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【IC】The AUNK, a 60% keyboard PCB for all people of the world

类型: IC
作者: VinnyCordeiro
发布时间: 2015-07-12 22:48:43
更新时间: 2015-11-13 06:46:28
原链接: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=73527.0


As some of you may know, I’m the designer of the upcoming TK78-R & TK78-L keyboards. But, before those keyboards, I was designing yet another 60%. Why? Because I’m Brazilian and never saw a 60% that gives full support for our standard layout: ABNT2. It is, as a matter of fact, a mixing of the ISO standard (inverted L-shaped Enter, split left Shift) and the JIS standard (split right Shift).
So I decided months ago to design my own board.
This design have gone through more than 10 revisions, as I always had new ideas that I wanted to incorporate into my PCB. I wanted this board to be as flexible (in terms of layout possibilities) as possible. So I spent some time reading many other threads about custom 60% PCBs and added some ideas of mine and reached these specs for the board:

  • Support for ANSI, ISO, JIS and ABNT2;

  • Split Backspace key;

  • Split Shift keys. The left one is split as on ISO standard, but the right one you can choose to split as on JIS (1×1 - 1×1.75) or as on HHKB (1×1.75 - 1×1);

  • Stepped and non-stepped Caps Lock support;
    The bottom row
    This was the part of the design that gave me more work. I wanted to give full support to JIS layout, even if no Japanese will ever use this board: I thought that this could still be useful, the extra keys can be configured as extra Fn keys.
    That said, that are all bottom row configurations this PCB support:

  • ANSI 1.25 (standard)

  • ANSI 1.5 (full 1.5 mod, winkeyless or HHKB)

  • ANSI 1.5 variant, with an extra 1×1 key and using a 6× spacebar

  • JIS, with 3 extra keys.
    As I wanted to make use of standard keycaps, there are 2 configurations for JIS bottom row:

  • An ANSI 1.5 variation, with 3 1×1.25 JIS keys and an extra 1×1 at the right side of the spacebar, which is 1×2.25;

  • An ANSI 1.25 variation, with all keys but the spacebar and a 1×1 key measuring 1×1.25. The spacebar is 1×2.75.
    There are some layouts that I wanted to include but wasn’t possible because of size limitations (like the Samwisekoi, present on the GH60).
    How much will it cost?
    That will depend if I find someone to proxy the PCBs on the US and/or Europe. My target to this initial batch is $30 - $50, but this will be higher if I have to ship them from Brazil. Reason: import taxes.
    My idea is to produce an initial batch of 10 15 PCBs (can be more if there is interest), which will have assembled SMD components at the fab house. The microcontroller will be our good Atmel ATmega32u4, using TMK keyboard firmware. The PCB can be fitted on any Poker-style case.

  • UPDATE*: I’m in talk with a fab house that, going everything right, will ship the PCB’s directly to the buyer, avoiding the need for reshipping. Let’s hope everything goes well.

  • UPDATE 2*: I will finish the revision 5 of the board and set the group buy in some days. The goal will be 25 PCB’s, which will bring them to an acceptable cost.
    What the hell does means AUNK?
    Aunk is a small hamlet in East Devon, England. But for us, AUNK means AWESOME United Nations Keyboard, as this board can be used by any person on this planet in their native keyboard layout. ;)
    The project is adjourned. No estimate to when it’ll be alive. I thank all the support I got around this project and I’m sad and sorry that it won’t come to life as soon as I expected.
    [/list]

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