#Kailh Choc

[nekoewen]

Most years the Google Japan team shows off a wildly impractical keyboard in October, and they release the open source resources necessary to recreate their madness. Their offering for 2021 was a keyboard shaped like a teacup, with the keys corresponding to the kanji for different kinds of sushi. Naturally I took it upon myself to actually build one of these, which is now done. It was way less aggravating to put together than I expected, mostly a lot of bending and soldering little pieces of metal to assemble the PCB pieces into a cylinder.

[seximal]

ordered new keyboard switches and immediately got a notif that they had shipped. uhm are you sure about that?

[andmaybegayer]

let’s dispel once and for all the fiction that mechanical keyswitches are good. They aren’t that much better than the alternatives.

More earnestly: the number one benefit of mechanical keyswitches is that they grant a designer an extraordinary degree of latitude when it comes to the structure and design of a keyboard. Unless you really highly value clickiness the majority of their features can be matched by high quality rubber domes from any decent keyboard manufacturer.

Their real strength is that you can pick consistent, reliable switches and put them anywhere you want in 3D space and just run wires to them to make a unique 1 of 1 keyboard that perfectly fits you, and you can easily stick a microcontroller with custom firmware in there to implement whatever features you want.

I got a Logitech ergo rubber dome today and it feels great, the biggest issue is that I wish it didn’t have a numpad and I wish it had more thumb buttons so that they could do more work. And of course I would! That’s what my homemade custom mechanical split keyboard looks like! I could make that to exact specs with some wood tools and a laser cut sheet of brass for the switchplate, whereas this Logitech is a miracle made of over a dozen unique injection moulded parts with an overall mould cost probably exceeding USD 50k!

I would love to have exactly the perfect high end rubber dome mass-produced keyboard of my dreams, but no one makes it, and that’s, reasonable, I have very specific dreams, but I have never understood bog standard layout mechanicals. You could be having a much better time with something with nicer switches!

Sorely tempted to figure out if I can physically hack off the numpad here and sneakily hot-glue some kailh choc switches to the wristrest as thumb keys. At the moment I'm just putting my trackball square on top of the numpad which works fine. I'll print a cap for it later. This is going to end up at Gainful Employment Location not home. At the very least I want to see if there's a way to distinguish the two spacebars in software and use some clever hacks to make them behave as enter/backspace/both.

ISO enter keys were sent by the devil but I don't really have a lot of good options unless I want to import ANSI keyboards.

[senshi-9]

Selûne's Keyboard of Night Keyboard: Keyball39 Switch: SP Star Meteor White Linear; Kailh Choc Pro Low Profile Switches - Silver Keycap: OEM Electroplated Metallic Matte Silver Keycaps; MBK Choc Blanks - Gray

[notquiteapex]

So, how's the JukeBox development coming along? Well, it sure is coming, I promise.

In case you don't know what a JukeBox is, it's a little hotkey device I'm building! I originally made this to assist with my endeavors in streaming, but it turns out having extra keys is very useful for a lot of things! Whether it be hotkeys for quickly running macros via AutoHotKey, managing your Discord audio settings, playing funny sounds with VoiceMod, switching tools in your favorite art program like Paint Tool SAI, or managing OBS like I do. It's a very powerful device, and all it does is act like a keyboard with the F13-F24 keys. I bet you didn't even know there was more than the F1-F12 keys, am I right?

About a year ago, I said I would begin selling these soon. That was a bit of a lie, fortunately I am very good at those. That last bit was also a lie, in case you couldn't tell. I got the opportunity to work on the JukeBox as part of an independent study for college credit, so I took a lot of time to plan and rethink the product. That part wasn't a lie The result is the new V5 board!

Ok so this isn't the actual V5 board yet.

I decided to completely change up what makes up a JukeBox. I decided to use an RP2040 chip, which is used to power a Raspberry Pi Pico. I used a Pico board, along with the old JukeBox V4 boards, an RGB LED ring, and an OLED screen to build my ideal V5 prototype. The result is the same JukeBox known and loved but with some added features, like reactive lighting and a screen to display fun graphics and info!

This is the finalized board, it's design has been shipped off to manufacturing, and will hopefully arrive right at the start of the new year. I'm paying a lot of money for just 10 of these things! I can't wait.

The plan is to sell 3 versions of the board, a basic variant (keyboard only), an RGB variant, and an RGB plus screen variant. Prices are still being determined, but they will be higher than previously anticipated due to rising material costs. The goal is to keep the basic variant at $25 to maintain affordability. You will also be able to choose what kinds of keys you want, be it Cherry MX Blues or Kailh Choc Whites.

I'm working on the final casing. It'll be a 3D printed shell with some nice M2.5 nuts and bolts. It'll also be in a mostly-opaque white so the RGB looks good shining through. The legs are also completely optional, both the case and the legs will have nice rubber feet to keep the board steady. The keycaps will be "relegendable", meaning you'll be able to stick a piece of paper in them with whatever you want on them. You get everything seen here, plus a USB-C cable, and my deepest gratitude. Maybe some day you'll get to have a JukeBox in atomic purple instead of a basic white!

The best part about it all is that you don't need to install any drivers! The keyboard component is always guaranteed to work on any computer that supports USB, and most usually do (hopefully). The screen and RGB won't work without a companion app, sadly, but I'm working hard to make it painless to setup and use, near plug-and-play. I've been writing it in Rust while working on the board, and it will support Windows and Linux without much issue.

Lastly, the entire project is going to be open source! The code will be under an open license, and all the physical parts will be usable under a Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-SA). I won't allow people to just up and sell the boards without modification, but if someone wants to make and sell their own variant I'd be more than happy to allow it if they ask. Devices like these should be cheap and accessible for everyone.

Hopefully I'll start selling these on my Ko-fi before Q2 of 2024. See you then!

[solradguy]

You know, I went through a hell of an ordeal trying to find low profile Kailh Choc switches for my 'box and it turned out Snack Box sold the damn things all along lol

Looks like they haven't restocked their key caps in ages though... Unfortunate.

[oct2pus]

I've been working on a game controller. I exported the .step files for the pcb from kicad and converted that into a .stl and I'm using that for a test fit. I have two full sized arcade joystick microswitches for the shoulder buttons and I'm using kailh choc keyboard switches for the dpad and face buttons.

it's unlikely I'll keep you all up to date on all the changes, but if you're interested you can check out my mastodon account!

[adafruit]

NeoKey CHOC Breakout

Kailh CHOC switches are low profile and are available in linear or clicky style https://www.adafruit.com/search?q=choc and they are very cool looking - but one thing they aren't is MX compatible! they have a totally different pinout so we need new breakout boards if we want to use them in a project. This is a simple 'port' of our NeoKey https://www.adafruit.com/product/4978 that has a CHOC socket https://www.adafruit.com/product/5118 and we're testing it here on a breadboard to make sure the button and NeoPixel works well before ordering final PCBs.

[gizchinaes]

Descubre el Nuevo Sharkoon PureWriter W65: Teclado Mecánico Compacto y Versátil

Sharkoon ha anunciado el lanzamiento del PureWriter W65, un versátil teclado mecánico inalámbrico equipado con interruptores de bajo perfil Kailh Choc V2. Lanzado el 9 de octubre, el PureWriter W65 está diseñado tanto para el trabajo de oficina como para el gaming, ofreciendo un diseño inalámbrico de modo dual con un formato al 65% y compatibilidad con sistemas Windows y MacOS. El teclado…

[sumikatt]

Piantor Pro by beekeeb

Kailh Sunset Tactile Choc switches

3D printed case in Cyber Yellow

Waiting for her in the mail currently… Pics are from the shopkeep, Leo 💛😇

[nekoewen]

I discovered the Humla open-source keyboard a while back, ordered PCBs, and kinda fell in love with it. It’s become my preferred on-the-go keyboard, and I now use it a lot with an iPad Mini for writing. It has a 36-key layout similar to a 5-column Corne or a Minidox or Gergoplex, so it’s basically what I’ve been using on my desktop but with a compact unibody design.

Since it has the option to add Bluetooth functionality (by adding a battery and power switch, and replacing the microcontroller with a Bluetooth one) and I was mainly using it with an iPad, I wanted to go ahead and do that. The big thing getting in the way is that to do Bluetooth with a DIY mechanical keyboard, you generally need to use the ZMK firmware package (instead of QMK, which is the most widely used one for wired keyboards).

From what I’ve seen, ZMK is well-made, but it does certain things very differently. The big one is that where QMK defaults to having you set up a command-line interface that can then compile firmware locally, the preferred way to compile ZMK firmware involves setting up a GitHub repository that’s connected to ZMK, which then automatically compiles and puts the firmware file in the Actions tab every time you update it. If you want to compile firmware for a different firmware, you can add it to the build.yaml file and it’ll do its thing.

It took me a while to get that working, and I now have my ZMK firmware profile up on GitHub. With that it was just a tiny bit of extra soldering, and now my Humla is Bluetooth and the little messenger bag I keep that stuff in is a bit lighter without all the cables in it.

(Pictured on the screen is the book on mechanical keyboards that I started on. I’m still kinda throwing stuff into a doc, and we’ll see what it actually turns into.)

[zalhera]

Guess who's working on a low profile ergodox build

Kailh Choc Sunset switches arrived :)

[flarebean]

anyway my friend brought a switch tester to class today! clicky...

i think i still prefer my low profile logitech browns. why are normal switches so tall?

so it's like a lil note for me; if i ever want to make a custom keeb it's gonna be kailh chocs most likely. but i don't think i will. no reason to.

i think if i make a custom it's gonna be really 100% custom. like design your own pcb and cry about soldering custom. like 3d print a case custom. like figure out how to change the keybinds on pc and/or phone custom. some crazy little macropad that's mad portable. maybe with a stenography mode because it isn't gonna have all the keys.

[criscables]

Chocfox Choc PBT Keycaps now available at KRISCABLES.COM https://kriscables.com/product/chocfox-choc-pbt-keycaps/ Personal opinion: Simply the best option for kailh-choc compatible keycaps right now. Pleasant to touch, comfortable profile, quality PBT plastic, perfect fit on switches – not too tight, not too loose, perfect fit for choc spaced keyboards as Chocofi and Cantor etc. Highly recommended. ➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ #mechanicalkeyboards #keyboard #keycaps #keycap #customcable #artisankeycaps #artisan #geekhack #cherrymx #rmk #gaming #videogaming #gamingpc #gamingsetup #mechkeyboard #pcmr #gamer #rgb #reddit #gamingislife #pcmasterrace #pcgaming #gamerpc #rgblights #handmade #battlestation #usbcables #gamingsetups (at LISBOA - LISBON) https://www.instagram.com/p/CmelEn2Mvzc/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[notquiteapex]

what's the plan for the jukeboxes? curious about how v2 is coming along 👀

also i love mine to bits, wanna wire it up for a soundboard at some point hehe

OH BOY I GET TO TALK ABOUT MY OTHER WEIRD PROJECTS!

Jukebox development has been on hold for a while now! Between the work on the next version (which would've been v4, btw, not v2. (I've been working on this for fuckin ever dude good god) Fun fact, you and some others got a v3!) and life just kind of happening to me, I haven't made much progress. Part of that life bit was also because I'm actually going to be doing an independent study with a prof at my university to develop the (hopefully last) version of the Jukebox.

The plan is to use a cheaper microcontroller (v4 had one that cost $2.50 to $4 per chip, v5 will be using one that's only $1 with a $0.25 memory chip) but keep pretty much everything else the same from the previous version. That means USB-C, Cherry MX and Kailh Choc key switch support, and open source everything. It would also have another 4 keys for the "modifier" (ctrl, alt, shift, super) keys for even more hotkey-ability.

I actually have a bunch of v4's built, and have been meaning to give them away to local friends or swap them with existing Jukeboxes I have given/sold to people. I also use a v4 with some "relegendable" key caps.

Ideally, the final version of the Jukebox would be sold with these (or similar) key caps, with a fun sticker sheet or something. The current "stickers" are made of printer paper, held in by the top and bottom halves of the keycap. I regularly use this while streaming and when I'm in Discord calls. It's great!

A big part of the reason the Jukebox still isn't finished, even with the whole independent study thing, is that I want it to be basically "finished" when I release it. Nothing new should need to be done with it once its out in the world. No firmware revisions, no bloated desktop applications. I want it to be something you can buy once and be happy with for the rest of your computing days, because lord knows we already have enough e-waste in the world. Designing products that last and that people want to use can be hard, especially when you're self funded and solo!

But I still have more plans for this thing, like this screen add-on for monitoring PC performance for weird PC building nerds like myself (or just anything, because it's a screen), and hopefully by next May it'll be ready for order proper. (Also ideally any old jukeboxes out there would just get a simple swap with the new ones. I'm already super in-the-red in terms of profit off these things, going in further wouldn't be so bad if it meant I got some of my old equipment and stuff back so I can use it for other things :D)

[solradguy]

I looked into getting the parts for the DIY hitbox I'm doing and if I get this sketchy yet highly rated board off Amazon and Kailh low profile Choc switches for the buttons, this whole project will be less than $30 lol

It's going to kill me if this thing ends up lasting longer than a ps4 controller and the Hori Commander pad while costing half as much as either. I've spent... $180... on new controllers because I keep grinding their boards into dust with my freak grip strength...