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Boring Box TKL (triple-mounting system)

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Delirious:



Greetings,

I would like to share a project that I started back in December 2019.

Backstory:
Around November of last year I wanted to build a TKL for Omron B3G-S; so I decided to go for the Montage by Lin,... but I overslept and missed the cutoff by a solid 5 hours. Not only that, all the boards I've seen so far have a lot of features that I like, but they always miss the mark here and there to be my definitive board. That is acceptable because those are not my designs, they are someone else's works that I happen to appreciate. Then come the idea of the Boring Box, initially started out as a board that I would want to use, then it slowly involved into a collection of ideas for friends and family.

This post will mostly serve as a central reference hub for the participants of the gb, the developement process lasted up to 10 months and some of them forget what it means by triple-mounting system.


Requirements:
- It is a tool first and foremost, functions over forms.
- Something that satisfies me, my friends and family.
- Most compatible with aftermarket PCBs (Leaf, Hineys, Leeku, TX, winkeyless....)


Features:
- WEDGE!!! (requested by E3E)
- Top mount (requested by MikeEverett)
- Bottom mount similar to the Kmac (requested by myoth and chimp)
- O-ring mount (started as gasket/rubber mount requested by gainsborough)
- Simple and big ****ing weight (requested by E3E and Mike)
- Self-contained, no extra parts lying around in a box somewhere
- 7 degree tilt
Note that I am by no mean a master designer, I am a student of the game myself. This project is driven by the sheer love of mechanical keyboards and designings in general. None of these are my original ideas, through personal experience I think these are good design choices and my job is to mesh them all together. Boring Box is the end result.


Special thanks
- senter and Foxlab as the manufacturer and have been very patient with the slow process
- Evy from www.anykeys.eu as the designer for Omron-tkl pcb and Eon87 pcb
- Keebs from Homerow Co. as design/machining advisor
- the alps fanatics: E3E, gains, chimp, myoth, ball00n, tias, firebort, damonskv, siaw, mcmaxmcmc, hineybush, tinlong, alex
- the local gang for first hand testings and feedbacks: Shadohhh, Mike, Koobaczech, Martakia, Robotical, Jenhae

Delirious:
There are 3 prototypes through 2 major revisions.

First revision:
- Silver WK with vint black in 72g (Eon87 pcb)
- I chopped off the usb-c on the Eon87 pcb and used fixed cable instead because I thought that cable was badass looking.
- Black WKL with tactile omrons (OmronTKL pcb)

Second revision:
- Changed from o-ring mount to grommet mount. O-rings only soften the downstrokes, not the upstrokes.
- better tolerances and minor changes here and there
- Silver WKL with skcl greens. (Leaf pcb)

Please excuse all the dings and dirt, I run my boards like household tools.

More

Part list:
-Top
-Mid
-Bottom
-Weight
-Plate
-PCB
-8x Risers




Top mount Self explainatory, 7 mounting screws, 4 on top and 3 on the bottom







Grommet mount Again, 7 mounting grommets




The ''squish'' gap for grommet was 2mm, I have reduced it down to 1mm to make sure the grommets are not depressed too much and lose the softness.




Bottom mount This is where thing gets interesting. Grommet mount and bottom mount cannot go together because the bottom mount will hard cap the grommets, thus negates the bounce benefit. I ended up using a MID piece, combining with RISER to prop up the plate for bottom mount. When not utilizing bottom mount, you can store the RISERs inside the weight. Note there are only 7 mounting points but 8 RISERS, the extra is to make sure if you ever lose one you still have an extra.




More


At any given point you can start with Grommet Mount, then add screws to limit the squishiness.

Delirious:
Some other notes:
- Wedge board at 8 plus pounds is very awkward to pick up, an absolute tank and everyone loves it so far.
- Because of the MID, the thing has huge bezel all around
- Cons: combination between Aftermarket PCB compatibility and Grommet mount, the USB port is a bit bigger than usual.

Again, thanks to all the boys, keep me going. The black one with tactile omrons is on loan so no fancy pictures.

Just more pictures, some show the differences between v1 and v2.

More






pre-pro/failed ideas
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Koobaczech:
Best keyboard 2020/2021

Also Pandora and Box 10u chad spacebar

homerowco:
Best keyboard 2020/2021

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