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Corne

sungo@sungo.io (sungo) — Sat, 01 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

From foostan
Buy from Little Keyboards

It’s really weird that this entry has sat empty for so long. The Corne is my go-to board, both for MX and Choc, and yet somehow I’ve never updated this entry. Well, let’s fix that.

The Corne is a 3x6 column stagger ortholinear with three thumb keys per side, for a total of 42 keys. There are versions for both Choc and MX, all with underglow and per-key LEDs. Its MCU slot is pro-micro compatible and the halves are joined via a standard TRRS cable.

The v3 Corne (MX only) is a remarkably easy build and, ignoring the LEDs, even folks new to soldering should be able to complete. The LEDs can be a bit tricky, mostly the underglow LEDs, but they’re also completely optional. The diodes are SMD which some folks reject out of hand but they’re not all that difficult to solder, really. I find them much easier and less time consuming than through-hole. The Corne is extremely popular and can be found pre-built from most keyboard shops. Hell, even I’ve been known to build for folks.

The v2.1 Choc Corne however is a bit trickier. Unlike the v3, the v2 is a reversible board. If you’ve read my other keyboard posts, you likely know how much I hate reversible boards. The build guide is pretty clear but pay special attention to the MCU header location for each half. The LEDs on the choc corne are awful, in my opinion, and I never use them. They are installed by taping LEDs into holes and jumping solder bridges onto the pads. They’re a huge pain in my opinion. If you don’t care about LEDs, the v2.1 isn’t the worst build ever.

The ish

I will have an announcement post about this eventually but I, like every other keyboard person who wants to learn kicad, have a Corne variant, which I named the ish (Corne-ish, get it? yeah I suck at naming things). It’s based on the v3 corne, but with Choc switches and no LEDs. It’s built specifically for the nice!nano controller, ZMK firmware, and is wireless-first. The kicads and gerbers are available here.

Cases

Lots of folks just use the regular FR4 plates or a 3d printed case for their Corne. I got bored a while back and remixed and designed some sandwich cases for the MX Corne. (Technically these work with Choc Cornes too but the low profile tends to be so low that you can only get one layer without interfering with its operations.)

Curvy Sandwich

The curvy sandwich case is a remix which looks really good, in my opinion, no matter what materials you choose. It works with the standard FR4 switch plate and lends itself nicely to the LED effects supported by QMK.

Unibody

If you’ve ever found that using a corne on your lap is awkward, the unibody case is for you. It is compatible with the standard FR4 switch plate. Install your corne by taking off the bottom plate and screwing it into the bottom plate of the unibody case. The unibody case was designed with this TRRS cable from Mouser in mind but it should work with most short TRRS cables. The center of the case lifts off to expose the MCUs and the TRRS cable for easier maintenance.

Personal Preference

Why do I love the Corne? My hands don’t have to move. It’s a simple as that. The split means I can separate my hands to relax my problematic shoulders and the small size means my hands can hover over “home row” and not have to move much. Occasionally a combo or macro will require a wrist rotation but I’ve been modifying my keymap to avoid those movements. The Corne is also small and easy to carry around the house, particularly the wireless builds that don’t require extra cables.

I’ve built a lot of keyboards over the last two years and I keep coming back to the Corne. I’m still tweaking the keymap, particularly for coding symbols, but I’m not sure there’s ever an endgame for keymaps. For instance, I’ve been moving to emacs as my editor / personal knowledge store and that’s required some adjustments. To be honest, when I started this whole thing, I didn’t expect to keep coming back to a keyboard this small, but here we are.

Chosfox L75

sungo@sungo.io (sungo) — Tue, 21 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Table of Contents

The Chosfox L75 is a low-profile 75% keyboard from Chosfox, which might be obvious from the name. It sells as either a “kit” or fully assembled. The difference between fully assembled and kit is mostly the installation of the stabilizers and insertion of switches and caps. There is no soldering involved at all in either option.

My summary of this board is “if you want a keychron, but choc”. I’ll talk about the assembly in a bit but the real question is if the board is even worth your time. With caveats, I’d say yes. If you’re in the market for a keychron-like choc board, and don’t need any fun firmware tweaks, the L75 is a perfectly fine board. And, perhaps more importantly, if you want a choc 75% keyboard with the row stagger layout of a “regular” keyboard, there aren’t many other options out there.

In General

In general, the L75 is an extremely well designed keyboard. It comes with a nicely heavy aluminum case, rubber feet, battery, and stabilizers. The final quality is reminiscent of my beloved tofu65. The tofu65 is heavy enough to defend yourself from a zombie attack and while the L75 is not that heavy, it’s plenty heavy for a board this size, sitting at around 800g. It’s not going to slide around on your desk. On the inside, the battery is located in a dedicated compartment, held in place by double sided tape. The board is separated from the case by foam and is held in place without screws.

Keys and caps

The keys are MX spaced so there’s plenty of room for my fat fingers to type comfortably. The switch plate is 1.2mm aluminum, same as the rest of the case. Thanks to the battery, the L75 ends up with a three degree tilt (according to the vendor; I didn’t confirm locally.) The space bar is split in two, probably because it’s difficult to manufacturer keys that long and that thin and have them survive very long.

For keycaps, the only real choice, to my mind, is Chosfox’s own ChocFox Legends keycaps. I should really probably do a choc keycap review at some point but, suffice it to say, I adore ChosFox’s CFX keycaps. kbd.news did a first impressions post when they came out in July 2022 and I mostly agree with it. There are no sharp edges to these caps and the textures is very nice. Enough to not be slippery but still not grainy or abrasive. I type on CFX every day and love them. The legends add lettering to the caps via dye sublimation and they’re great to type on. The typography is nice and clear to read.

The CFX legends are the only choice for me because the L75 requires caps larger than 1U to do its thing. As you’d expect for a full size 75% keyboard, backspace, enter, left shift, and the space bars are large enough to need stabilizers. Key caps this size are still pretty rare in choc land.

Your other key cap option for this board is the MBK Legend set. I am not a fan of this set and I find them gritty and unpleasant to use, despite them having been my daily driver for months. But to each their own, no judgments :)

If you are going to get CFX caps while you’re ordering an L75, do yourself a favor, order some switches, and let them do the assembly. It’s only $10 at time of writing and ordering all the bits together will maybe help justify ChosFox’s rather batshit shipping costs.

Assembly

Ok. On to assembly. I only have two real complaints here and they’re related. First, holy fuck choc stabilizers are fiddly as hell. I used the Keeb.io installation guide to figure it out and still fucked it up a couple times. I dislike MX stabilizers with a passion and making them even tinier did not make me feel better. Choc stabs are plate mounted, with no screws. The L75 case backs them up with metal columns from the case so they shouldn’t work loose but time will tell.

Second, holy fuck the bluetooth/wired button is fiddly as hell. it’s tiny and you’ve got to get it into its hole and slide it over the switch on the PCB while trying to close the case up. Took me a couple tries to get it right.

Otherwise, the assembly is pretty easy. I would caution folks to, well, be careful when inserting switches. There are a lot of traces on the front of PCB, often right around the hot swap sockets. If one of the switch pins gets out of whack and gouges the board, you might cut through a trace, ending the party.

The Firmware

The firmware is … well, this is where the keychron comparison popped in my head. The L75 runs a custom firmware from ChosFox. They claim it supports custom macros but the software to configure them is some windows executables sitting in a google drive. I will not be running random software of unknown provenance, particularly on Windows. Not that I have a Windows box right now, but still.

So as it sits here, caps lock is caps lock, and none of my other fun keyboard hacks are in place. The top row that could be function keys are instead, by default, media keys and brightness etc. There is an fn key on the top row that turns them into function keys but I’m not aware of a permanent toggle.

The L75 is RGB happy and has the same list of effects as a Keychron, with animations and color changing and explosions caused by every key press. RGB mode can be disabled and the preference seems to stick even after unplugging the keyboard.

Near as I can tell, the split space bar will always be two space bars. Maybe the sketchy windows apps can change this but I’m not aware of a way, out of the box, to customize them. I’d love to match my split keyboard layout of space and enter on my thumbs. More problematically, the split space bar is split down the center. If you hit the spacebar on, say, your laptop keyboard in the center of the bar, the L75 will drive you up a wall. I am constantly hitting the gap between the halves and am constantly reminding myself to bring my thumb in closer. I’m sure I’d get used to it if this were my only board, but right now, oof it’s annoying.

Bluetooth

The L75 also has bluetooth functionality. I’ve had zero luck with this so far. I’ve been able to pair but the connection drops out after a minute or so and requires a full repairing when it comes up. I will try to charge the battery overnight to see if that resolves the issue. But as of right now, my L75 will stay wired.

Summary

In summary, I like the L75 a lot as far as row stagger boards go. I don’t plan to use it as my daily driver but I will certainly keep it around. If I ever decide that split keyboard life isn’t for me and I want to go back to unibody row stagger “normie” board, I’ll come back to the L75 first. But the custom firmware really kills this board as a driver for me. I like my weird layout, and I’d love to use it here. There are client side hacks I could employ but what’s the fun in that. Ultimately, I’d love to use ZMK on the L75 but I suspect that’s just a dream.

Special Mention

I should put a special mention in here for the cable that came with my L75. They sent me a very nice USB-C cable with screw-together connector and really well done metal ends. I was already impressed and then I plugged it in. The end of the cable contains color changing RGB elements. Totally pointless but pretty nonetheless. And excellent craftsmanship.

Zaphod

sungo@sungo.io (sungo) — Sun, 31 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

From petejohanson
Purchase from mkultra

The Zaphod is a BLE / USB unibody split keyboard with three rows, five columns per half, and two thumb keys per side. It has aggressive stagger, inspired by the Ferris split keyboard, and you really should download the layout tester to make sure you like it.

The PCB comes mostly assembled, either from the GB or a vendor like mkultra. You have to deal with the display and the switches. All in all, it’s an easy build. Follow the build guide particularly as it concerns the display and the spring headers.

The keyboard itself is extremely well thought out. The punchout for the larger battery, nestled under the display, is an excellent touch and that battery should last so long you forget it’s there. The display is a transreflective Sharp display that has very low power draw. It wouldn’t help much if you like to code in the dark but it’s fine if there’s a light source around.

You can’t really tell from my photos but there’s an interesting flourish in that the diodes are, when completed, housed inside the LED opening in the Choc key switch. They are completely protected. Pete tells me this was also inspired by the Ferris.

Will I use it? I don’t know. It’s five columns, compared to my usual six, so it’d take some deep keymap rework. But as I’ve discussed before in builds, I think that day is coming. I think this might be an excellent board to learn five columns, particularly if I leverage the display.

I have three warnings about the Zaphod, none of them deal breakers. Just stuff to be aware of before you buy/build.

First, the keys use choc spacing. There is over 1mm less distance between keys. If you’ve only ever used Cherry spacing or have giant fingers, the board will feel cramped. Also, some keycaps, like the WRK Louder sets, will not work. MBK caps, MoErgo MCC, and Kailh caps all work fine.

Second, the Ferris-inspired stagger is not for everyone. Grab the tester, print it out, and make sure your fingers can deal before buying. Oddly, with the choc spacing, the aggressive stagger doesn’t feel as, well, aggressive to me. But it’s certainly different.

Third, the key switches are soldered. If you’ve read any of my builds before, you’ll know how much I dislike soldered key switches. But it’s a cute little board and, at the moment, I have lots of switches to spare. If you feel super strongly about soldered switches, this ain’t the board for you.

And I have one vendor warning.

The kit from mkultra is… let’s call it a variant. Rather than using the official acrylic case (or getting it cut as fr4 which I would have loved), mkultra’s build has no switch plate, no protective cover for the electronics. You can get an aluminum bottom, which to be fair is really nice, but it doesn’t come with standoffs or long enough screws to add the acrylic or 3d print case later. My build features the acrylic case because I happen to have a laser cutter. The vast majority of the time for my build was finding standoffs and screws that’d work.

Helix

sungo@sungo.io (sungo) — Sun, 22 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

From MakotoKurauchi
Buy from Little Keyboards

Draculad

sungo@sungo.io (sungo) — Mon, 16 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

From MangoIV
Buy from Little Keyboards

Snap

sungo@sungo.io (sungo) — Sun, 17 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

From Nullbits

I really want to love the Snap. I really want to tell you to go buy the Snap if you want to build a 75% keyboard. But I can’t.

TL;DR: if you want a split 75% keyboard and you aren’t obsessed with the exposed diode aesthetic, go get a Sinc from Keebio

The Snap has some major problems that make it a “do not buy”.

First, you need to buy screws. At time of writing, the screws that come in the kit are too long, can’t screw in all the way, and work themselves free in a day or less. If you follow the instructions and solder your switches, the screws up top are almost impossible to replace after installation. The screws I ended up using were these M2x3mm screws from uxcell via Amazon. They need an itty bitty screwdriver but work just fine on the Snap. Nullbits has been informed of the screw problem and hopefully they’ll get it fixed. However, they are not offering replacements for folks who already bought their kits.

Second, the pogo plugs and magnets that make this “snap” are a gimmick that doesn’t really work at all.

By default, the instructions have you insert the magnets in special spots in the acrylic mid-layer and cover them with a sticker. This, in theory, keeps the magnets in place and protects them. As you might imagine, the stickers don’t last long and the pull between the magnets is strong enough to extract the magnets anyway. They have to be glued to work properly. And bizarrely, the kit doesn’t contain enough magnets to fill all the spots in the mid-layer that are clearly intended for magnets.

The pogo plugs are easy enough to solder on but they’re otherwise a mess. They are intended to allow one to snap the halves together and operate like a not-split keyboard, without a TRRS cable connecting the halves. There’s nothing to support the middle, though. So if you try and move the keyboard around, chances are the halves will come apart. At this point, the firmware typically freaks out. I’m not sure what’s going on here because QMK normally does just fine if you unplug half a split. The Snap, however, in my brief attempts, needs to be unplugged when the halves come apart. This isn’t a problem if you put the halves together using the TRRS cable but at that point why even have the pogo plugs.

Third, despite having spots for an OLED on both halves of the board, only one can be used at any given time. This is a QMK behavior and there’s nothing nullbits can do about it but the docs, at time of writing, don’t explain this at all.

Fourth, at time of writing, the firmware is still not in mainline QMK and as such it is not available in the QMK configurator. nullbits intends you to use VIA but VIA is simply not capable of many advanced features. Yes, you can git clone the firmware into your local QMK checkout but the lack of configurator support breaks the easiest way of handling keymaps. Specifically, this doesn’t work with my userspace so, even if I wanted to put the Snap into daily rotation, I couldn’t really until configurator support is a thing.

Fifth, the instructions really assume you’re soldering everything down. The switch holes take Mil-Max sockets well but if one is just following the standard instructions, everything is permanently affixed. Given that Nullbits really targets these products at newbies, I am of the opinion that focusing on permanent installation does them a great disservice.

The last bit that drives me nuts with the Snap is a personal item and probably reflects more on my growth and preference change since I built that first Nibble in 2021. Nullbits has an aesthetic of exposed electronics and the owner of Nullbits is an electronics person. These combined lead to the Snap having way more bits to solder than any other board.

The aesthetic of the exposed glass diodes means there is no option for SMD diodes and I have grown to hate through-hole diodes. They take forever to install and solder and they are prone to getting misaligned or otherwise ugly. The through-holes on the Snap are large so it’s really easy to get too much solder in the hole and have it pour out the other side. And the other side is the front of the keyboard, visible to everyone for all of time. A lot of folks like this sort of look but it’s just not for me.

Nullbits chose to use integrated circuits to expand the keyboard matrix. Those are the big black rectangles on the top. They are directional and fiddly as hell to get in. The pins must be bent inward to fit and the pins are very thin and prone to breaking. They are also highly directional.

All this combines to make the Nullbits Snap a project that takes even me multiple days to get through with a high probability of error.

Like I said at the start, I really wanted to come out of this build raving about another Nullbits product. I like them a lot and the community they foster. But this is simply not a product I suggest anyone purchase.

KBO-5000

sungo@sungo.io (sungo) — Fri, 15 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

From Keeb.io

The KBO-5000 is a 80% split staggered board by Keebio. It comes mostly pre-assembled in that all the diodes and what not are pre-soldered. You’re left with stabilizers, switches and caps. The board itself comes pre-installed with QMK/VIA.

Unlike some more recent Keebio boards, the KBO-5000 is designed for soldered switches. It is possible to use Mil-Max sockets which I did for my build. It’s fiddly as the switch sockets are just barely big enough for Mil-Max but, in the end, it works just fine.

It is not possible, however, to just Mil-Max every socket on the board and figure out your preferred layout later. The amount of choice on the bottom row is madness and it causes problems for yolo’ing the sockets. Many positions will interfere with the stabilizers or neighboring switches. So, before you sit down to solder on the Mil-Max sockets, take a close look at the documentation and plan your layout.

One weird thing is that one of the layout options calls for the spacebars to be 3U. It is almost impossible to find 3U stabilizer wire and most cap packs don’t come with 3U space bars. The board does support a relatively standard 2.75U spacebar which is shown in my pictures. With the sizes I chose for the other bottom row keys, the PCB shows through a bit. If that bothers you, plan that bottom row better than I did.

As I always say, I do really like the choice of usb-c to connect the halves.

All in all, the board is a solid standard Keebio product. It’s in daily use here at the house by a heavy typer and there have been no problems whatsoever.

Quefrency v4

sungo@sungo.io (sungo) — Fri, 15 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

From Keeb.io

To be honest, this barely counts as a build. This kit comes entirely pre-soldered. You have to install the stabilizers, the switches, and caps. The board itself comes with QMK/VIA pre-installed. The switches are hotswap via pre-soldered Kailh sockets. All-in-all, installation time is a half hour or less and is mostly just pushing stuff into holes.

As always, Keebio delivers a solid product with the Quefrency. Each half has extra macro keys which can be snapped off at build time. It’s a little stressful to break off part of the keyboard PCB but it works. I chose, as shown in the photos, to break off the macros on the left hand side to reduce the travel time to my trackball. The halves are connected with a usb-c cable which is a really nice decision. It’s safe to unplug the halves while connected to the keyboard without worrying about shorting the board.

There’s really not all that much more to say. If you’re using a 65% keyboard and want to split, this is a very solid choice.

Rhymestone

sungo@sungo.io (sungo) — Wed, 16 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

From marksard
Buy from Boardsource

The Rhymestone is a 40 key ortho split in a 5x4 layout. I got mine from Boardsource. This is a simple enough build and mostly standard. The board supports both through-hole and SMD diodes and uses Kailh hotswap sockets. Boardsource doesn’t link to the original author’s build guide so here it is. Google Translate or similar is required if you do not read Japanese.

There’s only one part of this build that gives me pause. Specifically, the per-switch LEDs are very old school and a style I generally refuse to deal with. Take a look at the photo below from the build guide.

This is a very old school sway to installing LEDs from before the existence of the SK6812-E LEDs that just lay flat in the hole with legs that hold things in place. For the Rhymestone and similarly older style boards, the idea is that you put tape on one side of the hole, gently lay the LED in the hole, and solder a bridge from the PCB pad to the LED. If this seems wildly problematic and fragile to you, we are of the same mind.

Otherwise, this is an easy build that yields a decent 5x4 split ortho. The board is also open source, under the MIT license, if you’d like to order your own from JLCPCB or AllPCB or wherever instead of giving money to Boardsource.

Ergotravel

sungo@sungo.io (sungo) — Wed, 02 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

From jpconstantineau

The Ergotravel is a split column stagger keyboard with a 4x6 layout, thumb keys, and extra inner keys compared to other similar boards. The Ergotravel originally came about as a group buy on Reddit but has since been open sourced under the MIT license. The author has nicely provided ordering instructions including a bill of materials for ordering your own.

The Ergotravel is a very easy build made easier by its lack of RGB or OLED support. It does not support hotswap natively but the switch holes take Mil-Max sockets just fine. If you chose the 2U thumb switch, you will need two pairs of stabilizers.

I really want to like the Ergotravel. I adore the 2U thumbswitch. Ultimately, though, I decided it’s not for me. I suppose it’s more accurate to say that it didn’t rise above the Corne for me. There are a few factors in that decision.

First, it’s a big keyboard. The MCU is bottom mounted so the build is really tall compared to something like the Corne. The top and bottom plates are all pretty big as well. Turns out there are alternate “internal pcb” plates that I would probably like a lot better.

Second, the placement of the thumb rows keys is off for me. As you can maybe see below in the image from compare.splitkb.com, the second thumb row key is way further to the side compared to the Corne with third even further. I use those keys a lot and the extra distance was not good for my hands, introducing a larger pivot that angered my wrist.

Third, I realized I’d never use the extra inner macro keys, nor the thumb row keys. I wanted to put coding symbols on the inner keys but I could never get used to the extra reach.

All in all, this is a very nice board that is easy to build. Just, sadly, it’s not for me.