geekhack Projects > Making Stuff Together!
DIY handwired TKL with a faint hint of "Retro"
wjrii:
Hi Everybody. I just finished my latest project, a conversion of a pre-built 1800 (FL-Esports 980) with a lifted pad into a handwired, RP2040-powered board (KMK). I wasn't sure how it would go, so I removed my trusty Box Navies for some Outemu dustproof reds, confirming that I will never be a linear guy, but the sound is fairly pleasant. I may press it back into service as my work board, and maybe add a hidden macro for my email address that work makes me type 50 times a day. Don't think I have the cajones to add one for my quarterly password.
The newest project is now kicking off in earnest. I was noodling around old-computers.com, mostly clicking from random to random, but I realized a few aesthetic traits that might be able to be adapted into a modern TKL without affecting usability too much. I have probably a dozen different layouts saved on KLE, and I landed on one to actually make. No one is reinventing the wheel here, though I didn't find anything exactly like what I have in mind. I specifically picked the one that would work with the largest number of keycap sets, and after a couple of runs through Swill's plate generator, I had switch and bottom plates made out of 1/16" aluminum, which should be suitable but will also allow me some flexibility to machine with woodworking tools if, say, I need a few standoffs or to smooth a rough cut. I've never really minded my top-case-less gamer boards, so the plan is a simple sandwich: switch plate, walnut from my scrap bin, bottom plate. The RP2040 clone that I have on-hand only has 20 easily-soldered GPIO pins, so the matrix will be a little funky for 83 keys, but it will be less annoying than the one for 98, and I made that work. Still, I'd welcome any suggestions.
Plates have arrived, enough to make three boards if I don't screw anything up. The main keycaps for the first board have also arrived, generic "Minimalist Business Style" DSA from AliExpress. I have the Box Navies of course, and one MCU on-hand, plus diodes, etc. Some design considerations:
* Up until the Model F, it seems most keyboards followed the typewriter paradigm and kept the spacebar isolated on its row, at least mostly. That's not very practical, but it's not too bad to shrink the Shift keys and cram a couple of 1u modifiers next to them, leaving the rest of the mods at 1u and centered with the spacebar, allowing for a bit of that typewriter/terminal look. Upon later reflection, I realized that the layout I landed on has a LOT of similarities to the HHKB, but if anything that just emboldened me in my notions that I'm not insane to think this will be a usable board.
* Acorn's BBC Micro series had a striking centered F row that looks really nice in red. To that end, the 13-key F row is compressed and centered, and I have blank red DSA keycaps coming to populate it. I could always change it in firmware of course, but I plan to leave the Esc key upper left on the F-Row, where the BBC's had it where the grave/tilde is on "modern" keyboards and had a dark "Break" key on the right side of the F-row.
* If you like dedicated arrow keys, and I do, the inverted-T simply cannot be beat: More ergonomic than a cross, more versatile and intuitive than a 1x4 or 2x2, I wasn't going to have board with this much real estate go without it. That said, I did nudge it up half a row, far enough to emphasize the mostly-empty spacebar row but not so far that you need to rethink your keycaps. I feel like there's a certain heritage with the MSX computers, and I do have one KLE layout that uses 2u vertical L and R arrows like a couple of Sanyo MSX2 machines, but in the end, inverted T had to stay.
* Nav cluster is retained. In addition to dating back to the Model M, having a few keys there is used on MSX machines and Amigas. I looked at a few funkier layouts with fewer and/or 1.5u keys, but again, one of the goals was pain-free keycap compatibility without needing to use non-sculpted sets (though of course I settle on a DSA set... go figure).
* PS/SL/PB are just nuked. Including them in their usual spots would draw the eye from the F-row and also lose that vague sense that the layout is from another time. There's a certain irony, given they're functionally the most "retro" keys on any keyboard, but hey, in my initial layout, they're 75% of the reason I even bothered with an Fn key.
* Industrial aluminum plus oiled walnut ought to work well with the theme. I am not a proper touch typist, but I do like a pretty flat keyboard, and zero degrees should work fine, but the simplicity of the "case" should permit plenty of flexibility.
Findecanor:
Nice project. I'm too a fan of moving the arrow keys up just a little a bit from the bottom row. I think it improves ergonomics when you don't have to bend your fingers as much.
And BTW, welcome to Geekhack!
wjrii:
--- Quote from: Findecanor on Tue, 17 October 2023, 01:56:23 ---Nice project. I'm too a fan of moving the arrow keys up just a little a bit from the bottom row. I think it improves ergonomics when you don't have to bend your fingers as much.
And BTW, welcome to Geekhack!
--- End quote ---
Thanks! I think this will be a fun one, and will add a touch of immersion while messing around with emulators or with RiscOS on an RPi.
Not much to report today, but I have the switches and stabs installed (could probably stand to add a touch less kerf on the next lasercut project, as they were very snug, but that has its advantages on a handwired. I also think I've settled on a wiring layout. I may alternate top and bottom on those crossovers, but regardless, researching old threads on GH helped me improve on what I did on my 1800 rewire. This should require less heatshrink, have fewer stacked jumper wires, and should look a little better, though I am still not in love with the clutter in the bottom and nav area. I'm on my last MCU, so the next ones I order will have a few more pins. Technically, the RP2040-Zero that I'm using has 29, but 9 of them are tiny pads on the bottom and... yeah... but also no.
wjrii:
Matrix wired up. RP2040 is on deck, temporary feet are “in the hole.”
Caught a couple of mistakes and cold joints in the course of this one. Hoping there are no surprises. Next keyboard will have an MCU with more pins. 12x7 should work okay, though, and I have a touch more room in this one than my orthos.
And oh yeah, red blanks for the function keys arrived!
wjrii:
Progress!
Wiring complete, standoffs installed as a temporary "case," found an otherwise-nice white oak turning blank with a split, but plenty enough good wood left to make a ~3/8" (9.5mm) sandwich, keycaps installed, and even found a perfectly lovely set of 1" 3M rubber feet that anchor the board down very well, and a good thing too because the aluminum is even lighter than my brain had recognized. I may have to break down and actually lube the stabs, because otherwise the sound is a very satisfying retro-vibe clicky-thunder. Open sides and wads of insulated wiring seem to keep it from being very pingy. I admit though, as a hard-typing, clicky-loving heathen, sound profiles are not really my forte other than "I like it" or "I don't."
I have started on the keymap in KMK, and either I have discovered an entirely new layout, or I completely mis-visualized how KMK would read the matrix. On the plus side, the errors seem systemic and make sense based on what I wired, so I'm confident it was human error in the keymap. All but one keys register something, and with 83 keys on an 12x7 matrix, it should just be that the intentional empty slot is actually mapped to a physical key for the moment. Just hoping there isn't something physical with the fact that I have two "7" keys.
EDIT: Seems at least one of my AliExpress vendors may not know what is "DSA" and what isn't. The reds (I think) are proper DSA, fairly steep slopes on the side and small keytop. The main set looks fine, and the height is within maybe half a mm of the blank reds, but I don't think it's truly DSA (plus it's clearly double shot when described on AE as "dye-sub". The sides are less steep so the keytop is technically a touch wider than my XDA, but the deeper dishing makes them feel more spherical. For my particular look/use case on this board, they are fine to live together, but they're not quite the same. C'est la vie when you're a cheap old cuss. Anybody know if my alphas' profile actually has a name?
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version