so i move around in projects alot as i really like to stay busy. but this time i really want to put in the time, do it right, and create a truly full featured well thought out board. open source from the start. i have the layout figured out at least from my perspective. but the PCB i'm going to need alittle help with. right now the best i can do is a PCB with Teency daughter board since i'm not knowledgable enough to wire an ATMega directly to the board which is what i'd prefer.
i want this to be open source from the start in the spirit of the community and of GH.
the idea for this board came from my enjoyment with compact keyboards but the frustration of function layers. perhaps i'm just lazy perhaps its just more efficient to have afew extra keys.
a standard 60% keyboard has 61 keys. which is ok but wasn't quite enough for me, an TKL has 87, which was more than i really use so there was wasted space. i like the size of my 60% but wanted more keys. what i came up with after abit of tinkering was a board with 70 keys, BUT was only 0.5u larger than a 60%. this is achieved by shortening many of the modifiers, breaking the space bar into 3 pieces and adding additional keys. all is explained in better detail in the below pictures.
the goal was a fully functional keyboard, compact but not to the point it would be overly difficult for anyone to just pick up and be able to use easily. this includes dedicated direction keys in the primary layer. the ability to have media keys dedicated but multi functional. all of this would be customize-able. so all the additional keys could be modified to the end users ultimate preference. made for Cherry MX / Alps / Matias switch compatibility because... options are great!
i have started a github repository for this. it includes the .json files from keyboard layout editor which can be imported to both keyboard layout editor and swill's plate builder. included in this repository is a PCB schematic made in KiCAD . i would love this project to be picked up by the community.
https://github.com/se7en9057/67percent-optomizedI look forward to all of your thoughts, comments, and constructive criticisms. i have thick skin. and plan to persue this regardless of community involvement or enthusiasm. i hope you find it as interesting as am.
on another note i made this BEFORE finding out that it was very similar to the keycool keyboard.this has no affiliation with ultrahack.org
i had no idea they existed until i googled "ultrahack" today... small world isn't it?