Issue #158 - Keyboard Builders' Digest
Keyboard Builders' Digest // Issue #158
Check out this week's editorial with awesome projects, tips, ideas, meetups, discount codes, etc!
Hey y'all,
Help me out with your opinion (you can reply to this email I guess):
Do these newsletters make any sense?!
I mean, beside the blog, RSS, Twitter, Instagram, and the weekly reminders on reddit, keebtalk, etc.
While the newsletters are free for you, I'll have to pay $145 soon for this service. Let me know if you prefer this format or if I can ditch this for good.
If half of the subscribers would pay a one-time 10 cents, then the fee could be covered for a year. That said, please don't donate yet, let's see if I'll continue with the newsletter at all.
And here are some of the posts I thought were worth sharing this time:
- I wrote about the SpaceFN concept - setting up your space key as a layer switch when held. It's probably the most useful tweak on keyboards with standard layout. I owed this for a long time.
- Reviews: Two new ones (Synth Labs 060 and IROK ND75) but both postponed. Nevertheless, I had some issues with the previous newsletter, so check out the WhiteFox Eclipse review if you missed it, along with last week's "on my desk" semi-issue.
- Curiosity or game-changer? We'll soon see: T. G. Marbach's JESK56 is a diodeless 56-key ortholinear keyboard, using a single RP2040-based microcontroller thanks to some fancy math and graph theory.
- Mangokitty published the files of the Tanto, a 40% with Katana-stlye symmetric layout.
- An open-source ortho TKL with on-board controller: glyphkbd v2 by _galile0.
- A 20-key minimal split: Pepesweep by Volodymyr Petiushka. Low profile, wireless, open source.
- Dance! is a wireless-only split keyboard by chase-hunter.
- Penk Chen shared his Haori36, a compact monoblock ortho with thumb cluster and optional Pimonori trackball.
- Created by Kea Workshop's Claude, the KW keycap profile is uniform, spherical, MX-sized, and compatible with Choc V1 switches.
- Finally, here is an old project for reference: Toad v2 by TalkingTree, an open-source 70% keyboard from 2017.
Much more news and resources in my weekly editorial write-up, MK meetup calendar and keyboard shop database - with 500+ keyboard vendors!
Save some money
There are now 139 keyboard shops accepting the KBDNEWS coupon code and offering you various discounts.
Check out all the shops on the coupon page!
Weekly keyboard art
Mantis builds by luckybipedal (source).
This issue’s supporters
splitkb.com, MoErgo Glove80, ZSA Technology Labs, Aiksplace, @keebio, Upgrade Keyboards, Cyboard, Sean Grady, Ashkeebs, Jason Hazel, Jacob Mikesell, @kaleid1990, kiyejoco, KEEBD, littlemer-the-second, ghsear.ch, Mechboards, u/motfalcon, Bob Cotton, FFKeebs, TurtleKeebs, Richard Sutherland, @therick0996, Christian Mladenov, Joel Simpson, Lev Popov, Daniel Nikolov, u/eighty58five, Schnoor Typography, Caleb Rand, Skyler Thuss, Yuan Liu, James McCleese, Benjamin Bell, Ben M, zzeneg, Spencer Dabell, Anatolii Smolianinov, Matthias Goffette, TALPKEYBOARD, Penk Chen, Hating TheFruit, Vitali Haravy, Clacky, Felicitas R., Davidjohn Gerena, anonymous, Alex Miller, Gavin Folgert, Trey Causey, Shnobble, Stefan S.
(You are awesome! Thanks everyone!)