didgy-kb

A catch-all repo for any keyboards I design.

These designs are all designed with Ergogen.

Mitten

This design has the following properties:

• 30 keys
• Split
• Columnar stagger
• Column splay on the outer columns
• Wireless
• Reversible PCB
• (Very) Low profile (Choc Mini)
• Choc spacing in Y direction
• MX spacing in X direction
• 1u keys for fingers
• 1.5u keys for thumbs
• Includes mountplate
• Standard ProMicro support (Note that it's wireless only, so use a compatible MCU with Bluetooth connectivity)

In short, this design is heavily inspired by the Ferris (or more specifically, the Sweep). This keyboard is very similar with a few key design differences:

• Stagger adjusted for hands that have a short index finger
• Outer columns are splayed
• Removed one key from innermost column and outermost column.
• Choc Mini support
• Larger thumbkeys (1.5u)
• Designed for wireless operation only
• Includes mountplate

Information

Main PCB thickness: 1.6mm

Mount plate thickness: 1.6mm

Mount plate is mostly for making the design sturdier and holding keys in place a bit better.

Connector: Molex PicoBlade 2-pin horizontal (Often mislabeled as Micro JST in stores)

Key switches: Kailh Choc Mini PG1232 (https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000277394324.html)

Personal note: Try using 35g springs with linear (black) motion.

MCU sockets: Mill-Max Interconnect Machined Pin Socket. Pitch 2.54mm. Height above PCB: 7mm. Part no. 801-XX-XXX-10-001000. You need at least 12 pins wide, any more can be broken off.

Underside material: Neoprene (need actual testing still)

Keycaps: MBK profile Choc (https://splitkb.com/collections/switches-and-keycaps/products/blank-mbk-choc-low-profile-keycaps)

Power switch: 7-pin micro SPDT

MCU: nice!nano

Xiao Seeed was considered for its smaller size, but since battery is mounted under the MCU, the battery would have to become too small anyways.

MCU socket pins: Mill-Max gold pins. Part no. 3320-0-00-15-00-00-03-0. (https://splitkb.com/collections/keyboard-parts/products/mill-max-low-profile-sockets?variant=32170972020813)

These could be thicker / longer, fit is not very good.

Instructions

The MCU has to be mounted face down by default.

By default, all jumpers need to be shorted on the opposite side of where components are mounted.

Future design work

I intend to keep iterating on this design over time, here are a few ideas I would like to eventually realize:

• Add wired connectivity (but only if I, or a number of users request it)
• Remove a key from the pinky column
• Possiby try out a very low profile rotary encoder
• Tighter vertical keyspacing (would require custom keycap work)
• Choc Mini support
• Add instructions for automatically routing the PCB

Other than that, I'll probably make adjustments to the stagger and key placement over time.

Configuration

While this is currently configured to fit my hands specifically, I am very much interested in creating a very parametric design. I try to keep the .yaml file commented enough to easily understand how to modify it. For instance, you could easily switch to using MX spacing by modifying the lines

  keyspacingx: cx
  keyspacingy: cy

to

  keyspacingx: u
  keyspacingy: u

and even switch to MX switch footprints by finding the YAML variable named key_footprints. Other configurable values currently include margin around key switches, rotation of the home thumbkey. I plan to add more of configuration in the future.