Subsurface: a 40% ergo board meant to pair with an MS Surface Pro 3/4 tablet

[Tshort]

This keyboard was meant to pair with my Surface Pro 3 tablet, so the main area of the keyboard is 21 x 30 cm. This is my first hand-wired keyboard. It was fun to make!



This keyboard includes the following features:

* 1-TB SSD
* Trackball
* Recessed thumb keys
* USB hub
* Arcade buttons for thumb keys
* Magnetic attachment to the Surface Pro

Here are my two main layers:




These layers closely match what I use for my Atreus, so it was easy to get used to it. For usability, I really like the palm keys and the recessed thumb keys.

The following picture shows my hand wiring. I used Veroboard stripboard pieces to help hand wire the main key matrix. I'm bad at soldering, so this really helped hold components together. The veroboard worked well with the Matias Alps switches. The horizontal spacing was perfect, and the vertical spacing was close enough. I did have to drill some holes to fit the large switch posts through the veroboard. I used a Teensy++ to allow me enough I/O points to direct wire 15 of the keys.



For more information, see the following links for build information, case files, and QMK firmware.

• https://github.com/tshort/subsurface-keyboard
• https://github.com/tshort/qmk_firmware/tree/master/keyboards/subsurface/keymaps/default

I'll probably keep this keyboard as is until I see how it works with more practice. In the near term, I need to add feet or some sort of backing. For usability, my main gripe is that I got the mouse button too far from the trackball.

Comments and suggestions welcome!

[romevi]

Ha! That looks neato!

Wonder if Ivan ever finished his:
https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=66374.msg1553869#msg1553869

[Findecanor]

Oh, is that 1/8" spacing stripboard? I have heard it exists but it is a bit unusual.
The more common type has 1/10" hole spacing...

[Tshort]

It's standard 1/10" spacing. The pins on Alps/Matias switches are 2/10" center to center, so that's just right for spanning two holes (with some drilling to make the holes a bit bigger). With the vertical spacing I ended up with, it was off for the middle switch of three, but it worked fine with a little pin bending.

Veroboard would also work well for keyboards with a more traditional key layout. You could place the board with strips running along rows. For a rectangular layout, it'd be even easier.

[AMongoose]

Very nice!
How accessible are the arrow keys in that position? Do you use them often?

[Tshort]

I'm still up in the air on the arrows. I still use my layer with VIM-style movement keys quite a bit. On the arrow diamond, I tend to use the down, left, and right quite a bit because I can thumb those easily. "Up" is hard to thumb, though. It'll be interesting to see how I like it after a couple more months.

[AMongoose]

Yeah, I think it's important to be able to use the arrows with just one hand and with at least 3 fingers if you are going to use them a lot.
I never used them positioned like that but i dislike arrows in diamonds because of that. Having them centered seems good for left and right tho.

[Tshort]

For the last couple of days, I've tried to pay attention to how I use the diamond arrow keys in the middle of the board. I think it'll work fine. I use my fingers much more than my thumbs. I normally use my thumbs to move a few places left or right. Other than that, I use three fingers. For my right hand, my middle finger rests on the up arrow, my ring finger handles the right arrow, and my index finger handles the left and down arrows. That's flipped for my left hand. While I normally use my right hand, I have found it useful to use my left hand some.

It's a more convenient location than the normal location on a keyboard. It's not as good as VIM-style movement with modal operation, though.