Another custom split hand Topre board - need your input!

[attheicearcade]

I've been thinking about a similar project to my ongoing one, that is much simpler (I need a split Topre keyboard in my life). I'm interested in it being more community oriented, with design decisions being influenced by anyone who may want one of these keyboards. My other project is very uncompromising, but that means it'll take time (and money).

Specifically I'm looking at making a flat split Topre keyboard. I have a few options now but need to narrow down to a final goal. There's four styles I see being possible, each with positives and negatives:

Style	Supported donors	Keycap requirement	Dome cutting
ErgoDox	Topre + full set MX Sliders	ErgoDox sets	Cut many horizontal strips for columns
Split Planck	Topre	Donor	Cut some horizontal strips for rows
Symmetric Stagger	Topre + few MX sliders?	Donor + few extras	Cut horizontal strips for rows
Split ANSI (HHKB style)	ANSI Topre*	Donor*	Cut once through middle + extra domes for spacebar

* These is some difficulty here with Realforce bottom row having odd key sizes. Typeheaven looks to be the same. Just means that if a Novatouch or other board were used, there would be some extra keycaps and cutting needed for the bottom row.

Any of these should also work with clone boards, provided they adhere to the rules.

The PCB should be quite simple to design - I will be going with a Teensy 3.1/3.2 on each side. Expensive, but it promotes easy firmware development and no special tooling required. Anyone have any recommendations for low cost PCB houses? I'm not sure I'll be able to get the board down to 2 layers - the controller on my other project is 4 layers. My previous suppliers don't do 4 layer boards in these larger sizes. Probably will have to do some design to figure it out! I'd like to use through hole stuff like the ErgoDox PCBs do. Don't think I'd be able to make it reversible like that though.

All would be plate mounted on 1mm thick laser cut steel / stainless steel. Not decided the finish, that will come later.

Please don't hesitate to post your thoughts!

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I can't figure out how to make a poll, please vote in the other thread (or make a comment here):
Main thread: https://deskthority.net/workshop-f7/another-custom-split-hand-topre-board-need-your-input-t14769.html#p332637

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Some additional thoughts for the split ANSI layout:

Realforce style - needs extra keycaps (marked in red)


HHKB style - doesn't need anything except normal Realforce TKL caps.


Source code for keyboard-layout-editor is here: https://github.com/tomsmalley/toprift
I will be keeping all resources in that repo!

[infiniti]

I can't figure out how to make a poll, please vote in the other thread (or make a comment here):
Main thread: https://deskthority.net/workshop-f7/another-custom-split-hand-topre-board-need-your-input-t14769.html#p332637

The poll has been added based on the on you linked on DT.

[attheicearcade]

Thanks! 

I am becoming quite attached to the idea of a split HHKB:



Anyone have any suggestions for the bottom row? There are an additional two 1U keys which could be added, but I like the HHKB style.

The big area at the top is for the controller (assuming a 2 layer board). I'd prefer a 4 layer board in a more compact case but it would depend on if I could get PCBs for a reasonable price, looks much nicer:

_{excuse cheaply photoshopped legends}



It's a very basic design for now, I want a nice tenting solution and easy assembly