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geekhack Community => Ergonomics => Topic started by: patosai on Fri, 08 September 2017, 10:20:59
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Hey everyone. First post here.
I worked on this during the summer and some of my friends were interested, so I made a bunch of them. First, the pics.
Here is the completed product!
[attach=1]
A side shot.
[attach=2]
The mini-USB connector.
[attach=3]
And now for the build log!
The PCBs in their casing from the manufacturer. I got these made in Korea by Quickturn PCB. Quality is great and they're fast! Arrived in the US about 7 days after I ordered them.
[attach=4]
Meanwhile, prototyping the case with a Makerbot. Seems to fit together well, the top and bottom halves are held together by various protrusions on the outside of the top that 'clip' around the bottom half.
[attach=5]
Here the PCB is inside the case; the case was a little too small though, forgot to add some extra space to the outside. Fixed that in later prints though.
[attach=6]
Soldering the very first one! Started around midnight, finished around 5AM...
[attach=7]
Soldered the home row switches on
[attach=8]
Now all the switches are soldered on
[attach=9]
Keycaps all on! I designed the spacing so a regular 87-keycap set would work. I like the blank keys, as you can see.
[attach=10]
And that's a wrap!
I wrote the firmware for the one you see here, but it should be simple to use QMK or TMK if you want, I'm using the same micro as them (ATMega32U4).
I have some extras to sell, if you are interested please let me know! I have blue and brown switches.
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Out of curiosity, is your firmware open source?
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Yep, it's here:
https://github.com/patosai/ex2 (https://github.com/patosai/ex2)
The build Makefile is still a little messy, I'm going to be cleaning that up soon.
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that long thumb key, is that stabilized ?
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The holes are on the PCB for a stabilizer, but I didn't notice a major difference with or without. The one shown doesn't have the stabilizer.
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Good job. At first glance, it looks like an improvement in the thumb key placement over the ErgoDox.
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Looks more comfortable than an ErgoDox to me, haven't tried one but this one makes me want to try!
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So the right is the slave and only has the micro usb. The left side has the micro from the computer, one usb A as out to the slave, what is the second USB A?
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One of my friends has the Ergodox EZ and I tried it out. I thought the thumb positioning was too far out so when I made this I made sure to move it a little closer.
There's two USB As because that's supposed to be a USB hub. The two halves are completely separate and can be plugged into the computer separately.
The dream:
- connect one half to the other
- connect the other half to the computer
- free USB ports on the other half for other uses (mouse, phone, etc)
But the USB hub hasn't been cooperating... so there's no USB hub for now.
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One of my friends has the Ergodox EZ and I tried it out. I thought the thumb positioning was too far out so when I made this I made sure to move it a little closer.
There's two USB As because that's supposed to be a USB hub. The two halves are completely separate and can be plugged into the computer separately.
The dream:
- connect one half to the other
- connect the other half to the computer
- free USB ports on the other half for other uses (mouse, phone, etc)
But the USB hub hasn't been cooperating... so there's no USB hub for now.
what's your tenting solution for this board..
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No solution yet. I like the Ergodox EZ solution but I'm wondering how to get it to tent more.
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No solution yet. I like the Ergodox EZ solution but I'm wondering how to get it to tent more.
ergodox ez's system takes up the middle space between the keyboards, that space is useful for mousing..
A couple holes drilled around the edges of the bottom face plate is best and most flexible.
I use 150mm screws for tenting on OG ergodox.