Keyboard Builders' Digest / Projects
Arachnophobe
Sadek Baroudi's Arachnophobe is a 30-key choc/mx monoblock split using any Seeed XIAO controller.
Published July 20, 2022
The 30-key column staggered arachnophobe by Sadek is using the Seeed XIAO RP2040 controller. It supports Kailh hotswap sockets and both Choc v1 and MX switches on the same PCB.
This particular board was designed for Seeed's mechanical keyboard competition, thus the pretty uncommon layout with some index finger keys removed:
I used a Seeed because I wanted to try it out, and Seeed is hosting a design contest, so figured I'd go for it. Also, the nice thing about these is that have various versions of the controller (BLE, RP2040, etc), so that gives some flexibility for the PCB – sadekbaroudi.
Given that some finger lengths, especially the index-ring finger ratio, are allegedly affected by fetal exposure to hormones during the pregnancy (digit ratio), this board turned out to be a more masculine one – if that's a thing.
Namely, a greater proportion of men have shorter index fingers than ring fingers (in the case of women, this ratio is reversed):
I was constrained by the 11 gpio, which gave me 30 keys. Given I rely heavily on 3 key thumb clusters, I decided I had to remove 3 keys from each half. The upper pinky column keys were an obvious choice. I picked those other two because to me they were the most annoying keys to reach for – sadekbaroudi.
Specs
- 30 keys
- MX or Choc switches
- any Seeed XIAO controller (built and tested with RP2040 on QMK and ZMK)
- 3D printable case files for both MX and Choc (height difference)
Was a challenge to build my keymap on 30 switches, but with a bunch of combos, was able to do it. I typed on it for a few days at work with no issues – sadekbaroudi.
GitHub repo: https://github.com/sadekbaroudi/arachnophobe
And here is the keymap on imgur as well as the links to the KLE pages.
Published on Wed 20th Jul 2022. Featured in KBD #88 (source).
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