randa.is

making keyboards
the first keyboard I soldered myself
2021-09-08

making a Corne

Earlier in 2021, I bought a ZSA Moonlander and loved it. I adapted to the column-staggered layout quickly, and I couldn’t stop tinkering with the key mappings in Oryx. I discovered layers and stopped using the number row altogether, and I moved a lot of keys that would usually be in the outer columns to the thumb keys.

However, the tenting-leg thumb key panel didn’t work with my hand shape - the thumb keys felt too far away to reach with my fingers still resting on the home row - so I took them off and moved everything up one row.

After a while, I had reduced the number of keys I used on the Moonlander significantly, and I wanted to try out a portable version of the same concept with fewer keys. I had some experience with soldering and the supplies were cheap compared to what I spent on the Moonlander, so I wasn’t too afraid of messing it up. 😅

I built a Choc Corne

A 42-key split ergonomic keyboard
Switches: Choc brown (tactile)

This was a lot of fun to build, but ended up a bit clunky to actually use. The acrylic plate is 3mm thick but choc switches only snap into ~1.5mm plates, so they didn’t always stay in the board. The LEDs were fun, but I ultimately turned them off.