[IC] The DBOM - Split Three Part Full-Size/75% Hybrid

[Schuerie]

異体同心 (itaidoushin)



Different Bodies, One Mind

Gallery:
https://imgur.com/a/XI9or52

Hello everyone! This is my first post on Geekhack, but I've been a member of the keyboard community for almost 4 years now.

The DBOM is my dream board. I've played with the thought of making it in some way or form for years now and finally, here it is.

The Design

Three PCBs, south facing per-key RGB backlight, 5° typing angle, sandwich mount, QMK firmware and a quite unique layout.

The main reasons for making this layout the way it is are entirely practical, in terms of use but also design. It's closest to a 75% with a numpad, but of course not quite the conventional take.

Most noticeably, the Home/End column, which would usually be on the right on a 65/75%, sits on the left here, which offers a couple benefits. Whenever using a mouse, most people will rest their left hand on the keyboard. Moving keys towards the left therefore effectively minimizes hand travel distance. And even if you don't find yourself using these keys a lot, they're of course fully configurable to fit your needs.

The second benefit of this is symmetry. The left and right center pieces are almost identical in width, with the exception of the needed adjustments of a staggered layout. This also helped the design process, as it allowed for no more than a single LED driver per PCB (IS31FL3737, the largest LED driver currently supported by QMK).

There is a single trade off made for this. The arrow keys are not arranged in a flipped-T position, but are all sitting next to each other, in a VIM-style configuration of sorts. One way to get around this is to remap the right shift as the up arrow.

Three space bars, a 2.75u, a 1.25u and a 2u (left to right). The intended use would be to have the 1.25u set as a function key, which would again help greatly when operating the keyboard with only the left hand.

The final deviation from the standard layout is the split HHKB-style backspace, which I don't think needs much of an explanation.

For the time being, this will be the only layout supported.

Of course the pieces are freely arrangeable, regular numpad on the right, southpaw style or even in the middle, all possible. Every PCB will use a dedicated unified daughterboard.

Going Forward

This is an IC in the early stages. The first revision of this design is finished, but I have not gone into prototyping yet. For now I'm looking to buy a couple PCBs to drive down the individual price and sell off any leftovers, given they do work as intended of course. This might change depending on how many people express their interest here. I can not yet give a conclusive take on how the manufacturing of the case will be handled. Being a multi part design, I expect it to not be cheap at all. This is again all coming down to the community's interest.

Also, I want this board to be entirely EU made if it is in any way feasible, preferably in Austria where I'm from, but I will of course be trying to sell to anyone willing to buy anywhere.
If this IC turns out great, I will get in contact with local manufacturers.

Please fill out the IC form!
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1H8kT8InmxzsmNoMvWlw-z_NWIMpbAVglVbyp6zvUph0/

And on a final note: Everything you see here was made by me using open source software, namely KiCAD, FreeCAD and Blender, all on Linux

Thank you for your attention and feedback, I highly appreciate it.

[-Jerry-]

I absolutely adore how the array of the ports on the back gives them each a sleepy looking face

Edit: I should probably give some actual, reasoned feelings: I think it's a really nice design, very clean, very classy looking, and very adaptable - very interesting!

[The.Ryan.Gamer]

Of course the pieces are freely arrangable, regular numpad on the right, southpaw style or even in the middle, all possible. Every PCB will use a dedicated unified daughterboard.

Sold! I hope to see GB pretty soon. 

Filled out IC Form, and i just wish that there would be a blocker (between the control key and arrow key) and little more space between the number and F keys. Other than that, this is perfect!

[The.Ryan.Gamer]

 

[EMC Labs]

Could we get more information?

1. Case material, plate materials
2. Weight?
3. Typing angle
4. Colour options?
5. USB connection

Thanks in advance.

[The.Ryan.Gamer]

Could we get more information?

1. Case material, plate materials
2. Weight?
3. Typing angle
4. Colour options?
5. USB connection

Thanks in advance.

+1

[Schuerie]

I absolutely adore how the array of the ports on the back gives them each a sleepy looking face

Edit: I should probably give some actual, reasoned feelings: I think it's a really nice design, very clean, very classy looking, and very adaptable - very interesting!

Thank you very much! The sleepy faces were definitely more of a byproduct but I've also grown quite fond of them

Of course the pieces are freely arrangable, regular numpad on the right, southpaw style or even in the middle, all possible. Every PCB will use a dedicated unified daughterboard.

Sold! I hope to see GB pretty soon. 

Filled out IC Form, and i just wish that there would be a blocker (between the control key and arrow key) and little more space between the number and F keys. Other than that, this is perfect!

I'm glad you like it! About your blocker/spacing request, even though it's honestly very unlikely that will change, I'm curious as to where you'd recommend putting the blocker exactly. That area specifically is quite crowded, considering there are pretty much only 1u and 1.25u keys there. Please let me know!

Could we get more information?

1. Case material, plate materials
2. Weight?
3. Typing angle
4. Colour options?
5. USB connection

Thanks in advance.

+1

Hey there! Good questions, I'll tell you what I can so far;

1. I've put up a question in my IC form, I'd like to do various aluminum colors and hopefully a polycarbonate version. For plates I'm thinking brass or polycarbonate, I don't really know if many people would prefer any other options like aluminum or steel but I suspect most would pick brass and polycarbonate anyway, and keeping that a bit more uniform will hopefully keep the pricing down a little.

2. Not quite sure, are you asking the weight of the case or if there's gonna be any extra brass/steel weights in there. For the former, that's going to be a question of material I think, I don't really have a way to find out before actually manufacturing it. For the latter, I'm currently not really thinking of adding extra weights as I'm decently certain it would not really be worth the extra price, considering I'd have to have 3 of them, or at least two. Maybe I'll add them after getting quotes for the case and deem it viable, but the multi part design will probably be quite expensive to manufacture already as is and I'd like to keep it at least somewhat affordable.

3. Typing angle is 5°

4. For color options, again please refer to the IC form, you can suggest colors there too!

5. USB connection will be a Type C provided through ai03 unified daughterboards. Plural because every piece will get one. There are also Type Micro B USB ports, but they are solely for connecting the pieces to each other, they are carrying an I2C bus and not a USB.

[fabijolo]

Not for me personally, but I definitely like what you are going for, GJ and GL moving forward

[niakulah]

This is genius! The layout I never knew I wanted.

[fish_oh]

Totally in for this if it's wireless like the Uni660.
I can't imagine the amount of wires coming off this if it's wired..

[-Jerry-]

I can't imagine the amount of wires coming off this if it's wired..

On the other hand, having to manage keeping three different batteries charged if it's wireless..