[WIP] 2nd split handed ergo keyboard

bearcat · 23 Oct 2013, 08:05

Just wrote a long post and was logged out due to idleness. Argh!

Shorter version:
I made a split ergo keyboard. Pics here. It eventually broke and i made a half-assed attempted to fix it, but decided to build a new one to fix some of the things that were bothering me on the first one, namely:

1. Pinky column needed to be lowered even further -- 'p' was the worst letter to hit bar none.
2. Extra index column not very useful.
3. Vertical 1.5u keys on the outsides gave up prime real estate
4. Hand wiring in the small case was a pain.
5. I missed having an LED, at least for diagnostics!
6. The single piece milled case was nice but required a lot of post processing.

After a lot of thought, here's v2. The case tries to hide as many of the joints as possible, with the top aluminium cover plate and the mitered corners. This version also experiments with the matte acrylic sheets they sell at ponoko -- i really like how it looks. I've also got a draft PCB in to check for depth -- which checks out!

Will go with DSA caps for the final assembly, i think -- vertical DCS feel funny to me.

Album

Sorry about the potato pics & thanks for looking

Muirium · 23 Oct 2013, 10:20

The polygon cover plate gives this a lot of style! Should be quite smart indeed with orientation agnostic DSA caps.

bearcat · 23 Oct 2013, 10:45

Thanks! Really happy with how the ALU cover on the acrylic turned out

suka · 23 Oct 2013, 11:09

Very slick design! Even though your top plate increases the footprint slightly the roof-like border gives a light, floating look to it.
Plus 3 thumbkeys & 4x6 matrix = instant win

Which layout are you using for the other layers?

bearcat · 23 Oct 2013, 20:08

I can't hit more than 3 thumbkeys reliably anyway

Since i'm doing a PCB, i could actually forgo the whole case walls and make it much flatter. But I got a set of these wrist rests and really liked the height, so i put in the walls.

the layout for the last one was designed to keep it as similar to what i already knew as possible. I also really like hitting space with both thumbs and shift with either hand.

Code: Select all

HOME LAYER
      ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----     ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
----- |   | |   | |   | |   | |   | |blu|     |   | |   | |   | |   | |   | |   | -----
|   | | Q | | W | | E | | R | | T | |lok|     |ESC| | Y | | U | | I | | O | | P | |   |
|   | ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----     ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- |   |
|tab| ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----     ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- |bks|
----- |   | |   | |   | |   | |   | |   |     | " | |   | |   | |   | |   | | : | -----
----- | A | | S | | D | | F | | G | | ` |     | ' | | H | | J | | K | | L | | ; | -----
|   | ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----     ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- |   |
|   | ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----     ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- |   |
|shf| |   | |   | |   | |   | |   | |   |     |   | |   | |   | | < | | > | | ? | |shf|
----- | Z | | X | | C | | V | | B | |alt|     |red| | N | | M | | , | | . | | / | -----
      ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----     ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
          ------------- ----- ----- -----     ----- ----- ----- -------------
          |           | |   | |   | |   |     |   | |   | |   | |           |
          |   cmd     | |   | |   | |ct |     |   | |   | |   | |  enter    |
          ------------- |blu| |spc| | rl|     |blu| |spc| |cmd| -------------
                        ----- ----- -----     ----- ----- -----

"BLUE" LAYER - symbols & numbers
      ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----     ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
----- |   | |   | |   | |   | |   | |blu|     |   | |   | |   | |   | |das| |   | -----
|   | | ! | | @ | | # | | $ | | % | |lok|     |   | | ^ | | & | | * | | - | | = | |   |
|   | ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----     ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- |vol|
|~  | ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----     ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- |up |
----- |   | |   | |   | |   | |   | |   |     |   | |   | |   | |   | |und| |   | -----
----- | [ | | ] | | { | | } | | _ | | ` |     | { | | } | | ( | | ) | | _ | | + | -----
|   | ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----     ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- |   |
|   | ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----     ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- |vol|
|   | |   | |   | |   | |   | |   | |   |     |   | |   | |   | |   | |   | |   | |dwn|
----- | 1 | | 2 | | 3 | | 4 | | 5 | |   |     |   | | 6 | | 7 | | 8 | | 9 | | 0 | -----
      ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----     ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
          ------------- ----- ----- -----     ----- ----- ----- -------------
          |           | |   | |   | |   |     |   | |   | |   | |           |
          |           | |   | |   | |   |     |   | |   | |   | |           |
          ------------- |   | |   | |   |     |   | |   | |   | -------------
                        ----- ----- -----     ----- ----- -----

"RED" LAYER - navigation & misc
      ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----     ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
----- |   | |   | |   | |   | |pg | |num|     |   | |   | |pg | |pg | |   | |   | -----
|bt | |   | |hom| | up| |end| | up| |lok|     |   | |hom| | dn| | up| |end| |   | |   |
|ldr| ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----     ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- |   |
|   | ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----     ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- |   |
----- |   | |   | |   | |   | |pg | |   |     |   | |   | |   | |   | |   | |   | -----
----- |   | |lft| |dwn| |rgt| | dn| |   |     |   | |lft| |dwn| |up | |rgt| |   | -----
|   | ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----     ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- |   |
|   | ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----     ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- |   |
|   | |   | |   | |   | |   | |   | |   |     |   | |   | |   | |   | |   | |   | |   |
----- |F1 | |F2 | |F3 | |F4 | |F5 | |   |     |   | |F6 | |F7 | |F8 | |F9 | |F0 | -----
      ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----     ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
    ------------- ------- ------- -------     ------- ------- ------- -------------
    |           | |     | |     | |     |     |     | |     | |     | |           |
    |           | |     | |     | |     |     |     | |     | |     | |           |
    ------------- |     | |     | |     |     |     | |     | |     | -------------
                  ------- ------- -------     ------- ------- -------

I had some redundant braces; the right side _- and += both kinda make sense if you squint. And once i'm all squared away and up to speed, i'll probably switch to workman or colemak

Out of curiosity, i thought of doing some curved keywells, but since putting in a few weeks with a kinesis advantage i've decided they're not for me and probably not worth the manufacturing headache. what do you like about them?

suka · 23 Oct 2013, 21:00

bearcat wrote: Out of curiosity, i thought of doing some curved keywells, but since putting in a few weeks with a kinesis advantage i've decided they're not for me and probably not worth the manufacturing headache. what do you like about them?

While the difference to a tented flat board might seem marginal, I personally love having a curved board. With my "RedTilt" and its 10° angles between all but the pinky columns I am more satisfied than with the previous "BlueCube" , but why exactly I cannot tell. Maybe because I kept the pinky columns flat and thus the overall height came down, or because I optimized the columns vertical offset in the proess. For the next iteration, minimal height will be a must.

Most importantly, any kind of tenting or curving in this direction will force your thumbs (and in turn the whole forearms) to rotate upwards which is a more natural position, at least to me.

In theory, a curved well (meaning also tilting each key in a column a little) sounds good as finger travel between rows can be minimized and different actuations will be used: Pushing a little on the upmost row and pulling towards you on the bottom one. My prototypes with these features, however, just did not give me that instantaneous nice feel so I never assembled them, but its definitely on my To-Try-Again-List

The "manufacturing headache" you mentioned does luckily not exist with 3D-printing the frames, but I guess that a conventional design with two flat pieces ( pinky plus additional outer column(s) horizontal and remainder tented to preference) would be very close ergonomically.

bearcat · 23 Oct 2013, 23:10

suka wrote:The "manufacturing headache" you mentioned does luckily not exist with 3D-printing the frames, but I guess that a conventional design with two flat pieces ( pinky plus additional outer column(s) horizontal and remainder tented to preference) would be very close ergonomically.

Hmm! I'm concerned about how those two pieces would join. But i could switch the material to some plastic resins and make molds instead.

suka wrote:For the next iteration, minimal height will be a must.

I'm thinking that the lowest profile one could go to would 6mm-7mm:
1mm top tray
3mm mid tray
1mm PCB + a smidge for solder joints
1mm bottom layer.
This would remove all need for walls, joints, or fancy milling. Hmm! Might have to try this for v3

philpirj · 01 Nov 2013, 07:44

Looks solid.
Welcome to split-non-staggered-ultra-compact keyboard lovers ghetto!
Keep us posted, would love to take a look at it fully assembled and with hands on.

bearcat · 01 Nov 2013, 14:43

Glad to be here

There's like, six of us, right?

Will definitely post pictures once assembled. For now, I just finished the PCB design last night and am asking people to review it. Surface mount, embedded atmega32u4, no teensy needed.

bearcat · 07 Dec 2013, 23:09

After an agonizing 4 weeks, my PCBs finally arrived! HOOOORAAAAAAY.

Due to some logistical failures, my Digikey shipment won't show up until monday, but ... holiday project time commence! SO EXCITE.

ImClueless · 08 Dec 2013, 01:11

Any chance those PCB's will ever be sold?

They look great.

bearcat · 08 Dec 2013, 08:54

Sure, definitely! Thanks

I'll put one together and see how many mistakes i made first, before i inflict them on anyone else.

I learned an awful lot doing this one, and will almost certainly do another iteration; whether or not this iteration is useful or will just be expensive coasters remains to be seen.

bearcat · 19 Apr 2014, 03:16

(cross post)

After a long hibernation, I finally verified that the logic on my main half works, but the half with the 23018 is a little dumb... i threw an LED on 3 extra pins there without understanding the ramifications of "open drain" collectors

Hopefully i can just switch the LED from common cathode to common anode and whitewire it across...

BUT! The complicated half works

Now to assemble!