The Arrow40 Hello, I'm Seb, a first time keyboard designer and two year enthusiast!
I wanted to make a post here about a project me and some fellas are working on. It's primarily a hobby project based on a long time desire to build and have a 40% keyboard.
I started sketching out what kind of layout I'd love to have in a 40% and ended up with what resembles a tenkeyless layout, only without the f-row and the number row.
It might sound like a contradicting layout, having it very compact but still expanding it to the right side, but I ended up really liking the look of it.
(Featuring GMK Pulse by MiTo, used with permission!)I got a friend (w3bb0
https://geekhack.org/index.php?action=profile;u=77006 ) designing the PCB
and another friend planning to do the milling and production of the case.
We started out with an integrated plate design, but ended up doing a top mount design on it, for the purpose of helping the milling process as well as allowing for more layout options. After some feedback from some 40% guys we're gonna do an alternative top supporting a non-blocked layout and the PCB will offer the possibility of a split spacebar layout!
Here's a look at the drawings and plans for this, not very professional but I just wanted to try and explain and make the different parts clear:
As you can see there are three parts that needs to be screwed together.
- Flat top M2 screws for the plate onto the top part.
- M4 screws (counterbore) for the bottom part to the top part.
- Flat top M3 screws for the legs onto the bottom part. They will fit in the milled holes in the bottom part, being exposed there, and with possibilities for logos to be carved into them, making it nice
and premium.
Hoping to cut the holes in the plate a little bit bigger than the M2 screws so that the plate will be flush with the top part, and the bottom part can line up perfectly and seal everything neatly without having to make any cuts in the bottom parts for any screws sticking out.
The legs will have some sort of silicone/rubber material with an adhesive layer which can be attached to the bottom side of the leg, covering the holes for the screws (if they go through all the way that is).
As of right now I'm pretty much done with the model and I'm looking over things and I need to double check the measurements against the PCB model, we're soon starting to work on the prototype. Since this is my first ever case design and modeling something that's gonna be made to a physical model I'm quite nervous about having made any rookie mistakes when it comes to this kind of stuff.
I plan on doing more renders very soon, with different keycap sets on. Will also be posting pics and renders of the PCB eventually!
I'm also gladly accepting any tips/feedback or ideas, since this is my first design!