44 Key Keyboard (Kailh Choc switches)

thingiverse

This is a remix of my split keyboard https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4842203. I use it for quite a while and seem to find the perfect angle between the halves. I wanted a slimmer version of them, so I combined the halves into one simple board. The result is not as slim as I hoped though. The next stop is a custom PCB then. The main idea was to have a top plate thick enough to fit the switches bottom part. That plate should be more rigid than the original board. Also I wanted to use the Cherry-MX keycap-compatible Kailh switches for which I do have a nice set of key caps, but I completely forgot about difference in their size, so I used the "regular" Kailh Choc ones. So this is just another interim design on the eternal journey to an ideal. As usual I swapped the springs to much lighter ones. Wanted to remove the stabilizers from the switches, but to my surprise there were none. I must bought some knock-offs, they were a few bucks cheaper than in the official Kailh store on Aliexpress. The switches seem to be good anyway, especially the body color matching the red filament I used for the top plate. For the brains I got a Teensy 2.0 laying around, it fit perfectly into the void space between the boards. The board implements Planck ver.4 diagram with my usual keymap./ The wiring got a bit messy, and I had to cut the grooves a bit wider, but in the end it worked ok. I had to enlarge both parts by 1% in the slicer, otherwise the switches fit a bit too tight, forgot to add a tiny for clearance. Wonder if I should name it after Patrick, the start fish from the Spangebob cartoons. The middle section looks like the very angry Patrick. Fusion 360 project is here: https://a360.co/3oC33S1