Author Topic: DrunkPlanck - A 40% Double-Staggered Full RGB Keyboard  (Read 36942 times)

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Offline regack

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DrunkPlanck - A 40% Double-Staggered Full RGB Keyboard
« on: Tue, 23 February 2016, 08:19:33 »
Well,  I was going to wait until I was completely done, but after getting it at this point, I was so excited I had to share.  The PCB fits in the Planck formed bottom, and in theory it should fit into the Planck milled bottom.   Getting one of those to test/validate with is on my list, but it was out of my r&d budget.  At this point I don't have enough Cherry MX RGB switches to finish this particular project, but I will hopefully have some Zealios on the way in a few weeks.



For the longest time I was pretty adamant about not wanting/needing a 40% keyboard.  It felt like there were too many compromises and limited case options to show off the small size.  The plate-based cases are brilliantly simple and really practical, but the extra length and width for the standoffs bothered me - even though I more or less have that kind of design on my 59% keyboard.  Then along came jackhumbert and the Planck, complete with milled cases and cheaper formed bottoms - just what I needed.



I had a picture of the bare board, but it's rather plain.  Skipping ahead, my not-particularly-elegant solution for controlling the RGB Lite-On LTST-C19HE1WT LEDs was born out of practicality more than anything.  The keyboard is running a variant of QMK Firmware which is, of course, a variant of Hasu's TMK firmware.  QMK has really good support for WS2812 LEDs for the underglow that people have been adding to their Plancks.  Well, WS2812s are just a WS2811 integrated into an LED, so I covered the entire back of the board in WS2811s to control my LEDs. 



All I can say is that it took a lot of patience to solder all of that mess.  My only problem was that I used an ATMEGA32U2 so I could fit everything better.  QMK didn't really support anything other than the ATMEGA32U4, so I had to branch off and make more changes to work with the U2.  Anyway, it works, the lighting effects are fun.  I'll have to go back in and put in some kind of max brightness limit to keep it from going over the 500mw USB spec.  I saw it spike up to ~800mw at one point, but it works fine if I keep the brightness down.  In these photos it's hovering around 120-200mw and it looks great in person.

I built it for myself, so this is pretty much it for layout options.  You get something close-to-normal, or something really bizarre-o with impossible-to-find 0.75 width keycaps.  I built the crazy version, so...


Next up... figuring out what keycaps to wear.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2016.05.05 - It fits nicely into the planck milled bottom. 




------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2016.07.18 Edit: I haven't had a chance to clean this up and add some more layouts for the next revision, but I've attached the files (Kicad) for Revision 6.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2016.09.05 Edit: I have a new revision that added some other layouts.  I'll post it up soon (rev 7), but for an idea I put things up on the KLE:

http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/#/gists/cc590136479f132aded5b4cfb4ef0066

This what I was using as a guide, but it's not the best pic:
147489-0
« Last Edit: Mon, 05 September 2016, 20:59:16 by regack »

Offline jdcarpe

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Re: DrunkPlanck - A 40% Double-Staggered Full RGB Keyboard
« Reply #1 on: Tue, 23 February 2016, 08:22:52 »
Haha, very nice Regack! I love all the ICs on the bottom for the RGBs. :D

40% are tiny, and great!!
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Offline CPTBadAss

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Re: DrunkPlanck - A 40% Double-Staggered Full RGB Keyboard
« Reply #2 on: Tue, 23 February 2016, 08:27:52 »
Just when I thought 40% boards couldn't be any cuter.  :eek:

Offline regack

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Re: DrunkPlanck - A 40% Double-Staggered Full RGB Keyboard
« Reply #3 on: Tue, 23 February 2016, 12:09:05 »
Haha, very nice Regack! I love all the ICs on the bottom for the RGBs. :D

40% are tiny, and great!!

Thanks, and thank you for all of the inspiration.   I'm still trying to decide on caps.  I think I'll start with Granite, since I have that sitting around, but I feel like something else really belongs on there.  Maybe it doesn't exist yet :D

Offline Sifo

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Re: DrunkPlanck - A 40% Double-Staggered Full RGB Keyboard
« Reply #4 on: Tue, 23 February 2016, 12:11:28 »
regack with another dope keyboard...
I love Elzy

Offline njbair

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Re: DrunkPlanck - A 40% Double-Staggered Full RGB Keyboard
« Reply #5 on: Tue, 23 February 2016, 13:21:34 »
Very nice. That RGB backlighting makes for some serious circuitry. Well done.

I've got a Planck that I've never been able to get used to, and I'm honestly not sure if it's the lack of stagger or the small size. But whenever my Smallfry JD40 gets here I suppose I'll have the answer to that question.

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Offline exitfire401

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Re: DrunkPlanck - A 40% Double-Staggered Full RGB Keyboard
« Reply #6 on: Tue, 23 February 2016, 13:35:56 »
If you confirm they fit in the milled bottom, I'm 100% down for one.
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Offline TheJonas

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Re: DrunkPlanck - A 40% Double-Staggered Full RGB Keyboard
« Reply #7 on: Wed, 24 February 2016, 01:35:18 »
This 40% looks quite promising. Jack's material is great quality, gonna look great with that milled bottom (hope it fits!)

Offline dougp

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Re: DrunkPlanck - A 40% Double-Staggered Full RGB Keyboard
« Reply #8 on: Wed, 24 February 2016, 13:11:55 »
If you can get me a PCB to test & build, I can see if it fits in my Planck milled bottom.  I'm finishing up my build tonight but I would promptly order Zealio's if I could get this PCB.

Offline MOZ

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Re: DrunkPlanck - A 40% Double-Staggered Full RGB Keyboard
« Reply #9 on: Wed, 24 February 2016, 14:52:23 »
When I saw those WS2811s, I was like why the flying **** do you have spiders all over your PCB.

Offline regack

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Re: DrunkPlanck - A 40% Double-Staggered Full RGB Keyboard
« Reply #10 on: Thu, 25 February 2016, 05:16:30 »
If you can get me a PCB to test & build, I can see if it fits in my Planck milled bottom.  I'm finishing up my build tonight but I would promptly order Zealio's if I could get this PCB.

I have 2 more PCBs, but I don't have enough parts to build them out.  I haven't quite figured out what to do with them.  I did make a revision to the board already, because I failed to break out the extra pins on the U2 (all 3 of them).  Luckily you only need 2 pins to add bluetooth...

Offline dougp

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Re: DrunkPlanck - A 40% Double-Staggered Full RGB Keyboard
« Reply #11 on: Thu, 25 February 2016, 06:12:19 »
If you can get me a PCB to test & build, I can see if it fits in my Planck milled bottom.  I'm finishing up my build tonight but I would promptly order Zealio's if I could get this PCB.

I have 2 more PCBs, but I don't have enough parts to build them out.  I haven't quite figured out what to do with them.  I did make a revision to the board already, because I failed to break out the extra pins on the U2 (all 3 of them).  Luckily you only need 2 pins to add bluetooth...

You can send me the PCB and I'll just fitting and send it back to you if you want, feel free to send me a message for my details.

Offline FoC_Tow

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Re: DrunkPlanck - A 40% Double-Staggered Full RGB Keyboard
« Reply #12 on: Mon, 29 February 2016, 16:51:40 »
Awesome build repack!  :thumb:

Most impressive part to me is how much work and thought must have gone into this one,
must have been quite a project to do this.

Which thickness of acrylic did you cut the plate from btw, and are you using smd Gateron bottoms?


Offline regack

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Re: DrunkPlanck - A 40% Double-Staggered Full RGB Keyboard
« Reply #13 on: Mon, 29 February 2016, 17:32:14 »
Awesome build repack!  :thumb:

Most impressive part to me is how much work and thought must have gone into this one,
must have been quite a project to do this.

Which thickness of acrylic did you cut the plate from btw, and are you using smd Gateron bottoms?


I went with 3mm acrylic.  I used it successfully before, and with all of the supports in the Planck case it's really pretty solid.   I wish I was done with this board, but I don't quite have enough switches to finish it off right now.  For the moment I have 33 Cherry MX RGB switches harvested from a bad Corsair RGB board, but I'm 13 switches short.  I joined the buy for Zealios which should work out pretty well.  The 0606 RGB LEDs that I found are thin enough that they fit under just about anything, so long as the switch body is transparent/translucent the light goes through pretty well, but the 'frosty' Gaterons that I have aren't as bright as Cherry MX RGBs. 

Some of the rest of the Cherry MX RGBs went into this project (sped-up time-lapse gifv):


Offline vivalarevolución

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Re: DrunkPlanck - A 40% Double-Staggered Full RGB Keyboard
« Reply #14 on: Mon, 29 February 2016, 21:27:40 »
I'd call this more a drunk JD40, but that's just me.
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Offline regack

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Re: DrunkPlanck - A 40% Double-Staggered Full RGB Keyboard
« Reply #15 on: Tue, 01 March 2016, 09:13:03 »
I'd call this more a drunk JD40, but that's just me.

True, the only things it has in common with the Planck are the PCB fitting in the Planck case and it's running QMK firmware... since I started with the premise of double-staggered layout fitting in the Planck, I gave it the Drunk Planck name - otherwise the actual layout of 44/46 keys is much more like a weird combination of the JD40 and JD45.


Offline William_S_Jones

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Re: DrunkPlanck - A 40% Double-Staggered Full RGB Keyboard
« Reply #16 on: Sat, 05 March 2016, 20:17:52 »
 :eek: :eek: :eek:
Great job Regack, I'm loving this RGB 40% keyboard. Definitely looking forward to the finished product.
 :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

Offline KRKS

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Re: DrunkPlanck - A 40% Double-Staggered Full RGB Keyboard
« Reply #17 on: Sun, 06 March 2016, 04:49:11 »
I'd call this more a drunk JD40, but that's just me.

More like Drunk Quark(or whatever was the name of that non-ortholinear board by Ortholinear that was same size as Planck
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Offline RedGreenGeek

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Re: DrunkPlanck - A 40% Double-Staggered Full RGB Keyboard
« Reply #18 on: Fri, 01 April 2016, 07:36:13 »
Pretty cool design. Love how you have managed to squeeze everything in.

Offline regack

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Re: DrunkPlanck - A 40% Double-Staggered Full RGB Keyboard
« Reply #19 on: Mon, 04 April 2016, 21:39:03 »
I got my 78g Zealios today, so I put everything together finally.









Offline Spaceman1200

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Re: DrunkPlanck - A 40% Double-Staggered Full RGB Keyboard
« Reply #20 on: Tue, 05 April 2016, 07:12:55 »
very nice!

Offline scorpus1

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Re: DrunkPlanck - A 40% Double-Staggered Full RGB Keyboard
« Reply #21 on: Tue, 12 April 2016, 18:37:27 »
Good day/night regack, there has been alot of questions surrounding your 'drunk planck' build on massdrop. As people admire your build and dedication. I have discussed the build amongst others, but there is still some confusion as to wether or not the pcb that is shipped with the MD drop will support your kind of intelligent craftsmanship or not. As the pcb does not support rgb lighting natively. Do you mind dropping by the massdrop page to clarify some small details?

Admire the build, such beauty is seldom seen.
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Offline Fiery

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Re: DrunkPlanck - A 40% Double-Staggered Full RGB Keyboard
« Reply #22 on: Wed, 13 April 2016, 02:10:30 »
I'm not a big fan of backlighting, but I must say that it looks really really good. Awesome work, and 40% are so cute, will be nice to get my own planck  :thumb:
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Offline chuckdee

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Re: DrunkPlanck - A 40% Double-Staggered Full RGB Keyboard
« Reply #23 on: Wed, 13 April 2016, 09:32:51 »
Nicely done!  It was a bit hard for me to visualize with the initial pictures, but the final result is great!

Offline venyv

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Re: DrunkPlanck - A 40% Double-Staggered Full RGB Keyboard
« Reply #24 on: Wed, 13 April 2016, 09:34:17 »
Looks awesome, congrats on the fine work

Offline ProCarpet

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Re: DrunkPlanck - A 40% Double-Staggered Full RGB Keyboard
« Reply #25 on: Wed, 13 April 2016, 10:12:59 »
Looks realy great  :thumb:

Offline mynt

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Re: DrunkPlanck - A 40% Double-Staggered Full RGB Keyboard
« Reply #26 on: Wed, 13 April 2016, 23:48:17 »
Amazing project. All that SMD soldering looks like hell. Is there a reason you didn't just solder individual WS2812 onto the board?

Offline trenzafeeds

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Re: DrunkPlanck - A 40% Double-Staggered Full RGB Keyboard
« Reply #27 on: Mon, 18 April 2016, 22:32:44 »
Good day/night regack, there has been alot of questions surrounding your 'drunk planck' build on massdrop. As people admire your build and dedication. I have discussed the build amongst others, but there is still some confusion as to wether or not the pcb that is shipped with the MD drop will support your kind of intelligent craftsmanship or not. As the pcb does not support rgb lighting natively. Do you mind dropping by the massdrop page to clarify some small details?

Admire the build, such beauty is seldom seen.
-Ruben

You're probably talking about the planck/preonic drops on massdrop. regack ordered his own PCB, its not the same one as you get with the massdrop orders. As you said, the planck pcbs don't support rgb back lighting, but I'm not sure what you mean by "intelligent craftsmanship". If you mean this layout, the planck pcb will not support this layout.
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Offline menuhin

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Re: DrunkPlanck - A 40% Double-Staggered Full RGB Keyboard
« Reply #28 on: Wed, 11 May 2016, 12:13:08 »
 :thumb: :p :))
[I now understand this is quite different from a Planck keyboard, as clarified from the last post.]

However, the title of this post ('DrunkPlanck') is quite inspiring for people like me who are interested in the Planck Keyboard, and the final product is more similar to a Planck Keyboard than to a JD45, IMHO.

Will the PCB of the Planck keyboard support RGB in the future like this 'Drunk RGB'?
« Last Edit: Thu, 10 November 2016, 16:09:28 by menuhin »
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Offline mkerfoot

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Re: DrunkPlanck - A 40% Double-Staggered Full RGB Keyboard
« Reply #29 on: Sun, 11 June 2017, 18:38:04 »
Is this a PCB board I can purchase somewhere?

Offline HeroXLazer

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Re: DrunkPlanck - A 40% Double-Staggered Full RGB Keyboard
« Reply #30 on: Tue, 13 June 2017, 11:27:32 »
You can't purchase it from somewhere, but you can order the PCB and assemble all the components yourself, it's opensource, the link is at the bottom of regack's first post on this page.