I’d love to share a custom Alps board I just made…only I didn’t make it. I merely harvested the switches and had the good sense to let a maestro do the rest. I did choose the color way, but that’s about as significant as a fifth grader finally coloring within the lines for the first time.
As some of you may have done, I noticed some postings of an artisan on instagram, and asked to learn about his work. When the chance came to commission something from him, I took it.
The PCB is remarkably a DIY effort in rich terra cotta tones with reflective copper traces etched by toner-transfer paper ironed on with individual holes meticulously drilled. The Teensy is soldered directly to the PCB, and I kept the bottom convertible style to admire the workmanship. The wood frame is made from white oak and allows the switch actuation to resonate without reverberation. It’s also decidedly craftsman, hand-made, and befitting of the 30-year-old switches and caps.
The key caps are from an Apple M0116 and dyed with Dylon multipurpose dye in kingfisher blue, tangerine orange, and emerald green. I was torn between accenting the HHKB arrow cluster or my home row IJKL arrows, but the homing dots being on the old school D and K keys swayed me to focus on highlighting the home row.
Comparing this custom 60% with an HHKB is somewhat incongruent as they have such different construction, but since I want to use both boards in a rotation, it’s an interesting juxtaposition. The salmon Alps switches mounted on a metal plate are a good deal more percussive than topre switches. But the feeling of plastic on steel is a lot more crisp and offers greater auditory feedback than the topre’s plastic-on-plastic pairing. When more subtle feedback is targeted, there’s no beating an HHKB with Hypersphere’s silencing rings. They’re the clear choice when working on the phone, but when you want a rapturous racket, salmon or orange Alps get it done.
The robustness of the USB connection on this custom is great. While I’ve read the HHKB USB port may be rated for only 500 connections (no idea if that’s accurate), this connection is stress relieved by being fastened to a connector secured to the frame and cable tethered to the teensy. It will still be strong to handle my fumbling fingers if/when I get Parkinson’s and can’t manage a steady mount…doctors say all of us dudes are headed for Parkinson’s or prostrate issues if we live long enough, so might as well enjoy great keyboards along the way.
The Teensy is TMK formatted, and I’m able to preserve all my Karabiner shortcuts and more. We have momentary Fn keys bound to keys on each side of the spacebar ( `~ and \| ) and the Esc key so any chording is flexible and convenient. Also mouse keys, media keys, Apple-specific keys, and navigational keys (home, end, page up/down, scrolling) are all incorporated.
This craftsman lives in Sweden and his handle on GH is Yoe. Selfish bugger that I am, I’d prefer keeping him a secret (as if I had such magical powers) and hoard his skills, but he deserves the recognition. And ironically, it’s a strikingly Swedish characteristic to humbly shun such accolades. I’m in line to have him make a custom “Happy Alps” board (unfortunately it requires sacrificing both an M0116 and an AEK to approximate an HHKB layout), but he’s ready to start taking on a few more projects.
