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Trio

A modular keyboard prototype for full VIK experience: Trio by zzeneg.

KBD.news
Published April 25, 2024
Creators! Feel free to tip me off about your keyboard related projects to bring them to 100K readers.

Evgenii Vilkov's (aka zzeneg) Trio is a modular keyboard prototype for full VIK experience.

Hey! Sharing my new keyboard (more like a prototype though) – Evgenii.

The keyboard uses two PCB designs, both under 100x100mm, and a one-piece case (also very light to use the cheapest shipping option from JLCPCB). It's designed for KS-33 (Gateron Low Profile) switches with minimal vertical spacing (19x16mm) so regular keycaps will not fit.

Pic:

The building process requires a lot of hand-soldering with 0.5mm pitch, you need good tools and experience to do that. All in all, the author does not recommend to build it exactly like that, but to use it as inspiration for your projects.

Specs

  • 36 keys (3x5+3, sort of…)
  • KS-33 (Gateron Low Profile) keys, hotswap
  • MinY (19x16mm) spacing
  • central PCB with two independent VIKs, DRV2605L haptic feedback and rotary encoder
  • periferal PCBs for keys
  • 3D printed case with 1.28" display, Azoteq TPS65 touchpad and 33mm encoder

Pic:

The initial idea was to test and demo all VIK capabilities, including having two independent VIKs in one keyboard. I did not thought of it as a proper keyboard, so I made it as cheap as possible and reused whatever parts from other projects I had laying around – Azoteq TPS65 touchpad, bare 1.28" round display, rotary encoder and DRV2605L motor controller for haptic feedback. Even that setup does not use all VIK ports, you can still add one SPI-only module :)

Resources

Feel free to use and improve the KiCad and Fusion 360 source files:

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Published on Thu 25th Apr 2024. Featured in KBD #163 (source).

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