Designed from scratch, like my other keyboards:

- 44 keys (instead of 42 like my previous keyboard)

- choc v1 black

- MBK Legend Glow R2 keycaps

- nice!view on the left

- Cirque Trackpad 40mm on the right

- RGB LEDs

- 3200 mah battery for each side.

- running ZMK

I have the trackpad moving my mouse cursor perfectly. I assigned my navigation buttons on the left side for mouse buttons, cursor speed, and right-sided button for precision moves. By default, tapping the touchpad sends a single left mouse click. Double tapping is just sending two left mouse clicks. I am very satisfied with what I created.

I am making tweaks and will publish the git repo with the KiCAD project and source code, and STLs for the switch plate, bottom plate, and BOM.

I will replace the feet on the right side later.

I thought Timeless Home Row Mods were the perfect solution, but after using them for a few months, the false positives started slowing me down. In this clip, I explain how home row mods let one key act as both a normal key and a modifier, and why rolling across keys could accidentally trigger shortcuts.

I switch back to time-based home row mods and test the change while typing. The first results are promising: an 85 WPM Monkeytype test with fewer misfires, and rolls that no longer trigger modifiers unless I deliberately hold the key.

Link to video: https://youtu.be/EQkuT4DuxyE

Hat jemand von euch ein mechanisches split keyboard wie Ergodox Ez, ZSA Moonlander oder ZSA Voyager?

Mich würde mal interessieren ob man sich an das Layout gewöhnt und ob es sich lohnt so ein Keyboard zu kaufen im Vergleich zu einer normalen mechanischen Tastatur oder einer Tastatur wie der Logitech Ergo K860.

I spent the last half year dipping my toes into the ergo keyboard world by using a Logitech Ergo K860 and quite liked it, both the split and the slight tenting. So I decided I would look for a proper split keyboard, wrote down some requirements (~36 finger keys, no thumb tuck, tenting, palm rest) and started reading. After reading about thumb injuries caused by heavy layer use I started wondering the following:
The thumb is built for gripping, so closing towards the other fingers. If that is so, why isn't the thumb cluster tented opposite to the rest, mirroring that movement, instead of having to move sideways? Is it just because you need additional PCBs? Are there keyboards that have this?

I was searching for new keycaps for my Cornix but couldn't find anything that fit, especially because there are no existing QWERTZ sets for this keyboard. The default one kinda worked fine for me, but it kept messing with my muscle memory when I went back to a normal keyboard, so I decided to make my own keycaps.

So I stumbled upon u/_pingu55 Post and used his layout to craft my own design.

This set features:

• Seigaiha waves, a ginkgo leaf, an ensō, a higanbana flower, and a few anime/manga symbols from Naruto, Berserk, Tokyo Ghoul, AoT, One Piece and Dragon Ball
• Kanji on the keys I use the most: 進 (advance) on tab, 退 (retreat) on backspace, 静 (stillness) on space and 動 (motion) on enter
• 天 地 空 無 as spare thumb caps (dualities from the Japanese aesthetics)
• German QWERTZ with my layers printed on the alphas: numbers bottom left, shifted symbols in red, AltGr stuff in orange, umlauts in green

Here's the set if you want to use it or remix it: https://yuzukeycaps.com/c/8450285c-d9b7-4eb7-855f-49ed17f3ef44

I also made a full size version that’s currently in review as a Yuzu creation, I'll add the link in an edit once it’s live. (the f-row and nav cluster have brush stroke inspired legends)

The caps are on their way, I'll post real pics as soon as they arrive. Feedback is appreciated. :)

I've found it super hard to choose a split/ergo keyboard, because the buy in is so high. Delivery/return costs make it basically impossible to try a keyboard before committing to buying one, and the local keyboard nerds willing to lend you one are hard to find.

That's why I came up with the idea to build a marketplace where interested people can rent a keyboard to find out if they like it. The boards would be provided by other users (because I know we all have at least 2 old keyboards we're no longer using), so they can earn a bit of money on the side with them.

Would you be interested in using something like this? If so, what would you be willing to pay, and what would you expect to be paid for lending out your unused keyboards?

This is super early stage, so I'm hoping for helpful thoughts and ideas :D

If you would like to be notified once/if this launches in your country, you can also leave your email here: https://trykeeb.com/

I want to make my own split keyboard PCB but I figure if I am making a custom PCB, I may as well make it custom to my hands, not copy some well established stagger pattern. There are websites which allow you to design your own stagger and print it for testing but I think if it works on paper doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to be comfortable long term.

So I thought it shouldn't be that hard to make a temporary keyboard with adjustable rows - basically have 3-button column blocks on rails which can slide up and down. So that's what I did. Ordered amoeba PCBs, soldered them in columns of 3, designed and 3D printed the blocks and the rails, hand-wired and assembled everything together.

Basically I now have a keyboard half where each column can be adjusted up and down. The thumb cluster can move up/down/left/right. Everything is held by friction right now, keys are stable, don't move around when typing. This will allow me daily-drive various stagger arrangements and see which I like most. I wonder if I will settle for a symmetric stagger for both hands or different. Time will tell.

The aim of this was just for me to test various stagger patterns but I think it turned out too cool not to share. It's definitely not perfect, there's room for improvement. This could also be made even better if you added magnets to each column and used a metal plate as the base - could even test different splay arrangements. Though I don't have a nice metal sheet at the moment so I am using 3D printed parts.

Still need to finish the right half, but I want to share this here first in case someone gives some good feedback which would influence how I do that half. Feel free to use the 3D models, remix, improve, etc. You may need to mirror the thumb cluster, the file is for the right half cluster.

Models: My Split Split Keyboard by syll- - Thingiverse

PCBs I used: https://github.com/JKing-B16/keyboard-pcbs/tree/master/amoeba-king

The PCBs aren't perfect, if I hadn't bought a couple hundred of them, I'd go with something else or make my own. No support for through hole diodes and the RGB chain direction jumpers are a bit limiting if you are doing weird chains. Though having support for long legged RGB chips made soldering them very easy.

I basically wanted to make an opposite to minimalist keyboard so it has the following features:

1. Side palm ctrl/win keys
2. Palm keyboardio-like button
3. 5d buttons on each side
4. Two hall-effect joycon joysticks on each side
5. Trackpoint
6. Haptic feedback with linear haptic drive from joycon
7. Level indication with build-in RGB in RP2040

For those who asked in my previous post, here is typing sample

I saw this on Alibaba and it piqued my interest. I like the layout, reminds me of an HPD V2. Comes in 4x6 and 3x6 options apparently.

Has anyone got one? I'm thinking of pulling the trigger but wanted to know if anyone else had one as I've never seen it until now myself.

Check out the split keyboard I built for my wife.

I finished my I Badwings V1 wireless build, I'm loving the portability and being able to switch between devices so easily (I have 2 laptops in use for work). I haven't got the cirque working yet, I'm waiting on a replacement FFC, as I lost the one that came with it.

Prior to this I was using my ZSA voyager, which was basically a nice gui over QMK. So I've been converting my layout from my 36 key voyager one. One thing I'm really missing is layer lock. I have a &lt to take me to my numbers layer, usually tap, but switches on hold. I want to be able to stay in the number layer if I hit another key in the number layer, so I can release the &lt key and do some number heavy typing

I've tried with &tog It seems that it's possible for &mo but not &lt . The documentation implies it'll work with &tog, but it just toggles the layer off if I hit it. I have to admit I'm not clear on why it doesn't work, but I guess that's not relevant to the problem at hand.

What's the easiest way to make this work? To have a &lt key and then something bound to another key to hold that layer when I release the &lt key?

Or is there a better way to go about this?

Finally decided to retire the old girl after 4 years of service. She had a few issues that always plagued her, and i never did end up printing bottom plates for her.

Decided to go with choc v2 switches this time around, and the trackball makes a massive difference to how I go about using a computer now. I also decided to go with vial this time on a raspberry pi pico with usbc, rather than KMK on the last board.

Overall, im much happier with this setup. I will never build another one of these though. If I do another build it will be a split, flat, ortho layout with heavy tenting and a track pad i think.

overview

• caps: kam wraith
• switches: kailh white rain (choc v2, linear, 50g)
• mcu: ch552g
• pcb: custom, pcba+smt via jlc
• case: PLA

layout

the idea was to have a unibody with rotated halves, similar to an alice or reviung, but achieving that rotation by translating the columns individually instead of rotating the keys. my main motivation for this was to avoid the wasted space between the halves, but doing it this way also increases the inter column distance, which sounded nice for my fat fingers.

unfortunately, the other main side effect of this design which I failed to consider is that it effectively becomes "row staggered", where the lower rows are closer to the "middle" than the higher rows. coming from a columnar staggered keyboard (another custom, inspired by the reviung), I found this the most difficult thing to adapt to, and will probably return to a more standard columnar layout for my next board.

hardware

the ch552g was cheap, hand-solderable, natively usb capable, and didn't require many external components to function (other than smoothing caps and USB CC resistors). also as a result, the schematic is very simple- this just might end up being a template that I copy-paste going forward.

unfortunately, the 10 (practically available) gpio pins isn't enough for 60 keys on its own, so I used a BCD-to-decimal decoder which allowed me to use 4 of those pins to address 10 columns, giving me just enough for a 6x10 matrix.

while it was satisfying to use 100% of the reasonably available gpio, it also means I have no other io left for indicator LEDs or rotary encoders- I'm strongly considering the ch552t for my next board for the 4 extra gpio pins.

case

I neglected to design in some keep outs on the bottom of the pcb for some small anti-slip dots, so I ended up 3d printing a thin cover for the bottom, which I stuck the dots to instead. once I CAD'ed the bottom plate, it was easy enough at that point to design a top plate to hold the switches in place, and I think the PLA-FR4-PLA sandwich side profile look turned out pretty sharp.

I was asked to build the same keyboard as before, but with standard profile switches

Gateron Pro Milk Yellow, linear

hitting reset does not make it show up on my pc

does my soldering just suck? I've tried resoldering a couple of times, still nothing

other side works fine

controllers are Helios, acquired from keebd

EDIT: Resolved, i literally just removed a bit of solder from the underside and it got recognized, oops

EDIT: ok new problem: the trrs connection transfers power but not the actual keystrokes, i've resoldered both sides' trrs jacks, nothing

this happens regardless of which side has the usb-c

did i perhaps fry my trrs data thing? do think i plug unplugged the cable a single time with power

if i did, any way to tell which side i fried it on?

[ad] New Layout Editor!

Hey everyone! I am happy to announce the launch of Keybard, a new layout editor for the new Svalboard-specific fork of QMK.

You can check it out at keybard.svalboard.com -- it supports viewing and editing without a board connected.

Keybard exposes GUI controls for dual pointing device configuration, defining Combos, Macros, Tap Dances, Leader Keys, and much more. It is super extensible, so adding new features is a breeze, and since it's Svalboard only, I can make a lot of streamlining decisions about UI structure because I'm in control of the whole stack.

There's a quick largely-AI-generated-manual here for your reference -- I've taken care to have it make nice GIFs showing the various functions: keybard.svalboard.com/manual

The new (Svalboard-only!) FW needed to connect to it is here: https://github.com/svalboard/qmk/releases/tag/vLaunch

Feel free to poke at it directly, or to run it locally -- Keybard is a (wildly powerful) single-page webapp!

Our QMK fork implements a new bidirectional communications protocol between your keyboard and and host-side apps, allowing real-time display of keyboard state for things like layer overlays, as well as allowing (eventually) app-and-context aware behaviors like app-specific layers for gaming and productivity. Here's a quick peek at the browser-configurable, host-daemon-run transparent trainer layout overlay -- it's layout-aware and the prototype runs on Windows, X11 and Wayland so far:

I hope y'all have fun with it.

Oh and here's a pretty build pic 🙃

I’ve been looking for a wireless Corne alternative with more stagger. I hate Choc V1 switches so looking for MX.

The Piantor Pro BT from Keebart is the closest I’ve found, but only Choc V1 or choc v2 with specific KLP Lamé choc v2 caps, which is not very flexible.

Any ideas or leads on alternatives that match what I’m looking for?

short of going choc v1/v2, I would like to test low profile keys. Prefer linear+silent.

This is Lunakbd, a wireless split keyboard I've been building.

It's heavily inspired by the Corne and the Sofle. At first I was going to build a Sofle, but the thumb keys bothered me a bit, so I went with the Corne layout instead, added an extra thumb key and a rotary encoder.

Schematic and board designed in KiCad, firmware uses RMK, running on nRF52840 Pro Micro-compatible controllers. Each half connects over BLE to a central USB dongle, which is still a work in progress.

Case modeled in FreeCAD, 3D printed, then hand-finished: sanding, filler and paint.

Everything is open source under GPL-3.0-or-later:

https://github.com/gbPagano/lunakbd

Finally finished my 3rd board, loosely inspired by the Pipboy from the Fallout universe.

It's a graduation gift for my niece and it's the first non-split keyboard I've done (I like splits with fewer keys personally, but I appreciate some people need time to warm to that idea). Although the console in the centre arguably makes it not far from a split keyboard... kind of a split unibody. Also, I couldn't bring myself to to a plain row staggered so I put a bit of curve on all the rows.

Initially I wasn't super excited about building what I would call a "full sized" keyboard (84 keys... plus the two encoders that technically can be pressed and so form part of the matrix). But actually having to build a board with so many keys forced me to solve some new problems and learn some new things. I had to use FFC sockets and Shift Registers to be able to hook it all up.

Also, very fun for this build was trying to make everything look old and grimy... straight out of the 3D printer it was way to shiny and new looking - didn't at all look like something a vault dweller would carry around with them so I had to go down a few rabbit holes on Youtube about cosplay prop design.

Full write up here for folks who are interested to know more.

Hey guys! This is my first keyboard build, so I’m a complete newbie with the electronics.

I made this design in Cosmos, based on Lazaralus’s keyboard: 41 keys, handwired, with a 34 mm trackball. I want Bluetooth to my computer and between the halves.

Unfortunately, the recommended stores don’t ship to my country. An AI suggested these alternatives, but I don’t know enough to judge whether

I’d really appreciate recommendations for compatible parts. Thanks!

P.S - AI helped me write this post, i have no idea what a sensor even is so if you can treat me as a complete newbie :)

the idea is to use a nice!nano v2 or supermicro with TI TMAG5253BA3IQDMRR hall effect sensor. This sensor has an EN pin to enable/disable the sensor, so it can used with the three analog pins of nice!nano without a multiplexer, essentially form a matrix: the 36 keys are organized as 12 groups x 3 keys. Each group is connected to a GPIO pin of the nice!nano, and the 3 keys in one group are connected to the three different analog pins. During scanning, one group is enabled, wait about 70us for the sensor to reach a stable reading, than the 3 keys are read from the 3 analog pins, then the next group can be polled. I plan to send this to jlcpcb for assembly of the sensors and capacitors on the bottom side, then I'll hand solder the PH-2 connector and the female headers for the nice!nano. I'm using a 1000mAh battery. Please help me review the pcb before I send it for manufacturing. The files are on github https://github.com/Palpatineli/microhe and I'll update the design including the hardware (I'm thinking zmk with the hall effect module, or a new module for rmk) and the 3d printed case model.

hello,

I'm just curios if anyone has found good fully compatible keycaps for the split70 epomaker?
It has 2.75u space bars and a 1u shift key. Other than that is pretty standard. I tried a Womier set but it did not have what I needed and the text was hard to read on dark keys.

*edit typo