[IC] Onigiri - HHKB inspired, low-profile wireless 60%

[ice9js]

Onigiri

A HHKB-inspired, low-profile keyboard with wireless connectivity and a 35-segment LED display.

WEBSITE | IC FORM | GALLERY

Rationale

In terms of the general shape, I took a lot of inspiration from the shape and side profile of last-get MacBook Pro's.
The light bar on the other side, came from Audi's A6 eTron concept.
It's no secret I have generally been obsessed with low-profile boards. Until not too long ago my ideas were not really possible due to switch and keycap availability,
but thanks to brands like NuPhy or Keychron, the space has improved a lot over the last two or so years. Credit where credit is due.
That said, I still wanted something more premium feeling and looking. And so here we are.

Features

Low-profile (FR height of 11.5mm)

3.5° Typing angle

Cornerless layout

Integrated plate

Plate foam

Gateron KS-27/KS-33 switches

Hot-swap PCB, will be open-sourced after the group-buy

35-segment programmable LED strip

Wireless support (BLE 5.4, possibly a dongle)

FCC Certified Bluetooth Module

2000mAh battery

ZMK Firmware

Reset-button and debugger header hidden under the spacebar

Materials

Top case: 6061 Aluminium, E-coated

Bottom case: Milled Polycarbonate, Sandblasted and optionally dyed

Bottom plate: Steel / Brass, Laser Etching

Colors

Top case: White, Black, Blue, possibly more.
Bottom case: Neutral (undyed PC), Black
Bottom plate: Silver (mirror), Brass (mirror), Black(matte)

Design Choices

With a board this thin, there are bound to be compromises.
I'm going to be posting a blog series on the website to cover the entire design process in more detail,
but here is some context for the things I know will come up.

Integrated Plate

There is extremely little vertical space available in the design, and so any form of flex is not really desired,
as that would cause the PCB to bottom out against the case, or worse, strike the battery.

Layout

It's not a true or symmetrical HHKB, rather what I'd call a cornerless layout.
This is dictated purely by low-profile keycap availability, where most stick to the standard bottom row.
1.5u bottom row modifiers are hard to come by, I have yet to see a low profile 7u spacebar.
I'm possibly not the best person to say how it compares to a true HHKB, but I remap Caps Lock to Control on all my keyboards which is what this is really about, and HHKB does too.

If there is enough interest, a split backspace option will be offered.
Due to low-profile stabilizers needing relatively massive cutouts in the PCB and the plate, it's not physically possible to offer a multi-layout option.
These would be mutually exclusive. What you order is what you're stuck with.

Pricing

I'm currently expecting the price to fall in the $300-350 range, excl. taxes and shipping.
This is based on a quite conservative MOQ of 50.
I'm willing to sell more as long as you're willing to buy them, which could bring the price down more if enough interest is indicated.

Where I'm at at the time of writing this

The V1 prototypes have turned out really, really well. To the point where I'm happy and to proceed with this IC and follow-up with the GB.
That's not to say there haven't been any issues.

I'm currently waiting on a second batch of PCB's from a new manufacturer as I've had major quality issues with the ones I currently have. I also used this opportunity to further refine the PCB.
I will be ordering a few more samples for the diffuser layer for the display, I'm not entirely satisfied with the current solution for some of the colors. At this point it's a minor issue.
I will also be adding another foam strip to cover up the LEDs from underneath. There's minimal light leakage there, but it could bother someone, and it can be easily resolved.

Pictures

Here are some pictures of v1 prototypes for you to enjoy. Here's a larger gallery of V1 protos. I'll also be updating the website with more pictures as I go along.

Blog

I started a blog to document and go in-depth on all aspects and details of this project.

#1: Prototypes are here

#2: The PCB

#3: Teardown

More to come.

If you like this (or not), even if you're not necessarily considering it, please leave a comment.
Let's keep this thread going and make it happen.

[cafebabe]

Love the design! Split backspace would make this a must for me

[EdgeOfInfinity]

i don't know if i would like low-profile but the sh!tty layouts have always deterred me anyway. nice to see one with a (somewhat) standard layout - glwic!

[ice9js]

Thanks for the encouraging words! Not quite at MOQ yet but I already appreciate every bit of feedback I got.
In the meanwhile, here's a quick little update from last week:

There's a blog!

I published a blog post going into more details behind the design of the case. Also, please let me know if there are any particular areas that you're particularly curious about, and I'll make sure that makes it into future editions.

PCB's

So the reason I haven't posted any pictures of the PCB anywhere officially quite yet is I'm trying to prevent any confusion. As I already noted, the first batch was a bit of a miss - soldering was borderline embarrassing, with the old fab failing to deliver a single fully working prototype. I also don't like the look of their transparent soldermask. They're still good for test fits and firmware dev work - just that I can't quite daily them because they have shorts on row/column pins which are particularly difficult to fix without advanced tools.

Here's how they look:



Because the bottom is translucent, and considering the work I've put in to lay it out the way I did, I still think transparent soldermask on the bottom layer looks really cool. My hope is it's possible to use a more transparent film for better contrast.
The back side is a massive copper plane. I don't think it looks bad, but I think it could be really cool to use dark green soldermask on there, as a nod to the popular rice snack . I'm still figuring out the details for the production version with the fab, but that's how I envision it:



The v1.1 prototypes I'm waiting for are what you see on these renders, although the prototypes are all-black to save cost and time. I expect them to get here within the next two weeks, at which point I'll be able to do a proper typing test and post the full specs.

Split-backspace

I have been able to confirm that I'll be able to offer both regular and split backspace versions for the GB. So just noting that because it seems to be the preferred options while all my prototypes are regular backspace.

[ice9js]

It's been a while since the last update here, so here we go:

- The updated PCBs arrived and work perfectly. I actually wrote another blog post on them. To be honest, I also kind of like the all-black stealthy look so I think I might just stick with that.
- I also used the opportunity of updating the display diffuser layer to publish a teardown post. The new version makes for a much more even and pleasing effect, so that's certainly staying.
- I've been chipping away at ZMK. I'll be publishing my work on all the lightning stuff - RGB animation system and IC drivers - as independent Zephyr modules so they can be used by the community on any ZMK keyboard. It'll easily take a post or two to explain how it works exactly, but I'm quite excited about it because it allows for some things that no keyboard currently does. Even if Onigiri's use case is quite limited with just a single horizontal strip, I'm curious to see where others will take it eventually.

That's not to say there aren't any challenges:

- Some of the functionality I'm after requires modifications to core ZMK because it just wasn't an issue with most existing boards. For some of it there are already PRs. Depending on how soon they're merged it might be using the fork might be required to get all the functionality initially but my intention is to eventually achieve full compatibility with core ZMK.
- Making arrangements for a potential case has proven somewhat more difficult due to generally high MOQ requirements for samples and production. So still working through that.

But yeah, I think it's safe to say at this point I'm very happy with where things are at and software is really the only thing remaining that's keeping this project from reaching it's full potential.

[Thevenny]

Let's ruin a board with a bottom row asymmetric just for having a double fn button..

[ice9js]

Let's ruin a board with a bottom row asymmetric just for having a double fn button..

lol. It says it in the description but... I've yet to find a low profile 6- or 7u spacebar, and there's no off the shelf stabilizers for them either. Even 1.5u's aren't included in all the sets.
Unfortunate, but it's the only way as things are today. Unless you like your switches bare.

Dealbreaker for some? Certainly. But two or so years ago we didn't even have decent low-profile keycaps at all, so I'd consider this an improvement nonetheless. Maybe in another two or three years...

[LightNico]

Very happy to see a low profile hhkb style.
Nice to have it wireless.
My only concern is the way it would sound & space bar rattling.
Nice work!

[glances]

Definitely interested! For the final version do you plan on having the switches visible from the side of the board? From the V1 shots it looks like the board height is a bit low, so the switches are visible.

[mngxx]

I build custom keyboards. Every few couple of months I search on Google - "Nuphy split backspace". So, naturally when I read the title of your geekhack IC thread, I got excited. After going through the thread, not so much, I'll elaborate.

The design choices:

- I really don't like the RGB strip on the top bezel. Why would you assume that someone building custom keyboards (your main target audience) would like a stupid triangle strip on their keyboard? I'd keep the same design (bigger top bezel, smaller bottom bezel) but with it being **solidly** machined.

- I understand that this is a low profile board, but I don't really like that you can see the switches and the gap between the bottom of the keycap and the case. It screams bad design. A good design, a design that you'd see on all the nice customs, would be to have no gaps between the bottom of the keycap and the case. Make the case a few millimeters taller so that you can have the switches lower. I understand it beats the purpose of low profile if you make the case taller, but I'd prefer good, solid, thoughtful design over having the slimmest case possible.

- Split Backspace. I read that you're going to support it. The fact that you're introducing this IC as a nod to HHKB and all the protos are full backspace tells me that you've never used HHKB.

- The bottom row. It's a joke. I understand it was not possible at the time of the IC, if it's not possible than I would personally not do it. I'm more of a do it as best as possible first time. But as of today, April 2025, Nuphy introduced a full low profile set made in collaboration with Oblotzky, that is a full base kit - with support for Tsangan bottom row, Split Backspace, etc.
Again, just the idea that you thought that your target audience would be excited about that bottom row tells me you don't really know what you're doing - design wise.

So, all the above don't really give me any kind of confidence in this project, but I do wish you all the best. If I were you, I would redesign the board and come up with a v2. Make it the best possible custom low profile and people will buy!

[nathanchere]

I'd agree with raising the height of the case so the keys sit lower and it hides the gaps better. However...

Let's ruin a board with a bottom row asymmetric just for having a double fn button..

I think the reasoning and design choices for the bottom row are good.