Hello from Netherlands

[tszaboo]

Hello Geekhack members. I am an electronics engineer a PCB designer from the Netherlands. I've been living in the Flemish Brabant (Belgium), and Noord Brabant, worked in Brabant-Wallon for the past 10 years.

I had a mechanical keyboard when it came with the 286, then I rediscovered it a few years ago. Last year I stared making custom ones, currently doing my 3rd design. I thought I register here to share it with you. Or to collaborate with you.

[Maledicted]

Hi tszaboo. Welcome to Geekhack.

What keyboard did you have with your 286? That old stuff is more my jam.

This is definitely the place for cool custom stuff. You'll probably want to go straight to the Making Stuff Together! section.

[tszaboo]

Hi tszaboo. Welcome to Geekhack.

What keyboard did you have with your 286? That old stuff is more my jam.

This is definitely the place for cool custom stuff. You'll probably want to go straight to the Making Stuff Together! section.

I think it was either a model M, or something very close to it. I remember the LED parts and the color to be the same as a model M but it might have been a copy. Honestly, it was a long time ago, and I wasn't paying attention to it back then.

I any case, I have a new original design arriving next week. I'll plan post pictures of it when its here.

[Maledicted]

There were a lot of keyboards that cloned the Model M's aesthetics, just like the Model F before it. The Model M didn't really feel or sound like anything else of the era though, and it didn't come with computers made by anybody other than IBM that I'm aware of.

Sounds good. Is it a one-off, going to have an IC/GB, or be open-source?

[tszaboo]

There is this: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=110120.0
I was commissioned by Riba to do that design.
He originally said he wants to open source it, so I'll do that when he decides to release it to the public.
Other than that, I have PCBs for this in delivered at some point:

I dont think there will be a GB from this, as it would be a very impractical keyboard.
Spoilers: I look at this project as a piece of art, but I dont want to reveal yet why.

[Maledicted]

No mention of commission in that thread, interesting.

Honestly, I don't even get the concept behind ortholinear, so I I can't tell how that board is less practical than any other ortholinear. I like how you lined up all of the diodes in a row on the top, which I imagine are meant to be visible in the case, along with the controller.

[tszaboo]

No mention of commission in that thread, interesting.

Honestly, I don't even get the concept behind ortholinear, so I I can't tell how that board is less practical than any other ortholinear. I like how you lined up all of the diodes in a row on the top, which I imagine are meant to be visible in the case, along with the controller.

I all fairness, I don get it either - yet. So I decided to just make one for myself and try.
Inspired by the Mysterium, but I hate through hole components where I need to cut leads. So SMT it is. People seem to fear SMD, but its just so much easier than TH.

[Maledicted]

No mention of commission in that thread, interesting.

Honestly, I don't even get the concept behind ortholinear, so I I can't tell how that board is less practical than any other ortholinear. I like how you lined up all of the diodes in a row on the top, which I imagine are meant to be visible in the case, along with the controller.

I all fairness, I don get it either - yet. So I decided to just make one for myself and try.
Inspired by the Mysterium, but I hate through hole components where I need to cut leads. So SMT it is. People seem to fear SMD, but its just so much easier than TH.

When people complain about SMD components, it makes me wonder what sort of bargain bin hardware store tools they're trying to use. Some $15 Weller works for soldering some switches into some LEGO board, but I would never attempt to use such a thing when trying to work with components smaller than a grain of rice.

I have never been big on the whole custom board thing myself, so I haven't soldered 100+ SMD diodes one at a time, but I do swap SMD LEDs, etc, from time to time. I have never had a problem either dual wielding irons or making one big blob to remove and using a nice fine tip and even just a flathead in order to install.

At the same time, there's something endearing to me about through-hole. I even find clipping legs down a little therapeutic, maybe like how some people like pruning gardens. I'm sure being able to just bake all of the components on in one go is easier than through-hole, but most people, even here, don't have anything set up for doing that.