Hello, long time no see. I'm finally moving for the last stretch of my custom keyboard production, the
ErgoSquare, so I decided to make a topic for it. As it has passed some time since I last worked on this design, I forgot a lot of things, but fortunately I had documented some of it.
Here the original topic where I expressed my intentions one year and a half ago (I'm still ahead of the Axios and Keyboardio!):
And then
my first mock-ups and a few posts down
my final layout (recommended reading before the rest of my post here).
And from there I used the plate builder tool to get me the basic key layout, but then went to Inkscape to really finalize my split layout with all the bells and whistles that I wanted. Here two simple .png, one with all the layers shown at once, and another with only the switchplate and spacers:
The .svg where one can tune the visibility of the layers is in annex. Latter I will mirror that hand and place all in a single layer for cutting. Now I just wanted to get some feedback on it before I send it for cutting. Any gross errors? Experiences to share with similar designs, especially in the last 6 months that I didn't read the forum?
I think I already accounted for the kerf, the width of the lines in the .svg being the expected kerf of 0.2mm (informed by the shop where I will cut it). On the projected keycap sizes (it is there more for visualizing) I used a thicker line to account for the wiggling.
Things in red and/or dotted lines are only overlays that won't be cut. Things in green are from the spacer layers. Things in Blue is from the top or bottom layer.
The most complicated part with the most layers is the area for the micro-controller and a future
ST7735S 1.8" TFT screen with SD-card slot. I still haven't done a version for the left hand, that don't need space for any of that. I'm planning to use a
Mapple Mini clone running the ChibiOS version of TMK, thus the larger space necessary. But I do have a teensy 2.0 as plan B.
I made it modular for the following reasons:
- If I screw up anything I can substitute only that part.
- The right and left hand would be heterogeneous.
- While I don't install the screen, I can cover that hole.
- I can put it inside the spacers dead space to minimize the cutting area.
I used 3mm screw holes and tried to maintain at least 2mm of acrylic around them (the minimum space between two pieces as requested by the cutting shop) but I don't know if it is sufficient. There also might be too many holes... 4 are due to the micro-usb breakboards. In one side I will route the Maple Mini micro-usb route to there, so I can have a detachable cable (but I also have a alternative positioning for the Mapple Mini as plan B...). I MAY use the other in the future to link the two sides. But at first I will just use the hole to pass lot of hard-wired cables. Other 4 are for screwing in the LCD (not very necessary, but why not?). And another two or three are due to the modular top design. The main thing is that I will need different sized screws for each part...
So, opinions? Corrections?
