geekhack

geekhack Projects => Making Stuff Together! => Topic started by: prmlt on Fri, 11 January 2019, 15:23:31

Title: AEK84 —
Post by: prmlt on Fri, 11 January 2019, 15:23:31

Hi there,

As the new year starts, i wanted to throw myself some challenges and one dream of mine has always been to get my hands on a JP AEK64, the trouble being that i pretty much always use the function keys and the arrows in my day to day work. So i've set my endgame board to be a JP AEK84 with Orange-Alps. Which i never saw anywhere as a custom built (i'd love for someone to prove me wrong though !)

I started to poke around to see if there was any readymade 75% pcb/build that could support Alps SKCM switches, then it would just be a matter of some lasercutting and case engineering. But it seems there is none (apart from old Siig boards)

So as a new year resolution, i've decided to venture into custom boards and build it from scratch. Being the novice that I am (and maybe way over my head), I was hoping that someone here could throw me in the right direction with some good references/advices
.
— Is there a Alps-compatible 84 pcb already somewhere ? Blueprints ?
— What kind of firmware should I try to implement ?
— Any advices ?

I hope by january 2020 to have succeeded in my quest.
Let's go !

Title: Re: AEK84 —
Post by: poangscat on Sat, 12 January 2019, 02:34:12

about PCB ，you can design by yourself with AD or kicad，and the firmware i think tmk/qmk may be a best choice :)

Title: Re: AEK84 —
Post by: tex_live_utility on Sun, 13 January 2019, 09:39:10

The XD87 PCB apparently supports Alps, and Hineybush has an Alps version of the H87a in the works.

Title: Re: AEK84 —
Post by: prmlt on Mon, 14 January 2019, 09:30:28

Thanks for the replies !
Yes i saw the XD87 but the layout is a TKL which is not compact enough for my taste. I'm currently thinking of a correct layout to design my own 75% Alps PCB, i want to incorpate the arrow keys on the bottom right by dropping the command/ctrl and swapping for a more compact r-shift (1.25u maybe)

Title: Re: AEK84 —
Post by: tex_live_utility on Thu, 17 January 2019, 22:42:45

My mistake, I misread the OP. Maybe XD84 supports Alps as well?

Either way, a custom 75% with Alps support would be very interesting indeed. Keycaps are always a challenge for something like this, but I would be in support of something like this coming into existence.

Title: Re: AEK84 —
Post by: prmlt on Fri, 25 January 2019, 17:59:07

Thanks tex !

I just received today a few donnor board for keycaps and switches (orange alps). Really excited to continue this !