GH60 Keyboard Project

[jdcarpe]

Order from the GB thread here: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=41464.0

GH60 custom (DIY) keyboard recap:

1. Komar007 designed the PCB and is having them printed. He has had a prototype run done, which is being distributed for testing. Once that is tested, and the final revisions made, the GB will proceed.
2. The_Beast will be having [some number of] plate designs made. Probably about 8 designs, to include ANSI winkey, ANSI winkeyless, ISO winkey, and ISO winkeyless. If we have case-integrated designs and stand-alone designs for those, that makes 8 plate designs for a base run. And I'm sure he will take requests for custom plates, such as lysol's bottom row.
3. alaricljs is *maybe* doing another stabilizer buy. He is gauging interest. On a related note, if you choose a winkey layout, and use plate mounted Costar stabilizers, you can get those from WASDkeybaords.com all day.
4. samwisekoi has offered to help with designing an acrylic case. WhiteFireDragon, The_Beast, damorgue and dirge are also working on case designs. As are others. If you want to use an existing case, our goal is that this PCB will fit in any current Poker/Pure case. Including the aluminum ones made by imsto, treble318, oneproduct, and Duck.

You must install your own switches and keycaps.







gh60_reva.zip

Phase:
Interest Check
Design
Prototype and testing
Group Buy/Ordering
Invoicing/Collecting Payments
Final Prototyping
Production <-- We are here! YAY!
Shipping

GH60 Custom Keyboard
Ever wanted your Poker/Pure to have a programmable controller? Did you love the different layout options of the Phantom, but wanted it in a smaller form factor? This is a 60% form-factor Geekhack custom keyboard that will be somewhat similar to the Phantom, but it will not include the function row, cursor arrows, or insert key group.

- Includes support for programmable layers.

- PCB populated from factory with all electronics, including diodes and ATmega32u4 programmable controller chip. Only switches will need to be sourced and mounted. Support for PCB-mount switches.

- Support for Poker/Pure cases, including aluminum cases from imsto, oneproduct, or treble318.

Supported Layouts:

- Normal/Standard Ansi layout
- ISO layout (vertical enter key, smaller left shift, additional key to the left of "z" key)
- 1.75x right shift, allowing extra 1x Fn/Mod/etc key to the right or left of the right shift key
- Model M "winkeyless" style layout with 1.5x - 1x - 1.5x modifier keys on left and right sides, with 7x spacebar
- lysol's proposed layout with two 1.5x modifiers on the left and 1.5x - 1x - 1x - 1.5x on the right, with 7x spacebar


The ATmega32u4 controller chip
This is the same chip as on the Teensy2.0. It is a 16MHz 8-bit AVR from Atmel.


Plates
Plates will make your keyboard will feel more solid overall and help disperse some of the typing stress. They’re optional, but most people do prefer it. Each layout will require a different plate. HHKB and winkeyless layouts can use any ANSI or ISO plate with 1.5x modifiers. I designed these so the top switch housing is removable without desoldering, which helps with swapping switches, springs, stems, lubing, or stickering later on. They can be directly dropped in to existing cases. More details on this in the next post.
 
compatibility:

• Costar stabilizer
• PCB-mounted cherry stabilizer
• Plate-mounted cherry stabilizer
• Any existing and upcoming 60% case
• Poker and Pure (must be plates with 1.25x modifier)

Pricing
PCB (SMD presoldered) - $40
PCB (DIY, includes SMT components) - $25
Plate - $16
Switches - $0.60 - $0.85
Plate-mounted cherry stabilizers - $9
PCB – mounted cherry stabilizers - ??
Assembly - $25
Shipping - ??

The prices listed above is a ballpark. PCBs could be a tad lower, depending on quantity at the end, or possibly be a few dollars higher to account for import/VAT taxes or any other unforeseen fees. Same goes with plates and switches, it really depends on how many of each are ordered.
 

Interested:

jdcarpe
komar007
The_Beast
alixinhzai
damorgue
elton5354
sth
lysol
tgujay
longweight
modulor
jil_jil32
tjweir
metalliqaz
TheProfosist
Glissant
Tenkey
nntnam
Loligagger
Bim Gao
dirge
nebo
ferociousfingerings
MagicMeatball
mm87
JonDBurnett
phetto
fruktstund
jessecoleman
KennyR
OddOne
Nask
salmo
pasph
esoomenona
kravlin
neeb
Hzza
osxoep
wiredPANDA
i3oilermaker
boost
duq
Razer1987
alvinliang
Appeac
Grimey
mars-bar-man
samwisekoi
danielucf
MarkPharaoh
poopmat
tjcaustin
huttala
fl0w3n
jcrouse
mistakemistake
iMav
... and more!




Images of some possible key layouts:


ANSI ("KBC Poker"-style)


ANSI w/1.50 mods


ANSI winkeyless


ISO


ISO w/1.50 mods


ISO winkeyless


"HHKB"-style


ISO "HHKB"-style


"KBT Pure"-style


IvanIvanovich's custom


TheProfosist's custom


samwisekoi's custom

[The_Beast]

Very interested.

The water jet guy got back to me, he can only hold a +/- of .005", the laser guy still hasn't gotten back to me. Here's hoping for tighter tolerances

[jdcarpe]

Yeah, I think laser is the way to go. IIRC, litster had the Phantom plates laser cut from 1/16" 6061, then found a place that would sand them a bit thinner before the anodizing process.

[alaricljs]

Where are you going to fit the teensy?  It will NOT fit between the PCB and the plate... and then there's the cable routing issue.

[jdcarpe]

Underneath? Is that where the Teensy resides on the Dox?

I don't think it will be too hard to route the USB cable. We could get treble to make a hole for the Teeny reset switch instead of the DIP switches, and design some kind of channel for the USB cable.

[alaricljs]

If I recall correctly it was top-side under the space bar, no plate.

[The_Beast]

Yeah, I think laser is the way to go. IIRC, litster had the Phantom plates laser cut from 1/16" 6061, then found a place that would sand them a bit thinner before the anodizing process.

I might be able to use this:


It's a surface sander, it's like a thickness planer for wood but it can take a few thousandths off at a time using sand paper (pretty accurate)

[jdcarpe]

Well, there are some great technical minds here on Geekhack. Yourself included, alaricljs. I'm sure someone could help figure it out. I'm just the idea guy; I'm no engineer.

We could, of course, forgo the Teensy and go with an onboard controller. But I like the idea of using a Teensy, if possible, since we know quite a bit about the programming.

[alaricljs]

Well, the obvious answer is just do it SMD w/ integrated controller and have the fab take care of it 

[jdcarpe]

Well, the obvious answer is just do it SMD w/ integrated controller and have the fab take care of it 

QFT.

[jdcarpe]

I might be able to use this:
{image here}
It's a surface sander, it's like a thickness planer for wood but it can take a few thousandths off at a time using sand paper (pretty accurate)

I like it!

[The_Beast]

It would be nice if we could use the water jet since it leaves such nice edges. Lasers get the job done, but the edges can be rough. I've also heard that lasering can be expensive when doing such tight tolerances due to the gases they have to use to maintain those tolerances


I should get the laser quote back sometime Monday

[alaricljs]

Well idea guy, tell me why not 1.25x mod row, and why not a 1.75 right shift plus an extra key there?

edit: on such a small keyboard sometimes it's nice to have a few extra buttons.

[jdcarpe]

My thought about the bottom row was to use 1.5 mods, since winkeyless boards are like [zoolander] Hansel, they're so hot right now. [/zoolander]

The rest of the keys would be standard ANSI, so that it would be easy to change out the keycaps. I have mixed feelings about the 1.75 right shift and the Fn key to the right of it. My Pure is setup that way, and I can use it, but I am just so used to having the full 2.75 right shift that sometimes I hit the far right key when I mean to shift.

Between the Ctrl and Alt was the logical place to put the Fn key, and why not have them on both sides, for convenience?

Windows keys and Menu key are extraneous, at least for me. I NEVER use the Menu key, and if you use Windows and need that keypress, Ctrl-Esc is the same.

[alaricljs]

Well to be honest if I had a programmable controller I'd never use the win or menu key either... but they would be there for me to program as something else 

[alixinhzai]

Very interested.

[Djuzuh]

I don't get the 1.5 mod craz.

I like my 1.25 mods.

Just because korean make it the 1.5 way doesn't need we need to copy them.

[Cindori]

What software is people using to generate those layout schematics?

[longweight]

It would be much nicer to have a control keyless board!

[jdcarpe]

Having 1.5 mods on the bottom row is also an easy way to visually distinguish that the board is a custom design, while keeping the standard layout of the other keys to make changing keycap sets trivial. If you build a Phantom with 1.25 mods, you can't easily tell the difference between that and a Filco, for instance. Yes, it has a programmable controller, and you can setup the caps lock to be off center if you like, but when you see a picture of a keyboard with 1x mods sandwiched between 1.5x mods, inside a Filco housing, you know it's a Phantom.

Why does one need extraneous keys on their keyboard, anyway?

[jdcarpe]

What software is people using to generate those layout schematics?

If you mean the plate design, it was originally done with CAD software. That plate image is a screenshot, I think, of the PHANSI plate that I grabbed from another thread, then modified in Paint.

For the key layout, I used Hazeluff's Dox template image, again grabbed from another thread, and modified it to my needs using Paint. I don't know how Hazel made the original.

[hazeluff]

What software is people using to generate those layout schematics?

If you mean the plate design, it was originally done with CAD software. That plate image is a screenshot, I think, of the PHANSI plate that I grabbed from another thread, then modified in Paint.

For the key layout, I used Hazeluff's Dox template image, again grabbed from another thread, and modified it to my needs using Paint. I don't know how Hazel made the original.

My layout thing came from WASD. Its derived from the template you use to submit custom legends.

[longweight]

Can we drop the Windows keys, list key, right ALT and the control keys?

[The_Beast]

I like my keyboards as symmetrical as possible but that's just me

[alaricljs]

KiCAD is the most common choice here to do the  PCB layout, and bpiphany was kind enough to put together a library of keyboard footprints that include a drawing layer that has the proper measurements for plate cutouts.  KiCAD is capable of rendering this layer as a DXF file.

As far as wanting to be able to tell by sight that it's a custom KB... that's kind of silly.  I'd prefer something useful over something that tells the world I'm making sacrifices in usability to make sure you know it's custom.

[damorgue]

ISO, anyone, ISO? There are already several 60% ANSI boards out there

Dare to be unique!

Go against the stream!

Make yourself known!

Be pioneers!

Vote ISO!

[alaricljs]

It's not hard to produce a board w/ ISO and ANSI on the same PCB.  Then you just have to get enough people interested in the ISO plate to produce it at a reasonable cost.

[longweight]

ISO, anyone, ISO? There are already several 60% ANSI boards out there

Dare to be unique!

Go against the stream!

Make yourself known!

Be pioneers!

Vote ISO!

Why on earth would anyone want ISO?!

[Djuzuh]

ISO, anyone, ISO? There are already several 60% ANSI boards out there

Dare to be unique!

Go against the stream!

Make yourself known!

Be pioneers!

Vote ISO!

Why on earth would anyone want ISO?!

Superior layouts bro !

[hazeluff]

ISO, anyone, ISO? There are already several 60% ANSI boards out there

Dare to be unique!

Go against the stream!

Make yourself known!

Be pioneers!

Vote ISO!

If anything, I think it would be smart to break any key that's 2x width or larger into smaller keys (some parts will look like ISO).
So Return becomes 1x + 1.25x and similarly for other keys ; p

[IvanIvanovich]

I wish it to just be a pcb drop in replacement for Poker. It would be best if it fits in the existing Poker cases. Only thing I care about would be able to program the 2nd layer myself since it is the only thing I don't like about the Poker. It is ok with me if it's winkeyless also of course, I have plenty of 1.5 Cherry modifier.

[longweight]

ISO, anyone, ISO? There are already several 60% ANSI boards out there

Dare to be unique!

Go against the stream!

Make yourself known!

Be pioneers!

Vote ISO!

Why on earth would anyone want ISO?!

Superior layouts bro !

[jdcarpe]

I wish it to just be a pcb drop in replacement for Poker. It would be best if it fits in the existing Poker cases. Only thing I care about would be able to program the 2nd layer myself since it is the only thing I don't like about the Poker. It is ok with me if it's winkeyless also of course, I have plenty of 1.5 Cherry modifier.

This is what I was aiming for. Programmable Poker replacement with 1.5 mods, that would fit into a Poker case.

I'm okay with having ISO options on the PCB, and another plate option for it. We could also have the options, just like the Phantom does, for 1.25 or 1.5 mods. At that point, this is basically a Phantom 60%, instead of a TKL (80%). I'm cool if people want that, I just had something a little different in mind. My thinking was that if we had one standard layout, like  the Korean customs do, instead of the 4 options, it would be cheaper per unit.

Hazeluff, if you want the large keys split up like that, just build a Dox.

If everyone wants the ANSI/ISO option, as well as the 1.5/1.25 option, maybe we should incorporate this design (Phantom 60% with onboard programmable SMD controller and Poker/Pure case mounts) into the next round of the Phantom, as an additional PCB design. That is, if bpiphany, litster, et al. are amenable to that.

[elton5354]

Cool I'm in. I have a spare Poker case so I'm all set for this! I'm all for 1.5 mod since if you put in 1.25 it'll be no different than a poker. I want something a little different. 

[hazeluff]

I wish it to just be a pcb drop in replacement for Poker. It would be best if it fits in the existing Poker cases. Only thing I care about would be able to program the 2nd layer myself since it is the only thing I don't like about the Poker. It is ok with me if it's winkeyless also of course, I have plenty of 1.5 Cherry modifier.

This is what I was aiming for. Programmable Poker replacement with 1.5 mods, that would fit into a Poker case.

I'm okay with having ISO options on the PCB, and another plate option for it. We could also have the options, just like the Phantom does, for 1.25 or 1.5 mods. At that point, this is basically a Phantom 60%, instead of a TKL (80%). I'm cool if people want that, I just had something a little different in mind. My thinking was that if we had one standard layout, like  the Korean customs do, instead of the 4 options, it would be cheaper per unit.

Hazeluff, if you want the large keys split up like that, just build a Dox.

If everyone wants the ANSI/ISO option, as well as the 1.5/1.25 option, maybe we should incorporate this design (Phantom 60% with onboard programmable SMD controller and Poker/Pure case mounts) into the next round of the Phantom, as an additional PCB design. That is, if bpiphany, litster, et al. are amenable to that.

Well this project is like almost just a Dox. If you go for PCB mount like the poker is already, then you can accommodate a ton of layouts with just the PCB. That means 1.25/1.5 mods and ANSI/ISO/Other layouts.

[alaricljs]

Unlike the Koreans we generally cannot agree on a single layout enough to get a decent volume of orders

[damorgue]

There is no need not to make the pcb compatible with several layouts. The ones that want a different layout than the main chosen one could go pcb-mount so that only one plate is made.

[hazeluff]

You just need one person heading the project in one way and disregard the small other groups of people.

[hazeluff]

There is no need not to make the pcb compatible with several layouts. The ones that want a different layout than the main chosen one could go pcb-mount so that only one plate is made.

This.

PCB mount will/can support tons of layouts, but if you guys are thinking of grouping for plates, you're going to want to settle on a single layout.

[sth]

im in if it has a plate!

[jdcarpe]

So does this sound like a sensible plan? Produce a Phantom 60% board with layout options for ISO/ANSI and 1.5/1.25 mods on the PCB. Only one plate, which would reflect the design I posted in the OP for ANSI with 1.5 mods.

[IvanIvanovich]

Sounds perfect, if there is pcb mount switch so no plate is needed at all. Even though I would likely fall into the winkeyless ansi mainstream, I don't even want a plate.

[damorgue]

My suggestion was stupid in retrospect. Buying 20 of each makes them cost less per plate than 20 of one. The ones that intend to use a different layout would need to buy a plate they aren't going to use to make it 80 of that one to make it worth it.

[tsangan]

1800 shift is perfect for this layout, the pure did it right there. Perfect location for the fn key which allows the 1x mods to be windows

[komar007]

I'm interested!
In fact this is exactly what I've planned on doing for a long time, but couldn't quite get down to it.
I'll contribute whatever is necessary: electrical design, programming, etc if someone makes this happen.
I can also contribute my controller software (teensy-compatible) with nkro support. It basically needs good layer support and PC-side layout designer, not much work to be done.

And I support the 1.25 modifier idea. I was thinking about putting 2 Cherry MX locks between alt and ctrl on the right side which would enable choice between 4 different layers or settings, etc. which you could change by pressing/depressing the keys.

[tgujay]

Gimme!

[longweight]

Sounding good!

[modulor]

Color me interested!  This seems like a natural successor to the original Dox design.

1800 shift is perfect for this layout, the pure did it right there. Perfect location for the fn key which allows the 1x mods to be windows

I like this idea, as I like the Pure layout.  However, if it is fully programmable, there's always the option of remapping.  I do like having that extra key, tho.

[jil_jil32]

I hope Fn key can be placed as like it is on HHKB pro 2, beside 1.75x right shift. So I can have the GH60 winkeyless version!
Aluminum casing sounds great!

[IvanIvanovich]

I think I would rather have the 1.75 shift + fn style as well instead of between the ctrl and alt. Only downside then though is having some big ugly gaps if using an existing Poker case with nothing between the modifiers. I will assume this will not be popular, but perhaps have the bottom row 1.5,1.5,7,1.5,1,1,1.5? It would eliminate gaps and leave 2 keys for win/menu on the right. Might be a decent compromise?