Exent Ortho PCB and Plate

[monkeyplusplus]

Since I finally received my beautiful Exent, I'd like to start the discussion around creating an ortho pcb and plate for this lovely monster.

The layout for this board will be straightforward, supporting a full 1u grid, or left, right, or center placed numpad, with a Preonic style layout. Here's a KLE link with the various layouts:
http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/#/gists/67ff3b23664de587b64d96b123185b2e

The board will also offer either rgb backlighting or pezio speaker, and will run QMK. The layout options are causing some issues with the Alps+MX footprints, so it may end up being MX only.

Here's a render of the current state of the PCB, but a lot of work is necessary to get this into shape!

[un_related]

Sems like a good way to get both ortho and a working pcb for the exent!

[Traveler]

I might be interested. What is the estimated cost?

[meirish]

Yes please!

[duynguyenle]

This is nice. How feasible would it to have an another additional layout option for the left handed numpad use case where the 2u enter and plus is on the far left instead of in the middle between the numerics and the main cluster (never used a reversed numpad like that before but it somehow seems pretty logical, less hand movement switching between the main cluster and numpad cluster (on the other hand it might be easier to index your hand position with the big 2u enter in between numpad and main cluster, so I dunno, pros and cons I suppose)

[monkeyplusplus]

Dunno cost yet! I'll update here when I get more info. I'll be building and flashing the boards by hand, since the volume will be likely very low, and to ensure working products for folks.

Anybody super lathered up about Alps or in-switch leds? Because I am very tempted to remove those two features in favor of a much cleaner board and plate.

[flyingpike]

Dunno cost yet! I'll update here when I get more info. I'll be building and flashing the boards by hand, since the volume will be likely very low, and to ensure working products for folks.

Anybody super lathered up about Alps or in-switch leds? Because I am very tempted to remove those two features in favor of a much cleaner board and plate.

Interested. Don’t care about alps or in switch leds. Thanks for running with this.

[monkeyplusplus]

This is nice. How feasible would it to have an another additional layout option for the left handed numpad use case where the 2u enter and plus is on the far left instead of in the middle between the numerics and the main cluster (never used a reversed numpad like that before but it somehow seems pretty logical, less hand movement switching between the main cluster and numpad cluster (on the other hand it might be easier to index your hand position with the big 2u enter in between numpad and main cluster, so I dunno, pros and cons I suppose)

Interesting thought! I'll see if I can find some precendent for that sort of thing.

[meniscus-]

Excited to see how this turns out 

[U47]

Anybody super lathered up about Alps or in-switch leds? Because I am very tempted to remove those two features in favor of a much cleaner board and plate.

I’m only interested in Alps, fwiw.

[d.caminero]

Super interested in MX, but more for an ALPS pcb and plate for this beauty. If doing both with the same pcb is hard, I'd gladly pay for an only alps version.

[Traveler]

Anybody super lathered up about Alps or in-switch leds? Because I am very tempted to remove those two features in favor of a much cleaner board and plate.

I don't need either. Alps is nice but I don't have a good Alps keysets and I've yet to see any that I'm 100% interested in.

[monkeyplusplus]

Yeah, that's kind of the thing. An alps compatible pcb would be cool, but would need its own plate, and the number of cap sets that would work with this is pretty low. Maybe only lightcycle and granite?

[U47]

Yeah, that's kind of the thing. An alps compatible pcb would be cool, but would need its own plate, and the number of cap sets that would work with this is pretty low. Maybe only lightcycle and granite?

For those of us who are deep into Alps, we've likely acquired our own sets over time (Alpine Winter, scavenging). For those who would need sets, blanks are available from several places (Matias, mechanicalkeyboards.com, Signature Plastics, etc.)

Probably won't have critical mass for this, but I can hope.

[wtzll]

Any updates on this? My exent is still in the box as im waiting for this :/

[monkeyplusplus]

Hey everyone! Sounds like there's some Alps love for this after all, so I'll try to make that happen. The plates are going to be a little more spendy for both MX and Alps people, since the volume will be even lower. I'm holding off on this project for the moment while I prep for the Seattle Meetup this weekend: https://ckeys.org/events/smkmeetup/

If you're in the area, you should grab a ticket and come! It's gonna be huge. Currently sitting at well over 300 tickets sold!

[wtzll]

Any updates on this?

[wtzll]

Dude please don't let this die...

[monkeyplusplus]

Heh, no, just focusing on other stuff right now. I still have the pcb and plate design, I just need to place an order.

[meirish]

So excited for this! Doubt there's much I can do to help, but happy to cheer you on in the meantime  - thanks for doing this!

[Gdubb90]

I'm late to the party but I'm all on board for this


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[razor_blade]

I hope this is still in the works. I'd love an ortho kit!