Hello!
While I am still waiting for prototypes of my
isometria75, I got an offer for a bunch of really cheap G80-1800s (datecodes late 90s to early 2000s) and decided to create a new PCB for them. The result is the E80-1800. In German we would call it "Eierlegende Wollmilchsau" (roughly translated as a pig which can be sheared for whool, lays eggs and gives milk - it can do everything).
What is "everything" you ask?
- ISO Layout (1-1-1-6-1-1-1-1 u or 1.5-1.5-7-1.5-1.5 u bottom row)
- ANSI Layout (1-1-1-6-1-1-1-1 u or 1.5-1.5-7-1.5-1.5 u bottom row)
- stepped or regular caps
- single-color 3mm backlight
- onboard USB-C with ESD protection and fuse
- i²c Header to connect a OLED to fill the ugly hole in cardreader-equipped models
- possibility to add a battery management board in the future using a JST SH 5pin connector
- possibility to add a Bluetooth SPI module once QMK supports Bluetooth on ARM
- STM32F072 with loads of flash and RAM for... uhh... No clue. Future proofing? Truth is, I like to use those chips
- obvioulsy QMK
- open source with the very free BSDv2 license
- should be compatible with Maartens plate - no guarantees though! Checked with CAD files only, not with a real plate
- jlc compatible gerber/BOM/CPL in the repo
- white silkscreen to hide the green pcb between keys (jlc only assembles green boards, and green PCBs in a plateless build are ugly)
I reduced the amount of offered layouts to what G80-1800 were sold with on purpose, in order to avoid getting too many holes and therefore loose switches (remember, no plate in a G80 unless you add one of Maartens plates!).
You have to make some modifications to the case though:
- Grab a file and make the USB cable cutout larger to accomodate the USB-C plug
- Cut off one small post in the lower left side of the board which seems to be present on a few G80s but not on all. I wondered why Maarten left a hole in the PCB in a place where my case has no need for one. Guess I know why, by now xD
Sadly I made a measurement mistake and ended up making the two grooves to accomodate case posts in the bottom of the board about 1mm too small. Since none of my boards still has those posts intact (and some don't seem to ever have had them), I don't care, but I suppose someone else might. Fix will follow soon.
The first 10pc batch has showed up and I'm typing this post on my first proto - everything but OLED support is tested and confirmed working. Still waiting for my OLEDs to arrive.
Also, huge thanks to Maarten - using his
GH80-1800 as a source for various measurements saved me a lot of time (and probably a binned prototyping run, I'm horrible at measuring stuff lol).
I'll just drop a bunch of pics of my build in here. Feel free to ask any questions!
Keyboard repo:
https://github.com/ebastler/E80-1800Temporary QMK repo (will initiate a pull request once everything is working including the OLEDs):
https://github.com/ebastler/qmk_firmware/tree/isometria_75/keyboards/ebastler