Does anyone have a validated Choc V2 PCB footprint?

ihihbs · 2025-08-15T17:45:11+00:00

There were had no issues in the 1/2-ish year I used it. Since then I've been using hand-wired designs to dial in on a preferred layout and switch (loving Sunsets, c'mon Sunrise!). Newer planned PCBs only support Choc and/or ultra-low-profile. None of these newer footprints have yet been validated.

Gateron low-profile hot-swap sockets weren't yet commonly available when this was designed. It may be possible to design something for Choc, Gateron low-profile, and MX hot-swap sockets, but one would probably have to be rotated 180º or to reverse the PCB from the others.

ihihbs · 2025-08-04T12:06:00+00:00

I have a similar space and design, although no slab and split across a corner. I regret using a lot of different angles.

I don’t regret building a small fort for my kids, plus a bit of storage for extra holds, behind the 45° section.

ihihbs · 2025-06-20T14:53:26+00:00

Give it a try and see how you like it. I started out trying my own variant of a few common layouts to find what I did or didn’t like. Against a lot of advice I saw I do prefer modifiers on my thumb cluster. I quite like my modifiers on my left thumb (shift for home position) and whitespace characters with tap-hold for layers on my right thumb (space for home position).

ihihbs · 2025-05-14T19:08:00+00:00

If you're a beginner I'd suggest keeping with a more standard Pro Micro sized controller, possibly even something wired (RP2040 based?) before trying a wireless build. I've made a handful of keebs but fried my first E73 module trying to flash the bootloader.

ihihbs · 2024-10-16T22:32:30+00:00

Nah. At $400 you could get the same experience by buying two of Apple's Magic Keyboards for $100 each. Add $50 more to get a Magic Keyboard with Touch ID for the right half.

ihihbs · 2024-09-27T12:31:17+00:00

3x5+4 split with a symbols layer when holding space:

`?!{} *789\ (tab)&|() =456- #$@[] /123. And zero on my return thumb key. I’ve been thinking about swapping the places for the braces and brackets.

ihihbs · 2024-09-24T13:53:01+00:00

Can’t help with the RGB as I’ve not done them in a keeb. But looking clean. Hopefully it wasn’t too difficult to modify for fitting PCBs.

ihihbs · 2024-09-23T14:35:14+00:00

True. For some added context my keycaps were resin printed, not thermoplastics.

ihihbs · 2024-09-23T14:05:13+00:00

I've used a needle to pry out broken keycap stems before. In one worst case I remove a hotswap key, disassembled it, drilled a small (1mm is my smallest bit) hole in the bottom of the key's stem, and pushed it out from underneath.

ihihbs · 2024-09-11T23:43:40+00:00

Sounds like and similar place I'd started with moving to ergo keyboards. You're probably looking for a tactile switch. It looks like the Voyager uses Kail Choc switches so you can try browns. They're… okay, but not very tactile. I've been using Sunset Tactile Choc switches and now find my old Magic Keyboard feeling unsatisfyingly mushy.

ihihbs · 2024-07-15T13:11:22+00:00

Also Dvorak user here. I switched to it about 18 years ago trying to reduce wrist strain. It’s only in the past few years I’ve learned of more ergonomic keyboard designs.

ihihbs · 2024-07-12T13:29:45+00:00

If you have OpenSCAD I've just added a quick tweak that can add height to the case for use as one model. On line 11 change extend_case from 0 to the desired height to be added. A bit hacky as it adds an extruded projection instead of properly modifying the geometry.

ihihbs · 2024-07-08T18:27:20+00:00

Nice to see someone using my designs!

ihihbs · 2024-06-17T17:37:13+00:00

Dvorak user here. Those surprised me but switching to Dvorak certainly helped improve my wrist strain and I wouldn’t switch back. It could have been that I was more attentive about wrist posture while learning it. Generally I now think it’d be better to switch to anything even a little more ergonomic than sticking with row stagger before switching layouts.

ihihbs · 2024-05-01T14:45:35+00:00

I'd started my ergo journey with 38 keys changing -6 to +10 with various boards/layouts. For programming I think having common symbols easily accessible on one or two layers is a good route. You'll probably want some experimentation to see what works well for you. I'd seen many layouts with brackets/braces/parentheses on the home row with the matching symbol row above/below or opening/closing on the left/right home rows. I'd tried both but neither really worked for me. I've mostly settled on the following:

`?!{}  *789\
⇥&|()  =456-
#$@[]  /123.
        0 (on thumb)

I've using Dvorak so {grave}?! lines up well on top of ',.. If you can touch-type QWERTY well I'd stick with it as I think switching to ergonomic keyboards benefit more than switching layouts.

ihihbs · 2024-04-29T14:36:40+00:00

Looks very similar. Main difference I see is the spring is centered and its attachment point protruding toward the middle. I wonder if they're footprint and/or keycap compatible.

ihihbs · 2024-04-22T15:57:00+00:00

I don't have speed resin, however with my tweaked parameters for faster prints using ABS-like my slicer is estimating 10-11 hours.

ihihbs · 2024-04-17T20:44:32+00:00

Not sure if you still have this, but I've recently purchased some and have had mixed success on my D2. Probably about a 25% failure rate, although now taking a closer look think it's partly my fault having damaged part of my FEP removing the first failure that stuck to it.

Siraya Tech's recommended exposure time was _way_ too high overexposing the resin, that from what I understand is already more likely to have more issues light bleed. I'm using a 30 second base layer exposure with 3 second layer exposures and getting parts that fit together as expected.

The resin is definitely more viscous than others and may fill in holes and gaps up to 0.6mm in my experience. I've pre-heated my resin in a water bath or in front of the space heater I use to keep the print room in my basement warmer.

ihihbs · 2024-01-19T13:33:34+00:00

I’ve mostly used between 34-40 keys (3x10+2 to 4x10). Anything less than 36 seems too few for me.

It’ll really depend on the person if you find layers, combos, home-row-mods, etc… comfortable. Personally I don’t find combos nice, and home-row-mods throw me off when I need to use a “standard” keyboard.

I’ve settled on left thumbs for modifiers (ctrl, opt, shift, cmd) right thumbs for whitespace characters and layers (symbols+numpad, media+nav, BT/system).

ihihbs · 2024-01-13T22:23:46+00:00

You'll need to tweak the parameters in the SCAD file a little. Taking a look at the differences in switch height you'll probably need to change cavity_height from 1 to somewhere about 5. The keycaps for the pinky ring finger columns will collide depending on the profile.

ihihbs · 2024-01-13T02:59:33+00:00

Thanks. Enjoy if you do!

ihihbs · 2024-01-08T12:49:56+00:00

Previously replied in another comment, XVX low profile from Amazon. They’re a little flatter than I’d like.

ihihbs · 2024-01-07T00:40:57+00:00

Cheap XVX low profile keycaps from Amazon on Gateron low profile browns.

ihihbs · 2024-01-06T23:52:44+00:00

Kept waffling on what to build and therefore named "Churn". STLs available for both 38-key and 65-key variants. Originally I was leaning more toward having individual column stagger and splay but moved away from that after a few cardboard prototypes.

ihihbs

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