My plan is to build a split type keyboard for my everday typing and working on. Something like a cross between an ErgoDox and Atreus. But I don't think that will be great for gaming on. I looked at some of the smaller gaming pads. But They generally cut out the full alpha keys. So I thought a Preonic sized keyboard might be a good compromise. It's compact without all the extra buttons I don't need but still gives me a full alpha set of keys in case I need to type something. I also wanted to try out some ideas for my case designs and do another handwired board. Here's what I came up with.
Switches are Gateron Brown but I silenced them with some liquid latex. The question is how long it will hold up. But the results are great. Similar to Zealencios but no issues with different keycap types. Controller is a Teensy 3.2 running Kiibohd.
For now, I'm doing a pretty standard layout as I'm using it for my daily
driver. Although the plan is to at least move the number keys over one to
the left to make them more centered over the WASD keys. Possibly even
shifting the alphas one to the right. I put Escape and some volume keys on
the top row by themselves.
Here's my 3D design I did in SketchUp. Everything pretty much went as planned.
In order to keep the case low profile, I put the controller above the top row.
But I didn't need all of that space which is why I added the extra keys.
This was my second handwired keyboard and this one turned out WAY cleaner then
the first. I'm very happy with the results. It took some time to arrange and
cut and strip everything but it was worth it.
Next time, I'll want to fit in a metal backplate still. I did plan ahead and
had some extra bits of acrylic cut out for supports in the middle and it
definitely needed it. Even so, it's still a bit mushy if you really bang on
it. But also fine for normal typing. Probably the bigger issue is that it
has a slight bend to the whole thing. I actually use slightly taller feet
on the outside and shorter feet in the middle. Otherwise it wouldn't lay flat.
Micro USB port on the back side. You can also see the layers here. 1.5mm +
3mm + 5.6mm + 1.5mm for a total of 11.6mm.