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[opensource] Toad | 70% keyboard

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TalkingTree:
Update: A new version, made from the ground up, has been completed. The thread about it is here.
Original post:


60% is my favourite form factor but sometimes a function row is handy and I often do key combinations that include F keys.
I don't like 75% keyboards because they lack the gap between function and numbers row and because all the keys are too close to each other.
Since 70% keyboard are so rare, let alone with a gap, I made one from scratch. This includes PCB, plate and case.
I'm very proud to show the results of this project because I used a lot of community resources in the process that it really feels like it's something made together.


Part 1: PCB
The PCB was the most challenging part because everything I came across with at university had nothing to do with electric current, capacitors and resistors, therefore my knowledge of electronics was very limited and I truly needed some help there.
That help came from the gentlemen of The Living PCB Design Thread bpiphany, pomk and vvp whose inexhaustible patience and accurate explanations actually made this possible. Should you guys ever read this, thank you from the bottom of my heart.



It's basically a 60% board with Poker mounting holes plus the function row along with two extra mounting holes.
For the sake of it, it features an universal layout, two LED indicators in a dedicated spot which are also traced to the Esc and Caps Lock switches for windowed caps.
The three large holes in the function-numbers gap were originally placed there to mount the PCB in a modified Filco TKL case but, since I had some measurements off, I decided not to mangle the case and to design one from scratch.

I know this PCB has a lot of design flaws, such as the USB connector on the top side which hits the plate, but I guess you live and learn.
Months ago I wouldn't ever pictured myself designing a PCB, so this project actually made me a novice from the wannabe I was. At the end of the day this PCB works and I'm happy with that.



Stabilizers, along with more expensive parts not used in this project, were provided for free by my buddy LeandreN.

I made a few revisions of this PCB, this is the very first one and it runs the QMK firmware. They were all produced by EasyEDA.


Part 2: Plate
I designed the plate with swill's superb tool which spared me the sorry task of measuring everything, making unavoidable errors and wasting a lot of money. You have my infinite gratitude.

The plate has 3 mm rounded edges and features MX+ALPS (_t:2) and Cherry stabilizers cutouts. I then added mouting holes with the custom polygons feature. The larger ones on the top right are for LEDs.

I had a batch of five plates cut at HEK's out of 1.5mm thick brushed 304 stainless steel and then I painted them matte black with a spray can.




Part 3: Case
Designing a case was a tough task because I didn't have my mind clear about a model since the beginning. I knew I wanted something simple, along the lines of a Filco Majestouch case but all the different options I went through didn't seem to satisfy me.

The initial idea was to cut and glue a Filco TKL case but eventually I decided against mutilating it.
Then I tried to make a case out of wood, but everything I came up with was so ugly that made me wanna baptize my project toad and no, I'm not showing.

I kept the name and finally I decided to have it printed.
I designed it with Tinkercad and, again, swill's builder helped me a lot in this process. I converted the case type to sandwich and imported the SVGs, so I only had to design some minor things like the case feet, PCB standoffs and USB cutout.
A flat case was the cheapest to print but I nonetheless wanted some angle, so I also printed some cone shaped feet which I screwed at the bottom half with salvaged screws from an old PC case, I think. I also added some rubber strips to prevent (too much) slippery.
Here's a comparison between printed feet and the aluminum one that I tried to copy.




I don't own a 3D printer so I submitted my order through 3D Hubs which was then made by 3DM Print with a Gimax3D printer in PLA at the resolution of 200 µm.


Part 4: Layout, switches and Keycaps
For the layout, I use a ANSI enter with split Left Shift and Backspace and a 7u bottom row. The characters encoding is the standard italian.
This KLE will better explain how my layout is organized.




Switches are Cherry MX Silent Blacks bought at sennin32's 'group buy

Most keycaps are OG Cherry italian PBT dyesub from a G81-3000/SAI.
Backspace is from wodan's GMK HADapter & HADditionals kit.
ANSI Enter is a PBT dyesub and it's from Shadovved's EnjoyPBT Dyesub/Blank Keysets.
R1 Delete key is from the 1800 kit of xiaodian317's GMK Classic Retro & GMK GEEKHACK Pack.
R1 §ù was dyesubbed by imsto. It's slightly lighter in colour than the other keys but I can live with that.


All the pictures shown in this post and a few others are available at this imgur link.

Thanks for reading.

Update 1: Source
I decided to make the project opensource. You can access the repository on EasyEDA here.
For the firmware please check the XMMX project as they share the same code.

Plate files are here.  toad_universal.zip (28.16 kB - downloaded 533 times.)

Tally810:
Very cool project dude.  The case came out nice imo.

Sent from my SM-G928V using Tapatalk

xondat:
Lovely. Needs an aluminum case though :))

_haru:
This is amazing! Layout is pretty cool too :)

Leslieann:
Awesome work!

A lower layer height, 0.1mm as opposed to the 0.2mm you used on the feet would have come out far far better, though, they would have cost a bit more as it would have doubled the print time. Lower layers are more important on angled and curved surfaces as it hides the stair stepping effect a printer leaves when doing them. If you want to fix them (or clean up the case), you can lightly sand the plastic, then spray with sandable primer, sand, prime, repeat. After just a couple coats it should be a nice smooth case that looks like something you would buy off a store shelf. Thicker scratches you can use Bondo scratch filler.

0.2mm, while many consider it okay, or even decent, quite a few companies, including mine, consider this to be an extremely rough print. For something we intend to show off we never go thicker than 0.125 and if we have the time, we will go down to 0.1, 0.08, 0.05 or even less. While we have done 0.03 and 0.01 and it looked fantastic, the time required was simply unrealistic. For example a print that took 1 hour at 0.2 will take 200 hours at 0.01, when you consider we often do 36 hour prints at 0.125, a that same print would require 4500 hours, or about 6 months of non stop printing. Most home 3d printers will wear out before it reaches that point.

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