Damian’s notes

pi40 Keyboard Kit: A 40% Planck-style keyboard kit with mostly through-hole soldered parts and a Raspberry Pi as its controller.

The idea of a through-hole kit is that you can solder on all the parts yourself—even the diodes and microcontroller—and it shows this off by having the diodes arranged under a window in a pretty pattern. Looks like the microcontroller board itself requires some trickier soldering since it has pads rather than pins.

How to build a lovely flat keyboard that folds up like a clutch purse for portability.

Kickstarter for Work Louder’s low-profile 65% keyboard offering, the Nomad [E]. It has three rotary dials and a small screen for running on-keyboard apps, like a Pomadoro timer.

DracuLad – a kit keyboard in the shape of bat wings for extra adjustability and gothicality

Qlavier has created a 3 × 13 macropad, like a extremely maximalist combined numeric keypad and nav cluster.

I’ve built my third Quefrency keyboard, but alas! for the first time managed to break a kit while building it. Luckily the affected keys are ones I don’t normally use, but I am sad not to have a perfect build to show off. 🥲

If you are the sort of person who has a customized mechanical computer keyboard and also fond memories of the ZX Spectrum computer from the 1980s, you may be amused to learn of KAM Wraith, an evocative keycap set in thick dye-sublimated PBT.

For those who want a work of art to do their daily typing on: the Keymacs A620N-88 is a recreation of the famous Symbolics Lisp keyboard, with Matias switches (or any ALPS-style you prefer), a choice of ANSI or Lisp layout, and a custom spherical key-cap set.

Another mechanical keyboard design that takes a simple idea and runs with it. The Cinderblock 70 normalizes all the keys to 1u (with options for 2u shift, enter and space) and a uniform stagger for a satisfyingly regular look which might still be a useable typing device for people unprepared for the full-on ortholinear style.