Behind the scenes #211

Keyboard Builders’ Digest / Editorial

Behind the scenes #211

Behind the scenes with the April swap high listing, Epomaker HE68 Lite and KiiBOOM Phantom 98 Lite critiques, open-source and business initiatives, keyboard artwork, meetups, new retailers and reductions, and so forth.

dovenyi
Revealed Might 18, 2026

Hey, what’s up everybody!

Welcome again for one more recap and behind-the-scenes write-up – with some cool initiatives from the DIY keyboard scene, but in addition promising closed-source business initiatives.

I had a bit of additional time for kbd.information stuff whereas recovering at house after a minor surgical procedure. End result: vendor listing cleanup, donor listing cleanup, and some tiny developments right here and there.

If you’re new to kbd.information, you may learn how this began out and what that is all about these days. For those who like what you see, subscribe to the publication (free) and donate some bucks to maintain this in any other case free and ad-free undertaking alive.

Some posts value sharing

• Let’s begin with April’s high mechanical switches if you have not seen it but. The neighborhood’s favorites based mostly on vendor gross sales knowledge coming from all around the globe.

• Evaluate: A really reasonably priced magnetic board punching above its weight: Epomaker HE68 Lite evaluate.

• One other evaluate: KiiBOOM‘s Phantom 98 Lite, a cute wi-fi keyboard with 1800-ish format and the foolish froggy keycap design acquainted from the smaller Phantom 81 Lite.

• The Levels54, a dual-trackball wi-fi break up keyboard offered by ergokeyboards.com, is now totally open supply.

• A wi-fi model of Bruce the Keyboard: Willis by Alexander Krikun. Oldie however goodie.

• Tucky Two Instances is a low-pro break up keyboard with humorous placement of the thumb keys – by Stephan Møller.

• The handwired break up Hawk by VBNC8 options latching pushbuttons and molded weights.

• Pineapple60-Convertible by Saoto Tsuchiya (saoto8). Closed supply, patented hinge mechanism, however attention-grabbing strategy: ergo format with adjustable raised middle top.

• The wi-fi break up MoooseFree by ataruno_key, that includes a 55 mm trackball. Repo with docs and firmware however no PCB or case information.

• And the WoooL from the identical writer – impressed by sheep, together with a pice of yarn as effectively.

• ORBIT – a wi-fi ergo break up by SoDark0002.

• NocFree’s terribly named “&” is a wi-fi aluminum break up keyboard with an (optionally available) magnetic tenting/charger factor. Pre-order, however in the event you fell in love, use the KBDNEWS coupon code for a 5% low cost.

• The Navigator Trackpad is ZSA’s new trackpad extending the lineage of modules so as to add mouse management to your Voyager. This trackpad will not be an off-the-shelf product – ZSA labored intently with Cirque to high quality tune a bunch of points.

• Related modularity: Phenom could also be the latest flagship mannequin of Ergohaven – with hot-swappable modules as effectively.

• MID.1 by oneillseanm. A small-batch 40% board made out of folded stainless-steel, leaning into an industrial / architectural vibe.

• A handwired ortho break up – hwsplit by Nimit Vijayvargee (supply).

• keytogo by unitdhda – a Rust-based macOS keyboard-only “mouse” navigation utility. Management your cursor totally from the keyboard.

3D fashions

• VeloType at HomeComputerMuseum in Holland. Posted by TaajManzoor1.

“Marius den Outer invented the Tachotype in 1933. Herman Schweigman and Rudolf Nitzsche created an digital model of the Tachotype in 1982 and named it the Velotype. A stand-alone Velotype textual content processor was created in 2001 named the Veyboard.”

• Daertwing – a customized case by calumwri, impressed by the “My First Sony” line. The blue half is acrylic, the crimson is powder coated aluminium, and the yellow is powder coated metal.

• SPMini x Obabo. PCB by BlindAssassin111, case by Obabo, posted by anpotsky.

Haha. Moeetech is about to launch a brand new service (not but accessible), and I used to be requested to offer it a strive.

• A NocFree “&” is on the best way.
• There are two new Ghost within the Shell themed IQUNIX EV63 HE variants (to be launched mid-June I suppose), I opted for the Cyber Blue one. The inexperienced one is kick-ass too, the case even higher, I simply preferred the opposite keycap set extra.
• Moeetech‘s Glitter L01 (not launched but both) is a low-pro HE board.

Donations

• New donations, yay! Thanks Tibo L. and Felix Ok.! If the motivation was the annual price I paid for the in any other case nice Buttondown publication service, talked about final time, it is a lot appreciated! 🙂
• I cleaned up my donor listing, and it turned out that some long-time donors have gone. (I do not obtain notifications from PayPal about canceled donations, so need to test the final cost days one after the other, manually, to determine this.)
• As at all times, many due to my superior common supporters and everybody who helped this undertaking to this point.

For all of the donation choices take a look at the donation web page!

Meetup database

The meetup database serves as each a calendar and an archive, so be at liberty to ship me upcoming occasions and even ones from the latest previous to make this assortment as complete as doable.

Upcoming meetups

At the start, be at liberty to make use of the KBDNEWS low cost code at 171 keyboard retailers worldwide!

(Yeah, it is gone down from 196 to 171 as a consequence of cleansing up the database and flagging closed retailers.)

New retailers and updates to the database of keyboard distributors:

• NocFree (Hong Kong) supplied you a 5% low cost. Try their terribly named alu break up “&” mannequin.
• Royal Kludge (official) has been added – with a $5 low cost (code: KBDNEWS). That is the Hong Kong based mostly middle. The US distributor rkgamingstore.com can also be within the database – with 5% coupon.
• Ikasaya is formally closed now. It is at all times unhappy to see a store go.

That stated, there are a bunch of vanished on-line retailers and domains (thanks for the motivation to undergo the entire database, Zeberko).

• I began to wash up the seller listing, once more – and bought to the tip this time! 😀
• I will show solely stay shops to any extent further, with the closed ones transferring to an archive web page for historical past’s sake.

Developments

• Vendor database cleanup. Yeah, I vibe-coded a device for this, however numerous domains resolve to parking pages, different legitimate non permanent websites, or easy the unique retailer however with the whole lot offered out – so this activity required a last handbook spherical.

• Displayed retailers: from 657 -> 478 (auto) -> 443 (handbook)!
• Closed retailers: from 137 -> 184 (auto) -> 221 (handbook)!
• Yeah, low cost codes went from 196 to 171 as effectively.
• 2 websites resurrected? These have been marked as closed however checking now, the websites are alive and kicking.
• There are some distributors with a questionmark – I am ready for suggestions to determine in regards to the standing.

• WIP: Archive store web page – now that I’ve eliminated the closed ones from the primary listing.
• WIP: Checking every coupon code in the event that they actually work – test-buying to checkout, one after the other.

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That is all for immediately. Thanks for checking by. As at all times: Continue learning and constructing!

Till subsequent time,
Tamás

Revealed on Mon 18th Might 2026. Featured in KBD #211.

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Behind the scenes #142

Giveaway and creation calendar replace, fast information, within the mailbox, meetups, vendor updates, new low cost.

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