ebastler

Optical keyboards are still around (although rare) and usually use some variation of Cherry MC style switches without contact pins. Newer tech also consists of magnetic designs (hall effect, tunnelmagnetoresistance or inductive). These all allow for analog input (variable user-settable actuation points for example) which makes them popular with the gaming crowd. I'm developing such a PCB for a different project at the moment.

As far as I'm aware none of these are waterproof, however, as they all have exposed PCBs inside the case. I guess one could just conformally coat the circuit board, but I haven't seen that done yet for a commercial keyboard.

Thanks! This was by far my most advanced PCB design so far - lots of reading and research involved. Pretty proud it worked at first try.

There's quite a lot of choice for split keyboards out there - one of my favorites being the Corneish Zen by lowprokb - just two small boards, wireless interconnect. I made it a unibody design on purpose - better battery life, and only one device I have to charge and remember bringing along with me. And the fact that there is a pretty limited amount of existing designs in that style.

ZMK firmware can as of now sadly not do wired connections between two halves, so it's either wired connection and wired connection to PC (QMK firmware) or full wireless like the Zen, with ZMK.

You probably know how this kind of projects usually starts. "Hey, XY would be nice, I bet it'll be a quick and easy project". Then feature creep happens, then you're not satisfied with your work and start from scratch, and 2 years later you're like "why".

This was one of those projects. It is a slim 40%ish column staggered wireless keyboard, using a nRF52840 chip, and Kailh Choc switches. It is as slim as possible with mechanical switches, features months of battery life, and is entirely open source - electronics, case, software. For now it will only have a 3D printed case, but CNC machined aluminum is planned too.

I am typing this on the first prototype while waiting for the updated 3D-prints to arrive, but felt like sharing my work already - hope you will enjoy it!

Some wifi/ble modules come pre-certified. The holyiot 18010 (nRF52840) on the prototype comes with FCC/RoHS certs from the factory, so at least the Bluetooth part is "guaranteed" to be conform, and everything else is so simple, it won't cause any relevant EMI either way (esp. not inside a metal shell).

I think that's mostly a "I tested it with these OS so I can guarantee it works" thing - ZMK should work with pretty much anything out there as long as it can do HID over Bluetooth.

2. This one is basically limited by what a 3 position slider (usb/bt1/bt2) can do, the firmware could do up to 5. We could offer an alternative firmware where the slider can do bt1/bt2/bt3, and USB or Bluetooth is automatically determined by whether it's plugged in or not if that helps.

5. That space is needed for the battery, since the board is too slim to place it elsewhere.

Only thing I can imagine - super hard to find keycaps.

Sure thing. We'll release the original firmware configuration alongside with the board, so changing the keymap and recompiling a new firmware wouldn't be a big deal, flashing is easy over USB (and once ZMK studio is ready, you will even be able to live-remap over USB/BT without a recompile/reflash).

It's running open source ZMK firmware, which has no problems connecting to Linux devices, and if I remember correctly the "base keymap" features will all work cross-OS, and can be remapped easily with a firmware update.