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It's a split keyboard in 4 parts and 101 keys, though i could move the number pad and control pad to outside of the thumb keys if making a 4-piece keyboard is too hard or complicated.

Left thumb gets space, control, and super. Right gets space, hyper (just a 3rd layer), and alt. The keys next to T and N are repeat keys. Above Fn is escape and sleep. Above power is compose.

The control pad has cut, copy, paste, open, select all, save, undo, and redo.

I think that's every key i'll need, especially with a compose key and so much extra space available on the hyper layer.

Is there anything i've forgotten to consider? Anything i should know about split keyboards, or custom shapes in general?

More specific question, are 0.5u switches and caps available anywhere for all my small keys? I could replace most of them with full size keys fairly easily, but the 101st key on the number pad would make the layout asymmetrical.

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[-] tankplanker@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

You can extend the matrix across so it becomes one board, but it means custom wiring the connector.

See here: https://trashman.wiki/keyboards/caravan-2

Does mean more pins for large matrix

Chidori also can have three parts to the split using i think ic2, was a while since I built mine, see the expansion option

https://github.com/kagizaraya/chidori_build_guide/blob/master/README_en.md

[-] wjrii@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

You can extend the matrix across so it becomes one board, but it means custom wiring the connector.

Yeah, physically that will work. I should have mentioned that, as it's what I did (permanently wired) on my failure of an ergo split to get it split at all with one MCU, but electrically it worked perfectly fine. Proper USB-C/Thunderbolt like the caravan 2 seems like it would be a good solution for a PCB, and I'm curious what issues the mini HDMI produced (crosstalk maybe, or just complaining about sourcing mini to mini cables?). Ethernet or DB9 should do for hand-wired, though obviously bulkier.

this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2025
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