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[IC] PAL by Banana Stand Works

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dimsum:
Hi yall!
Very excited to show you something I have been working on for over a year now:







PAL
Your friendly neighborhood 60% ft. an exploded arrow key cluster


IC Form
Discord <<< This is where the good updates are; if you feel like following this project - come and hang out.
Instagram



{Sry, long intro}
MoreI have spent the entirety of the year 2021 using various renditions of this layout as my daily drivers - starting with a handwired PLA print and moving onto a nicer SLA-printed case with a functioning PCB proto.

This has been one of the personal projects that I completely fell in love with, as it decisively solved the 60% arrow key contention for me. Now I am hoping that a few more people out there will find it helpful too.

From now on, the goal is to release a robust entry-level package and begin the popularization of the PAL layout.

A lot of time has been spent in pursuit of simplifying and optimizing the assembly, which is why Geon’s tadpole mount came in extra clutch. Released right around the time I was experimenting with mounting styles for my own boards, it ticks the most important boxes for me: closely resembles a top-mount in its feel, while eliminating screws and hence minimizing complexity of the assembly.

I’ve been very fortunate to make some great new friends in this hobby and their feedback and encouragement has been extremely helpful on my journey here. And hence I am really happy to say that the good folks at Protozoa Studio have become an invaluable acquaintance, offering their help to run & QC this project.

Together we aim to put out a clean, relatively simple package at a very reasonable price while utilizing Protozoa’s awesome manufacturing network to ensure the best quality.


Specs

This is where we sit currently:

-6063 alu
-tadpole mount
-6° typing angle
-front face height ≈17.5mm (w/o feet), 18.8mm (with feet)
-effective keyboard height (EKH) ≈ 21.5mm
-FR4 Plate
-about 1kg fully built

-solderable pcb by Yiancar
-hotswap pcb layout TBA

-no weights
-no daughterboard
-no foam (might cave in on this one due to apparent demand)

-colors TBA (tentatively - silver, black, volcanic green)

-target price - under US$300 (how much under is TBD)
-vendor, manu, qc - Protozoa Studio

-regional vendors TBA
-timeline TBA



Layouts





Renders








Special Thanks

-Ecto & Protozoa team for making this happen
-Geon for the tadpole mount (bless)
-Ramon Imbao (RMI-KB) for the help with the early proto PCBs
-my homie YZ (Hex Keyboards) for all the positive encouragement
-MechMerlin for all of the youtube tutorials on qmk/via  (absolute mvp)
-Simon for treating Ron the way he deserves to be treated.
-rest of the community for a good ride <3



Signature code in case you would like to support the project:

--- Code: ---[url=https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=116569.0][img]https://i.imgur.com/TQNNgvz.jpeg[/img][/url]
--- End code ---

dimsum:
UPD (May 18, 2022):

Prototype #1 arrived a couple weeks ago:






A local builder fatboychard did a build stream, sound test clip here

So far the board is really fun to type on, quite happy with the height & angle.
Going to implement some design improvements and order a prototype #2 shortly.

More updates will be posted on Discord, come hang out.

Biscuit:
GLWIC. There were quite a bit of people who are interested in seeing exploded arrows on a 60, but didn't agree with removing the right shift.
So this is a great option for those people.

unwashed_heathen:
In love with this layout. 60% boards have never been for me, but PAL has me sold. Will be keeping an eye on this for sure! Although I would like to see some more interesting color options.

With this board coming from the Banana Stand I'm going to need to see a banana colored PAL :D.

stotle.caps:
GLWIC, pretty interesting layout, rlly like the simple design and the price i rlly like it

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