements needed for implementation, but since ARM had no integral memory management unit, Apple collaborated with Acorn to develop ARM.

The result of this collaboration was a separate company, ARM Ltd, established in 1990. FYI, there were about 20 billion ARM chips shipped in 2020 – 800-900 per second (source). In 2021, they celebrated the 200 billion chip mark.

Btw, Acorn, a trading name of CPU Ltd., has something to do with Apple too:

Acorn was chosen because the microcomputer system was to be expandable and growth-oriented. It also had the attraction of appearing before "Apple Computer" in a telephone directory.

EDIT

The BBC Micro was Jonathan's first computer back in the 80s and he shared some interesting resources after reading the post:

Tynemouth Software (in the UK) sells a USB adaptor kit that allows a BBC keyboard to be used as a USB keyboard.

(While the BBC keyboard came in several variations, they were all mechanical – but none were Cherry MX-compatible. Later BBC Master 128 units used Cherry MY which is sort-of compatible. More info on Deskthority.)

Jonathan even has a video showing the conversion process:

Resources:

• BBC Micro
• Acorn BBC Computer
• Introduction to ARM processor
• ARM architecture family

Skateboard keyboard

A wooden keyboard case made out of old skateboard decks – by ansedehenle.

If you, like me, were into custom guitars before falling into the custom keyboard rabbit hole, this approach may be familiar: old skateboards sliced up and glued together to help them come back to life in a new form.

I’ve never seen a case of this sort so I decided to make one from my old skateboard decks. Super satisfied with the final product! – ansedehenle.

Four decks were used in total since ansedehenle only used the wood from the middle section.